In The Flash season 2, episode 17, “Flash Back,” Barry travels back to season 1 but things don’t go as planned. As ever.
After the revelation that Jay betrayed the team and had been Zoom all along, Barry is putting all his energy into getting faster. He needs to get fast enough to travel to Earth-2 again, minus a breach, to confront Zoom. The only person he knows who can help him gain the speed he needs is Eobard Thawne. He concocts a plan to travel back to the previous year, get help from Thawne-as-Wells and travel back to the present day without anyone knowing.
Of course, things never go according to plan.
This is not the first time Barry has looked at time travel as a potential solution to an issue — previously traveling to the past with the goal of saving his mother’s life — despite opposition from others. Wells warns Barry that traveling back will change the timeline — again, not the first time for Barry — but Barry is too stubborn to let it go.
This is a frustrating aspect of Barry’s character, as he doesn’t give nearly enough consideration to the potentially massive effect his actions could have on others if he changes the past. That was my biggest criticism of the season 1 finale: the near lack of discussion from characters other than Barry about how their lives could change; Barry’s actions here only continue that streak. For a speedster with this kind of power, it’s irresponsible.
On his way to the past, Barry inadvertently summons a time wraith, a spirit that targets speedsters who travel through time and don’t know what they’re doing. After Barry takes his past self’s place, the wraith targets him twice. This clues Thawne/Wells in on who he is, leading to an intense confrontation between a Barry who knows Thawne’s identity — and his future — and Thawne himself, the man who killed Barry’s mother. With some quick thinking, Barry convinces Thawne not to kill him and to help him get faster.
On the other end of the spectrum, Barry’s quick thinking in this scene is one of his best traits. He bluffs a letter that he left for his past self informing him of Thawne’s true identity and how to defeat him, which would destroy Thawne’s plans. Despite the rage Barry feels looking at Thawne, he comes up with a plot that not only saves his life but also gets him what he wants.
The whole thing is complicated by the fact that season 1 Barry returns to S.T.A.R. Labs before season 2 Barry has returned home. Working together, the team sends season 2 Barry and the time wraith back to 2016, but not before Barry tells them to spend the next year working on a solution for defeating the time wraith. When he returns to 2016, Cisco shoots the wraith with a sound weapon, but it doesn’t work.
Barry is nearly killed before present day Hartley kills the wraith. As Barry recovers, he finds that Hartley is now on speaking terms with Caitlin and Cisco, and he’s reconciled with his parents. Apparently his trip to the past changed someone’s timeline — Hartley’s. Meanwhile, Barry accesses the file that Wells gave him, answering his questions about going faster.
Barry testing the material Wells gave him is likely what sends him to National City on Supergirl, though we didn’t get as much set up for Barry’s appearance on Supergirl as it feels like we were told we’d get.
In a touching side plot, Iris is struggling with whether she’s ready to move on and find romance again after Eddie’s death. While in the past, Barry gets Eddie to record a message for Iris, telling her how he feels about her. It’s this beautiful message that helps Iris make her decision.
This is a sweet gesture Barry makes, knowing what it will mean to Iris and not telling her the trouble he went to in order to get the video. He wants to see her happy; that’s the only thing that motivates him. And that is a true gesture of love.
After tonight, The Flash goes on a two-week break, returning on April 19.
Watch a promo for the next episode
