Love this pic, but am I the only one that thinks Barry's left hand looks broken here?
Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with more Superhero talk. Folks, tonight marked the season finale of CW's 'The Flash'. As I more or less said several months ago The Flash went from a series that I really didn't care about from its first announcement to what is, in my opinion, the best Superhero series on T.V. today. The quality this series brought with just one season has been amazing. And in celebration of the season finale tonight, I decided to give a list of my five favorite episodes from the season. Warning: Spoilers ahead and much like my favorite Dragon Ball moments List, the episodes listed aren't in an order of most to least favorite. Without further ado, let's speed on in.
1. Fastest Man Alive
This was the second episode of the series and this episode was a real winner to me. After a great pilot episode, we got to see the beginning of how Barry being the flash affected him in regards of his personal life and his body and in my opinion it was the first time we saw him as a hero be challenged and we see him question himself and if him being thee Flash was a mistake. His life and the relationship we have as Joe is also on full display in this episode and it's because of Joe that Barry finds the confidence to keep being The Flash. It's one of the prime episodes that showed that the supporting cast of The Flash is just as important as its hero itself.
2. The Flash is Born
I wish I could say that I loved the episode for the anti-bullying message it sent to its younger viewers and that it was the episode that started Barry becoming known to the city (which were both very valid reasons why it's great) but the real reason this episode made the list can be summed up in four words: Super Sonic Punch Baby!!
3. The Man in the Yellow Suit
This was the midseason one finale and this episode had every right to be. The episodes before this were building up to the appearance of The Flash's arch enemy, The Man in Yellow, The Reverse Flash. Not only were we given a villain that outmatched Barry in Speed, but we also saw Barry in that episode challenged in a way that he hadn't been up to that point. Another thing that sold me on the episode was that it really brought the series at that point at full circle: it started with The Reverse Flash and it ended with him, we saw Barry come clean with Iris in regards of his feelings, not to mention the tremendous acting of that episode. If Grant Gustin hadn't sold you on him being Barry Allen at that point, then the scenes with his dad and Joe West will definitely do it. And of course at the tail end of the series, we finally got to see that The Reverse Flash was indeed Harrison Wells and it only added to the long running mysteries of the season.
4. Revenge of the Rogues
This episode dealt with the fallout of the midseason finale and how Barry has become obsesses at that point at becoming faster than The Reverse Flash for their second confrontation. In doing so, he kind of lost his way and forgot that the most important thing was protecting the people that needed to be helped. In his journey to become faster, he ignored the smaller crimes, which is how Captain Cold (Who I will get to later in this list) and his new partner Heatwave were able to wreak havoc on Central City in order to draw Barry out. The climax of the episode led to a confrontation between The Scarlet Speedster and the two rogues which also resulted in The Flash, who at that point in the series was only a myth spread across the citizens of the city and on Iris' blog, was revealed to everyone in the city. To me, it was a turning point for the character of The Flash in regards of him being a hero to the people of Central City.
5. The Sound and The Fury
This episode saw the debut of Pied Piper A.K.A Hartley Rathaway, protege to Harrison Wells and an overall egotistical douche. What made this episode so enjoyable was that fact that we got to see a little bit of Harrison Wells' and Cisco's past with this guy, and part of what motivates them (Or at least one of them) to be who and what they are today. It also served as great development for the Flash team altogether and it showed how they all evolved into a nice family. Of course as we find out later in the season, all this meant nothing to Wells...
Why Harrison?! Why would you ruin the great team dynamic?!?!
6. Fallout
Throughout the season of The Flash, we knew that Caitlin Snow's fiance, Ronnie Raymond had died in the particle accelerator incident that made Barry the Flash and created all of the Meta Humans. Well, as the episode that predated this "The Nuclear Man" revealed: Ronnie didn't actually die. Instead he fused with this old guy named Martin Stein and they became the hero known as Firestorm. And while "The Nuclear Man" was the payoff to the Ronnie subplot, Fallout was the...fallout of that subplot. Ronnie and Martin had separated and were their own men again and while it was nice for them that short while, it turned out to be something they couldn't live out for long as the military headed by Wade Eiling to kidnap them because he wants Firestorm. The episode was pretty bittersweet because while Ronnie and Martin finally separated and could be with the ones they loved again, they had to leave in fear of the government. That and seeing The Flash and Firestorm kick ass together is pretty sweet.
7. Out of time
If you twisted my arm and made me list my top five favorite episodes of The Flash, Out of Time would easily be my second favorite. The final fifteen minutes of this episode were just a giant plethora of jaw dropping moments. The episode starts off like every episode has, Barry's having fun, villain gets introduced. But this villain was the brother of the pilot episode's villain (who I am too lazy to look up at this moment...). But this villain has a different feel to every villain we've seen so far as he comes at Joe and he comes at him HARD. He wants revenge for Joe killing his brother and he's willing to drown all of Central City and kill Joe's daughter in order to do it. Of course, I can't talk about this episode without bringing up how Cisco found out about Harrison Wells being the Reverse Flash and then Wells went on to actually KILL Cisco; not only that but the whole episode itself ends with Barry running so fast, he goes back in time by a single day!! Out of Time is one of the best episodes of the season and it's one that'll have you on the edge of your seat.
8. The Trap
This was the big reveal episode, the one where all the cards were laid on the table and the truth was out: The gang goes into the secret room Harrison Wells owns and they find out, for sure, that Harrison Wells is undeniably The Reverse Flash. Not only that, but they learn certain aspects of the future itself. So they devise a plan to make Wells spill the beans on not only him being the man in yellow, but also him killing Barry's mom. But as it turns out, Wells had everything planned for the group and he pretty much sets them up by using a shape shifting metahuman from a previous episode and having him take the fall and dying by Joe's gun. This episode truly felt like the end was drawing near in the season. Plus Joe straight up saying no to Eddie asking for his blessing on him proposing to Iris was hilarious.
9. Rogue Air
If I didn't know The Flash Finale was tonight, I would have sworn that Rogue Air would've been it for the season. In this ep, Wells has finished rebuilding the particle accelerator inside of Star Labs and if he activates it, it will kill all of the metahumans inside the prison the gang has made for them in the season. Barry is so desperate to save the metahumans he enlists the help of Captain Cold to transport them to a plan that'll take them to Not Batman's prison island. This plan fails and Cold double crosses them, but it also builds to one of Barry's biggest character defining moments in the series. That and the fight at the end of the episode between Reverse Flash vs Flash, Firestorm, and Not Batman is straight up awesome!!
And finally, my tenth favorite episode belongs to: Going Rogue
There's a certain "cool" running theme to this list, isn't there?
I saved this episode for last because it is my personal favorite episode of The Flash season 1 (And it damn sure isn't because of Barry and Felicity kissing...). No this episode marks the debut of Captain Cold. There's a reason I held off on the Captain Cold talk. If it wasn't for Wells, this guy would be the Best villain in the show. Leonard Snart has that classic villain vibe to him, he's a crook, but he also loves the sport that comes with being a thief, he's intelligent, he'll take every advantage he can get, he strives to be the best at what he does, and the actor that plays him, Wentworth Miller is just so damn charismatic in the role, he makes the silly cold puns work and sound badass. The chemistry between him and The Flash when they go head to head feels so natural and I loved his first episode (and all the others he shows up in). This episode and episode 2 to me perfectly represent what The Flash as a whole is all about: Fun super heroics against people with the craziest of weaponry or powers. All I can say is: Season two: Bring on the rogues!!
As I said before, The Flash surprised me with it's constant level of quality. As I type this, the season finale has ended and I'm sure it's blown fans' minds (I'll have to wait til tomorrow when it hits Hulu). I sincerely hope that the series can continue this momentum as it rolls into its second season where we'll deal with a psychic gorilla (Never thought I'd get to type those words out).
Til Next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation: Take Care...
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