By Jeremy Carden
This post is related to one of the most emotional episodes of Season 4. “Lose Yourself” certainly was an episode that had me feeling all types of emotions. Sadly, I was more annoyed than depressed over Ralph’s death at the hands of Devoe.
Alright, I know that different superheroes have their own rules about killing villains.
However, there has to be a point where the consideration of crossing that line needs to be addressed for the sake of the greater good.
No joke, I did enjoy that particular episode of The Flash. I believe it was one of this season’s better episodes. It was cool to see Joe and Iris get victories in their fights. I didn’t even mind Iris too much in that episode.
Heck, I think this is the sort of Iris we should have been seeing all season!
But my main gripe about the episode (as with most episodes this season) is Barry Allen.
A majority of episodes this season have felt sort of rinse-and-repeat in terms of them finding a bus-meta, saying they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent Thinker from stealing their bodies, they fail and then mope at the end of the episode due to their failure.
Yes, Ralph can be, has been and was an overall tool (just to use the nicest word that I could think of to describe him). However, he was a lovable tool when the script didn’t have him being overly annoying, selfish or afraid.
Seriously, there was a lack of consistency with his character this season. I feel like there were at least three or four episodes about Ralph overcoming fear or his own selfishness for the sake of becoming a hero.
He made a valid point about taking out Devoe FOR GOOD and by ANY means necessary.
True, it could be chalked up to him being afraid for his life (because he has every right to be), but I hate how Barry shot him down every chance he got in the episode because Ralph wasn’t following the guidelines of “Mr. and Mrs. Star Labs.”
Funny how Barry is more than willing to beat down his “friends” and “teammates” to keep them in line, but doesn’t show that same kind of gusto when it comes to defeating his enemy.
Now, I’m not saying that anyone who litters or ignores a stop sign deserves to be skewered by Killer Frost, breached to a deserted planet by Vibe or get the “Reverse Flash treatment” through the heart…
However, at what point is enough enough?
How many metas (and just regular people for that matter) have to die IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES before you decide that it is time to “cross that line” to prevent the enemy from hurting people?
At the end of the season, if the entire planet is on the line because of Devoe’s “enlightenment device” then I don’t want to hear Barry and the others crying about the fate of the world or how they’re not going to fail because they LET things get to level of danger. All of it boils down to them not doing what needed to be done while they still had the chance.
That is why I didn’t care about Barry and the others being sad because the blood of ALL of the pipeline metas and Ralph are on their hands as much as Devoe’s.
Going back to what I mentioned above about Iris, I still feel like she was not that annoying in “Losing Yourself.” However, there was one piece of dialogue between her and Ralph that didn’t sit too well with me.
I love how Iris talked to Ralph about not killing the person that wants to kill him. She started off on common ground because she DOES know what kind of situation Ralph is in right now.
For the second half of Season 3, the main focus of Team Flash was to prevent Savitar from killing Iris. She had to deal with the fact that she was possibly living on a ticking clock because everything Team Flash tried ended up failing (until HR sacrificed himself).
Here in Season 4, the focus of Team Flash is to prevent Thinker from killing the bus-metas (including Ralph). However, history repeats itself because Thinker is 20+ steps ahead of everything the team can think of. Similar to Savitar, who was a Barry that had lived through everything present Barry had meaning that he would be aware of any tactic that Team Flash thought of if Barry was there to know about it.
So, I agree that Iris can relate to where Ralph was at that point in the season.
However, her saying that killing isn’t the tough call but the wrong one…
Eh, hard for her to be the person to say that since she was the one who pulled the trigger leading to Savitar’s death.
How’s that for the pot calling the kettle black?
Also, wasn’t Iris firing at The Mechanic with lethal shots during their showdown in S.T.A.R Labs? If it wasn’t for her blocking the shots with her blade, then I doubt she would have survived!
I believe Barry mentioned that he knew what Ralph was going through as well. In the sense of wanting to kill his enemy, I could see that being true. He fought the urge to kill Zoom and Reverse Flash at different points in the series.
However, I don’t think he can relate with Ralph when it comes to someone wanting to take his life.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think ANY of the major villains on The Flash have wanted Barry dead. For the most part, they all wanted or needed him alive for their own master plans:
- Reverse Flash needed Barry’s speed in order to get back to his own time.
- Zoom needed Barry’s speed in order to save his life, and then his speed in order to fuel the device he wanted to use to destroy every multiverse aside from Earth-1.
- Savitar needed Barry alive to ensure his own existence. It was the death of Iris that mattered to him.
- Devoe needed Barry released from the Speed Force to create the bus-metas. Then needed him out of the way to not interfere in his plans, and in the episode “Therefor She Is” we learned that he has an even bigger need for Barry in the near future. However, he will kill The Flash once that plan is finished; most likely referring to the Enlightenment.
So, I don’t think Barry can say that he knows what it is like to be on the run (no pun intended) for his life as Ralph was this season.
It just made me cringe throughout the episode when Barry kept preaching about how they don’t cross that line when it has been crossed SEVERAL times in previous seasons by members of Team Flash.
- Joe killed Weather Wizard’s brother at the end of the very first episode of The Flash, and then “Flashpoint Joe” killed The Rival. In both scenarios, Barry had defeated them by stopping their cyclones that would have brought major destruction to Central City. Then after assuming the battle was over, the bad guys tried to strike when Barry was vulnerable. Joe shot them in the back to protect Barry and that was that!
- Iris did the same thing when she shot Savitar in the back (killing him) because Barry had his back turned after defeating him. That could be called poetic justice since Savitar stabbed her in the back resulting in her death in the future that Barry saw earlier that season. However, death is still death!
- Barry killed two of the Earth-2 doppelgangers during the opening episodes of Season 2! I believe he trapped Atom Smasher in a container where the radiation killed him, and then he killed the “Sandman” after learning how to use his lightning bolt technique from “Jay Garrick.”
Guys, I’m just naming a few deaths that Team Flash caused off the top of my head. Sad to say, but I think there may have been a few that I missed.
Let’s be honest, if Devoe was about to kill Barry and Iris had to make the call; she would have killed him. Just as she did with Savitar when he was about to strike Barry when his back was turned.
Heck, I could see Iris looking at Mechanic dead in the face before killing Devoe saying; “You asked me how far was I willing to go to save my husband…” *pulls trigger* “….that’s how far….” all because she loves her man along with demonstrating the strength of their love.
No questions asked if that murder took place, but if one of the other team members wants to kill then it’s a problem????? Heck, remember when Iris stopped Killer Frost from killing Amunet Black after she crashed her bachelorette party?
Season 3 Caitlin/Killer Frost was right when she told Barry, “But why would you care? You got Iris. You got your happy ending. Everyone else be damned.”
All of Team Flash can fall by the wayside, but as long as Mr. and Mrs. Star Labs are alive and well…everyone else be damned.
Thoughts?
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