The Flash The Flash Season 1 Episode 23: "Fast Enough"

[BLACKVULCAN]

WOW!!Daredevil was superb in all its R-rated vigilante hyperbole but this show has so much heart!!
Man! both Joe and Barry's day are great!... and Eddie Wow! that ^&* almost had me about to cry!! this show.... WOW!

 

[Matt]

I know, I was just joking around though. I'm sure, in the moment, he wasn't thinking, "a little snip snip couldn't hurt."

In all seriousness though, is it possible that the two timelines merge and just play out differently? Like when Barry went back in time a day.

But like Thawne said, he has been controlling Barry's life. No Thawne = no Nora murdered = no particle excelerator explosion = no Flash = no metahumans. So many crucial events were set into place by Thawne. Almost everything that has happened on the show is due to him. That is why I do not believe Eddie is dead. Barry could've ran back in and grabbed the body. He didn't. Instead it went down a wormhole.

Mark my words, Eddie is alive. Whatever happened caused Eobard to be in a different time and place, but the fact that the timeline wasn't totally undone indicates to me that both Eobard and Eddie are alive and well.

 

[b_boy]

About Eddie doing a vasectomy, he would had to do that between last episode when he was rescued and this episode. Who knows if RF killed everybody in this episode, after this he (RF) would not make sure that Eddie had kids? Or after years of the RF being gone, he would adopt a kid with someone and that would end up leading to the RF either way? I'm just throwing some ideas...

 

[The Apocalypse]

About Eddie doing a vasectomy, he would had to do that between last episode when he was rescued and this episode. Who knows if RF killed everybody in this episode, after this he (RF) would not make sure that Eddie had kids? Or after years of the RF being gone, he would adopt a kid with someone and that would end up leading to the RF either way? I'm just throwing some ideas...

I was just joking around lol

 

[b_boy]

I was just joking around lol

I get you were joking, but it just got me thinking.. this episode just got me think too much lol

 

[HighFivingMF]

Couldn't Eddie just have a vasectomy instead?

I mean, if Barry performed it I guess.

 

[Steyin]

But like Thawne said, he has been controlling Barry's life. No Thawne = no Nora murdered = no particle excelerator explosion = no Flash = no metahumans. So many crucial events were set into place by Thawne. Almost everything that has happened on the show is due to him.

The particle accelerator explodes in the original timeline in 2020 and creates the Flash. He exists without Thwane's tampering initially, all he did was speed things up (no pun intended).

 

[TheComicbookKid]

I think by that point he did not care. He manipulated Barry, using his mother, to travel through time so he could go home. Once Barry destroyed the time machine, there was no going home. His plan failed and he was in a fit of rage. All he wanted to do was hurt Barry at that point.

Besides, its not like Thawne really cares about preserving the timeline. He was more than prepared to undo Nora's death if it meant getting what he wanted. Just was he was prepared to kill Oliver Queen (despite explicitly stating that the history books said that he died of old age). Thawne doesn't care about preserving the time line or anything along those lines. He kept Barry safe and well because Barry was his means to getting home. Once Barry took that away from him, he was in a state of anger and wanted revenge. In other words, there was no plan.

No. I mean the night Nora died, he was there to kill Barry.

I guess I've watched too much of Moffat's Doctor Who. The closed loop he loves so much.

When older Barry told him to not intervene, that means this has happened already from the older Barry's perspective. So "our Barry" will have to go back again to stop Well's Flash in the future, too.

So unless Eddie's death really is some unaccounted for wildcard, RF has to come back to have his rivalry with Flash. The singularity is supposed to happen.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Great and exciting finale. Cant wait to see what S2 has in store.

 

[mkilban2]

Actually wasn't Thawne going back to the future supposed to prevent the black hole? If it was going to happen anyway then Barry should never have gone. You cannot risk destroying the world to save one person no matter who it is.


Anyway by going and doing nothing Barry got the worst of both worlds.

I think Thawne knew the black hole would happen no matter what, but this was his only way back so he clearly didn't care of everyone died.

I dunno time travel confuses the heck out of me so I tend not to overthink it and just take things in as they're shown to me.

 

[Hulk1968]

This episode is a prime example of the grandfather paradox:

From http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/time-travel6.htm

For starters, if you traveled back in time 200 years, you'd emerge in a time before you were born. Think about that for a second. In the flow of time, the effect (you) would exist before the cause (your birth).

To better understand what we're dealing with here, consider the famous grandfather paradox. You're a time-traveling assassin, and your target just happens to be your own grandfather. So you pop through the nearest wormhole and walk up to a spry 18-year-old version of your father's father. You raise your laser blaster, but just what happens when you pull the trigger?

Think about it. You haven't been born yet. Neither has your father. If you kill your own grandfather in the past, he'll never have a son. That son will never have you, and you'll never happen to take that job as a time-traveling assassin. You wouldn't exist to pull the trigger, thus negating the entire string of events. We call this an inconsistent causal loop.

On the other hand, we have to consider the idea of a consistent causal loop. While equally thought-provoking, this theoretical model of time travel is paradox free. According to physicist Paul Davies, such a loop might play out like this: A math professor travels into the future and steals a groundbreaking math theorem. The professor then gives the theorem to a promising student. Then, that promising student grows up to be the very person from whom the professor stole the theorem to begin with.

Then there's the post-selected model of time travel, which involves distorted probability close to any paradoxical situation.

What does this mean?

Well, put yourself in the shoes of the time-traveling assassin again. This time travel model would make your grandfather virtually death proof. You can pull the trigger, but the laser will malfunction. Perhaps a bird will poop at just the right moment, but some quantum fluctuation will occur to prevent a paradoxical situation from taking place.

But then there's another possibility: The future or past you travel into might just be a parallel universe (which was confirmed in tonight's episode).

Think of it as a separate sandbox: You can build or destroy all the castles you want in it, but it doesn't affect your home sandbox in the slightest. So if the past you travel into exists in a separate timeline, killing your grandfather in cold blood is no big whoop. Of course, this might mean that every time jaunt would land you in a new parallel universe and you might never return to your original sandbox.

But comic book laws work somehow differently (since Eobard Thawne no longer exists dues to Eddie shooting himself), I'm not sure how this will play out since Eobard was the cause of pretty much everything which lead us into the first season (the effect).

But then again, the front page of the Hype mentions that Barry will deal with the multiverse in season 2. I have a thought that the new show (Legends of Tomorrow) will somehow tie into this, though.

 

[vantheman77]

Seeing Barry running through the timeline reminds me of 2001 when Dave Bowman flies through the stars.

 

[Frodo]

Wow. Good cliffhanger finale. I thought it was a pretty bad idea for him to go back and I'm glad they showed how it didn't end up in a nice " no bad consequences" bow ala Back to the future 1. Don't get me wrong, I love that film's ending, but I'm glad they didn't do that here. I also got misty at the scene with his mom. All in all , a great first season.

 

[king666]

This version of Thawne shouldn't depend on Eddie's existence. But he does and that ****s with the whole logic of parallel universes and time travel.

****'s getting complicated.

 

[Quasimod0]

What an awe-inspiring episode. Completely full of emotion. I was literally crying during that scene with Barry and his mom.
And the last scene was great! Its stuff like that that really makes me wonder why we even need a movie!! This show is doing everything I would want to see in a Flash story. I don't even care if the effects aren't 100 percent perfect.

 

[Cybermaxis]

OMG the finale, feels and everything! And this was just S1! Can't wait for S2 and awesome of them to replay the entire season during the summer.

 

[stillanerd]

So at the end of the day, Eddie Thawne didn't turn out to be the Reverse Flash, or Cobalt Blue...he turned out to be Tommy Merlyn I kid, I kid. That moment when Eddie shot himself, I kept punching my fist into the palm of my hand screaming "Holy crap, I knew it! I knew it!" Not so much that Eddie would shoot himself and thus erase Reverse Flash from existence, mind you, but that something was going to happen to "break up" him and Iris after that whole business with Dr. Stein saying how Eddie was the only one in the story to write his own future, and him and Iris saying "Screw the future" when they got back together.

Also, I guess when it comes to time travel on the Flash, it works as follows: if someone (in this case Flash, Reverse Flash, or someone who can tap into the Speed Force) goes back in time and changes events of the past, then time travel operates on "Back to the Future" and/or "Star Trek" rules, i.e. whatever changes are done in the past change the future, or (maybe) creates an alternate timeline.

But if someone goes back in time, tells their ancestor about the future, and that ancestor does something to prevent such future (such as killing oneself to prevent their great, great, great grandson from being born), then time travel operates on "Looper rules," i.e. because the time traveler is from a possible future, it also means that future technically hasn't happened yet, meaning whatever actions caused by the time traveler before he or she ceases to exist still remain intact.

That said, since it's been reported that Tom Cavanaugh will return for season 2 as a series regular, what if he doesn't return as Eobard Thawne? What if he returns as the real Harrison Wells, somehow brought back as the result of whatever time paradox was created, but having no memory of the last fifteen years because, technically, he didn't exist during any of it. Or, if season 2 is going to be diving into the multiverse, maybe he'll be a Harrison Wells from an alternate timeline? After all, before Eobard was erased from the timesstream, he transformed from Harrison back into his original self.

In any case, what an absolutely terrific finale to an absolutely terrific first season. But that cliffhanger? t:

 

[Gu3ree]

Just watched it. So sad. Can't believe he didn't alter time though. Grant Gutsin gave it his all in this episode. Good finale. Good directing as well.

So The future Flash, what if he doesn't know that Eobard kills his mother. He tried to stop his 2015 self, because why? He was worried Eobard would have killed him? Btw, I so dig that new suit. RED, and not dark brown.

Well I was wondering how this would resolve as Arrow would also somehow have to be altered and Barry and Oliver may not have ever met.

Kay I really hate that Iris still has feelings for Eddie, though now he's dead but my question is will Iris blame Barry for not fixing time because Eddie killed himself?

I'm a little confused though about this DC's Legends of Tomorrow. That will not be a continuation of The Flash season 1 finale, and Arrow will it? Flash is getting a season2 right?

 

[Gu3ree]

Still the fact that they havent fixed the problem means Iris still knows Barry is Flash. I felt like Iris not knowing could have lasted longer. Also, we can't get a chance to see Reverse-Flash in the future. It might be nice to know why they confront each other in the future as he was supposed to be an enemy of the Flash in the future. He's erased from existence now though.

 

[kvz5]

Goddamn. This season finale. I'm speechless. It's SO good.

 

[stillanerd]

I think it's clear the reason why Barry didn't stop Reverse Flash from killing his mom is because Future Flash essentially told him not to. After all, as Barry's dad told him, not only would he have changed far too much, but he also knew that Barry's mom would not have wanted him to give up everything he had become even if it meant for her being able to live again. And besides, you could see it on Barry's face what a painful decision that was. Also, as DC comic book fans know, Barry saving his mom from being killed resulted in Flashpoint which proved to be really, really bad news.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Wow emotional finale, I can't believe how heartfelt . Grant killed it tonight's episode as Barry, when he put his mask on and ran into the vortex .

I love the easter eggs, Wow Reverse Flash! Tom Cavanagh as Eobard that was intense

Loved the view of the speed force (Flash Museum, Killer Frost, DC's Legends of Tomorrow Team, )

 

[spiderman2]

Just finished watching this episode and all I can say is wow just wow! So many twist I wasn't expecting! How are we supposed to want in till September or October to watch new episodes lol. I do think it was stupid though that flash would risk making a black hole just to save his mom though. Like really u are going to risk the whole universe just to save your mom?

 

[Spooderman]

About Eddie doing a vasectomy, he would had to do that between last episode when he was rescued and this episode. Who knows if RF killed everybody in this episode, after this he (RF) would not make sure that Eddie had kids? Or after years of the RF being gone, he would adopt a kid with someone and that would end up leading to the RF either way? I'm just throwing some ideas...

Well he could have just shot himself in the crotch. I mean it would hurt like heck, but he'd still be alive.

 

[spiderman2]

So at the end of the day, Eddie Thawne didn't turn out to be the Reverse Flash, or Cobalt Blue...he turned out to be Tommy Merlyn I kid, I kid. That moment when Eddie shot himself, I kept punching my fist into the palm of my hand screaming "Holy crap, I knew it! I knew it!" Not so much that Eddie would shot himself and thus erase Reverse Flash from existence, mind you, but that something was going to happen to "break up" him and Iris after that whole business with Dr. Stein saying how Eddie was the only one in the story to write his own future, and him and Iris saying "Screw the future" when they got back together.

Also, I guess when it comes to time travel on the Flash, it works as follows: if someone (in this case Flash, Reverse Flash, or someone who can tap into the Speed Force) goes back in time and changes events of the past, then time travel operates on "Back to the Future" and/or "Star Trek" rules, i.e. whatever changes are done in the past change the future, or (maybe) creates an alternate timeline.

But if someone goes back in time, tells their ancestor about the future, and that ancestor does something to prevent such future (such as killing oneself to prevent their great, great, great grandson from being born), then time travel operates on "Looper rules," i.e. because the time traveler is from a possible future, it also means that future technically hasn't happened yet, meaning whatever actions caused by the time traveler before he or she ceases to exist still remain intact.

That said, since it's been reported that Tom Cavanaugh will return for season 2 as a series regular, what if he doesn't return as Eobard Thawne? What if he returns as the real Harrison Wells, somehow brought back as the result of whatever time paradox was created, but having no memory of the last fifteen years because, technically, he didn't exist during any of it. Or, if season 2 is going to be diving into the multiverse, maybe he'll be a Harrison Wells from an alternate timeline? After all, before Eobard was erased from the timesstream, he transformed from Harrison back into his original self.

In any case, what an absolutely terrific finale to an absolutely terrific first season. But that cliffhanger? t:

Where did you hear tom was going to be back? I would love for him to be has he killed it all year but I haven't heard any thing about that.