Perhaps the best compliment I can give "Flashpoint" (the season 3 premiere episode of The Flash) is that it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. That sounds negative, but last season's cliffhanger - which had Barry go back in time to stop his mother's murder - was pretty frustrating. Season one of The Flash was great at balancing emotional moments (Adult Barry's tearful goodbye to his mother, everything between Joe and Barry, etc.) with fun and lighthearted moments (Barry figuring out how to use his powers, everything with Cisco, etc.). Season two was more brooding, and lacked most of the fun elements that made season one so great. While "Flashpoint" was mostly unnecessary as far as plot goes, thematically it was able to infuse a balance of fun and serious elements that was mostly absent from season two of the show.
The episode definitely had its flaws; namely that it was trying to cram too much into one hour. A lot of the emotional beats felt rushed. It's great that Barry finally feels like he can let go of the death of his parents (mostly because that means maybe we won't have to deal with so much brooding Barry this season), but the episode only gave us a couple of brief interactions between Barry and his parents, that didn't justify all of the trouble it took to make that storyline possible. Having Wally's imminent death (the show conveniently never takes the time to explain why Wally's superhuman healing isn't kicking working in this case) be the deciding factor for Barry to go back and reset the timeline the way it was (or close to the way it was), didn't really resonate either. At most, Barry's connection to Wally is that Joe and Iris deeply care for him. The show has never established enough of a connection between Barry and Wally to give this scenario the emotional impact it needed. Had it been Joe on the death bed, especially given that Barry has witnessed another earth's Joe die, it would have made much more sense.
That's not to say that the entire episode was bad. For the most part we got to see Barry be happy, which is a nice change of pace. Seeing all of the differences in the regular Star Labs crew was fun, especially in the case of Caitlin who finds herself sucked into her regular role on the team despite not knowing any of her old friends and leading a simple life as a children's ophthalmologist. None of it was worth exploring for more than an episode, but it did manage to capture the fun of using the same characters in unexpected ways, that last season's Earth 2 episodes never got the hang of.
The most effective part of the episode, by far, was the exploration of Barry and Iris's feelings for each other. Season two took a weird approach with their relationship. Not wanting to make it look like Iris was getting over Eddie too quickly, they made her eventual realization that she has feeling for Barry seem almost like something she didn't really consent to. It ended up feeling more like she was giving up on not liking Barry, than like she was actually falling for him. What was great about this episode is that when it stripped away all of the baggage that Iris and Barry have, the two characters seemed perfect together. No, that's not realistic, but the chemistry between the characters/actors has never felt more powerful than it did in this episode. We already know from season one's "Out of Time" that Iris does actually have feelings for Barry whether she understands them or not, so this episode's exploration of that relationship was refreshing. I've never been sure if I like the idea of Barry and Iris together, but after "Flashpoint" I have hope that it could be very well done if the show is careful.
If Iris and Barry finally finding some understanding in their relationship is the only good thing that comes out of "Flashpoint," I can live with that. Based on that last scene where Barry finds out Iris and Joe aren't on speaking terms, because his actions have altered the timeline, it seems there will still be plenty of changes to discover in next week's episode. Until then I'll just enjoy the fact that this week's episode actually had characters smiling and making jokes, which is a welcome change of pace for the show. Hopefully the show can do more of that this season.
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