...the older Flash ran BACKWARDS in time to stop RF from killing his younger self, and when RF changed the past with the death of Nora - he ceases to exist.
In episode 15 - when Barry changed the past - he crossed himself - and the other timeline and Barry was erased. Same thing.
Yeah, that did occur to me, and would make sense given how Nora's death alone would alter the timeline. And if the Flash doesn't exist then neither does the Speed Force and neither would the Reverse Flash's powers. Hence why he has to "course correct" everything by ironically making Barry The Flash. But, at the same time, if that were to happen, then Eobard shouldn't exist either. So maybe Speedsters, because they can time travel, are unaffected by changes to the space-time continuum?
Could they somehow bring back the original Wells ? Or maybe next season. Barrys dad gets out of prison in the finale. He takes over Star Labs ?
I have a sickening feeling that Barry's dad is going to be killed by the Reverse Flash at the end of this season just to spite Barry even more. After all, Reverse Flash killing Barry's dad just as Barry finally proves his innocence after 15 years would be right up his alley. What's more, he'd rationalize by saying he's made Barry an even "better hero" because of it because this will drive Barry to be even faster.
Excellent episode. I wonder what Wells plans for Eddie are.
I'm guessing he's going to tell Eddie that Iris has really been in love with Barry the whole time. Just picture the following conversation going down:
EDDIE: If you're supposed to be my great, great...whatever, then why did you try to kill Iris?
REVERSE FLASH: I said you and I were family, detective. I never said anything about Iris West-Allen.
EDDIE: (look of shocked expression)
REVERSE FLASH: Oh dear. Did I say that out loud?
EDDIE: What are you talking about. Iris and I are together. I was going to propose to her.
REVERSE FLASH: Iris isn't really in love with you, Eddie. She never was. Oh, she may think she is, but deep down in her heart? It was Barry all along. In fact, the man she's going to marry...will be him. Not you.
EDDIE: No, you're lying. She loves me. She would never betray me like that.
REVERSE FLASH: Gideion?
GIDEON: Yes, Dr. Wells?
REVERSE FLASH: Show Detective Thawne the archival footage of...the wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West.
At the moment, no I don't want to see Barry and Iris together. I think they both have a lot of independent development to do before they can come together as a romantic couple.
In the *original* timeline, I'm guessing that due to Barry not being in a coma for another four years, he plucked up the courage to ask Iris out or at least made his romantic interest clear a lot earlier. Maybe they dated, maybe Iris wasn't interested at that time. When the particle accelerator exploded in the original timeline, leaving Barry in a coma, that may have provoked Iris into realising her depth of feelings for Barry and when he awoke they probably embarked on an epic love affair with Iris being fully informed about and supportive of Barry's heroics as The Flash.
In this timeline, I can see Iris being majorly peeved at Barry for lying to her. When she finds out that pretty much everyone else knows, including her father, Eddie and Barry's realtively "new" friends Caitlin and Cisco, then I can see Iris (understandably) questioning the amount of trust in and respect for Iris that both Barry and Joe have. I don't see Iris bouncing back after such a betrayal and dating Barry.
Hopefully, it will encourage Iris to establish an identity separate to both Joe and Barry, as a journalist. That doesn't mean I want to see Iris act like a petulant child. If she's covering a story and she has information which she thinks Barry or Joe should know, she will assist them. Iris could even be regularly brought onto the team as a "criminal profiler" of sorts as a result of her (growing) experience as a crime journalist. But, there shouldn't be any romantic entanglement between Barry and Iris.
Even with his super-speed, Barry is apparently failing to perform his job to the best of his abilities. They should have Captain Singh hire another forensic scientist (or whatever Barry is) to help Barry in the lab. That person should be Patty Spivot from the comics and she should be Barry's new love interest for at least a season or two.
Also, Joe really needs to put aside his rather warped ideas about Barry marrying Iris. And he also needs to stop being so ridiculously protective of Iris.
All IMHO of course.
To be fair, Joe West, being Iris' dad, does know his own daughter, and he's watched her and Barry grow up together and thus knows they love each other deep down and would be right for each other. And he also did say that, if Iris did marry Eddie, it would be fair to either her or Eddie if she didn't really love him the same way she did Barry and only stayed with him out of obligation. That being said, Joe's biggest flaw is that he still sees Iris as his baby girl who needs constant protection and not as a grown woman capable of making her own decisions. That's been abundantly clear what with his whole trying to keep Iris from knowing Barry is the Flash out of misguided belief it will keep her safe. Which, as we now know, is going to do a fat lot of good since Iris now knows (or suspects) the truth and will most likely be super-pissed that the two people she trusted and loved more than anyone else lied to her for almost a year.