I was way, way behind on S2 and only recently finished up watching them. I knew the general plot outline before doing so, couldn't stop myself from reading spoilers. Anyway.
I hope the Time Wraiths never appear again. After seeing them save Barry's hide in the finale, it struck me just how
blatant a plot device they were, how their behaviour was "whatever the writers need for this situation" and there was no consistency to them whatsoever. To wit:
- Barry first supposedly attracts their attention when he travels back to learn from Thawne/Wells. This despite the fact he has no intention of changing history.
- But Thawne had been stuck in the past, after making (from his POV) a monumental change in the timeline, and the Wraiths never pursued him. His reason: "(I've) been careful." Um. The hell. The Wraiths should've been all over his hide for what he did. Caution was never a part of it.
- Zoom exposits (ugh) that the Wraiths have been after him ever since he created his first time remnant. Except the remnant that we thought was E2 Flash for so long apparently never attracted the Wraiths' attention either. Nor does the remnant he creates early in the finale.
- So Barry finally creates a remnant who promptly sacrifices himself (and it's totally unclear which Barry is 'ours' and which is the 'remnant', and it's farther confused by the fact Barry later says "I ran back in time moments before I left"). The Wraiths, despite this heroic act by remnant-Barry, come out anyway.
- But the Wraiths don't go for Barry, who they wanted once before. Now they go for Zoom. Who created a remnant earlier that they didn't care about.
In one Star Trek novel I read, Geordi LaForge said of time travel, "(It) gives me nosebleeds." Time Wraiths, time travel, and the writers' all-over-the-map plot-convenience use of them, sure ended up doing the same for me in S2.
