can someone explain this time travel to me? if barry went back in time, shouldn't there be two barrys? the one who belongs there and the one who traveled back in time? the way they did it doesn't make any sense, how can anyone say they handled it well?
Well, the show has established that there are potentially many forms of "time traveling", where the cause and effects of it can vary.
In this case, I believe that as soon as Barry ended up traveling back in time (albeit accidentally), the old version of him ceased to exist as that timeline was no longer valid with Barry's time travel.
Time Travel is so varied that every time a writer makes a time travel story they are making up their own rules. Some stories would have had two people. Some would theorize that if you time travel to a time when you are alive you'd inhabit your tim/self body (which is what they did here).
Time travel rules should be consistent.
We have been told that Barry has travelled to the past to try to save his mom, his older self was there when she was killed and his younger self from the past was also there, so this means that when a time traveller goes to the past, there is a younger version of himself in that past, no matter if he travels one day or 15 years, changing the rules depending of what the writer wants to do in each episode is just bad/lazy writing if they just don't explain why the results are different in each case.
Barry should have asked Wells/Thawne why there wasn't a one day younger version of himself if the night that his mom was killed there was an older version of himself and he (the kid) didn't disappear, and then Wells should have given him some kind of explanation, but the writer just didn't bother to explain anything, having two Flashes/Barrys would have complicated this episode's plot and they just changed the time travelling rules for no reason, and that is some serious bad writing, if this is not explained in future episodes I will feel deeply disappointed, because they have handled several aspects of the show pretty well so far and this cr*p would just ruin all the internal logic in such an important aspect (time travel).
I'm also going to b*tch/complain about how Barry should be able to defeat many of his enemies much more easily. I know this is a show based in comic books and that some overpowered superheroes are sometimes dumbed down instead of looking for ways to make their enemies stronger or more dangerous, just worthy rivals, but a good writer should be able to handle this kind of stuff in a more satisfying way.
Somebody else asked in last episode's thread why Barry didn't stop The Weather Wizard when he attacked Joe in his car, he was just in the car behind, Barry saved Joe and then he should have just easily caught The WW. Because Barry was ok, Joe was ok, both safe and alive, and The WW is right there and Barry is way faster than any car, why didn't he catch him and put him in the StarLabs' prison like he has done in this last episode? Couldn't have been any easier, but it seems like if The WW just escaped with his car and Barry did nothing about it.
Then The WW goes to the police station and Barry uses that stick instead of knocking him out right there, The WW wouldn't even see him coming, just a super speed punch and game over, same thing he should do with other villains like Cold or Heatwave.
With Cold the writers used the idea of some kind of thing that his gun did to slow down Barry, but we should see that in every episode with Cold, otherwise there is no reason why Barry can't just get the guns out of Cold's and Heatwave's hands before they can even realize.
Barry should have easily stopped the three "rogues" in this last episode, making a deal with Cold was just ridiculous, he lets them go when they don't have why to keep their word and they could put a lot of people in danger again and tell his true identity anyway, Barry barely knows Cold, he shouldn't trust him, much less when he has his own prison in StarLabs, he should just put them there and this way they can't tell anyone that he is The Flash.
Just because they don't have any powers doesn't make the prison invalid for them, just look for a good cell where to lock them and they will be better than in any other prison. Or just put them in a prison in the other side of the world where nobody speaks english and nobody knows them and nobody gives a d*mn about The Flash's identity.
And if Oliver Queen "proved" somehow that he was not The Arrow, Barry could easily do the same to fool everybody using his speed, RF has been doing it pretty well(s) so far, and even if Barry is not as powerful and experienced as RF yet, he could think about a billion ways to "prove" that he is not The Flash, or a billion ways to trick Cold or to avoid that he ever tells anybody his secret identity.
I don't know, anything would have been better that what we have seen in this episode.
Another thing the writers should explain is why the "Arrow Team" doesn't call Barry for help when they could need him. They should have his number on speed dial (*badum tsss*), so if Ra's Al Ghul and his League Of Assassins or Brick and his thugs are bothering them and putting a lot of lives in danger, they should just call the guy with super speed that can save the day in a question of seconds.
Do you need to extract Malcolm Merlyn from Nanda Parbat? Why are you going to risk your own life and the life of your friend (Dig) if Barry can do the job before anybody could notice it? Do you have a duel against Ra's and he is a much more skilled fighter than you? Barry is not such a good swordsman, but he can certainly beat Ra's pretty easily. Brick is threatening Starling's cops and all the people in The Glades and The Arrow is not showing up because he is supposedly dead? Hey Felicity, what if you called Barry for help?
And before anyone tells me that Barry couldn't win in his fight against Oliver in the team-up episodes and Ra's is a much better warrior than Oliver, those episodes once again proved that the writers need to dumb down Barry, the only excuse could be that he was not himself and that's why he didn't beat the **** out of Oliver, but the fight they had later in the last scene that was cut by the credits probably finished with Barry owning Oliver pretty hard, because no matter how good of a fighter and how experienced he is, Oliver moves in slow motion for Barry, and same thing happens with everybody else, including Ra's, Brick, Cold, The Weather Wizard, etc...
Sorry, I had to write all of this, because I think that the writers should do something about it, at least I'm not going to write about my other problems with the writing in Arrow, just the stuff that is Flash's related. XD
I like both shows though, and The Flash is really good, but there are a few things bothering me and I just had to get it out of my system. I especially hope that the time travel stuff is explained somehow in future episodes, because the RF's plot is the most interesting one so far and I would hate that it was ruined by lazy/bad writing.
t:
Barry/Iris reminds me of Clark/Lana while Barry/Caitlin reminds me of Clark/Lois.
