That…that made no sense. Even by comic book logic. I’m willing to accept “timey-wimey” as an explanation for time travel shenanigans, but…
Ok, so…Thawne manipulated events in 2021 to (unsuccessfully) drive Barry crazy and alienate him from his friends. But that’s not what created alt-2031; that was created by Thawne manipulating events in 2013, so Barry never became the Flash. But also Thawne went back to 199- and killed Barry as a baby, so now he’ll never have existed. Except he still does in alt-2031. Except at midnight (EST? EDT? GMT?) he won’t. For reasons.
Look, even though they don’t establish it in the show, I’m willing to accept on grounds of timey-wimey that Reverse Flashpoint was created by a multi-stage anachronism structure, where Thawne creates bigger and bigger changes in the timeline as he goes backwards to killing Barry as a baby. But then…how is Barry the Reverse Flash in alt-2031? How is he the Reverse Flash at all? How did alt-Barry get speed and why is he a crazed mass murderer? And Thawne became the Flash in 2013, as Eobard Thawne, and everyone knows he’s Eobard Thawne, but…he’s wearing Harrison Wells’ face? For reasons? And Eobard Thawne is from the future. In order to be in 2013 to become the Flash, he’d already have to have been the Reverse Flash to travel back to that point from his own time.
Side points:
Damien Darhk stays at the starting point in case anyone shows up. But…why? Is the starting point somehow significant? Because it sure doesn’t seem to be, like, of any significance at all. If Darhk hadn’t just stood there in the middle of the street, absolutely nothing whatsoever would have happened.
Ryan Choi is the Paragon of Humanity. But he’s kind of a douche. Except when he isn’t. And this episode even explicitly calls out the Paragons and Crisis in dialogue and makes it a plot point. I guess in the Reverse Flashpoint timeline he maybe isn’t a Paragon? Or, more likely, the writers just don’t care.
The Chester/Allegra romance has always just seemed kind of forced to me, but in this episode it seemed kind of like they were forcing it more than normal, and were trying to get character and relationship growth out of an alternate future time jump, which just felt clumsy, even by the standards of the series. I did like Caitlyn’s reaction shots to their big romantic moment, though.
And if the cataclysm that Despero was trying to prevent was apparently in alt-2031…why does Despero think Barry is the Flash? Shouldn’t he have realized something was incredibly wrong when he travelled back and Barry was the Flash instead of the Reverse Flash? And why were records so spotty, which was a pivotal plot point that allows Despero to be incredibly vague on the details, if he only travelled back 10 years, and left before Armageddon?
And the Flash travelling fast enough to go back in time…destroys the planet? I…he’s done that before. So has Thawne. It’s never caused so much as a sonic boom. Why does it tear the planet apart this time? I know Barry throws in some dialogue at the end that it was he and Thawne both running so fast that caused the destruction, but that doesn’t make any sense at all, either. For one, Barry races other super-speedsters all the time (pun intended). It’s never been an issue in any of them. But also, in this very episode it’s a central plot point that Barry by himself speeding up to make the time jump will destroy the planet. So…
My head hurts.
