General
- Pretty much anytime Barry has to fight Captain Cold. Why? Because as we’ve seen many times in this show, even when his speed get screwed with or inhibited, Barry can easily disarm several gunmen at once and take away their weapons before they even notice what’s happening to them. So whenever Barry has to fight Captain Cold:
You’d Expect: For the Flash to just instantly disarm Cold and steal his gun before Cold even has time to react. After all, like all the gunmen Flash has disarmed in the past, Cold isn’t superhuman. He has no super speed, no super reflexes or anything of the like. Without his gun, Cold is just some guy with no powers. And even though Cold’s gun is unusual, it’s still just a gun. So there’s nothing stopping Barry from just instantly disarming Cold before he even has time to react. And even if Cold somehow manages to get a shot on Barry to lower his speed, Barry would still be more than fast enough to steal the gun away in the blink of an eye.
Instead: Barry usually just screws around by either just standing there and letting Cold shoot at him, by running circles around Cold, or by just dodging Cold’s attacks without trying to get close to him.
Result: Captain Cold ends up getting away and escaping Barry several times in the show, or getting several shots in on Barry, because Barry just won’t instantly disarm and neutralize him, even though he’s done things like that many times on-screen beforehand. - There’s also several times in the show when The Flash is on the verge of catching a villain, only for the villain to throw in a minor distraction to keep him busy while they make a run for it. It usually goes like this: 1) Barry is about to kick the villain’s ass. 2) The villain somehow distracts Barry or makes him look away for a few seconds. 3) When Barry looks again, the villain is somehow instantly gone, not unlike Batman’s infamous Stealth Hi/Bye thing where he practically vanishes from a room without a trace.
You’d Expect: For Barry to use his speed to very quickly look around the place to see if he can catch up to the villain. After all, unlike him, the metahumans usually don’t have super speed and Barry could easily search the entire area in a second, so the villains wouldn’t be able to escape from him.
Instead: Barry usually gives up after standing around for a few seconds and assumes the villain is gone and out of his reach, despite the fact that, again, the villain usually doesn’t have super speed and couldn’t have gotten far away. It’s especially bad because some of the distractions that the villains throw his way only manage to distract him for literally one or two seconds at best. And yet somehow, Barry believes that they’ve outran him.
Result: This ends up resulting in several villains escaping to fight again in the future. And in some cases, those villains end up murdering people, which could’ve easily been prevented had Barry been more thorough in searching for them before giving up and assuming they’ve escaped. Good job, Barry.
Additionally: Ralph would call Barry out on this in When Harry Met Harry, and Barry would reply by doubling-down on his belief to save civilians before capturing his enemies, with the show implying Ralph is unreasonable for stating this. - Relatively early on in the show, The Flash is shown to be so fast that even when he’s not in top shape, he can move so fast that he can instantly take someone to S.T.A.R. Labs in the time it takes for an eye to blink.
You’d Expect: That the Flash would always do that before anything else when he confronts a supervillain. That he would immediately try to take them to S.T.A.R. Labs before they even have time to react (and keep in mind, about 90% of the metahumans Barry fights don’t have super speed or super reflexes, so there’s basically nothing they’d be able to do to stop Barry). All Barry has to do is to take advantage of the element of surprise to instantly whisk his enemies away to S.T.A.R. Labs before they even know he’s there with them. They wouldn’t even have time to understand what’s happening to them before it’s too late. The villains would be neutralized, the city would be safe, and the problem would be instantly solved. If he's worried about a fellow speedster attacking him, he can always run up behind them and punch them unconscious.
Instead: Barry almost never does that. Instead, he gives away the element of surprise by revealing his presence, he just stands there while screwing around, he talks to the villains and lets them monologue on and on.
Result: This usually ends up giving the villains plenty of time to do something to either attack Barry or come up with a plan to escape him.
Even Worse: If Barry wants to just stand around and talk to the villains so much, he can always do that after they’re safely contained at S.T.A.R. Labs, so he doesn’t even need to stop to talk to them before then in the first place.
Just To Take It Up To Eleven: While it's somewhat forgivable for him to do this during his first season or two as a rookiee superhero, he's still doing it in Season Nine. - There’s also quite a few villains who are guilty of not killing Barry or any of the other heroes when they have the chance. A good example of this is the King Shark example discussed under the Season 2 folder.
- Star(ling) City, it's established, is several hundred miles away from Central City, meaning that Barry can easily run there and back in minutes, if not less. Meanwhile, following the second season, Barry is able to visit Supergirl's Earth whenever he wants to, and after Invasion Cisco creates a device that can communicate and open portals across universes.
You’d Expect: For Oliver, Barry, and Kara to take advantage of each other's skills and abilities more often. While they understandably wouldn't call each other in for every villain of the week, season finales often have the main heroes outmatched, outnumbered, and overwhelmed, when another character with superpowers would be immensely useful. As Oliver proved multiple times, he can even defeat speedsters with the right tactics and equipment (plus there was that Kryptonite arrow), and his tactical mind allied with Barry and/or Kara's powers makes for an almost unstoppable force.
Instead: They seldom call each other except for once-a-season team-ups.
Season 1
- "Who is Harrison Wells", Team Flash hunts Everyman who can turn into anyone he touched. Everyman earlier framed Eddie for murder of two cops by turning into him. Later Eddie visits Barry when he was supposed to be in jail.
You'd Expect: Barry to immediately suspect that "Eddie" might be disguised Everyman and either Bluff the Impostor or straight up ask Something Eddie would know
Instead: Barry believes a story of Eddie being quickly released and lets "Eddie" enter.
Result: "Eddie" predictably turns out to be Everyman and knocks out Barry first time he has the chance. - Right after above example Caitlin visits Barry to tell him she made a serum that would stop Everyman from shapeshifting. Unknown to her she meets Everyman disguised as Barry. Since Everyman never met her he calles her "you" instead of her name, then when he follows her to S.T.A.R. labs he acts seriously unnatural for Barry, up to not knowing Iris' name(whom Barry knew since childhood). And by seriously unnatural for Barry, we mean repeatedly kissing Caitlin to her own confusion. The only time Barry and Caitlin might have communicated interest in each other was back in episode 12, when A) Barry opened up about never being noticed by Iris B) Barry gets Linda Park's number and C) Caitlin got seriously drunk.
You'd Expect: Caitlin to at some point at least consider that "Barry" might be the shapeshifter they're looking for, do what Barry should have done in example above and beat him with first heavy thing she comes uppon as soon as she confirmed he's Everyman.
Instead: She demonstrates ridiculous ammount of Genre Blindness and doesn't even consider he's the shapeshifter, until Thawne notices that he has a gun. - After Thawne tasered Everyman Iris wants to use him to prove that Eddie was framed. Wells agrees to do this.
You'd Expect: Seeing how Everyman is dangerous metahuman they would keep him at S.T.A.R. labs where they can keep him under control and call the cops to them where they can demonstrate his abilities.
Instead: Iris and Caitlin escort Everyman by themselves, which predictably ends with him escaping. - Everyman himself isn't immune to Idiot Ball either. When he tries to escape at the airport, disguised as an old lady he notices Barry, who is looking for him. When he's scanned scanner blinks briefly making Barry suspicious.
You'd Expect: Everyman would stay calm and walk away. If Barry tries to stop him all he needs is to just scream for help, and everyone would think Barry is assaulting some nice old lady.
Alternatively: He could shift into another normal form and let himself get lost in the crowd.
Instead: Everyman turns into a security guard in Barry's full view and makes a run for it, immediately confirming Barry's suspicion. - "Rogue Air", Reverse-Flash intends to activate the pipeline used as makeshift metahuman prison. If activated all the metahumans inside will die and Barry doesn't want that to happen. Team Flash organize transport to an A.R.G.U.S. prison on Lian Yu, where metas can be kept safe. Unfortunately neither the Arrow nor Firestorm are available as an escort.
You'd Expect: Seeing as A.R.G.U.S. is on the job Team Flash would simply ask them to provide escort for metas. They're government agency, they have resources, and they already agreed to use Lian Yu to keep metahumans.
Or: If A.R.G.U.S. for some reason couldn't help Cisco could make anti-metahuman weapons for Joe, Eddie and maybe Caitlin and himself. He earlier was forced to make three super-guns for the Rogues in what seemed to be few hours at most. Or call in Ray Palmer, since trust with him should not be a problem. Or call in the Arrow team. Or, heck, just tranquilize all the metas with something strong enough to keep them out for a few hours.
Instead: Barry asks Captain Cold for help. A known Badass Normal supervillain who already outsmarted Barry several times. Cold agrees to help, but only if Barry destroys everything CCPD has on him.
You'd then expect: Seeing as between them two Barry is clearly the more trustworthy one he'd say that he'll do it after Cold fulfilled his part of the deal. Then he can either play Guile Hero and not do it or Honor Before Reason and fulfill his end of the deal after Cold fulfilled his.
Instead: He destroys evidence right off the bat leaving himself with no leverage to force Cold to fulfill his end of the bargain.
Result: Captain Cold betrays them and releases the metahumans to potentially use them in the future. Cold himself lampshades how stupid that was.Cold: Here's the thing; I'm a criminal and a liar, and I hurt people and I rob them. What did you expect me to do? Not be who I am? Who you're really mad at is yourself.
Season 2
- In “The Fury Of Firestorm”, the enemy metahuman du jour, Hewitt, doesn’t really pose a threat to Barry and as we’ll see later in the episode, he can easily get taken out by one punch.
You’d Expect: For Barry to just knock Hewitt out himself. Again, he doesn’t have superhuman durability, speed, strenght or reflexes, so punching him shouldn’t be hard at all, especially for someone as fast as Barry.
Instead: Barry just keeps screwing around and Firestorm has to be the one to take down Hewitt. Note that Firestorm didn’t even knock out Hewitt with his powers or anything like that. All he did was punch him hard. Something Barry could’ve easily done himself at the start of the fight. - Also in “The Fury Of Firestorm”, King Shark, who is on a mission to kill Barry, catches him off-guard, captures him in his grip and is seconds away from finishing him off, when Patty suddenly arrives to shoot at him. For context, King Shark is bulletproof, so he’s not in danger or anything like that.
You’d Expect: For King Shark to ignore Patty and just finish off Barry. After all, his mission is to kill the Flash and there’s nothing Patty can do to really hurt him and as we’ve just said, he’s bulletproof, so she’s not a threat to King Shark. And if he still wants to kill her, he can easily do that after killing Barry.
Instead: He just drops Barry to the ground and goes up to Patty in a slow, menacing walk to go kill her.
Result: King Shark unintentionally gives Earth-2 Harrison enough time to save Barry and Patty from him. So because of his stupidity, King Shark was not able to fullfill his mission and the Flash is still alive. And he couldn’t get payback on Patty for shooting at him either. - At some point, Iris manages to pull a headshot on Dr. Light, which doesn’t kill her, but does knock her helmet off her head, allowing Team Flash to discover her identity.
You’d Expect: For Iris to shoot her again. After all, by that point, regardless of her true identity, Dr. Light has clearly shown to be a dangerous metahuman that needs to be neutralized. It’s an especially good opportunity because a), Dr. Light is disoriented from the previous shot and is vulnerable, and b), Dr. Light isn’t wearing any kind of bulletproof clothing or anything like that. Iris doesn’t even have to kill Dr. Light if she doesn’t want to (though she did initially go for a killshot by aiming for the head, but still). She can just give Dr. Light a crippling shot in the kneecap or whatnot (and immediately calling an ambulance), or just punch her unconscious and have Barry take her to STAR Labs. Also, on a side note, Iris is not a superhero, so in a meta context, she’s not morally obliged to abide by Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Instead: Iris just stands there and does nothing.
Result: Dr. Light recovers and escapes to potentially cause more havoc elsewhere and to try to kill her Earth-1 counterpart. Way to go, Iris. - Doctor Light discovers that she has a double on Earth-1 and decides to replace her to hide from Zoom.
You'd Expect: For her to invisibly stalk her double and find some isolated place to kill her, especially since the next episode stating that she specifically wanted to use Linda's body to convince Zoom she was dead, and then run, rather than taking over Linda's life.
Instead: She does this by going to her crowded workplace in supervillain gear, refers to her as her double, and tries to murder her in front of a dozen witnesses.
Result: Needless to say, it fails, and she ends up captured by Team Flash. - Cisco blithely opens Dr. Light's cell once he sees it empty.
You'd Expect: Him to consider that, since her powers are based on light, that she may be able to turn invisible (especially since there's no way for her to get out of her cell, especially without damaging anything).
Instead: He doesn't even consider this possibility.
Result: She escapes. - At some point during the crossover with Arrow, Vandal Savage bursts through a window and confronts our heroes with obviously hostile intentions.
You’d Expect: That Flash would use his super speed to immediately knock Savage flat on his ass to neutralize him before bad things happen. After all, if Barry is fast enough to outrun lightning, bullets and sound, then this shouldn’t be a problem for him at all.
Instead: The first thing Barry does…is to use his super speed to pick up Oliver’s bow to hand it to him. He doesn’t even try to attack Savage. He doesn’t even try to attack Savage and he just stands there until Savage attacks.
Result: A big fight breaks out. And the cherry on top of the cake? Barry get a knife thrown right into his shoulder because of his stupidity. - In “Running To Stand Still”, Captain Cold holds Iris hostage right in front of Barry using a Dead Man's Switch he built into his cold gun. If he lets go of the trigger, it explodes. And as Snart said, Barry would be fast enough to outrun the blast, but not Iris.
You’d Expect: That Barry would immediately use his super speed to take Iris to a safe distance, then come back to kick Snart’s ass one second later.
Or: Pretend to go along with whatever Cold wants, wait for him to turn off the dead man’s switch, then use his super speed to either knock out Snart to neutralize him, or at the very least disarm Snart before he even has time to react. As mentioned above, we’ve seen Barry do this sort of thing multiple times in the past, so he shouldn’t have any problems doing this.
Instead: Barry does basically nothing. Not even when Snart deactivates the switch (which he doesn’t even attempt to hide, by the way). Snart escapes with no problem at all. - Pretty much the entirety of Barry's "impersonate my alternate universe self" plan in "Welcome to Earth-2." Unsurprisingly, it gets Earth-2 Joe killed and Barry himself captured by Zoom. Comes off as particularly egregious considering that he spends a lot of time angsting about putting his loved ones in danger (even pushing Patty away because of it) and yet does it to his Earth-2 counterparts without much thought.
* In "Escape from Earth-2," Zoom begins a manhunt for Dr. Wells.
You'd Expect: For Zoom to search STAR Labs—Wells' place of work—first.
Instead: He warns the entire town that he demands his head.
Result: His warnings indirectly cause Wells to realize that Zoom's hunting him and gives him time to escape.
* In "Versus Zoom", Barry FINALLY is faster than Zoom, AND has captured him.
You'd Expect: Barry drop him into the pipeline right then and there.
Instead: Barry brags about Zoom never being able to take anything from anyone again, giving Zoom the time to break free and kidnap Wally. By the way, before this, Zoom was on Earth-2, DYING, AND unable to get to any other Earth on his own. The ONLY reason he got to do any of this and the later events was because Barry felt that he needed to stop Zoom, despite A. Zoom dying and B. Wells, Joe AND ZOOM HIMSELF saying what an idiot move that was. Granted, Barry probably figured Zoom would continue on his murder spree, but COME ON.\\
* So now Zoom has kidnapped Wally, and will give him back in exchange for Barry's speed. By the time the trade-off has started, Zoom has given up Wally, Barry has not yet given up his speed, and everyone except Barry and Caitlin have guns trained dead center on Zoom.
You'd Expect: Barry to fight him!!! Or the others to shoot him!!!! OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN GIVING WHAT HE WANTS!
Instead: Honor Before Reason. JUST...Honor Before Reason.\\As A Result: Barry has no speed and therefore no real way to stop Zoom, Zoom has all of Barry's speed combined with his own insane amount, can travel through dimensions at will, has kidnapped Caitlin, is ready to start his invasion of Earth-1 with his army and eventual Omnicidal Maniac plan to destroy every earth except Earth-1 so he can rule over it. Great hero we have here.
* In "Back to Normal", Caitlin is held captive in Zoom's lair on Earth-2. While Zoom is gone, she meets Killer Frost, her Evil Twin whom Zoom had imprisoned in an ice-proof cell. Killer Frost then offers a deal that if Caitlin frees her from the cell, she'll help her escape Zoom's lair.
You'd Expect: Caitlin to realize she's trusting a dangerous metahuman who might be planning to kill her and there will be nothing holding her back after Caitlin frees her. Keep in mind that she's alone and Barry doesn't even have his speed anymore to protect her.
Instead: Caitlin goes right ahead with freeing Killer Frost.
Predictably: Killer Frost immediately reneges on the deal and tries to kill Caitlin, and Caitlin is only saved because Zoom showed up and killed Killer Frost.
* In "Invincible", Barry and Wells just defeated the ENTIRE legion of Zoom's metahuman army, including Zoom himself.
You'd Expect:Team Flash to immediately detect Zoom and throw him in the Pipeline, without any further delay.
Instead:Zoom creates a breach, and escapes to Earth-2.
You'd Now Expect:Barry and Cisco to go to Earth-2 ASAP and track Zoom. Cisco has a hacking ability only bettered by the Calculator and Felicity Smoak, and indeed can track most of the metahumans in the right time.
Instead: Barry and Team Flash with their family members,decide to party at their 'victory'. Apparently, when your worst enemy has the power to create and escape breaches whenever he likes, and just bids his time to strike, that moment is a great victory.
As A Result: Predictably, Zoom arrives at the party not long after, takes Henry hostage, and uses the stunned crowd at his advantage. He pretty much goads Barry into admitting how Zoom and Barry aren't so different, and kills Henry right away. This leads the so-called victory party to outright mourning, and Barry himself was tricked to accept Zoom's challenge for a last race. Said race will power up the superweapon, which is set to destroy all other universes excluding Earth-1 (note that it consists of Zoom's own home, as well as Supergirl's Earth. This will create a Domino Effect that will force Barry to eventually create Flashpoint.
- In The Race of His Life, the team, fearing Barry is too blinded by rage to face off against Zoom, decide to lock him up and take him down themselves, instead of trying to calm Barry down and work together, which is supposed to be the team's modus operandi. And the plan itself is equally stupid: trick Zoom into approaching a hologram of Caitlin and open a breach to Earth-2 where he will supposedly be trapped forever. The problem with this plan is that Zoom will be free to terrorize Earth-2 and every other universe in the multiverse, in the end that wouldn't work and worsened Barry's temptations.
Season 3
- Barry just saw the Rival literally stab Kid Flash in the back, nearly killing him. After he fights the Rival, he gets the upper hand, and proceeds to turn his back on the murderous supervillain. Guess what the Rival tries to do? Barry only escapes because Joe showed up at the last moment. What makes this especially idiotic is that earlier, before Kid Flash gets stabbed, Barry literally says that they should both fight Rival together and not take him on alone, yet when the fight happens, for some reason, Barry just decides to stand there and watches as Kid Flash takes on Rival by himself. Also, it’s worth pointing out that Kid Flash wouldn’t have gotten stabbed in the first place if he hadn’t grabbed the Idiot Ball and decided to turn his back on the Rival in the middle of their fight for whatever reason, and actually made sure his enemy was down for the count before lowering his guard. Wally is very lucky that the Rival stabbed him in the chest instead of a more vital area like the head, because if the Rival had aimed for that instead, Wally probably wouldn’t have survived. You’d think that Barry would’ve learned his lesson from watching what happened to Wally, but nope. Again, Barry does the exact same mistake Wally did later on and only escaped because Joe showed up.
- In "Magenta," Wally wants to see if he has Super-Speed, so he jumps right into a speeding car to see how he'll react to it. For bonus points, he actually tells Barry that he didn't know what he'd expect from doing this. Barry proceeds to chew Wally out so thoroughly that Joe feels there's nothing more for him to add to the discussion.
- In “The New Rogues”, Flash and Jessie Quick are both facing Sam Scudder, AKA the Mirror Master, a metahuman with the ability to escape and travel through basically any reflective surface. This means that it’s incredibly easy for Mirror Master to escape if he gets pursued, because reflective surfaces are basically everywhere, especially in a city.
You’d Expect: That Flash and Jessie would immediately knock out and neutralize both Mirror Master and his accomplice before he notices them and quickly escapes with his powers.
Instead: When they confront Scudder, they just stand around and have a conversation with him, which gives him plenty of time to find a reflective surface to escape through. Keep in mind that Flash and Jessie both chose to do this despite the fact that they both know exactly what Scudder can do by that point and how his powers work.
As A Result: Mirror Master and his accomplice both escape. Great job, speedsters.
Even Worse: That’s more-or-less how Barry neutralizes Mirror Master at the end of the episode anyway: by slapping handcuffs on him so fast that he doesn’t even have time to react. If he could do that all along, then why the hell didn’t he do that earlier during their previous encounters? There was literally nothing stopping Barry from knocking Scudder unconscious and handcuffing him before he even has time to react or process what’s happening to him. And Top wouldn’t be a problem either because Jessie could’ve easily done the exact same thing to her too. - At some point in “Killer Frost”, Caitlin, now struggling with her Superpowered Evil Side Killer Frost, is with Julian in a warehouse and Flash arrives at the scene. Keep in mind that Barry knows how dangerous and unstable Caitlin is right now, that she needs help, and that there’s a very real chance she could end up hurting someone.
You’d Expect: That Barry would use his super speed to either knock her out or immediately transport her to STAR Labs before she even has time to react.
Instead: Barry just stands around and talks to her instead. And for added idiocy, he instead knocks out Julian when Julian suggests using his super speed to immediately take her down as per common sense. And to make things worse, Barry does it again later when the cops show up, when he uses his speed on Caitlin to literally transport her just around the corner instead of, say, Star Labs.
As a Result: Caitlin ends up stabbing Barry right in the foot. Good job, Barry.
Even Worse: If Barry wanted to reason with Caitlin and talk her down, he could’ve easily done that after getting her safely to Star Labs, so he didn’t even need to stop and talk to her then and there. - In “Invasion!”, Barry saves Oliver and Diggle from Vigilante by pulling them away at super speed.
You’d Expect: That Barry would also take the opportunity to use his super speed to instantly disarm and neutralize Vigilante while he’s at it. It wouldn’t be hard and it wouldn’t even take long, considering that he’s done it on plenty of other gunmen in the past. Plus, Vigilante was trying to shoot at Oliver and Diggle, which is just all the more reason for Barry to take him down.
Instead: Barry just ignores Vigilante and lets him go.
As a Result: Vigilante gets away to be a thorn in Oliver's side for quite a while. Good job, Barry. - In "Duet," a depowered Flash and Supergirl find a gang war shooting outside.
You'd Expect: Them to remember that they don't have their powers anymore and thus they should stay inside since there's nothing they can do to help.
Instead: They foolishly run into the crossfire and get shot. Had they not been saved through The Power of Love, they would have died.
* In “Untouchable”, Wally has to save Iris from getting touched by Yorkin, a metahuman who can kill people by touching them.
You’d Expect: That Wally would know that time is of the essence and that he can’t afford to waste any of it. He shouldn’t stop, he should keep running as fast as he can to immediately yank Iris out of harm’s way before it’s too late.
Instead: Wally briefly stops to talk to Yorkin and to tell him to stop what he’s doing.
As a Result: Wally ends up giving just enough time to Yorkin for him to touch Iris’s arm, and she starts decaying because of Yorkin’s power. Way to go, Wally. Iris almost died because you just had to stop and talk to Yorkin for a second despite having absolutely no logical reason to do so, instead of doing something more important, like, say, getting Iris out of harm’s way with all that super speed you have. - In “Abra Kadabra”, the titular villain gets captured and locked up at STAR Labs. Joe then grabs the Idiot Ball and lets him out of his cell in exchange for presumably Savitar’s identity. Abra Kadabra then starts causing all sorts of mayhem around the lab. On a side note, the Flash’s allies have special signal devices that can alert Barry and let him know what’s going on, kind of like a distress signal.
You’d Expect: For them to just, you know, call Barry so that he can kick Kadabra’s ass again. And Kadabra doesn’t know about the devices, and he hasn’t done anything to sabotage them, so there is literally nothing that stops the team from contacting Barry and telling him to come subdue Kadabra. And it’s not like Barry is busy with anything too urgent either.
Instead: They don’t contact Barry. They just don’t. Like idiots, they try to stop Kadabra themselves.
As a Result: Predictably, it all goes wrong and the lab gets trashed. And to top it all off, Caitlin gets severely injured in the ensuing chaos, which indirectly leads to her becoming Killer Frost again. - In "Infantino Street", Savitar, being a future time remnant of Barry, starts to gain memories of Barry's final preparations to prevent Iris' death (in particular, asking for Captain Cold's assistance in breaking in A.R.G.U.S.), and, in order to ensure the death that would lead to his origin, heads to S.T.A.R. Labs posing as Barry and, after stating that was able to get the Dominator power cell, proceeds to ask where Iris is.
You'd Expect: H.R. to not say anything or at least inform "Barry" that he can't provide that information, as doing so would result in Savitar learning where Iris is being kept safe.
Instead: H.R. tells "Barry" that Iris and her family are currently in Earth-2, with "Barry" then revealing himself to be Savitar.
As A Result: Savitar travels to Earth-2 to capture Iris, nearly causing the death that Team Flash's been trying to prevent for a half a season to happen if weren't for H.R. making a Heroic Sacrifice by using his Earth-19 disguise device to switch places with Iris.
Even Worse: Since Savitar knows everything that Barry does, even if it had been the actual Barry H.R. still had absolutely no reason to tell him. - In the finale, Barry assumes Savitar to be down and out.
You'd Expect: For Barry, an experienced fighter, to ensure that his enemy is unconscious.
Instead: He turns away and walks towards his friends.
As A Result: Savitar rises up and rushes Barry from behind. This time, Iris saves him. - Here’s one for the entire Savitar-trying-to-kill-Iris arc: Later on, we learn that there’s A.R.G.U.S. buildings who have metahuman-dampening properties. This means that any metahuman who steps in them, including speedsters, can’t use their powers.
You’d Expect: That Team Flash would make arrangements for Iris to be placed inside one of these buildings, preferably in a secure room, until after the time of her prophesied death at Savitar’s hands. This would keep her safe from both Savitar and Killer Frost.
Instead: They don’t even consider that idea. At all.
As a Result: The rest of the season happens, with all the bad things that happens in it, including H.R.’s sacrifice, which could all have been avoided if Team Flash actually used their brains and put Iris inside the building. Good job, Team Flash.
Season 4
- In "The Flash Reborn", Peek-A-Boo returns and fights both Wally and Cisco. And at some point during the fight, Cisco managed to pin Peek-A-Boo in the air, leaving her wide open for Wally to attack her.
You’d Expect: That Wally would immediately slap some power-dampening cuffs on Peek-A-Boo, immediately subduing her and ending the fight. For context: Peek-A-Boo is completely open and vulnerable and there is literally nothing stopping Wally from doing this in literally the blink of an eye.
Instead: Wally and Cisco just tackle her through a portal, not even hard enough to knock her unconscious.
You’d Then Expect: That Wally and Cisco would use their powers to immediately neutralize her while she’s down before she can get up, and to steal away her guns too.
Instead: They both just lie on the ground and stare at Peek-A-Boo like deer caught in headlights while she gets back up and threatens them both with her guns, doing absolutely nothing to stop her.
The Result: Joe has to bail them out by shooting Peek-A-Boo with a taser gun from behind, which really shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place, considering that Wally is more than fast enough to disarm Peek-A-Boo before she can even react. - Also in "The Flash Reborn", after the fight with Peek-A-Boo, the team encounters a new samurai-themed villain named Samuroid. His introduction has him fly around in a jetpack and and confidently challenging our heroes despite seemingly only being armed with a sword. Plus, he looks shady as hell.
You’d Expect: That the team would realize that Samuroid is obviously not just a normal samurai or some cosplayer fooling around, and that Wally would immediately use his super speed to disarm him in the blink of an eye. After all, they literally just saw him flying over their heads with some kind of jetpack, and he’s confidently walking to up them without fear, so it should be obvious that there’s something abnormal about him. Plus, even if he wasn’t a supervillain, he could still be dangerous and instantly disarming him and removing both his armor and jetpack just to be on the safe side would probably be the right call.
Instead: Wally and Cisco just stand around, don’t take Samuroid seriously and just mock him without trying to stop him. At all.
The Result: This gives Samuroid enough time to use his sword to unleash a massive energy shockwave that knocks everyone back, causes lots of collateral property damage, and buys enough time for him to escape after threatening to destroy the city if Barry doesn’t come back to face him. Miraculously, nobody died or got too badly injured from the shockwave, but this could’ve all been avoided if Wally and Cisco had taken him seriously and neutralized him before he even had time to react. Good job, heroes. - Another one in "The Flash Reborn": After his first encounter with Samuroid, Wally disguises himself as Barry and goes to confront Samuroid when he knows where he is.
You’d Expect: That Wally would use the element of surprise to sneak attack Samuroid and beat the everloving crap out of him with super speed while he’s down. Reminder: Samuroid doesn’t have super speed or super reflexes, so it’s not like he’d have time to react or fight back.
Instead: Wally announces his presence to Samuroid and for some reason, decides to fight him directly in hand-to-hand combat instead of using his superhuman speed and reflexes. He doesn’t even use the full extent of his power and speed against Samuroid either.
The Result: Samuroid kicks Wally’s ass, stabs him in the leg, and gets away again. Good job, Wally. You’re lucky Samuroid decided to just spare you instead of finishing you off then and there. - Yet another one in "The Flash Reborn": After Samuroid’s time limit runs out, he gets surrounded by the police, who all have guns pointed at him. The police clearly know how dangerous he is, they know his swords can be used as long-range weapons, and they know that he’s planning to destroy the city and kill everyone.
You’d Expect: That the police would just shoot him. They already know he’s not going to surrender, he has already attacked the police earlier, and Joe still has that useful taser gun that he used against Peek-A-Boo earlier too. And even if Samuroid’s armor turns out to be bulletproof, it’s still made of metal, so it should conduct electricity nicely.
Instead: They do nothing against Samuroid. At all. And Joe doesn’t even try to taser him either.
You’d then Expect: That these trained, professional policemen would then notice a civilian woman crossing their defense line and just wandering across the battlefield, and then that they would try to stop her from getting close to the dangerous supervillain. Especially since that particular civilian just happens to be their boss’s daughter, Iris West.
Instead: They just stand there and let Iris get herself abducted by Samuroid instead of trying to stop her.
The Result: Iris gets abducted by Samuroid, and he gets away yet again. Good job, police. If Barry hadn’t conveniently managed to come out of the speed force to rescue Iris, she would’ve been screwed. - In "Mixed Signals," Shelia finds herself with her ex colleague Tim who tells her that their old partner Deacon (who they screwed over) is a meta and has been hunting his old partners. Shelia doesn't believe this but then comes face to face with Deacon himself who confirms what Tim said.
You'd Expect: Shelia to realize that at the very least a confirmed killer is in her room with his sights set on her and try to resolve things peacefully or at the very least try to escape.
Instead: She walks right up to Deacon and tells him it's his fault that he got screwed over and that she's glad she did it because he finally grew a pair.
The Result: Deacon uses his new found technopathy to inject her with a lethal dose of insulin and nearly kills her. The only reason she survived was because Wally and Joe had been expecting this and were able to save her. - Also in "Mixed Signals,", Barry and Wally confront Deacon while he’s torturing Tim. For context, they know that Deacon has technopathy powers that allows him to control all forms of technology, probably including what’s in their Flash suits.
You’d Expect: That Barry and Wally would immediately take out Deacon before he can react. Not just because he has a potential hostage, but also because since their suits are filled with tech and gadgets, Deacon might find a way to use that against them somehow.
Or: That they would discard their tech-filled suits and that they would use less technology-based means to fight Deacon.
Instead: They just stand around and talk to Deacon, giving him plenty of time to turn their own costumes against them. And for Deacon to activate the self-destruct sequence in Barry’s suit (dishonorable mention to Cisco for putting that feature in, by the way).
The Result: Barry has to shoot himself with one of his own lightning bolts to stop the self-destruct sequence. And Deacon almost kills Tim. Which, again, could’ve easily been avoided if Barry and Wally hadn’t screwed around. - In "Luck Be a Lady", there are plenty of times when Hazard lets her guard down and becomes wide open for Barry to just instantly slap some power-dampening cuffs before her powers can activate. Sure, she can cause bad luck to happen everywhere around her, but it’s not like the bad luck has super speed or anything like that.
You’d Expect: For Barry to take advantage lf the element of surprise and slaps some power-dampener cuffs on her before she even has time to react or before her ability even has time to stop him. And that Barry would use his super-reflexes to dodge any catastrophe that comes his way.
Instead: He doesn’t do any of that. He just runs blindly into danger like a moron and he doesn’t use the element of surprise on Hazard at all.
The Result: She ends up getting away and escaping Barry multiple times throughout the episode. Good job, Barry.
Even Worse: That’s basically how he stops her later in the episode, anyway. Which he could’ve easily done earlier, so this whole thing was basically just one, big waste of time. - In "Elongated Journey into Night", Cisco needs to survive Gypsy’s father hunting him down for 24 hours. And he can’t use his powers to do it.
You’d Expect: That Cisco would just ask Barry to use his speed to transport him across the world, then to get Barry to return him to his home after the 24 hours are up. After all, Gypsy’s dad said that Cisco wasn’t allowed to use his powers, not that Cisco couldn’t get help from someone else with powers. Plus, it’s just for 24 hours.
Instead: Cisco doesn’t try to get Barry to take him somewhere else, and he tries to hide from Gypsy’s dad like a prey hiding from a predator.
The Result: Cisco’s life is on the line because he doesn’t do a particularily good job at hiding. Way to go, Cisco. - Towards the end of "Girls Night Out," Killer Frost finally has Amunet, who the CCPD have been searching for a while now, at her mercy. Iris convinces her not to kill her.
You'd Expect: Killer Frost to just knock her out, or at least freeze her hands and feet together to keep her restrained for the police to take her away. AND nobody has to die.
Instead: Caitlin decides to let her go. Why? Most likely to give the writers a chance to bring her back later in the season.
The Result: The girls celebrate what they consider to be a victory, completely ignoring the fact that they let a dangerous, sadistic, and amoral Amunet escape so that she can continue with her criminal activities and put the rest of the city in danger. Caitlin's decision seems almost certain to come back to bite her hard.
Even Worse: A few of Team Flash’s members have either already killed people or tried to kill people before, so them trying to call out killer Frost for killing people not only comes across as hypocritical and sanctimonious, it also makes the issue a moot point since they’re already killers. - In "When Harry Met Harry," Barry and Ralph are fighting a meta who can bring statues to life. This is their second encounter as Barry previously let her get away to save an innocent man's life (and even then, he could’ve easily cuffed her the first time if he had actually used his super speed and reflexes like he’s supposed to). However, this time no one is in danger and the conflict only involves Barry, Ralph, the statue, and Mina (the meta). Barry is about to catch her, but then Mina's statue hits him.
You'd Expect: Barry to forget about the statue as no innocent people are in danger and he could easily use his Super-Speed to instantly slap some power-dampening cuffs on her, arrest her and carry her to the Pipeline before she can even react so that no one else will be hurt by her powers. Plus, since her powers are the source of the animated statues, that means if she gets stopped, then the statues automatically get stopped too. Plain and simple.
Instead: Barry tries to fight the statue (in hand-to-hand combat instead of using his super speed and super reflexes, no less), forgetting that no one is in danger and thus leaving the inexperienced Ralph to catch Mina.
The Result: The statue ends up throwing Barry into a utility pole meaning innocent lives actually are in danger from the severed electrical cables. Because of this, Barry is also injured to the point where he cannot move and save a little girl from being crushed from the falling utility pole. Also, Mina gets away to cause more havok. Good job, Barry. - Once more in "When Harry met Harry", in the last fight against Mina. Barry and Ralph knows how dangerous Mina is and he’s not planning to let her get away again. He also offered her several chances to stand down and surrender herself in previous encounters, yet she refused to surrender every time.
You’d Expect: That at this point, Barry would just drop the formalities and then immediately cuff her before she even has time to notice him or use her powers. Remember: She has no super speed or reflexes, so she wouldn’t even have time to see or react to him.
Instead: They stop and talk to her, which give her plenty of time to use her powers to animate a giant T-Rex skeleton to attack them.
You’d then Expect: For Barry to use that damn super speed of his to JUST SLAP SOME CUFFS ON THE BITCH ALREADY. And remember: by that point, he knows that cuffing her will immediately end this fight, since her powers are what’s animating the statues. No powers means no statues, plain and simple.
Instead: For some reason, Barry just decides to fight the T-Rex skeleton instead.
The Result: Barry not only wastes everyone’s time by doing this, since defeating the T-Rex doesn’t really change anything, but his fight against the T-Rex also causes collateral damage to the museum that will probably cost a lot of money and time to fix. Not to mention that he probably ended up endangering other priceless museum exhibits with this stunt too. Good job, Barry.
Even Worse: That’s basically how he stops her afterwards, anyway. He literally just slaps some cuffs on her at super speed before she even has time to react. There was literally nothing stopping him from doing that before, because she doesn’t have super speed or super reflexes, or anything else that could’ve stopped him at all. so this whole affair turned out to be one, big, unnecessary waste of everyone’s time. Again, good job, Barry. - "Therefore I Am" is one big chain reaction of "What an Idiot" moments. Basically, Barry is convinced that DeVoe is the mastermind behind the creation of the "bus metas", but can't find any concrete proof, with his snooping resulting in DeVoe's wife filing a complaint to the police. Barry then discovers that DeVoe had hid a camera inside the Samuroid's helmet and has been monitoring him and the rest of Team Flash this whole time.
You'd Expect: Barry, before doing anything else that could cause any possible legal problems, to inform the rest of the team about the camera. Then he could have asked Cisco to "vibe" the helmet first, or alternatively as Harry suggested he could track the IP address of the camera to its source.
Instead: Barry promptly runs to the DeVoe household and breaks in to do a blind hunt for clues that he's guilty.
You'd Then Expect: When breaking in, for Barry to wear something that can completely cover his face (i.e. his Flash costume), as he should have expected there would be security cameras around the DeVoe household given he just found one in the Samuroid. And you’d also expect him to search the house at super-speed, both to give himself as much time as possible to search the place and to spend as less time as possible in there and reduce the odds of getting caught. Additionally, given how fast he can move, it's probable that the security cameras wouldn't even be able to catch a clear picture of his face unless they've also been upgraded by DeVoe
Instead: All he wears is civilian clothes and a hooded sweater. And when he searches the house, he does it at regular speed instead of super speed.
As A Result: DeVoe is able to catch a photo of his face, resulting in his wife filing a restraining order given Barry did something genuinely incriminating followed by Barry being given a two-week suspension from the police force.
* Also from "Therefore I Am", while under question by Captain Singh on what Barry was doing investigating DeVoe and insisting it had to be for a very specific crime.
You'd Expect: Barry or Joe to bring up DeVoe being suspected of the Samuroid attack in "The Flash Reborn". Even if there was no definite proof at the time it would have at least perked Singh's interest. Given that he's pretty reasonable and all of the weirdness he's seen, Singh might well have believed them.
Instead: Barry and Joe remain completely speechless and not giving Singh any proper answer.
The Result: They look like complete idiots and DeVoe gets his complaint filed against Barry, while Barry's reputation is further tainted in the CCPD.
Furthermore: Barry's actions serve to help DeVoe frame Barry for his murder. - In "Don’t Run", Amunet shows up to kidnap Caitlin to force her to perform an unethical medical procedure.
You’d Expect: That Caitlin would immediately press the panic button to warn Team Flash that she’s in trouble. Caitlin has plenty of time to do so, since Amunet just casually strolls towards her and monologues for a bit instead of running towards Caitlin. It also helps that Amunet gets distracted along the way, which buys Caitlin even more time to do so. Sure, she’ll probably get kidnapped anyway, but at least her friends will know what’s up.
Instead: For some reason, Caitlin completely forgets about the panic button, just stands there and does nothing but stare at Amuney, like a deer caught in headlights.
The Result: Caitlin gets kidnapped by Amunet, and Team Flash doesn’t figure it out until it’s too late. Way to go, Caitlin. - Another one in "Don’t Run": When Barry fights DeVoe, Barry gets grabbed in mid-air by one of DeVoe’s metallic tentacles.
You’d Expect: That Barry would use his powers to either vibrate through the tentacle to free himself, or that he would simply slice it into pieces. It wouldn’t be hard to do either, since nothing indicates that he couldn’t phase through the tentacle or that he couldn’t slice through it like he did with Samuroid’s jetpack. And remember: he has both super speed and super reflexes, so it’s not like he wouldn’t have time to do this.
Instead: Barry forgets about his powers and basically just lets himself get tasered.
The Result: Barry gets knocked out and captured by DeVoe. Good job, Barry.
Even Worse: Later, when he fights DeVoe again, Barry actually shows that yes, he can just vibrate through the tentacles without any difficulty, which just adds insult to injury and makes Barry look dumber in hindsight. - Here’s a third one for "Don’t Run": Later on, after their previous fight, DeVoe calls Barry on his phone to monologue about his evil plan and threatens him. Barry knows where DeVoe is and that he’s about to do something terrible.
You’d Expect: That Barry would use his super speed to immediately run to DeVoe’s location and slap some power-dampening cuffs on him before DeVoe can even react. Yes, he’s smart enough to predict Barry’s moves, but he doesn’t have super speed or super reflexes himself, so he wouldn’t be able to escape Barry before he gets here, or prevent Barry from cuffing him. Plus, in the past, Barry has cuffed and transported people across the city in the blink of an eye, and they didn’t even have time to react, so it shouldn’t be hard for him to do this again, especially since Barry is supposed to have gotten faster since then.
Instead: Barry forgets about his powers yet again, and he just stands there long enough for DeVoe to do his monologue, then he doesn’t use his full speed to get to DeVoe’s location in time.
The Result: This gives DeVoe enough time to escape, and Barry gets framed for murder. Way to go, Barry. - In "Subject 9," Barry and Ralph go up to Izzy Bowin, the next metahuman on their list.
You'd Expect: For Barry to approach her as the Flash, a well-respected public figure. At the least, he could've bent the truth and said he's with CCPD—it's mentioned earlier in the episode that he still has his badge.
Instead: They give a vague warning and just tell her that "someone" is coming for her, because she has powers. Because of how vague they are, Ralph and Barry come off looking almost like creepy stalkers.
The Result: Izzy hits them with a sonic blast and scarpers. - Later, [DeVoe] traps Izzy behind a force field, and has previously wrecked her fiddle.
You'd Expect: For Izzy to hit him with a sonic blast from her hands, which has previously proven to seriously hurt [DeVoe]. Given what a bad condition the latter is in, she may have been able to hold him off indefinitely, maybe even kill him.
Instead: She completely forgets about her powers and stands there helplessly.
The Result: [DeVoe] escapes with Izzy's body and the rest of the season continues.
Season 5
- Basically the entire prolonged Cicada storyline is built around Team Flash consistently letting Cicada get away, by turning their backs for a second or not using meta-cuffs.
- One of the dumbest decisions in Season 5 comes in the episode What's Past is Prologue. After Team Flash builds a device that actually severs Cicada's connection to his dagger, Cisco grabs it to breach it away from him.
You'd Expect: Cisco to breach it into a black hole, or the middle of a star, or another planet, or into an active volcano, or empty space halfway across the universe, or the bottom of the ocean where it will be crushed by the pressure, so that it will be instantly destroyed, just to be on the safe side. Or he can just send it to another universe, where at least it's inaccessible. While his hands are still recovering, that shouldn't have anything to do with how much power he can channel through them.
Instead: Cisco sends it into orbit and even tells Cicada where he sent it.
The Result: Cicada calls his dagger to him from space and the arc continues.
Even Worse: Cicada takes several seconds to recall the dagger, during which time Iris (on comms) warns Barry. Instead of taking the time to beat Cicada into unconsciousness (which he could easily do several times over given how fast he is), having Cisco open another breach or Ralph extend his arms to intercept it, Barry stands around looking horrified and lets Cicada recall it.
* Nora's main role in the season basically makes her The Millstone for Team Flash. Constantly interfering when Barry has the situation under control, trusting villains who she has no reason to, and distrusting characters when she has no reason to. Case in point, when Weather Witch genuinely wants to make a Heel–Face Turn, Nora thinks the best possible decision is to disparage her and tell her she's beyond redemption, despite Cecile confirming that her genuine remorse. Not only that, the scene where she dumps Joss into the police station took it up to ten.
Instead: Nora tells Joss she doesn't trust criminals and speeds out of the police station.
The Result: Raya breaks Joss out and given Nora's actions to her, Joss gives in and goes full Weather Witch.
Season 6
- In "A Flash of the Lightning," Barry is fighting Ultraviolet, a meta who can launch blasts of UV radiation.
You'd Expect: For him to punch her out at super-speed; he can easily cross several feet of empty space before she finishes raising her arm. Alternatively, he can use his cyclone arms or lightning throw if he doesn't want to get close.
Instead: He runs straight into one of her beams of energy, just to prove how stubborn, determined, and courageous he is.
The Result: He ends up with serious burns that take a while to heal. While it's not huge in the grand scheme of things, nor did he have any particular need to hurt himself just to show off. - The entire second half of Season 6 and the Mirror Mistress storyline. It's hard to decide who was the bigger idiot; Eva McCulloch or Barry Allen.
You'd Expect: Eva, having learned that her husband just threw thew the wife of the Flash into her prison, would use the mirror duplicate she made of Iris to communicate what had happened to Barry Allen. Even without his wife being trapped with her, Barry is a Big Damn Hero who would do anything to help someone in distress and had access to the resources needed to break the dimensional divide, even without his slowly weakening powers.
Instead: Eva runs a much more complicated plot that involves her abducting and duplicating two other people, making her no better than her husband, all so that she can kill Joseph Carver herself. Even allowing for her being somewhat unbalanced, she was already having to deceive multiple people anyway, so why not play the Damsel in Distress, get free and THEN seek her revenge rather than antagonize The Flash by holding his wife hostage?
The Result: Eva ultimately wins but only as a result of a much more complicated scheme that now leaves Barry Allen having a personal vendetta against her and no greater evil to fight against.
You'd Expect: Barry to put more effort into trying to convince Eva to work with him against her husband or, at least, focus on how to stop her once she had gotten her revenge on Joseph Carver. While Barry is typically a noble hero who won't allow anyone to die, Carver is an Asshole Victim, at best, who threatened Barry's family, left his wife imprisoned in another dimension, enslaved metahumans into acting as his assassins and built a criminal empire on blackmail and the suffering of others by exploiting his wife's work.
Also: Barry previously bargained with Captain Cold, Amunet Black and The Mechanic to deal with villains who were far less evil than Carver, so it's not like he has a record of putting Honor Before Reason and refusing to negotiate with bad people in the name of a greater good.
Also: Nash's argument that Iris would never forgive Barry for letting another person die so she could escape the mirror dimension doesn't hold a lot of water considering that Iris killed Savitar back in Season 3 to save his life.
Instead: Barry puts Honor Before Reason and devotes all of Team Flash's resources into protecting Carver from Mirror Mistress, even after she frees all of Carver's metahuman slaves.
You'd Expect: For Iris to tell Eva that her husband has powers because of the particle accelerator explosion, and to remember that he didn't take on the moniker of "the Flash" until almost a year after Eva was trapped in the mirror. Even if Eva was peeking out the mirror from time to time afterwards, she still probably wouldn't know who that is.
Instead: She tells Eva that Barry is the Flash, never considering that this shouldn't mean anything to Eva unless she had more information than she's telling.
Season 7
- Frost is accused of hacking the security cameras at CCPD to destroy the meta-human cure.
You'd Expect: For Caitlin to keep silent. Even though it's been discovered that someone hacked the cameras, there's no way of telling who it was, ergo there's no proof Frost was responsible (and she has an alibi as well). Ergo, the prosecution would probably have had to put it down to a technological malfunction.
Instead: Caitlin jumps in and announces that she was responsible, for no apparent reason.
The Result: Frost gets sent to prison (while, admittedly, this may have happened anyway, it might not have if Caitlin had just kept her mouth shut).
You'd Expect: In "Enemy at the Gates," Chester announces that he's figured out that the Godspeeds lured Barry into a trap. You would think that the Fastest Man Alive would get his butt out of there immediately.
Instead: He stands around for three seconds (an eternity for a speedster of his caliber) and lets the clones surround him.
You'd Expect: In "Heart of the Matter, Part Two," Barry needs another ally against Godspeed, whom he (correctly) suspects will double-cross him. So he could have asked Jay (who was already on the scene) for help. Or gotten Speed Force!Nora to just take away Godspeed's powers. Given that Jay is a highly experienced speedster, it's hard to believe he could be slower than a guy who just stole some speed. Or call in Wally, Clark, Kara, and/or J'onn. Or asked Ray Palmer for some of those infamous speed-dampening nanites. If there wasn't enough time to gather them, he could've popped back a few hours or gone to another point in the timestream.
Instead: He has the Speed Force resurrect Thawne to pull an Enemy Mine. Unsurprisingly, this comes back to bite him.
Also: After the inevitable double-cross, Barry shows that he's much faster than Thawne. So you'd expect him to take the opportunity to capture Thawne and throw him in the Pipeline, correct? Nope—he just lets his arch-enemy run off to cause more trouble down the line.
The Result: In the following season, Thawne sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events culminating in a Reverse-Flashpoint, requiring Barry to team up with Damien Darhk and almost destroy the world as he reverses time to fix it (and, separately, unintentionally sending Despero after Barry as well). The results of this also lead to the fiasco at the end of the season with the Negative Forces taking over, a promising heroic speedster losing her abilities, and good Thawne being murdered.
Season 8
- When Mia Queen arrives at CCPD in 2021 and sees Thawne attacking the cops:
You’d Expect: For her to shoot Thawne the moment she has a chance. Even if her dad never told her how dangerous speedsters can be, it doesn't exactly take a genius to know that someone who can move at super-speed and shoot lightning from his hands isn't going to be held back by an arrow. And if she's not comfortable killing, there are plenty of ways to cripple someone so they can't walk, either permanently or temporarily.
Instead: She announces herself with a quippy one-liner, sweeps his legs out from under him, then just stands there and aims her bow at him.
The Result: Thawne very nearly kills her the moment he gets bored talking, and she's only saved because Barry shows up at the literal last second.
You'd then Expect: For Thawne, who's about to die, to beg or manipulate Caitlin into helping him.
Instead: He insults and denigrates her and Ronnie.
The Result: She's all for letting him die, and Thawne is only saved because Barry has a last-minute change of heart. - In "Funeral For A Friend," Cecile starts going out in the field with Barry and Allegra.
You'd Expect: For her to wear, at the very least, a mask or pair of goggles or something to hide her identity.
Instead: She goes out in civilian clothes, and it's only because it just so happened that no one was close enough with a cell phone camera to take a picture and upload it to social media that the whole world didn't find out DA Cecile Horton is working with the Flash.
Season 9
- In "Wednesday Ever After," Barry is warned that the device he's nearby is going to explode in several seconds.
You'd Expect: For him to either come close to the device, allowing time to reset once more, at which point he could nab the villain before they try anything, or else to go into Flashtime, run Chester over, and have him figure out a way to disarm it. Or just run the device out to sea or a deserted area of the country and let it explode there.
Instead: He goes with the much more difficult option of phasing the explosion.- The same episode has him stuck in a time loop over fifty times. Every time, the new Captain Boomerang opens up the device and removes the power source. However, when Barry gets close to the power source, it always causes the timeline to reset.
You'd Expect: For Barry to just nab the bad guy before he opens up the box with the power source.
Instead: Apparently, he never thought of that.
- The same episode has him stuck in a time loop over fifty times. Every time, the new Captain Boomerang opens up the device and removes the power source. However, when Barry gets close to the power source, it always causes the timeline to reset.
- In "Rogues of War," a security guard catches two of the new Rogues breaking in to a company. He pulls his gun on them. They have a brief conversation mocking the guard.
You'd Expect: For the guard to just shoot them already. They're committing an act of theft and have ignored his warnings, so he would be justified in opening fire, or at least trying to take them down non-lethally.
Instead: He stands around pointing the gun at them long enough for their partner to sneak up and stab him in the back.- In that episode, Barry needs to make sure that the new Rogues don't steal a device from a US Department of Defense laboratory.
You'd Expect: For him to simply leave an anonymous warning about the Rogue's abilities and capacities. General Eiling, who's in charge, is well used to dealing with metahumans and other weird threats, and STAR Labs, after all, really does not have the best track record in keeping out intruders. Or, if he feels like he absolutely has to keep it guarded by someone he trusts, to ask Kara or Clark to bring it to the Fortress of Solitude. Or get ARGUS to take care of it.
Instead: He plans to bring it to STAR Labs. - Furthermore:
- In that episode, Barry needs to make sure that the new Rogues don't steal a device from a US Department of Defense laboratory.
You'd Expect: For Barry to recruit people for the heist he knows he can trust, such as popping back in time to borrow Captain Cold or Vibe, or going over to Earth-X to get Citizen Cold, or calling in some of those heroes from that league he founded.
Instead: He recruits a team composed of Chillblaine, Pied Piper, Jacko, and Goldface. Predictably, the team falls apart almost immediately, and he ends up with Goldface finding out his secret identity. Additionally, he has to promise the device to Hartley in order to keep his cooperation, with no one wondering how Hartley will be able to protect it from the Rogues.
