The Flash has to deal with the consequences of time travel in this episode of “The Flash”! Barry goes back in time one year to talk to Reverse-Flash A.K.A Dr. Wells about how to run faster and increase his speed. While the trip through time goes perfect, something follows him through the wormhole. Known by Reverse-Flash as a time wraith, this vengeful spirit has come through the timeline to kill The Flash. Can Barry stop him? And even if he does–will his actions change the time stream?
The Positives
Once again the writers of The Flash amaze me with their work. Although by now Barry has obviously done time travel before, he’s still a novice at it–and it shows in this episode. Barry still has not mastered being able to land in the proper time period and ends up showing up in Central City earlier than intended. He encounters his past self in a battle for the first time against Pied Piper, and promptly knocks out his past self assuming his identity. Thinking that things from here should be easy, Barry encounters past event upon past event, even meeting Eddie–who we all know of course is dead in the present time. It was interesting to see how the writers take this exact episode and give it to us in a completely fresh and new way. Barry is quite hilarious as he keeps making minor mistakes in the past and I was eager to see the effects once he returned to the present time. One change to the timeline starts out as minor, however once Barry returns it has a huge ripple effect. I won’t ruin the surprise for you, but let’s just say Barry makes a new friend.
The Negatives
The one negative I have to pick out is Eddie Thawne. By that I mean it’s so cruel for the writers of The Flash to put Eddie into our lives again only to rip him away from us. I really like Eddie and he was a character who really evolved for me. In the beginning I simply saw him as a rival for the affections of Iris, then he became a really good friend to Barry–and later he becomes a hero. Eddie was a character that I really hope makes a more permanent return sometime in the future. I must admit I’m pretty relieved that he didn’t turn out to be Zoom as I had previously thought before. Although I do believe that the writers of The Flash have something in store for him in the future.
The Verdict
“Flash Back” is an episode that gives you everything you’ve come to expect from The Flash. It was funny, full of action, had a few easter eggs, and it seems to have some larger consequences for Barry that will occur in the future. I think I’m one of the many fans out here that has grown to love these time travel episodes and they seem to become the cornerstone of key stories for The Flash. Once again the writers of The Flash have hit us with a great episode! I’m eager to see the season finale!
 
