No, nobody thinks that The Flash is a perfect show. However, there are some phenomenal episodes within its long, 9-season run—some can even be considered masterpieces. While, for the most part, the show was only considered masterful in its first few seasons, there are still a couple Season 3 and onward episodes that are masterpieces.
Regardless of the season an episode originates from, these entries in The Flash saga are incredible in one way or another—or all of the ways, really—and are worth noting, even three years post-finale. The high-flying, fast-paced action and wonderful storytelling is nonstop… in these episodes, at least.
10
“I Know Who You Are”
Season 3, Episode 20
Despite the flak that Season 3 gets—especially the flak it got upon first release—it’s far better than people give it credit for, especially in hindsight of the other seasons to come after. One of the best entries in Season 3 is, without a doubt, The Flash Season 3, Episode 20, “I Know Who You Are”. This is primarily because of the stellar emotional drama within it between the likes of Team Flash and their ride-or-die friend-turned-enemy, Caitlyn Snow (Danielle Panabaker), now known as Killer Frost.
The kind of emotional drama found within this episode makes it so compelling from start to finish. By this point in the series, Caitlyn has become family to not just the rest of Team Flash, but the audience, as well. So, when she goes bad, it’s genuinely heartbreaking, especially when both Barry and the viewer can see the good still within her. The real highlight of this episode, though, is none other than the gigantic reveal of Savitar’s (Tobin Bell) identity… a temporal clone of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) himself.
9
“Flash Back”
Season 2, Episode 17
Time travel has been important to the character of The Flash since the very beginning. This is true for the first season of the CW show, too. When Barry is dead-set on determining the secret to upping his speed via the methods of his nemesis, Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh), aka The Reverse Flash. However, this causes some serious problems, not just for Barry, but for all of his friends in the past timeline.
When he goes back, the speedster accidentally gains the attention of a Time Wraith, protectors of the timeline that have a nasty, ghostly figure. Watching as Barry tries to blend in and be his last self, while Eobard slowly figures out who he really is, is so entertaining and genuinely adds to the tension of the episode.
8
“Rogue Air”
Season 1, Episode 22
Penultimate episodes can be pretty hit or miss on television, and, boy, did The Flash find a hitter in Season 1’s, The Flash Season 1, Episode 22, “Rogue Air”. Barry tries to save the meta humans they’ve imprisoned in the Particle Accelerator over the course of the season when Eobard Thawne—disguised as Harrison Wells—decides to turn it on again. However, as per usual, the plan doesn’t go the way he hoped.
It’s the finale of this episode that really causes it to stand out, though, as it’s the big battle against Reverse Flash, who is facing not just Flash, but Arrow (Stephen Amell) and Firestorm (Robbie Amell), as well. This 3-v-1 fight is abundantly exciting and proves just how powerful Reverse Flash actually is, which adds to the stakes of the season finale to come.
7
“Enter Zoom”
Season 2, Episode 6
Aside from Reverse Flash, none other than the terrifying Zoom (Tony Todd (Rest in Peace)) is by far the fan favorite villain of the series. His brutality, horrifying visage, deep voice—again, Rest in Peace, Tony Todd—and the fact that he is always a step ahead of the team, make him a force unlike any other that owns every scene he is in. No other episode shows this better than The Flash Season 2, Episode 6, “Enter Zoom,” where Barry and the evil speedster have their first confrontation.
Zoom not only shows that he read straight through the team’s plan from earlier in the episode, but he whoops Barry’s butt so badly that he ends up breaking his back and parading his paralyzed body across the city. This episode features some of the best character writing for a villain in the entire show, and it’s a huge reason that people fell in love with him so quickly.
6
“The Once and Future Flash”
Season 3, Episode 19
Another absolute banger from Season 3 is The Flash Season 3, Episode 19, “The Once and Future Flash,” which features Barry Allen heading not to the past this time, but to the future, in hopes of discovering how the team beats Savitar. When he gets there, though, he discovers a world unlike anything he could’ve imagined—one that ended in his worst nightmare: Iris West (Candice Patton), the love of his life, dying at the hands of the armored villain.
When he finds this dark future, he has to get his future self—a man completely broken and lost—to come back and help him out, reigniting hope back into his heart. Together, they team up to take on Mirror Master (Grey Damon) and The Top (Ashley Rickards), and it is such a fun moment, especially as fans get to see the cool costume that Future Flash has equipped. The story itself is a great commentary on what loss and grief can do to even the strongest of souls as they grow, and it genuinely can be very moving.
5
“The Trap”
Season 1, Episode 20
While all of Season 1 of The Flash is great, it’s the latter half of the season that really kicks things into gear and features its most memorable episodes, especially when the truth behind Harrison Wells’ true identity is revealed. This secret really begins to come to a head in The Flash Season 1, Episode 20, “The Trap”, as the team tries to set a trap for Wells, using Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) as bait.
The tension in this episode is beyond high, being nail-biting at every turn. By this point, audiences have already seen the brutality that Wells has and the very little issue he has with holding back. They watched as he murdered Cisco in the alternate timeline (before Barry changed the past), so using him as bait here is heart-pumping.
4
“Out of Time”
The Flash Season 1, Episode 15, “Out of Time” is, without a doubt, one of the most important episodes in the series and, therefore, one of the best, as well. This episode shakes up everything. Not only does this entry begin to use time travel as a plot mechanic, but it shakes things up in a big way, like the aforementioned death of Cisco at the hands of Wells.
All of the things that go wrong in this episode are undone by the time travel enacted by Barry when he reveals himself to Iris, and runs back and forth across the Central City shoreline to stop the oncoming tsunami. The best part about the discovery of time travel here is that it is completely by accident—helping it feel natural—and throws Barry into genuine conflict because of it. Therefore, this isn’t treated as some deus ex machina for the problems in this episode, but it genuinely causes more in the coming stories.
3
“Enter Flashtime”
Season 4, Episode 15
You know all those really cool super speed sequences in movies like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Sonic the Hedgehog? Well, The Flash took this episode—The Flash Season 4, Episode 15, “Enter Flashtime”—to flip the concept on its head and have some fun with it. Despite the whole time-stopping thing being fun in other movies, this entry in the show turns that into a living hell for Barry Allen.
When a bomb is mere moments from exploding, Flash enters what he calls “Flashtime” to figure out how to solve the scenario. However, he very soon discovers that being in this Flashtime state takes a gigantic physical toll on his body. This leads to a gripping, emotionally compelling plot that is engaging from minute one to the final second. Despite the quality beginning to decline by this point, this episode was proof that the show could still lock in and give viewers something amazing.
2
“The Man in the Yellow Suit”
Season 1, Episode 9
For fans of The Flash, everything changed the night that The Flash Season 1, Episode 9, “The Man in the Yellow Suit” aired. Acting as the mid-season finale for the first season, this episode confirms what many theorized for quite a bit: Harrison Wells is the man who killed Barry Allen’s mother, The Reverse Flash.
However, this comes after an incredible episode where this “Man in the Yellow Suit” makes his first appearance to Barry, and they have a battle on Christmas Eve. The entire episode is great, and begins to set up the show for the true endgame plot to come for the rest of the 14 episodes in the season remaining. The battle between them is one of the best fights in the series, especially when they have a true face-off at Central City Stadium.
1
“Fast Enough”
Season 1, Episode 23
The Flash has always been pretty good with its season finales, but the best of them was the first one they pulled off, The Flash Season 1, Episode 23, “Fast Enough”. The main conflict of the first season’s final romp isn’t one of “will Flash be faster than Reverse Flash” or “is Flash going to die?” No, the conflict here is a lot more complex: Eobard Thawne gives Barry the choice of a lifetime…
Barry can either stop Thawne from going home to the future and punish him for what he’s done, or he can let the villain go and have the opportunity to go back in time and save his mother from the terrible fate that caused the events of the series in the first place. While initially choosing the latter, he’s stopped by himself from the future and rather uses this chance to say a final goodbye to his mom before heading back to the past to thwart Thawne’s unearned freedom.
The Flash
- Release Date
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2014 – 2023-00-00
- Network
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The CW
- Showrunner
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Eric Wallace
- Directors
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Stefan Pleszczynski, David McWhirter, Dermott Downs, Alexandra La Roche, Ralph Hemecker, Phil Chipera, Rachel Talalay, Marcus Stokes, Chris Peppe, Danielle Panabaker, Menhaj Huda, Jesse Warn, Glen Winter, Gregory Smith, Chad Lowe, Jeffrey W. Byrd, Rob Hardy, Tom Cavanagh, Kevin Tancharoen, Millicent Shelton, Vanessa Parise, Kevin Smith, Brent Crowell, Eric Dean Seaton
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