The Flash has been a fixture of our TV screens for almost a decade, but which of its 184 episodes stand out as the very best that it has to offer?
All good things must come to an end, even if that good thing is as fast as the Scarlet Speedster. Yes, after nine seasons and 184 episodes, The Flash is bowing out in what is certainly going to be an emotional moment for fans of the show, DC TV, and The CW’s legendary Arrowverse.
The show premiered on our screens back in 2014. It wasn’t the first time that we saw Grant Gustin’s adorkable Barry Allen, as he had debuted the year prior on parent series Arrow, but it was an indication of how popular he had proven to be with fans, because the network scrapped a planned backdoor pilot and ordered a standalone pilot instead.
History was made, the future was set, and The Flash went on to become The CW’s biggest hit of all time, drawing rave reviews from critics and some of the highest-viewing figures the network had ever seen. And the fact that it is still on our screens today, almost a decade later, is just one of the many indicators of the success it has achieved.
We have laughed, cried, cheered and roared at The Flash throughout its nine season run, but which of its episodes truly stood out as the absolute best that it has to offer?
10. “What’s Past Is Prologue” (Season 5, Episode 8)
We all love a good 100th episode, so The Flash had to deliver on that front (even if its fifth season wasn’t its best). Thankfully, the Arrowverse series felt the same way and pulled out all the stops to produce an episode that not only celebrates everything that led up to that moment but also elevated the rest of the season.
Successfully using what’s going on in the present to provide an opportunity to revisit the past, “What’s Past Is Prologue” expertly plays with the timeline to offer up some wonderful nostalgia that Flash fans certainly appreciated.
With Cicada proving to be an unstoppable threat due to his power-dampening dagger, Team Flash comes up with a plan to finally depower him – a plan that involves tracking down various items and knowledge that only parts of their past can provide. And as a result, Barry and his daughter Nora head into the timeline and cross paths with the Reverse-Flash, Zoom, Savitar and even a Time Wraith.
Team Flash’s plan doesn’t work in the end, but it was all worth it just to revisit the past and celebrate The Flash. It was also worth it just to see Killer Frost return and stand up to Cicada in a way that nobody else could!
9. “It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To” (Season 9, Episode 9)
The Flash‘s final season was rough. It felt like the creative team just didn’t listen to the audience when it came to the show’s genuine issues and just proceeded to do the same old thing they did every other season. The result was all over the place, but in the midst of that disappointment, there was a moment of true brilliance.
“It’s My Party And I’ll Die If I Want To” brought back all the nostalgia. Wally West and Arrow‘s John Diggle showed up to help Barry celebrate his 30th birthday, but so did season 6 villain Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork. A showdown with him saw Barry unexpectedly killed, after which he took a trip to the afterlife and reunited with Oliver Queen.
As a longtime fan of the Arrowverse, I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to see the pair share the screen together again, to hear that iconic Arrow theme, and to see Green Arrow, The Flash, Spartan and Kid Flash team up one more time. It was epic, it was beautiful, it was nostalgic and goosebump-inducing. It was everything that the final season of The Flash should have been, and the fact that it was failing in that department wasn’t enough to take away from that incredible 40-minute reunion between some of the Arrowverse’s biggest stars.
And the moment between Barry and Oliver in the bar at the end? Goosebumps. And tears. Lots of tears.
8. “Legacy” (Season 5, Episode 22)
The Flash‘s fifth season contained a multitude of storylines that produced varying results. Most of them revolved around the arrival of Barry and Iris’ daughter Nora West-Allen, whose arrival in the present ended up changing the timeline. The big twist came when we discovered that she was taking timeline advice from Barry’s archenemy, Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. the Reverse-Flash.
This set the stage for a truly phenomenal finale that saw Barry and Team Flash race to the future for another showdown with the infamous DC villain (who was once again wearing Harrison Wells’ face) in his first major appearance outside of crossovers since the third season.
Season 5 wasn’t The Flash‘s finest hour, but its season finale was. An incredible conclusion to the season’s best plotline, it was a wise choice to place the focus on this instead of the underwhelming Cicada story. There stakes, a sense of urgency, and compelling performances aplenty – all of which made it feel like the show had revisited its golden years.
And nothing – I repeat nothing – can prepare you for the emotional result that sees Nora West-Allen erased from existence in her parents’ arms.
7. “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)
The Flash probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did without the strength of that first season, and that first season wouldn’t have been as successful without the strength of that pilot episode.
Expectations were high going in. Arrow had already successfully proved that superhero stories on television in the modern day can be high quality, and Grant Gustin was incredibly well-received in his guest role as Barry Allen. But what we got in the pilot episode of The Flash exceeded expectations in every way imaginable.
Learning more about Barry Allen’s life and his motivations made audiences fall even more in love with him, as did Grant’s endearing performance. We also fell in love with Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, Eddie, Harrison Wells and everyone else introduced to us in that first episode. And we were all instantly enthralled by the central “Man in the Yellow Suit” narrative.
When Barry put on that suit for the first time to stop the first Weather Wizard, we all lost our collective minds. And the moment in which Harrison Wells told him to “Run Barry, Run” as he sped around the tornado? Goosebumps. Absolute goosebumps.
And with that, The Flash was born.
6. “The Man in the Yellow Suit” (Season 1, Episode 9)
Speaking of the Man in the Yellow Suit, the villain would headline his own episode when the rivalry between him and the Scarlet Speedster reached a boiling point during the midseason finale. A holiday-themed episode, it brought much of the stories that had played out throughout the course of the first season to the forefront, raising the stakes and the tension as the two speedsters finally crossed paths in the present day.
The beginnings of the Iris and Barry romance also came into play as the young hero finally opened up to his longtime crush about how he felt, a moment that would be pivotal in making her realize that she felt the same way.
Between the physical confrontation between the two speedsters to the way that the midseason finale juggled all of the season’s primary storylines, “The Man in the Yellow Suit” did an expert job of showing us the depth of story here, closing out a chapter and ensuring that we were all ready for the next one whenever the show returned. And that closing reveal of Harrison Wells staring at the Reverse-Flash’s yellow suit? Mind-blowing.
That is how you leave audiences wanting more mid-season while also ensuring there is more story to tell.
5. “Duet” (Season 3, Episode 17)
When Melissa Benoist flew onto our screens on Supergirl, fans immediately began calling for a musical crossover with The Flash. Two “supergleeroes” in the Arrowverse? It was too good an opportunity to miss, especially when the two Glee stars had such incredible bestie chemistry they Barry and Kara first met in the first crossover over on Supergirl.
The stars would align (and come out) for The Flash‘s third season, as a mysterious trip into a whimsical dreamscape orchestrated by Music Meister (played by Glee‘s own Darren Criss) would result in a delightful and charming caper that saw Barry and Kara save fictional versions of their loved ones in the dream, all while exercising their vocal chords in the process. It was all about love, as song healed old wounds, with both Barry and Iris, and Kara and Mon-El, overcoming their issues to find each other again.
These shows are at their best when they are lighthearted and fun, and you won’t find a more appropriate example of that than “Duet”. It was heartfelt, it was nostalgic, it was silly, it was wonderful, and getting the chance to see Gustin and Benoist perform the original song “Super Friend” made it worth the wait.
From Benoist’s beautiful rendition of “Moon River” in the opening, to Gustin’s powerful performance of original “Runnin’ Home To you” (not-to-mention seeing a few Flash, Supergirl, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow stars belting it out in between), this one didn’t just live up to expectations, it exceeded them.
4. “Out of Time” (Season 1, Episode 15)
The Flash has a bit of a reputation for making the fifteenth episode of its seasons count, and that all started with its very first season. “Out of Time” started like any typical season 1 episode, but it quickly became clear that this wasn’t just any typical episode. No, this was the episode where time travel was introduced into the show.
The central plot focused on the emergence of a second Weather Wizard, who sought vengeance on Joe West for the death of his brother in the pilot episode. When he took Joe hostage and threatened to submerge Central City under a tsunami, Barry stepped up to stop him. The only problem was that The Flash’s vortex barrier resulted in him running so fast, he ran through time.
The creative team raised the tension in this one beautifully, presenting us with a high-stakes plot, expertly using it to build towards the show’s first West-Allen kiss and Iris’ discovery that Barry was The Flash, only to rip it away from us at the last minute. It used this momentum to slowly progress the season’s main storyline, with Cisco’s discovery of Harrison Wells’ plans only for him to die a moments later, sending us all into a meltdown.
“Out of Time” gave us everything we wanted, and everything we didn’t all at the same time, and then pressed the rest button in an excellent twist that would be pivotal to the season going forward. Absolute perfection.
3. “Enter Flashtime” (Season 4, Episode 15)
There’s a strange irony in the fact that, in a season where The Flash was trying to distance itself from its sole focus on speedsters, its best episode was one that took place across milliseconds as multiple speedsters tried to save Central City from imminent destruction.
As that sentence alone indicates, the stakes for “Enter Flashtime” were incredibly high from the offset, as Barry wasn’t able to prevent the detonation of a nuclear bomb, forcing him to have to act fast – faster than he had ever acted in his life. With the help of Jesse Quick and Jay Garrick, he had to think on his feet and figure out how to save his loved ones before they were wiped from existence. And that’s where the season’s neat new trick, Flashtime, came into play.
The show made 40 minutes last a lifetime in the best possible way, throwing obstacle after obstacle in the Scarlet Speedster’s way that left us all feeling like a standalone episode in the middle of the season could actually carry some emotional weight. And it did, for a Flashtime conversation with his “lightning rod” Iris set the stage for an emotional, hard-fought sprint to victory for the man of the hour (or many, many milliseconds).
Tense, powerful, and gripping the whole way through, “Enter Flashtime” was a welcome change-of-pace in a convoluted season that stood out as a reminder of what The Flash was capable of whenever it carried real stakes. It’s still an edge-of-seat thriller with more rewatch value than the rest of the season combined.
2. “The Runaway Dinosaur” (Season 2, Episode 21)
Few episodes of The Flash hit you in the feels quite like “The Runaway Dinosaur”. Directed by Kevin Smith, this one was a majorly important piece in Barry Allen’s journey as it introduced the Speed Force as a living entity, and forced him to acknowledge the grief he had been running from for his entire life.
The title is inspired by the fictional book that Barry’s mother Nora would read to him when he was a child, and it was a fitting one at that, because Barry – who had essentially died trying to get his speed back to stop Zoom – ended up in the Speed Force and couldn’t find his way out. it was then that he had to acknowledge that maybe he didn’t want to.
The scene in which Barry recounts the story of the runaway dinosaur to his mother (or the Speed Force incarnation of her) is, without question, one of the best moments in The Flash‘s nine-season run. Grant Gustin and Michelle Harrison always produce magic when they work together and this was one of the finest examples of that.
Passionate, heartfelt, and incredibly pivotal to the future of the show, “The Runaway Dinsoaur” is a beautiful episode of television and among the very best that The Flash has to offer.
1. “Fast Enough” (Season 1, Episode 23)
The first season of The Flash was all about Barry’s journey to becoming the great hero that he was destined to. It was also about him coming to terms with the death of his mother on the night that would change his life forever. Of course, the season finale would take viewers back to that night. It had to.
It all felt very final, as Barry attempted to travel back in time to save his mom from the Reverse-Flash and prevent his father from going to prison for a murder that he didn’t commit. It was an event that couldn’t have come together without all the little pieces of the season that led to that moment. And when the young Scarlet Speedster saw his adult self tell him not to do it, nothing could have prepared him (or us) for the heartbreak that ensued when he had to bid farewell to his dying mother.
From the showdown with the Reverse-Flash, to the phenomenal performances of Grant Gustin and Michelle Harrison, to the tragic death in STAR Labs before a freakin’ wormhole opened over Central City, The Flash season 1’s finale was an emotional rollercoaster, and the perfect conclusion to the Arrowverse’s best-told story. It was stunning.
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