The Flash Season 5: The writers could be writing themselves into a corner

The Flash Season 5 premiere was fun, interesting and conveyed much of the trademark chemistry between its characters, but with the season wide story arc and a new bad guy, are the writers just writing themselves into an impossible corner?

The opening episode of season 5 of The Flash, sees Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris’ (Candice Patton) future daughter Nora, (Jessica Parker Kennedy) all grown up as a speedster herself known as XS.Side note: Very poorly timed name with the new iPhone release. It also brought the trademark chemistry between characters that we’re used to and have frankly missed.

Nora reveals that Barry disappears in the future, so her ulterior motive was to travel back in time to spend time with the father she only knew from reading and studying his adventures as the Flash. Her other motive, which she hasn’t yet revealed, is to try to save Flash from his inevitable disappearance, which audiences have known about since Season 1 during the Eobard Thawne storyline. And therein lies the problem.

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Running the same course over again

We’ve seen this storyline; A speedster who didn’t know their parent travels back in time to save them from a horrible fate, only to realize that their actions have world-ending consequences. Barry already traveled back in time to try to save his mother, unintentionally creating an alternate reality known as Flashpoint, where horrible things happened.

Something you’d think his daughter Nora would already know about, given how much she’s studied him and his exploits. The season premiere also somewhat justifies Nora’s temporary presence in the past with an incredibly convenient explanation; some minor events in the past can be changed without consequences while altering other fixed points in time can result in Flashpoint-like doom and gloom.

Which should further cause alarm for Nora, given she is trying to change something major, like the Flash disappearing for more than two decades. That sounds like a significant enough event that shouldn’t be messed with.

Reliving the same emotions

The Flash Seasons 1 & 2 were all about Barry accepting the violent death of his mother. While we can try to justify that this storyline is different because this time Barry is on the other side of the equation, it’s actually kind of worse.

Eventually, Nora will have to go through the same emotional mechanics of denial, then realizing she screwed up, then guilt, and then eventually having to accept that she can’t do anything about Barry’s disappearance. Once her intentions for being in the past are revealed, Barry will also obviously have the ‘I know how you feel’ talk with her.

And at that point, we’re just retreading the same emotions that we’ve already experienced. We’ve seen a speedster struggle with trying to use their powers through time travel to save their parent. And we’ve seen how they’ve dealt with the emotional consequences that came when they acted recklessly. And now we’re going to go through all those platitudes and good times empathic speeches all over again?

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The writers will end up contradicting themselves

Now, it’s pretty obvious that there will be an ultimately happy ending to this. Somehow, through some plot point or plot device, Barry’s future fate will be changed, independent of Nora’s actions. Something in the major plot of the season will necessitate altering the future, saving Barry and ensuring he gets to have a relationship with his daughter. (I’m an optimist!) It feels like it’s the only way to resolve this storyline, otherwise, how do they leave things as is knowing that Barry will never see his daughter grown up? And if that does happen, at that point, the writers are going to end up contradicting their own concept.

When explaining that ‘fixed point in time’ concept, they’ve already established that major events cannot be changed without dire consequences. So when they eventually will end up changing Barry’s future disappearance, it’s going to feel like a cop-out and a cheat, one they’ve employed many times in The Flash. (Time remnant anyone?) This time, however, could be one time too many for loyal fans.

Another season. Another bad guy with a hidden identity.

I was very frustrated with The Flash Season 3, where the big bad guy had a secret identity again, which turned out to be a *gasp, shock* known character in the series. I loved that season 4 stayed away with that DeVoe being a better and more fleshed out villain.

So imagine how hard my eyes rolled when episode 1 of season 5 ends with yet another villain whose identity is hidden, whose motives are thus far undetermined. Spoiler: my eyes rolled hard!

I’m hoping that the writers have learned that they’re just being derivative of their own show, and giving us things we’ve already seen. I’m thinking that this could possibly be misdirection into something more original. Until then, I’m keeping one eyebrow raised during season 5.

What did you think of the The Flash season 5 premiere? Are the writers putting themselves into a corner? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.