The Flash had its season 8 finale, and Season 8 as a whole was definitely one that divided a lot of fans due to how certain characters were treated, plotlines were handled, and a crossover was botched. The season finale featured Barry almost killing his rival in Iris’ name, and Iris “saving the day” in her own way.
Showrunner Eric Wallace talked about this in an interview released after the finale and talked about how Barry and Iris’ roles in the finale were crucial:
“Moving forward if you notice, again, the theme was leveling up. Everybody this season has leveled up in some way, either powers or emotionally, for those who didn’t have superpowers. And it was on purpose that Iris was the last one because we knew it would be such a big deal, and it would be so integral to saving the day,” Wallace said. “She really is the reason that the world didn’t end in this episode, quite clearly. Her leveling up means, ‘Oh my goodness. I, in some ways, am the most powerful person here and I have no superpowers. How great is this? Because my humanity, my empathy, and my compassion gives me a clarity,’ that clearly Barry Allen was lacking in his key moments because his kids couldn’t even get through to it. The kids were saying, ‘Dad, don’t kill. She’s still alive.’ He still didn’t buy it.”
He went on:
“I recognized the frustration of the audience, especially when there were episodes where Candice was not in for four in a row. I totally get that. But the point is, we never lost sight of the goal of the end zone, as it were, to use a football metaphor. And I’m incredibly proud of that now, Iris moving forward realizes, ‘Wow, The Flash has more limitations than I do and he’s a superhero admired by the entire planet. I’m actually cooler than he is.”
While this is an explanation for things, it’ll be curious to see how fans as a whole react to it…so far…it’s been very mixed. The Flash Season 9 doesn’t happen until 2023 so it’ll be curious to see what happens then.
Source: ComicBook.com
