Favorite Relationship
Luciana: While they are not my favorite characters, the Joe/Barry relationship is always amazing to me. Grant Gustin and Jesse L. Martin have such a fantastic chemistry that I always have a smile on my face whenever they’re on my screen together. They pull off the father/son duo flawlessly – even better than Barry and his own father – and their relationship is definitely the most real and organic of the show.
That said, I fell completely in love with Barry/Patty and their short-lived relationship gave me all the feels. Gustin had an amazing chemistry with Shantel VanSanten and they just made such an adorkable couple, that I couldn’t help but have a ridiculous grin on my face whenever they were together on their awkward dates. They were so cute and sweet that my teeth hurt in the best way. Can we have them back? Please, TPTB, bring Patty back, will you? Thanks!
Shana: My opinion here has barely changed. I still think the father-son dynamic between Barry and Joe is the best part of this series, and when you add Wally to the mix, the whole thing becomes even more interesting. This time, I’m not even saying this for dance fangirl reasons. So there.
Lizzie: Joe/Barry, by a country mile. They’re the thing that made me watch this show in the first place, and one of the few things about The Flash that never, ever lets me down. The show just gets it. It gets what family is supposed to be like – this collection of people who love each other, blood notwithstanding.
Special mention for Barry/Patty, because they were just adorable together and I wanted them to get married and have adorable, awkward babies. And the fact that they made me ship something that I knew was doomed from the start is saying something.
Meredith: Cisco/Harrison Wells. Their dynamic is fantastic. It’s fun and funny when necessary, the right amount of antagonistic when needed, but in the end it always works.
Melissa: Barry and Henry. I love Barry’s relationship with Joe, but I have a soft spot in my heart for John Wesley Shipp. He has been a favorite of mine for many years.
Least Favorite Relationship
Luciana: Don’t even get me started on this. While earlier this season, Jay/Caitlin took the award of worst relationship for me, this time Barry/Iris really took the prize. I love them as best friends and siblings, but when you try to shove a romantic relationship between them down my throat, they become insufferable. And it’s not the writing or even the actors’ talent – the problem is that Grant Gustin and Candice Patton have zero romantic chemistry and watching them try is just awkward and painful.
Shana: I’m bracing myself for the backlash here, but the entire Barry/Iris relationship was handled horribly. After more than a season of pretty much ignoring any potential for romance between the two characters, WestAllen was suddenly shoved down viewers’ throats at the end of THE FLASH season 2. With the right development, I’d be all for it. As it was, it was rushed, out of nowhere, and just utterly stupid.
I think the most offensive part of this whole relationship occurred in the (awful) finale, when Iris seemed to think the way to comfort Barry following his father’s death was by “seeing where this thing goes. Maybe that can give you something for a change.” Seriously? Making matters even worse, Barry dropped some sort of Oliver-Queen-worthy line on Iris, basically making the entire build-up a huge waste of time.
Lizzie: Jay/Caitlin. If we can even call that a relationship, considering Jay basically tricked Caitlin for most of the season. Thing with Jay, though, he was boring until he was Zoom, and then when he was Zoom he became super interesting, only to turn bleh again by the final episode. So mostly I’m just picking these two because they were absurdly bland. They didn’t make me feel anything – good or bad. And that’s not what a relationship’s supposed to be like.
Special mention for the 2.3 seconds we saw of Carter and Kendra, who are absolutely the worst couple DC has ever created.
Meredith: Just….everything Lizzie said. Really, everything. Jay/Caitlin was boring and also kind of, like, wasn’t Caitlin grieving Ronnie again? I dunno. Didn’t like.
Melissa: “Fake Jay and Caitlin.” I never bought him as Jay Garrick and called the reveal on the first show where the man in the iron mask was shown.
Favorite Metahuman
Luciana: Black Siren wins all the awards. While I was never much of a Laurel Lance fan on ARROW, her Earth-2 doppelgänger was just all kinds of awesome. Laurel as the Black Canary was a character I actively disliked for most of seasons 2 and 3 and only started to grow on me on the back half of season 4. That said, Katie Cassidy did such a fantastic job with Black Siren, taking a character we all knew pretty well, and flipping her on her head, transforming her into this kickass version of herself that was funny and sarcastic and just all kinds of badass.
I know she was a villain, but I was just cheering her on whenever she showed up on my screen. While Laurel Lance from Earth-1 was just bland and boring, Earth-2 Laurel was the kind of character I knew Katie Cassidy could pull off. I’ve never read the comics, but I hear that the original Black Canary was funny, sarcastic and super sassy. Maybe Black Siren was the Black Canary every comic book fan always wanted Laurel to be.
Either way, she is stuck in the pipeline, so here is hoping that Barry will fix the mess he made by erasing the timeline and that we will get to see Evil!Laurel again.
Shana: Black Siren. Soooo much Black Siren. For as much as Laurel Lance and her rise to Black Canary status was utterly and completely botched on ARROW, Black Siren was the badass we deserved. I loved Katie Cassidy in this role (much like I really adored her as the original Ruby on SUPERNATURAL but alas), and I hope there’s some excuse to see her again in the future. Considering the way story continuity has completely gone out the window after the timeline shift caused by Barry’s (stupid) actions in the finale, I figure there’s always reason to hold out hope.
Lizzie: All metahumans kind of sucked this season, so I’m going to go with Turtle. He was cool. Or Hartley! Does Hartley still count? I’m going to go with yes. Those were the only two ones whose powers were somewhat interesting to me, at least of the ones I remember. And not remembering isn’t exactly a mark in the favor of whoever it is I forgot.
Unless ….Black Siren counts? She probably does. Now she was badass. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.
Meredith: Uh. Captain Cold. I just love Wentworth Miller so much, guys. So much.
Melissa: I’m also going with Black Siren. It let Katie Cassidy show off her acting chops. She “out-Canaried” Black Canary on ARROW. That’s how Black Canary should have been written.
Least Favorite Metahuman
Luciana: It’s a tie between Grodd and King Shark. Please, guys, just stop trying to turn animals into metahumans. Or metahumans into animals? I don’t know. Either way, just please refrain from it. Those episodes will always be on the bottom for me, as they just look stupid. And as much as the special effects team on THE FLASH is fantastic, that kind of plot just never works.
Shana: King Shark. It’s like he belonged in that Katy Perry Super Bowl performance from 2015 or something.
Lizzie: King Shark. Come on. I’m watching The Flash, not Sharknado. This thing wasn’t even scary, or creepy or anything but a bad waste of CGI budget. No, thanks.
Meredith: ANYTHING THAT IS AN ANIMAL THAT IS OVERSIZED AND WALKS AND TALKS. I’m looking at you, Grodzilla, and you AbSharkMan.
Melissa: I’m going to go against the tide and say Zoom. King Shark and Grodd are out of the comics, so I’m used to human-like animals. As much as I like Teddy Sears, the way they wrote him as Jay Garrick tipped me off that the wasn’t the real Jay Garrick. John Wesley Shipp is, however, truer to the Garrick of the comic books, in my opinion.
Concluded on next page…
