flash first time travel episode

Screen Rant

The flash: every alternate timeline created by barry.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Star Wars Just Made The Mandalorian's Backstory So Much More Tragic

New star wars evidence reveals the real reason thrawn is a greater threat than palpatine, how cobra kai villain john kreese is able to travel so much clarified by co-creator.

Barry Allen has time traveled and created new timelines frequently in The Flash . While the show isn’t built around time travel, it comes up often, with characters using it to change the past or see the future. Barry has learned the hard way of the heartaches that can come from messing with the timeline; yet, it's a mistake he has made several times.

On  The Flash , speedsters like Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Reverse Flash, and Nora West-Allen, a.k.a. XS, use time travel so frequently because super speed is one of the most reliable methods of time travel in the Arrowverse (other than the Waverider, of course). This makes it a tempting way to solve any problem, even though the risk of creating new timelines is high.

Related: Every Flash Character Whose Post-Crisis Fates Are Still A Mystery

With time travel at his disposal, Barry is frequently changing the timeline on The Flash . Here’s every time that his actions have created a new timeline for the Arrowverse.

The Mardon Timeline

The first time Barry traveled back in time, it happened unintentionally. A new timeline was created in season 1, episode 15, “Out of Time,” when the second Weather Wizard, Mark Mardon, was threatening Central City with a tidal wave. While running to try and stop it, Barry traveled back in time, undoing several big events in the episode, like Barry kissing Iris and Eobard Thawne revealing his identity and killing Cisco. In the new timeline Barry created, none of those things happened in the next episode “Rogue Time,” and that new timeline becomes the main timeline the show follows.

Vandal Savage Timeline

In season 4, episode 8 of Arrow , “Legends of Yesterday,”  Barry, Oliver Queen, Hawkgirl and Hawkman all fight against Vandal Savage, helping to set up the story for season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow . Using the Staff of Horus, Savage sets off an explosion that destroys Central City. Barry is able to escape because of his speed and uses it to travel back in time. This time, they’re able to stop Savage, and like before, this timeline becomes the main timeline of The Flash moving forward, rather than the original.

The Rathaway Timeline

In season 2, episode 17, “Flash Back,” Barry travels back in time to try and trick Eobard Thawne into helping him get faster to defeat Zoom. Here he discovers Time Wraiths, which hunt down speedsters who time travel too much. He arrives in the past around the time of their fight with Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper in the episode “The Sound and the Fury.” When Barry returns to the present day and is attacked by a Time Wraith, Hartley helps Barry escape the Time Wraith and he’s shown as being on good terms with Team Flash. While this is a change to the timeline, Hartley doesn’t become a regular member of Team Flash, next appearing in season 6 as an antagonist again post-Crisis .

Related: The Flash: How Season 7 Could Introduce The Iconic Gold Boots

After defeating Zoom but losing his father along the way, Barry travels back to the night his mother was killed in season 2 episode 23, “The Race of His Life.” He stops Thawne from killing his mother, creating a new timeline that’s shown in season 3, episode 1, “Flashpoint.”  This timeline was very different from the main series timeline: Wally is The Flash instead of Barry, STAR Labs has been replaced by Cisco running Ramon Industries, and Barry grew up in a more normal life with both parents, since Thawne never killed Nora Allen.

The changes to the timeline ended up being too much and Barry found his memories of the original timeline fading. After Wally was badly injured during a battle with speedster villain The Rival, Eobard Thawne convinced Barry that it was best to restore the timeline. Barry set Thawne free, letting him kill Nora Allen, intending to set the timeline back the way it was before.

Post-Flashpoint

Despite his best efforts to undo Flashpoint, things didn’t all just go back to the way they were before. The post-Flashpoint timeline became the main timeline for The Flash and Earth-1 of the Arrowverse as a whole moving forward. Season 3 explores the changes made to the timeline, such as Caitlin developing her Killer Frost personality, Julian Albert coming to Central City, and the creation of the cult of Savitar. The changes even extended to Arrow , where Sara Diggle became John Diggle, Jr. (until the Crisis fixed that). Beyond season 3, however, most of the changes were either undone or deemphasized, with only the Caitlin Snow/Frost story extending far past season 3.

Related: How The Flash Season 7 Can Write Out Ralph Dibny

Original Savitar timeline

While this timeline was never seen, it set up the main conflict in season 3 by creating the villain Savitar. In this timeline, Savitar kills Iris in 2017 and continues to fight against Team Flash past that point. A few years later, Barry travels through time to create several time remnants of himself to help fight Savitar, only for all but one of them to die in the battle. The lone surviving time remnant of Barry went on to become Savitar , who fought against Team Flash in the Post-Flashpoint timeline as the main antagonist of season 3. This timeline was erased in season 3 episode 23 “Finish Line,” when Savitar kills H.R. Wells rather than Iris, meaning Barry never created the time remnant that went on to become Savitar.

Nora’s disappearance

The final (as of season 6) new timeline caused by Barry comes in the season 5 finale, “Legacy.” Most of the story in season 5 revolved around Nora West-Allen, Barry and Iris’s daughter from the future. While Nora herself caused a number of changes by traveling back in time, Barry was the one mostly responsible for destroying Cicada’s dagger, which stopped Grace Gibbons’s attempt to kill all metahumans. While this stopped Cicada and prevented Barry’s disappearance in 2024, it also released Eobard Thawne from his prison and destroyed the timeline that this version of Nora came from, causing her to fade away. This new timeline also brought Crisis up to happening in 2019 , rather than the original 2024 date, also dooming the Earth-90 Barry Allen to disappear in Crisis rather than the Earth-1 Barry Allen.

This mess of different timelines all comes from events before Crisis on Infinite Earths , which completely reset the history of the Arrowverse in general and Earth-Prime in particular. While some of these events have been referenced post-Crisis, there’s the possibility that some of these timelines were changed or undone completely, meaning that, in addition to saving the multiverse, the Paragons also saved Barry from his reputation of constantly shredding the timeline of The Flash .

Next: Who Is Chester P. Runk? The Flash Season 7’s New Team Member Explained

• SR Originals
• The Flash (2014)

The Flash's Time Travel Stories on The CW, Explained

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

15 Strongest The Originals Characters, Ranked

The umbrella academy finally reveals what the jennifer incident is, 10 weirdest zords in power rangers.

The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 9, Episode 11, "A New World, Part Two," which debuted Wednesday, May 10 on The CW.

The reveal that Eddie Thawne is back on The Flash , albeit in 2049, continues to help close the time-travel loops the series started nine seasons ago. Still, with all the dashing back and forth through the past Barry and the other speedsters do, it can get confusing. The storytellers seem committed to wrapping up character arcs and answering lingering questions for The Flash fans.

At the end of Season 1, Barry raced back to the night his mother was killed to save her. Before he could, a version of himself from the future stopped him. Viewers got to see that play out from the other side, suggesting that rather than some lost "original timeline," Flash's story has always played out exactly like this. Thanks to the show's adaptation of the Flashpoint comic series, timelines have been undone and changed back. The assault on the multiverse by the Anti-Monitor, and Oliver Queen's sacrifice to save it also changed things. Yet, there are two kinds of time travel: one, changes to the past affect the future by creating new and alternate timelines, and two, it's all one big cycle that keeps playing out the same way.

RELATED: Grant Gustin Promises The Flash Finale Leaves WestAllen in a 'Good Place'

How Many Timelines Have There Been on The Flash?

According to the Reverse Flash, a dubious source, the "original" Barry Allen became the Flash in 2018. Only after Eobard Thawne ended up trapped in the 21st Century, he orchestrated a plot to give Barry his powers four years earlier to return to the future. The first time the Barry viewers know traveled through time occurred when he erased a day when Central City was destroyed. He then tried to change his mom's fate but failed. In order to stop the Reverse Flash, Reverse Flash's ancestor, and Iris's fiancé, shot himself to death, erasing Reverse Flash from the timeline. However, Nora Allen still died.

At the end of Season 2, Barry does change the timeline, erasing the version of himself present during that night from Season 1. Barry lives in that Flashpoint future for a while before eventually setting things as they are. Despite Eddie's sacrifice, Thawne survived, continuing to menace the Flash until he died at the end of Season 8. Also, it's implied that something Barry did caused the Crisis on Infinite Earths events to happen sooner than they were supposed to. The resolution of that multiverse battle was a fourth rewritten timeline where Supergirl and Black Lightning both existed on Earth-Prime the entire time.

However, one question fans never had answered was what happened to the "future Flash" who saved young Barry from Thawne. In " A New World, Part One ," the storytellers showed them. How the Reverse Flash returned after his ancestor's death, Eddie is the last puzzle piece. Perhaps the timeline where Barry got his powers in 2018 was like Flashpoint? It existed only to inspire the creation of the cycle. The Jinn, as the series 12 Monkeys called it, is so strong it overrides the death of a person integral to its existence.

RELATED: Grant Gustin Is Open to Any Future Pitches for The Flash

Is The Flash a Causal Loop or an Ever-Changing Timeline?

For most of the show's run, The Flash has implied that speedsters' time travel has changed the timeline. With Flashpoint, the timeline change isn't even a question. However, it gets put right before long. When the Red Death showed up earlier in the season, Barry thought she came from an alternate timeline. Yet, when Oliver Queen returned to The Flash , he revealed she came from another Earth. Perhaps it was to inform the characters that the multiverse wasn't destroyed after Crisis . But it may also be a sign that The Flash is instead a causal loop.

Fans assumed the Flash who waved off Season 1 Barry was the one who got his powers in 2018. Yet, maybe it was always the Flash from 2024, with that supposed original Barry forever erased like the Flashpoint timeline. If the series ends up being a Jinn, it means that Barry didn't wreck the timeline. The timeline was always wrecked, and he's the heroic glue that keeps from completely spinning out of control.

The Flash debuts new episodes on Wednesdays at 8 PM EDT on The CW.

• The Flash (2014)

How The Flash's Time Travel Works

This is why Superman works alone.

The Time Travel in The Flash

• How Time Travel Happens
• Can History Be Changed?
• The Consequences
• What's Next?

Warning: spoilers for The Flash are in play. If you haven’t caught this DCEU inevitable intersection just yet, you’ve been warned. 

Oh my, oh my, where do I begin? Welcome back once again to the CinemaBlend Time Travel Labs! Yes, it’s been a while since we've discussed the topic. However, thanks to the Sacred Timeline being broken not too long after we went over how The Tomorrow War’s time travel works , things kind of got weird. One could even say, they’ve gone multiversal; which means it’s time to talk about how The Flash’s time travel works! 

Yes friends, mark down one more Mike variant to keep track of, thanks to another rip in the timeline being created by Ezra Miller ’s DC hero. If only I had the power to go back and correct my own timeline, where previous cliffhanger endings didn’t exist. Maybe that opportunity will be presented in the future, but for now fuel up on those all important calories, and let’s dash into how The Flash travels through time. 

After traveling back in time during the ending of Zack Snyder’s Justice League , Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), also known as The Flash , wants to change his personal history for the better. Hijinks, and a lot of continuity breaking, ensues. 

Who's Time Traveling?

Barry Allen, Barry Allen, and… Barry Allen? Three different variants of the Scarlet Speedster are in play here: one from Present Day, one from an alternate 2013, and one that’s endured an undefined amount of time traveling back through the Speed Force. 

From When To When?

Get your notepads ready, as The Flash has quite a bit of time travel to pin down. From 2023, Barry Allen zooms back to 2004, to prevent his mom’s death. That action causes us to zoom forward to a newly rewritten 2013, and eventually back to a new variation of 2023. I’ll explain that later.

The Purpose Of Their Trip

Barry Allen just wants to save his mother Nora (Maribel Verdú), which opens a can of worms throughout time. As a result, two different Barrys try and correct the timeline through several different trips, as the new spin on Man of Steel’s Kryptonian invasion leads to the deaths of Batman ( Michael Keaton ) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle). 

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

How Time Travel Happens In The Flash

If you’re a fan of The Flash in pretty much any medium, you know that the Speed Force is key to Barry Allen’s ability to travel through time. Provided that poor Barry has fueled up on enough calories to keep his status as a snack hole in check, traveling faster than the speed of light, or even time, isn’t a problem. 

By running fast enough to outpace the passage of time, Barry creates what’s called a “Chronoball.” Think of it this way: if the timeline was controlled by a mouse, The Flash is the trackball that scrolls to the point in time you want to change. The visual representation of this process actually works in that very way, as time is like a film that can be rewound through this process. 

Once Barry Allen sees the moment he wants to change, he stops and allows himself to sink into that moment through a portal. Strangely enough, this takes into account something that Back to the Future's time travel gets right, as the exact physical location of the moment in question is also taken into account when our hero travels. Of course, there are still plenty of ways he can be thrown off course, especially if a mysterious presence that couldn’t possibly be an aged and bitter version of himself tries to stop him. 

Can History Be Changed As A Result Of Time Travel In The Flash?

Oh, boy howdy, it can… but to a point! Thanks to one can of tomatoes, Nora Allen lives! Which sets off a cascade effect in The Flash’s story that wildly alters the story we thought we knew. In his world, Kal-El never made it to Earth, and his cousin Kara Zor-El/Supergirl is imprisoned by the Russian government.

So this universe has no Superman to call its own, and General Zod ( Michael Shannon ) and his Man of Steel invasion force are about to succeed. And to cap it all off, Eric Stoltz actually finished filming Back to the Future , rather than being cut from all but one frame of Robert Zemeckis’ influential sci-fi classic .

However, history is only so flexible, as the DCEU has its own version of “Fixed Points in Time,” dubbed “Inevitable Intersections.” Events titled as such cannot be changed, and in the new “Nora Lives!” timeline, Supergirl and Batman are destined to die by General Zod’s hand.  

What Are The Consequences Of Time Travel In The Flash?

The DCEU was always going to be changed after The Flash’s events. But this story actually invokes a rather interesting concept that throws everything out of whack: “Retrocausality.” As Bruce Wayne explained with some dry spaghetti, if you alter one point on a timeline, the entire thing snaps.

This causes a ripple effect that basically changes the past and the future, thanks to that action. Once Barry saved Nora from her mysterious, and still unsolved, murder, it threw events off on either side of that inflection point. Which, once again, creates the ultimate no-win scenario for Barry Allen, in which he has to choose the life of his mother or the fate of planet Earth. 

Also, if you’re a fan of how Star Trek: First Contact’s time travel works , you’ll notice that Barry Allen is protected by a temporal wake. As his mind doesn’t adjust to the new timeline, he’s as clueless as we are when Bruce Wayne all of a sudden looks like George Clooney in The Flash’s surprise ending . 

In DC’s world, if you’re a time traveler, you apparently can never go home, as apparently each change breaks that spaghetti anew. So maybe in the sequel, we can see Val Kilmer 's Batman reappear to give Barry Allen a thumb up for whatever his next adventure may be. 

More Time Travel To Come

You know something? It actually felt good to be back at it in the CinemaBlend Time Travel Labs. Which means that, conditions permitting, I think this might be the start of keeping this little corner of the universe back on the rails. 

Though since we’re in a multiverse, there’s still those versions of myself that are waiting to teach everyone how time works in Timecop and Loki Season 1. Come to think of it, I think I need to take a long, hard look at cataloging my multiversal selves and the assignments they’re awaiting.

But not before diving into another upcoming time travel assignment! Next time, prepare to dust off your fedoras and crack out your bullwhips, as we’ll hopefully be looking at how Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s time travel works. In the meantime, I’m about to try and answer yet another outstanding question about this strange new world: can we blame the awkward Max rebranding on Barry Allen? 

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

Shawn Levy Finally Breaks Silence On Nearly Directing The Flash Movie

The Flash: It’s The 10th Anniversary Of The Original Crisis Date, And There’s One Big Reason Why I Wish The DC Show Had Reached This Milestone

How Lord Of The Rings Helped Alien: Romulus Pull Off That Major Cameo

Most Popular

• 2 Why The Last Of Us’ Kaitlyn Dever Had To Be ‘Extra Secured By Security’ While Filming Season 2
• 3 House Of The Dragon Season 3: What We Know So Far
• 4 I've Been Watching The Alien Movies For The First Time, And I Didn't Think James Cameron's Aliens Could Possibly Hold Up To The First. I Was Wrong For 4 Key Reasons
• 5 Matthew Perry's Assistant Created A Timeline Of His Last Days As Part Of Plea Agreement In Aftermath Of Friends Star's Death. What We Know

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The Flash : Before You See the Movie, Revisit How the TV Show Handled the Flashpoint Storyline

Matt webb mitovich, chief content officer.

• Share on Facebook
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on WhatsApp
• Print This Page

Before The Flash speeds into theaters with its own take on Flashpoint, let’s slow down a minute to revisit how the recently ended TV series tackled the iconic comic book storyline.

Directed by Andy Muschietti (of the IT films), the standalone Flash movie — nearly nine years in the making, for as long as the CW series was on the air — finds Barry Allen (played by Justice League ‘s Ezra Miller) using his powers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when Bar’s attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a new reality, one in which General Zod ( Man of Steel ‘s Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening annihilation.

In the movie, Barry in order to correct this paradox must coax a Batman (played by Michael Keaton) out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian (though it’s not Superman, as in the comics, but Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle). The film’s cast also includes Ron Livingston as Henry Allen, Kiersey Clemons ( Fairfax ) as Iris West, Antje Traue (reprising her own  Man of Steel  role of Faora-Ul), and DCU vet Ben Affleck.

(Note: Miller in recent years has been the subject of multiple investigations and arrests, regarding allegations of grooming a minor, choking a woman in Iceland, second-degree assault and other instances of disturbing behavior. In an August 2022 statement/apology, Miller acknowledged they have “ complex mental health issues ” for which they had begun “ongoing treatment.”)

Understandably, the Flash TV show’s approach to Flashpoint could not be as grand in scale as the film’s, let alone the comic book arc that spanned more than 60 issues. But it still was comprised of some of the 184-episode Arrowverse series’ best episodes, as summarized below….

Part 1: 'The Race for His Life'

The Flash ‘s Season 2 finale revolved around the climax of the Zoom threat, with the sinister speedster (played by Teddy Sears) challenging Flash to a race. Of course, Zoom’s ulterior motive was to use the energy generated by the two-speedster race to power a magnetar with which he could rip Earth-2 (and an infinite number of Earths, for that matter) in half.

Bar, still running hot (no pun intended) from his father Henry’s very recent murder at Zoom’s hands, is poised to accept the challenge, so Iris and the rest of Team Flash lock him in the pipeline to cool down. But when the team’s plan to send Zoom back to whence he came — Earth-2 — accidentally also knocks Joe into the alternate world, Wally frees Barry to rejoin the fight.

Barry winds up racing Zoom, but pulls a page from his rival’s playbook by creating a “time remnant” version of himself to help save Joe along the way. The remnant also reverses the polarity of the energy pulse being generated, shutting down the portal to Earth-2 and rendering the magnetar useless. The time wraiths that Zoom had been dodging since coming to Earth-1 then show up to haul him away (and give us a Black Flash tease that was never followed up on).

Back at STAR Labs in the aftermath of this big win, Harry and Cisco figure out how to remove the iron mask from the Earth-3 speedster, Jay Garrick, that Zoom had kidnapped, imprisoned and leached speed from. When Barry sees that Jay is his recently killed father’s doppelgänger, he freaks out. So later, after kissing Iris for the first time (again), Bar sneaks off to do something he feels he must do — speed back to the past and stop Reverse-Flash from slaying his mother Nora!

A torturous summer hiatus followed….

Part 2: 'Flashpoint'

Season 3 picks up months later, with a happy-go-lucky Barry enjoying his “new” life. He’s no longer The Flash (a new speedster dubbed “Kid Flash” has been out there saving the days), his mom and dad are now both alive again (if itching for their grown son to move out), and he just got elementary school classmate Iris West to agree to go out on a date for… iced tea?

But all is not quite perfect. Detective Joe West is a bit of a slacker prone to day drinking/late starts. Kid Flash aka Wally has no “team” behind him, just his sister Iris. (Cisco, meanwhile, is a billionaire running his biz out of the old STAR Labs building, and Caitlin is a pediatric ophthalmologist.)

Plus, Barry is starting to be waylaid by painful flashes of his old life and his previous relationships with the familiar faces he runs into.

Did we mention that Barry is holding Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash prisoner in some abandoned industrial garage, ever since he stopped the speedster from killing Nora? Diagnosing Barry’s painful flashes, Thawne gloats that it is a side effect of the new “Flashpoint” timeline he created by changing the past. Barry is forgetting his previous existence little by little — and soon will remember none of it.

When a run-in with Kid Flash’s latest foe, a speedster named The Rival, leads to Wally being near-fatally stabbed, Barry realizes he must make things right by restoring the old timeline. And with Barry now unable to speed himself, Thawne gladly lugs his arch enemy back to the past, where Reverse-Flash can kill Nora all over again.

Alas, upon returning to the present after his mom’s latest death, Barry gleans that things are better yet askew in new ways. For example, Iris and Joe are not talking to each other, and haven’t been for a while. Meanwhile, Ed Clariss — who in Flashpoint was The Rival, but now is oblivious to that existence — is beseeched by an ominous voice to “wake up,” as the name ALCHEMY etches itself on a nearby mirror….

Part 3: 'Paradox'

The second episode of Season 3 opens with Barry racing over to sister series Arrow’ s Foundry, to seek out Felicity Smoak’s advice about what to do about his self-inflicted predicament. What’s more, during his visit with Felicity, Barry discovers that Flashpoint had other repercussions all over, such as Diggle now being a dad to a boy named John, not a girl named Sara. Short of telling Iris & Co. what exactly happened, Felicity’s best advice is for Barry — who, like pudding, is liked by everyone — to do that thing he does and just fix things.

To that end, Barry back in Central City tries to broker peace between Iris and Joe, as well as mend a deep rift between him and Cisco (which stems from the fact that in this timeline, Cisco’s brother Dante died in a car accident and Bar refused to go back in time and undo it). Along the way, Barry at the CCPD learns that he now works alongside a dickish CSI named Julian Albert ( Harry Potter ‘s Tom Felton).

That night, a dinner party organized by Bar to address Team Flash’s assorted tensions goes horribly sideways, and luckily is interrupted by a metahuman alert. Barry speeds off to find himself again face-to-face with The Rival, now that Clariss has been “awakened” to his true, Flashpoint potential. After the speedsters’ skirmish, Iris confronts Barry, pointing to security cam footage that shows he already knew Ed Clariss. Barry keeps mum in details, but vows to fix things. But before he can tinker with the timeline yet again, Earth-3’s Jay Garrick stops him in his speed force tracks, then lectures him on the OG timeline can never ever be quite the same.

Barry then comes clean to Team Flash, explaining in detail how he altered the timeline, and did so yet again when trying to rectify things. The disclosure that Barry went back in time to save his mom only exacerbates things between him and Cisco, though after a heartfelt appeal from Barry, Cisco later shows up with an early take on his Vibe regalia to help Barry take down The Rival for good.

With the truth now out, a path is set for Iris and Joe to make amends (they head off to Jitters together), while Cisco warms back up to his BFF (and even starts coining villain names again). As for Caitlin, Barry tells her he is relieved that she in this timeline is same as ever — though it is then revealed to viewers that she has started to manifest ice powers.

Later, we see Barry and Iris once again broach the topic of finally starting a relationship, sealing their conversation with an encore of their first, Season 2 finale kiss.

A closing stinger shows Ed Clariss locked up in Iron Heights, begging an unseen Alchemy for another chance, only to be suddenly mauled the the large, metal, claw-like hand of what will later be revealed as Savitar….

How well (and how fondly) do you remember The Flash ‘s take on Flashpoint? (Those were the days, eh?) And will you be racing out to see the big-screen, bigger-scale adaptation of the comic book arc?

Cancel reply

Email * Your email address will not be published. We will notify you when someone replies.

The show’s Flashpoint was abysmal. Even with the lack of scale as the movie it could’ve been done better.

Oh c’mon Matt. We aren’t going to see the movie.

Most Popular

You may also like.

The Flash: How Is Barry Allen Able To Travel Back In Time?

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

LOTR: It Makes More Sense For The Rings of Power's Stranger To Be Saruman

The boys season 4 is being review bombed, wednesday season 2: will wednesday become evil.

The Flash is one of the only superheroes whose powers are rather singular. Better known as his real name, Barry Allen, The Flash doesn’t have super-human strength or telekinesis. All of Barry’s powers lie within his unmatched speed. Across comics, television series, and films, The Flash has outrun danger and even stopped a tornado from spinning with his quick nature. But there’s one aspect of The Flash’s speed some fans hold near and dear to his character — his ability to use his powers to literally run throughout time.

Time travel is crucial to The Flash. It’s used as an important plot device for one of his greatest enemies, Reverse-Flash , and is included countless times in his adventures and arcs — like the acclaimed Flashpoint series. But how exactly does Barry Allen travel back and forth through time? Well, it depends on what version of the Speedster fans are asking about.

RELATED: DC Projects To Watch Before The Flash

The Flash was first exposed to time travel in the original DC comics. In a 1961 issue, Barry is introduced to the Cosmic Treadmill, a treadmill that can be used to travel through time. The catch? Only those who can run the treadmill up to super-speed can use it. The Cosmic Treadmill requires an immense amount of power and the process is often damaging to its user. The Flash , the long-running television series on the CW, also includes the Cosmic Treadmill, but only the most recent seventh season. Before that, Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin in the series) was exposed to time travel through the use of time vehicles like the Time-Sphere or Time-Ship. These vessels are used mostly by members of the Time Masters, who are in charge of overseeing the correct timelines (think TVA agents in the MCU’s Loki series .)

The DCEU, separate from the CW’s Arrowverse, also recognizes the Cosmic Treadmill as a time-travel device. But the DCEU is where time-travel devices become more difficult to pin down. 2017’s Justice League has the Cosmic Treadmill, ordered to be built by Cyborg and Batman. Barry Allen (now played by Ezra Miller in the DCEU) uses the device to warn Bruce Wayne in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice about the dark events to follow in Justice League.

The highly debated Snyder Cut of Justice League premiered in early 2021 and added another dimension to time travel in the DCEU. In an effort to help the other members of the Justice League defeat Steppenwolf, Barry uses his powers to enter the Speed Force. The Speed Force is how all Speedsters (Barry included) get their powers. In multiple comic stories and The Flash television show, the Speed Force is dark particle energy that can connect to Speedsters like Allen. In some iterations of The Flash, The Speed Force has also turned itself into people using physical manifestation and even has its own personality. But Synder’s Justice League uses it as a pocket of the universe that contains all the energy Speedsters need. In the film, Barry Allen has to run so fast that he turns back time enough to give Cyborg enough power to separate the Mother Boxes, objects that have the potential of reshaping the entire Earth.

So how will the DCEU’s upcoming solo Flash film deal with time travel? The answer isn’t as concrete as fans would think. While Synder’s version of Justice League had Barry Allen using the Speed Force, those events aren’t recognized as canon in the DCEU — Joss Whedon’s Justice League is. Going into The Flash , all Allen will have is the Cosmic Treadmill. But with a plot focused on changing the events of the past, time travel is guaranteed. The real question is how far director Andy Muschietti will take the time travel lore. Officially introducing the Speed Force into the DCEU would make explaining the appearances of other Batmans — like Michael Keaton, who will be reprising his Bruce Wayne from Tim Burton’s Batman films — much easier.

The Flash’s plot is also rumored to be heavily inspired by Flashpoint , a 2011 comic book storyline that relies on its use of alternate realities and time travel. If Muschietti and screenwriter Christina Hodson wanted, the Speed Force could be used as the perfect catchall for explaining how other characters are traveling between their respective worlds. Still, fans can’t be sure until that lucrative first teaser appears. Until then, it’s always good to get a refresher on Barry Allen and his story by revisiting his important role in Justice League or diving into the respective CW series . If only we could speed up time to get us to November 2022 so we could see exactly how Barry Allen will travel through time in the DCEU’s future.

MORE: Behind-The-Scenes Photos Reveal Affleck's Batsuit (And New Ride) In The Flash

• Movies & TV
• Justice League

The Flash (2014)

• Grant Gustin as Barry "Flash" Allen
• Candice Patton as Iris West
• Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin "Killer Frost" Snow
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco "Vibe" Ramon [ 1-7 ]
• Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison Wells / H.R. Wells / Sherloque Wells / Eobard Thawne [ 1-7 ]
• Jesse L. Martin as Det. Joe West
• Hartley Sawyer as Ralph "Elongated Man" Dibny [ 4-6 ]
• Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton [ 3- ]
• Rick Cosnett as Det. Eddie Thawne [ 1 ]
• John Wesley Shipp as Henry Allen [ 1, recurring thereafter ]
• Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally "Kid Flash" West [ 2-3, recurring thereafter ]
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora "XS" West-Allen [ 5 ]
• Shantel VanSanten as Patty Spivot [ recurring 2 ]
• Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick [ recurring 2 ]
• Victor Garber as Dr. Martin Stein [ recurring 2 ]
• Wentworth Miller as Leonard "Captain Cold" Snart [ recurring 2 ]
• Tom Felton as Julian Albert [ recurring 3 ]
• Neil Sandilands as Clifford "The Thinker" DeVoe [ recurring 4 ]
• Kim Engelbrecht as Marlize "The Mechanic" DeVoe [ recurring 4 ]
• Chris Klein as Orlin "Cicada" Dwyer [ recurring 5 ]

Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, Sep 7 - 9, 2023, Hunt Valley, MD

All of the Crossover Events Between 'Supergirl' and 'The Flash'

Published March 30 2021, 9:05 p.m. ET

Melissa Benoist will be saying goodbye to Supergirl soon as the series' sixth and final season begins. The DC superhero show has followed the hero as she attempts to keep her friends and the inhabitants of Earth-38 safe.

But one of the beauties of DC's superhero shows has been the frequent crossover events. Viewers can watch all of the heroes come together for the greater good in these CW series.

In honor of the final season, here's a list of all of the crossover events between Supergirl and The Flash .

'Supergirl' Season 1, Episode 18 "World's Finest"

The first crossover episode featuring both Kara and Barry, "World's Finest" brings the Flash to Earth-38's National City. The two team up to defeat the Silver Banshee and Livewire. The episode ties in with The Flash 's second season and sets up the ongoing relationship between the two heroes. 

'Supergirl' Season 2, Episode 8 "Medusa"

The crossover in "Medusa" is minor, but it sets up for a large Arrowverse crossover, bringing Kara into The Flash , Arrow , and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. The episode ends with Barry and Cisco Ramon traveling to Earth-38 to ask for Supergirl's help. Apparently, the superhero also owes Cisco a favor, which she delivers in the other crossover episodes.

'Supergirl' Season 3, Episode 8 "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1"

This is another multiverse crossover, bringing Kara to aid the heroes in The Flash , Arrow , DC's Legends of Tomorrow , and Freedom Fighters: The Ray. The team comes together initially for Barry and Iris's wedding, but what was meant to be a happy occasion quickly devolves as Black Arrow, Overgirl, and Prometheus interrupt to initiate their plan with the Reverse-Flash.

'Supergirl' Season 4, Episode 9 "Elseworlds, Part 3"

This episode is another multiverse crossover, collaborating with The Flash , Arrow , Batwoman , and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. This is the final installment in the "Elseworlds" crossover event, where they attempt to retrieve the book that rewrites reality and save themselves and their worlds.

'Supergirl' Season 5, Episode 9 "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part 1"

This Supergirl episode sets up another multiverse crossover for the DC franchise, bringing together Arrow , The Flash , DC's Legends of Tomorrow , Batwoman , Freedom Fighters: The Ray , Titans , 1966 Batman , and 1989 Batman (yes, it's that hefty of a crossover event).

The Monitor sets out to gather all of the greatest superheroes to prep for the upcoming Anti-Monitor Crisis, an apocalyptic event meant to destroy every Earth in the multiverse. This episode focuses mostly on bringing them all together.

Will there be a 'Flash' and 'Supergirl' crossover for 'Supergirl's' final season?

While longtime viewers have been hoping for one last crossover between Flash and Supergirl before Kara hangs up her cape, it doesn't look as though that's likely to happen.

When asked about the possibility of the Flash and Supergirl teaming up one more time during the sixth and final season of Supergirl, Flash showrunner Eric Wallace didn't sound as though he had any control over the situation. 

"I wish, but … I don't know," he told TVLine . "I would say, 'Ask the folks at Supergirl ,' not me, because that's really out of my hands."

The outlet noted that with increased filming restrictions thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and production times, making another crossover happen would be difficult. Unfortunately, Kara and Barry won't be making that final team up before the Supergirl series finale.

Supergirl airs on the CW on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

'Supergirl' Fans Are Hoping for Jeremy Jordan to Make a Comeback in Season 6

It Was Just Announced That 'Supergirl' Is Ending After Season 6

Up, up, and Away Goes Supergirl! In Comes 'Superman & Lois'!

Latest The Flash News and Updates

• About Distractify
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Connect with Distractify
• Link to Facebook
• Link to Instagram
• Contact us by Email

Opt-out of personalized ads

© Copyright 2024 Engrost, Inc. Distractify is a registered trademark. All Rights Reserved. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

This Heartbreaking ‘Adventure Time’ Episode Is a Must-Watch Before ‘Fionna and Cake'

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

This 'Umbrella Academy' Character Deserves Their Own Spin-off

One of batman's best stories isn't a movie, tv show, or comic, the size of the dragons in 'house of the dragon' doesn't make sense, the big picture.

• Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake will feature the Ice King teaming up with Fionna and Cake in a new series set in a different universe.
• "Simon and Marcy" is an emotional and dark episode of Adventure Time that explores Simon Petrikov's transformation into the Ice King and the aftermath of the Mushroom War.
• The episode provides insight into the sacrifices made to survive the war and showcases the bittersweet nature of a world on the brink of destruction. It sets the tone for Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake 's more mature themes.

With the release of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake just around the corner, many fans of the original hit Cartoon Network series are rushing to Max or to their DVD collections to re-watch old episodes of the show. The chosen ones are most likely stories featuring Fionna ( Madeleine Martin ) and Cake ( Roz Ryan ). While there's nothing wrong with this, the five stories that comprise the Fionna and Cake canon in Adventure Time aren't the only ones that deserve a second look in the build-up for Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake . After all, the two gender-bent versions of Finn ( Jeremy Shada ) and Jake ( John DiMaggio ) are not the only characters of the original show that are featured prominently in the new series. From what we have gathered so far, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake will have its titular characters teaming up with Simon Petrikov, also known as the Ice King ( Tom Kenny ).

Before the cataclysmic event known as the Mushroom War killed almost all humans and transformed the surviving ones into mutants, Petrikov was a scientist who bought the Ice King's crown during a trip only to have his mind completely controlled by it. The premise of the new Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake series has its main characters living in a world that bears little similarity to Adventure Time 's Land of Ooo. Instead, Fionna and Cake's universe resembles very much our own. However, for reasons that we still don't understand entirely, they travel across universes to Ooo, where they team up with a now powerless Petrikov to travel across the multiverse and fight evil.

There are many episodes of Adventure Time that can be watched by those who want to get a feel for who Simon Petrikov is and how he was turned into the Ice King, from Season 5's "Betty," which details Simon's relationship with his long-lost fiancé, to the show's very own finale. However, no episode is best suited to showing viewers who Simon really is without the crown and how becoming the Ice King transformed him than "Simon and Marcy," the fourteenth episode of Adventure Time 's fifth season. The episode also gives us a good idea of what the aftermath of the Mushroom War was like, and considering that the trailer for Fionna and Cake also shows glimpses of the conflict, this seems to be quite an essential plot point. The trailer also shows us images of a young Marceline ( Olivia Olson ), who was Simon's companion on the road during the war, yet another character who is featured prominently in "Simon and Marcy." Thus, to get really up to speed with Adventure Time before clicking on the first episode of the franchise's new show, don't forget to add this heartbreaking episode to your watch list.

What Is the 'Adventure Time' Episode "Simon and Marcy" About?

One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking episodes in the whole of Adventure Time , "Simon and Marcy" follows a Simon Petrikov on the verge of becoming the Ice King trying to protect a baby Marceline from the evils of the war-torn world. The story begins with Marceline, Finn, Jake, and the Ice King playing basketball together. Unable to understand why Marcy insists on hanging out with such a creepy, old dude — or an "ancient chubs" —, Finn and Jake prompt her to tell them about her past with the man who existed before the Ice King took over. Following in the footsteps of Season 3's "Holly Jolly Secrets" and Season 4's "I Remember You," the episode gives us insight into who Simon Petrikov was, framing him as a man transformed by meddling with powers way beyond his ken.

But it's not as if Simon had any choice. In a world in which gooey mutants are everywhere, trying to devour every living thing, the only way to keep yourself and the little girl you're protecting alive is by resorting to magic. And, in Simon's case, magic is only accessible if he puts the Ice King's crown on and lets this weird entity take over him for a few seconds. The problem is that the longer the crown stays on his head, the more estranged he becomes from his real self: little by little, the Ice King begins to take over, and Simon becomes nothing but a long-lost memory, buried under the crown.

Marcy, of course, does her best to keep her friend from slipping away. She tries to convince him not to wear the crown, but it is pretty clear that the cursed object is their only chance of survival. So, she tries to keep him grounded, to remind him of who he is by appealing to his memories of her or by removing the crown from his head when it is clear that he has no control anymore. The scene in which they sing the Cheers theme song together is properly heart-shattering, losing only perhaps to the moment in which Simon slips and calls Marcy "Gunther" — the name that the Ice King uses to refer to his minions. The fact that Simon would use it for Marceline is a definitive sign that he is near a point of no return.

Related: 'Adventure Time': Why Music Is So Important to the Cartoon Network Hit

"Simon and Marcy" Is a Depiction of Life During the 'Adventure Time' Mushroom War

Marceline's history with the Ice King takes place 996 years before the events of Adventure Time . The world in which the story is set looks a lot like our own, but devastated by a war of unimaginable proportions. The streets and woods that Simon and Marcy roam through are filled with remnants of a previously existing society: abandoned cars and motorbikes, broken VHS tapes, empty drugstores. There is a reference to Cheers , for crying out loud! It's a world that Fionna and Cake will apparently revisit if we're judging by the show's trailer , even if only through flashbacks.

But re-watching "Simon and Marcy" is not just a perfect way to start getting used to some of the settings and characters of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake . The episode is also a good prep for a show that is set to delve into darker themes, being geared towards a more young adult audience. Despite being a children's show through and through, Adventure Time was never afraid of handling heavy subjects, frequently even leaning into horror and tragedy. Still, the show always balanced its darker streak with a considerable dose of lightheartedness.

"Simon and Marcy," however, is one of the least lighthearted episodes of Adventure Time . It's a story that is not afraid of being serious and dramatic, approaching topics such as the things people do to survive war and the madness that can come from it. Of course, magic is still present in the plot of "Simon and Marcy," as are moments of happiness, but everything in it feels utterly bittersweet. These are the last remnants of a world that is about to disappear, and that goes both for the land being ravaged by war and for the small universe that Simon and Marcy have created for themselves. Even in a kid's show that is not afraid to sound grown-up when it needs to, "Simon and Marcy" sure is an episode that stands out. It's a perfect watch for those who want to get ready for an Adventure Time series that promises a more mature approach.

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake debuts with two episodes on August 31 followed by two episodes weekly through September 28 on Max. You can check out the new trailer down below:

• TV Features
• Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake (2023)
• Adventure Time (2010)