This is the culmination of what was started way back in "Out of Time." In that episode, the show's writers committed to all of the complexities inherent in dealing with time travel. The season finale takes things even further: the actual possible creation of the famed multiverse from the comic books! That is, if the characters can get past the black hole that threatens to swallow up the world.  

The episode does its best to acknowledge every potential consequence of Barry's decision to go into the past and save his mom that it can. This is a personal and surprisingly emotional decision, affecting everyone in his sphere of influence. The way Barry's dilemma is framed and presented allows for interaction from both the group of characters within the story and the viewing audience as well.



Throughout the episode's run, I kept thinking that Barry shouldn't go through with the plan. Of course, this is coming from an outsider's perspective with nothing at stake in the proceedings. The prospect of spending any amount of time with a previously lost loved one is something very tantalizing for Barry. His mother was stolen from him by Eobard Thawne. So in addition to the possibility of his mother staying alive if he alters the existing timeline, this can be another way to stick it to his former mentor. 

Not that Thawne really cares about Barry's personal life at this point. The Reverse-Flash's only concern is getting back to his own future time. The cost of saving his mother means that Thawne will escape the clutches of Team Flash. It's not exactly cause for celebration since Thawne has caused so much pain and death in this timeline (as well as another timeline where he murdered Cisco). I am of the thought that Barry shouldn't go through with it because there are too many variables in play that everyone can't account for. There are too many things that might go wrong if Barry acts on his selfish impulse to be with his mother. 



Complicated plans to alter the past rarely, if ever, go perfectly as expected so the odds are already stacked against him. Every conversation that he has with the significant figures in his life here essentially have the same message: They are unsure. Time traveling with the express purpose of changing the past is pretty much playing God. This is so much bigger than Barry that it's understandable how he would be unable to handle it. He would lose his adoptive father in the process. He would lose the relationship he had with Iris. All of the friendships he made at STAR Labs would be gone. Saving his mother might even prevent him from ever becoming the Flash in the first place! That would wipe out the future newspaper headline that Gideon showed throughout the season. 







I personally loved Barry's conversation in jail with his father. Henry has always been the one person who could cut through everything clouding Barry's mind and make everything clear again for his son. It comes from a place of pure, unadulterated love, even pride, in who Barry, not the Flash identity, has become. Even when his father is physically stuck behind bars, it feels like Barry carries his father's soul with him whenever he runs as the Flash. Henry has a larger influence on his son than he could ever possibly know or even understand at this time.



Yet, when the stakes came down to it, Barry went ahead with the plan with the express purpose of saving his mother. It may have been influenced by the conversations he had with both of his fathers. It may come from the selfish desire to live a possible life with his mother (a feeling I think has always been present, if buried beneath the surface, from the beginning). The enemy in "Fast Enough" isn't a meta-human, but rather time itself. Barry would not be able to know beforehand what he would encounter in the past. When he shows up in the past, his plan to save his mother is already fouled up. Not by the Reverse-Flash as initially expected, but by his own future self. That version of the Flash stopped him from saving Nora, thus resigning her to the original fate that befell her in the beginning of the series. It had to be the hardest decision Barry made. Barry does get the chance to tell his mother that he becomes a hero, that he makes it to the future without her physical presence. It's a scene that works so incredibly well precisely because of the emotion behind it that grounds the show. 







There is an air of tragedy mixed with pride and love, all building momentum towards Barry's return to the present, where Thawne is fought and defeated not just by the Flash, but by everyone in Team Flash. Eddie gets to be the hero, sacrificing himself to erase Eobard from the timeline. That was not an unexpected event for me. It was the most likely solution to the problem once Eobard revealed his true identity to Eddie. It's a noble enough sacrifice to complicate matters between Barry and Iris in the immediate future. It does leave a big paradox unanswered for the time being: If Eobard no longer exists, is Nora Allen actually alive now somewhere since he didn't go back in time to kill her? By not saving his mother in the past, Barry, with a huge assist from Eddie, may have saved his mother in the present. This may have been what Future Barry already knew so that's why he stopped himself in the past. But if Eobard disappeared from existence, how did Barry travel back in time in the first place? My brain is already mush.



What is left is a mess of epic proportions, though. The wormhole Team Flash originally created to get Barry back to the past opens again and goes out of control, threatening to swallow up the whole world. I felt a bit guilty that I saw this coming from the beginning. It didn't dent the impact of what was happening, though. Looking beyond that, the wormhole opens up the exciting possibility that the multiverse is in play for next season. 







Are the universes going to mix with the timeline that we saw in the first season? Does Barry save this world by closing that wormhole in time? How is this going to affect the spinoff series, Legends of Tomorrow, of which Dr. Stein will play a big part in? There is so much left to be resolved next season. For now, this was an outstanding cap to a surprisingly solid overall season. The wait for what's coming next already feels too long.