The Flash Season 3 Synopsis: Irrevocable Changes Afoot

at .

Season synopses are usually not as detailed as what came out from The CW for their superhero shows today.

But there is a new, super girl in town, and because other people might be gathering at the door of many different shows, it seems The CW is being thorough.

Given the ultra top secret nature of The Flash Season 3, we'll find out more here than elsewhere that to know where we're going, you have to understand where we've already been.

Barry and Iris - The Flash Season 1 Episode 1

Until recently, 26 year-old Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) lived a normal life as a perpetually tardy C.S.I. in the Central City Police department. He was secretly in love with his best friend, Iris West (Candice Patton), daughter of Barry’s surrogate father, Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin).

Joe adopted Barry fifteen years ago after Barry’s mother was murdered and Barry’s father, Henry Allen, received a life sentence for the crime – though Barry always maintained that a mysterious “Man in Yellow” was responsible.

Then the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded, creating a dark matter lightning storm that struck Barry, bestowing him with superspeed and making him the fastest man alive.

The Flash in Full Costume Season 1 Episode 5

But Barry wasn’t the only person who was given extraordinary abilities that night. The dark matter also created meta-humans, many of whom have wreaked havoc with their powers on the city.

With the help of his scientist friends at S.T.A.R Labs, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes), and Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), Barry began a journey as The Flash to protect the people of Central City from these powerful new threats.

Run, Barry, Run! - The Flash Season 1 Episode 2

With this team, Barry was finally able to defeat the Man in Yellow, aka The Reverse Flash, but in their epic battle, a Singularity was ripped in space and time that threatened to destroy them all.

After successfully closing the Singularity from destroying Central City, Barry thinks he’s seen the worst… but the arrival of Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) reveals that the Singularity actually opened portals to an alternate Earth, known as Earth-2, which is being terrorized by a formidable evil speedster named Zoom.

The Eyes Have It - The Flash Season 2 Episode 6

As Zoom sends an army of Earth-Two meta-humans to Earth-1 to defeat Barry, he receives unexpected assistance from the Earth-Two doppelganger of his former mentor, Harrison Wells. 

Meanwhile, Cisco discovers that he, too, was affected by the dark matter of the Particle Accelerator and must come to terms with his newfound powers.

As Barry struggles to juggle life as a hero, he opens his heart to Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten), a spunky detective paired with Joe West, but realizes just how hard it is to find happiness when the lives of everyone you love are at stake.

Two Dads for Support - The Flash Season 2 Episode 20

He finds some solace in the companionship of his father, Henry Allen, who was freed from a wrongful life sentence... but when Zoom kills Henry before Barry’s eyes, Barry’s newfound stability is shattered.

Blinded by anger, Barry unwittingly plays into Zoom’s game and uncovers the evil speedster’s true goal: to destroy all Earths in the multiverse. In the race of his life, Barry ultimately gets the upper hand against Zoom and defeats his nemesis. 

His Mother's Arms - The Flash Season 2 Episode 21
.

But unable to celebrate victory, Barry makes a world-shaking decision and speeds back in time to the night his mother died to stop Reverse Flash from killing her, irrevocably changing his past and redetermining his future.

WOW that is a lot language, yet it hardly feels adequate to get us to this point, does it?

And if we're looking for hints of what's ahead on season three, the only one I can find lies at the very end.

Irrevocably changing his past and redetermining his future. Where I come from, irrevocably means one thing. No backsies. That's one thing Barry cannot continually go into the past to change again and again. It's done. Finished. It's been changed. 

And we also know we're into Flashpoint, so that's relevant. We're expecting Flashpoint to change things, but for things to change back when it's fixed. When Barry changed time before, he returned to find Hartley Rathaway had changed permanently. No backsies.

So no matter what else goes back to the way it was, let's assume saving Nora Allen sticks. That one event will change everything else in what way? Thoughts? Or will there be some other event in that moment that will stick other than Nora's murder?

Let's chat about it guys! 

The Flash returns on October 4 at 7/8c. You can watch The Flash online to catch up.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.

Show Comments
Tags: ,

The Flash Quotes

Cisco: How's it fit?
Barry: It's a little snug.
Cisco: Well, at least you'll be moving so fast no one will see you.

Can I keep the sweatshirt?

Barry