The Flash Season 1 Finale - The Bullshit Continues

SPOILER ALERT: Dude, I am gonna discuss the whole plot of the season 1 finale of The Flash, so major, major spoilers. 

As I mentioned in my last post on The Flash, I find Barry Allen stupid. But not all of his stupidity comes from his character, quite a lot of it comes from the writers of the show. This episode is an excellent case in point. So I will discuss the episode with special focus on Barry.

In this season finale Barry goes back to 15 years ago to save his mother from being murdered. Back to the Future 2 style. Before the move is made it is discussed and discovered that if he goes back and saves his mother's life, the timeline will change drastically, his father would not go to jail, he would not live with Joe, he would not meet Iris, etc. etc.

Some of the characters say he should do it, some say he should not, and there are a number of sappy scenes for all them, so many that it gets annoying. Only saving grace there is that the actors are all good and don't hem it up despite the opportunity to do so.

We get to know from the beginning that this is a very risky experiment and if Barry can't go as fast as needed he will die instantly. Then as preparations progress we find out that not only will he die but the whole world as we know it may be destroyed. Despite all of this Barry decides to do it. I mentioned in the last post on The Flash that he can't make a difficult decision. This is a case in point.  Although he makes a brave decision to risk his life but he risks the whole world for a personal gain.
Other than destroying the whole world, there is a risk that the alternate timeline could lead a to a terrible world for mankind but he doesn't care about that.

But, on the other hand, there are no paradoxes in time travel therefore if his blood was on the scene that means he did go back that means he will go back. The decision has already been made. Fine.

Then we come to the point which irritates the hell out of me! Just because it's a sci-fi show doesn't mean it has to be scientifically correct in every technical detail, especially on the future technology. So, the writer/director will take creative licence and that's fine. But on conceptual level it should not try to fool the audience with mumbo-jumbo. Time travel is a concept with which even the non-geek audience is familiar and at least the geeks know what a causal loop is.

Now, listen to this. Just before Barry is getting ready to go back in Time, Cisco tells him that there will be THREE of Barry Allen's there that night. One, the young child, the other as The Flash who gets the young Barry out and fights Dr. Wells, and the third, this one who's listening to Cisco just before going back. I will number them so we can discuss them without running into our own backs. Barry1 - the small child, Barry2 - The Flash fighting the man in yellow, Barry3 - who is just about to go back and save his mother. All clear? Now raise your hand if you can answer the next question.

Barry1 - The child lives there in his current time line, wakes up by the noise and comes down.
Barry2 - Went back in time to save his mother.
Barry3 - Where did Barry3 come from? 

Why are there 2 grown up Barry's or Flash's there on the scene? One is going back from the current year, but where's the other one coming from? My understanding was that the Flash going back now is The Flash fighting the man in yellow. How do they ADD a Flash? There's no mention of another time journey by a Flash and no explanation why there's a third Barry there on the scene.

I hope someone has the answer to it because it irritated the hell out of me when I was watching this episode!

For a bonus question try this. In the episode "Out of Time" when Barry goes back in time by a day, there is NO OTHER BARRY. He is the only Barry in that world and he has to live his day exactly that same again. So what happened to the Barry who is actually living his life on that timeline? They mention particularly that the Flash "Did not turn back the time" but "Traveled back in time" which means that that timeline should have a Barry/Flash already there that the Barry/Flash from future can see. That's how it works in all the sci-fi in the universe and that's how it make sense. But no, not for The Flash.

And then, they change the rules completely in the finale and add an extra Flash. What annoys me even more is that they keep mentioning Back to the Future, so they do know these things, or should! In BTTF 2 you can see the Marty from BTTF1 and the Marty from BTTF2 avoids being seen by the other Marty. Makes perfect sense. When Marty and Doc go to the future, they can see and hear the future Marty. Perfectly clear. Here however, the rules of Time Travel in the Flash are neglected and played with.

I have 3 theories to explain this kind of writing, feel free to choose one or add a new one if you like.

1. The writers are not real geeks and do not really know about these things even after watching sci-fi like BTTF before.
2. The writers are idiots who can not comprehend anything as complex as time travel.
3. The writers think we are idiots who do not understand something as complex as time travel.

In the end, he doesn't save his mother. He waits off-screen and lets the man in yellow kill her. Okay, that made me admire him as that is THE MOST difficult thing in the world to do and he does it to save the timeline. But then I remember that he risked the whole world and the future of Mankind to say goodbye to his mother and it makes me mad again!

When he goes back, he crashes Dr. Wells' time capsule and doesn't let him go back. What a stupid moron! Instead of letting him go back he stops the one person he cannot beat and traps him in this time. What an amazingly stupid thing to do! And there's no point to it except his personal feelings! There's no real reason for stopping him from going back!

A fight ensues, as expected. At the climactic point, Eddie, Iris' boyfriend, shoots himself as he knows he is the ancestor of Dr. Wells/Ebart and this way he kills himself to kill Ebart. Once again a moronic decision by someone who is supposed to be an intelligent person. Does he not recognize that it would not "Kill" Ebart, it would "ERASE" him completely from the timeline, which means all of his influence on the events of the past will be erased - no particle accelerator, no accident, no Flash, and that's just the obvious things. A change of that magnitude would endanger the whole world! And it does!

So, you can see why I am not pleased with this slipshod way of writing science fiction.

Don't worry, it looks like this will be my last post on The Flash. I finished watching season 1 and have no desire to carry on in season 2. However, what I do like in The Flash, is the cool fast motion effect and how the show reminds me of Sheldon in Big Bang Theory doing Flash. :)

P.S. I am going to watch The Arrow next. That's been my gain from watching this stupid show - I found out about the Arrow and the adorable Emily Bett Rickards! :)