Josh recaps Season 3 Episode 2 of The Flash, titled Paradox, which has Barry once again confronting the Rival. He also decides that trying to fix the timeline again might be the best solution to his problems. On top of that, this mysterious “Alchemy” makes more of an appearance. To make matters worse, Barry has a new co-worker who doesn’t dig his positive personality. Following the recap, Violet and Josh both share their thoughts on this episode!
- His thoughts on Paradox, Episode 302 of The Flash
- Her thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 2: Paradox
So in this episode of The Flash, Barry continues to learn about the small variations in this timeline that make it different than the “original” timeline he was in (although even that one wasn’t the original timeline thanks to Eobard Thawne). There is a new Meta-Human task force spearheaded by Julian Albert (or Draco Malfoy for those Harry Potter fans). It turns out those two really don’t get along. But all this is conveyed through Felicity, as Barry has paid her a visit. (Another bit of information that came up-Diggle’s child is now a boy, rather than a girl). Barry also learns why Cisco is mad at him—Barry won’t go back in time to save his brother from a drunk driver.
But Barry is really upset over how it seems Team Flash is fractured in this timeline, and decides to use some persuasion and subterfuge to trick all parties to attend a dinner party at Joe’s house. Unfortunately, his plan doesn’t really work, and the group just gets upset with him for trying to trick everyone into being friends again.
This Julian Albert seems to have beef with Barry though, as when they are working on investigating these strange “husks” of bodies washing to shore, Julian Albert refuses to let Barry investigate. Barry uses his superspeed to get a sample, but eventually Julian is able to deduce that Barry took a sample, and chews him out for it. But one important note regarding these husks—one of them matches the DNA of Edward Clariss.
But the dinner is interrupted by the Meta-Human alert app, and the Rival has made an appearance in this new timeline. Apparently Edward Clariss, the person who became the Rival in the other timeline, didn’t have his powers but was locked in a mental facility. He begins hearing voices from someone called “Alchemy”. Edward visits this “Alchemy” who promises him his speedster powers again, that Edward seems to have remembered bits and pieces of from the other timeline.
So, Barry confronts the Rival yet again, in this new timeline. After the confrontation, it seems as though Barry is still pretty upset about what is changed in this timeline and decides to once again try to make a change. He begins his running to enter the Speedforce, but winds up being yanked out of time by the Flash—his “father”, Jay Garrick from Earth-3.
Jay Garrick had pulled him out into the 1990s, and the two head to a diner. Jay Garrick sits Barry down and tells him that meddling with the timeline is just going to make things worse, and now that the timeline is messed up, there is really no going back and fixing anything anymore.
Barry seems to understand this, and when he heads back to the “present” he tells everyone what happened with the timeline alteration. He also admits it is impossible to fix the situation, so the way things are now are the way things will have to remain.
So after this revelation, the group seems to be warming up to the idea of working together. When the Rival makes his come back, Cisco gets his Vibe gloves ready, and he and Barry work together to take the Rival down.
Other notes to consider is that Caitlin seems to be having her powers develop—her Killer Frost powers, which seem to freak her out.
His Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 2: Paradox
So, one can hope that Barry has leaned his lesson about changing the timeline. It seems to never work out when he does it. One interesting discussion a group of friends and Violet and I discussed was asking how these alternate timelines work. Based on Barry’s drawing, the timelines would continue on indefinitely, but there seems to be some problems with that–Mainly that if Barry left that timeline, then he would have been gone forever, so that universe would no longer have a Flash. That certainly could be a theory. The other theory is that the timelines just “end” and the new timeline is the only thing that exists. But after thinking about it some more, the first season of the Flash has Barry disappearing from the future, so does that mean that Flash went back in time, and created a new timeline? This might require some re-watching of past episodes to figure all of that out.
But back to this episode—this Alchemy guy seems like he is to be the villain of this season, and it looks like he has the ability to “unlock” meta-humans that existed in another timeline, but are just regular humans in this timeline. We didn’t see many other meta-humans in that timeline, but I wonder if this Alchemy will be “enlightening” Killer Frost and turning Caitlin against Team Flash. Or maybe even Kid Flash, with Wally West being “enlightened” about his meta-human abilities.
The rumors as to who Alchemy is are already swirling, with Julian being the prime suspect. It seems a bit too obvious, but we will have to see what happens with that. Other theories think that it could be Eobard Thawne possibly.
As for the rest of the episode, it looks like Team Flash has made some progress on working things out. Perhaps they can make more strides.
As for next episode, it looks like another Speedster would be paying a visit, along with Earth 2 Doctor Wells. I am curious what brings them to Earth 1.
Her Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 2: Paradox
I don’t really like the fact that the timeline is apparently going to remain as this fractured timeline and that we can’t go back to the old one. I suppose Barry doesn’t like it either, which is why he wanted to change it in the first place. But the reason I don’t like it isn’t necessarily because I don’t like the changes that have been made. It’s more that it’s unclear what all the differences are. On the one hand, many things have changed, such as Cisco’s brother being killed by a drunk driver, Barry and Iris not having that last discussion on the front steps before he left to go back in time, Iris and Joe not talking, and even down to affecting other shows like Diggle’s child now being a boy instead of a girl (though that makes it coincide with the alternate timeline that we encountered in Legends of Tomorrow in which we met Diggle’s son in 2046). I am wondering if and when this revelation about Diggle’s child now being a boy will be made in Arrow, and how that will be explained, if at all.
But to continue with what I was saying, if there are all these changes, how are we supposed to know how much of what we’ve seen so far on The Flash has actually happened for this new timeline? Are we supposed to assume that everything still happened the same way? It seems impossible that it would have, considering all the changes we’ve already seen. So that makes staying in this new timeline problematic. But I guess we’re just supposed to take it with a grain of salt that everything did still happen. I don’t like it, but I guess I’ll accept it for now.
Scenes from The Flash, Season 3 Episode 3: Magenta
Preview of Season 3 Episode 3 of The Flash
