The Flash - Stupidest man alive

[red snow]

Double post deleted. What is wrong with the board, lately?!

Some fool has been running at mach-2 into hydrogen atoms, I imagine. Which must happen quite a lot given there's quite a few jets out there that can do mach2+ speed. And a lot of hydrogen. I guess it maybe has to be a single one in which case Barry was running in a vacuum? Hmmm...

[Jaxom 1974]

Some fool has been running at mach-2 into hydrogen atoms, I imagine. Which must happen quite a lot given there's quite a few jets out there that can do mach2+ speed. And a lot of hydrogen. I guess it maybe has to be a single one in which case Barry was running in a vacuum? Hmmm...

That's a fancy way of saying the floob sucks, right?

[Jon AS]

I'd be curious to see someone who wouldn't accept that statement.

One can't be offering deep and brilliant commentary all the time (though of course some people think that

). Plus I needed to complain about Arrow some more.

[Jon AS]

Well, that's kind of true although Dr. Wells is the one person I would expect them to want to believe. Although Barry did fall for Captain Cold's trick like two episodes ago. That said, Dr. Wells' plan was actually going to work exactly how he said it did.

Yeah, the plan would have worked, but it was still the plan of the guy who hates Barry enough to travel back in time in an attempt to murder him when he's still a child. A guy who has commited a number of other murders as well (at least one of which they know of), how in the world is handing that guy a time machine a good idea? Literally nothing good could come out of that.

Yeah. That is stupid. Although Cisco would probably know, right.

Well, we're getting into timetravel sillyness here, but Wells made it clear that Cisco's ability to access alternate timelines is a superpower he acquired at the same as Barry. No particle accelerator, no freaky dreams for Cisco. Though a few random scenes of him stumbling around a completely meta-human-free Central City and accosting various bystanders, telling them how the universe is wrong and that he needs to blow up the particle accelerator to make it all better could be funny. Until he gets arrested by Joe and Eddie, of course.

I...don't remember this Caitlin being stupid scene.

It was something pretty general, like "what's a singularity?" or whatever. It's just baffling that in an episode where they have all the non-techie people in the cast around as well, Caitlin is the one who gets to ask stupid questions. Questions that the audience probably didn't require to be asked, which also made this a case of talking down to the viewers.

One other thing. Now, I've forgotten everything I ever knew about physics. But particles go through our body all the time. Surely a hydrogen atom is small enough to make this test wildly unpredictable, even if it did hit one of Barry's atoms.

As red snow said: hydrogen is rather common (the most common element in the universe, in fact; it makes up something like 3/4 of all observable matter IIRC). But questioning the "science" on this kind of show really isn't a good idea, that way lies madness.

[DaveSumm]

I think the idea was that the hydrogen atom was travelling extremely fast in the other direction, so the combined overall velocity was much higher. Not that that would create a wormhole of course, but still, at least it's not an everyday occurrence.

I completely missed why on earth they had to let Wells out? The plan was in place and working, why not just keep him in there? Instead they build him his own time machine, so that he could go back and be an arch nemesis to future Flash?

I would very much like to see a future episode where Barry goes back and rescues himself from RF, but I can't see what would trigger it. Will he just one day decide that he should stop putting it off, and get it done? But then, Future Flash apparently knew that saving his Mom was a bad idea, so I assume he's seen that future and it isn't pretty. But why would he change his mind now? Suddenly think, actually, no, I do want to save my Mom again?

I don't have a problem with Wells/Eobard disappearing the way he did, I wouldn't call it a paradox, it's just one of the rules they obviously have for this show that timeline alterations ripple forward (to Eobard) but not backward (undoing the season). You have to have these rules, or else run into paradox the second you go near the topic and it becomes impossible. Whether they've stuck to this rule, I doubt it, but I can't be bothered thinking about that right now. Besides, even the holy-don't-you-dare-criticise-it Back To The Future mixes up its time travelling rules.

Would have been kind of darkly hilarious if Eddie had shot himself in the dick. With the added benefit of killing Eobard and staying alive himself........wouldn't have quite been the same tone though.

[DaveSumm]

Oh, and I almost forgot.......the whole goal for a lot of the season was to get Barry's dad out of jail. I can't see that they've succeeded with that part.

[Jon AS]

Oh, and I almost forgot.......the whole goal for a lot of the season was to get Barry's dad out of jail. I can't see that they've succeeded with that part.

That's what the black hole is there for. It'll destroy Iron Heights prison, thereby freeing Barry's dad. Of course he'll only have a few seconds of horrible freedom before dying along with the rest of the planet.

[DaveSumm]

Oh, I wasn't questioning that Barry colliding with a Hydrogen atom would create a black hole, just that he would actually ''collide'' with one.

We are nearly entirely just empty space, after all. Surely the odds must be pretty high that the atom just went right through him. But yeah, that way lies madness.

True, which is why particle accelerators up the probabilities by having tons of them going round for ages. Maybe that was the plan, and they just got very, very lucky?

[AverageGuy]

But of course Eddie had to be sucked in the singularity, how else is he going to come back.

Sucked into a very blue black hole. I wonder if this means Cobalt Blue will be less blue flame and more sucking in the things he wants to steal?

The only thing that mildly irked me was the use of the phrase "natural order of things" with regards to his mum's death. How is that the "natural order"? Surely the natural order is that she was never killed by a time traveller?

I've never really been a fan of "natural order" storylines. False profundity that lets writers get around the fact that they've set up premises which end up killing their plot. But whatever, I've become inured to it from years of comic book storylines.

It was something pretty general, like "what's a singularity?" or whatever. It's just baffling that in an episode where they have all the non-techie people in the cast around as well, Caitlin is the one who gets to ask stupid questions. Questions that the audience probably didn't require to be asked, which also made this a case of talking down to the viewers.

I did notice the "What's a singularity?" line. It seemed sort of odd coming from a scientist who'd worked on a particle accelerator, but I moved on pretty quickly.

[AndrewJ]

Re the 1:53 actually being more like 3 minutes...

How was that 3 minutes measured? By starting your watch when the wormhole appears and stopping it when it goes?

Because I don't think you can assume the events at Star Labs and with Barry are being shown in sequence. ie that we are shown time periods 0-20 in Star Labs, 20-40 from Barry's POV, 40-60 back at Star Labs etc etc.

The events are probably happening simultaneously. ie we see 0-20 for Star Labs, then 0-20 for Flash, then 20-40 for star Labs, then 20-40 for Flash etc.

If somebody times just the Barry stuff and it's over 1minute 52, then yeah, it's an error. And if they do, then... well... they have more time on their hands and/or care way more about that sort of thing than I do. :)

[red snow]

That's a fancy way of saying the floob sucks, right?

Yup :)

Would have been kind of darkly hilarious if Eddie had shot himself in the dick. With the added benefit of killing Eobard and staying alive himself........wouldn't have quite been the same tone though.

That would have been hilarious.

Re the 1:53 actually being more like 3 minutes...

How was that 3 minutes measured? By starting your watch when the wormhole appears and stopping it when it goes?

Because I don't think you can assume the events at Star Labs and with Barry are being shown in sequence. ie that we are shown time periods 0-20 in Star Labs, 20-40 from Barry's POV, 40-60 back at Star Labs etc etc.

The events are probably happening simultaneously. ie we see 0-20 for Star Labs, then 0-20 for Flash, then 20-40 for star Labs, then 20-40 for Flash etc.

If somebody times just the Barry stuff and it's over 1minute 52, then yeah, it's an error. And if they do, then... well... they have more time on their hands and/or care way more about that sort of thing than I do. :)

How long did it take you to write this? :P

The problem with your theory is that the scene with Barry going back in time doesn't cut away to events in the present at all. I have a clock on my video and due to the set up of the scene I thought "quick glance at the clock - I'll give them 2 minutes". It lasted 3 minutes. I think there was a few seconds of slo-mo to wank-argue over but even that still takes them over. Cap it off with the fact that the scene does not end with him running back to the present - not sure they ever established if he just magicked back instantly or had to run into the wormhole. It's just really sloppy.

I really didn't mind as I found the scene with his mum to be really powerful but it'd have been just as enjoyable if they'd said "you have 2 minutes 52 seconds" (or however long that scene was).

[Jon AS]

It's a continuous scene from the moment Barry arrives at his childhood home to his mother dying, no cuts back to the present day. The running time for that sequence is about 3 minutes.

ETA: I noticed that the first time through. As the timeframe given was so precise down to the second, I simply kept an eye on the clock.

ETA2: Fastest poster alive strikes again!

[red snow]

It's a continuous scene from the moment Barry arrives at his childhood home to his mother dying, no cuts back to the present day. The running time for that sequence is about 3 minutes.

ETA: I noticed that the first time through. As the timeframe given was so precise down to the second, I simply kept an eye on the clock.

ETA2: Fastest poster alive strikes again!

You get most succint poster :)

[Dr. Pepper]

Re the 1:53 actually being more like 3 minutes...

How was that 3 minutes measured? By starting your watch when the wormhole appears and stopping it when it goes?

Because I don't think you can assume the events at Star Labs and with Barry are being shown in sequence. ie that we are shown time periods 0-20 in Star Labs, 20-40 from Barry's POV, 40-60 back at Star Labs etc etc.

The events are probably happening simultaneously. ie we see 0-20 for Star Labs, then 0-20 for Flash, then 20-40 for star Labs, then 20-40 for Flash etc.

If somebody times just the Barry stuff and it's over 1minute 52, then yeah, it's an error. And if they do, then... well... they have more time on their hands and/or care way more about that sort of thing than I do. :)

I think you probably gave this more thought and time than anyone else did. Most of us spent a total of .52 seconds glancing at a clock.

[The BlackBear]

Oh and a by the by thing, I liked they dropped the Vibe thing in there. Just to confirm it to us.

[AndrewJ]

How long did it take you to write this? :P

Yeah, but I value my time at home when I could be playing Witcher 3 far higher than my time sitting bored at work when there's not much happening. :lol:

But, ok - if they don't cut between the scenes, then obviously my argument falls over and it's a clear error. (I just recalled we see what happens during that time from both POVs and assumed they were shown intertwined rather than one after the other. But apparently not). :)

[AverageGuy]

If somebody times just the Barry stuff and it's over 1minute 52, then yeah, it's an error.

Time dilation. 1 minute 52 seconds may seem relatively longer when accounting for Barry's POV at super-speed. Makes total sense and definitely not an error at all. :leaving:

[red snow]

Yeah, but I value my time at home when I could be playing Witcher 3 far higher than my time sitting bored at work when there's not much happening. :lol:

I guess Flash was at work so maybe we were seeing time from his perspective?

Time dilation. 1 minute 52 seconds may seem relatively longer when accounting for Barry's POV at super-speed. Makes total sense and definitely not an error at all. :leaving:

Or he actually went back to an alternate reality where time moves slower than our own. We may have accidentally stumbled upon next season's theme. We thought it was a mistake but it's actually an exquisite example of foreshadowing by the writers. That time he heard faster than the speed of sound? Or made 50 cups of coffee (from a machine) in a second? They are all actually clever examples of how Barry is destroying time/speed.

We'll also find that his running at high speed is causing long term damage to his brain - the more he runs the more stupid he becomes.

[Black Wolf Smith]

Well IMO, from all the time-whimmy stuff I have seen/watched/read/ect.

The point he left the "Main" timeline and the point he returned to it, have nothing to do with how long he would spend in the Alt timeline. Only window of his returned, would matter.

That was a great ending ep, Who would of thunk it, after having put up one of (if not the) best Comic hero show, they actually could step up the pendulum ep, and again/more for the final ep of the season.

[Jon AS]

You get most succint poster :)

Succinctness, definitely one of the less flashy superpowers.

The point he left the "Main" timeline and the point he returned to it, have nothing to do with how long he would spend in the Alt timeline. Only window of his returned, would matter.

Then why make a big deal out of the timeframe at all? Just make it so that the wormhole opens, then shut it down after, say, 1 minute to be on the safe side. Of course you'd need an actual off-switch for the machine that could potentially destroy the world if left switched-on too long...