YMMV / The Flash (2014) S2E23: "The Race of His Life"

• Arc Fatigue: The season has ended, and both Jesse and Wally still haven't got their powers. Moreover, with Jesse being Put on a Bus (again) and the overall Cosmic Retcon, that may not happen any time soon in season 3, ether.
• Ass Pull: While it is still awesome to see Zoom finally get his comeuppance after a season of constantly one upping the heroes, that doesn't excuse the fact that the Zoom/Time Wrath confrontation came out of nowhere. It's not until this episode that the idea of Zoom being hunted by the Time Wraiths was established. Similarly, Zoom's plan to destroy the entire multiverse comes almost without any foreshadowing, especially since it was never established that Zoom is the sort of genius-level physicist who could pull off something like this.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After spending a season as a borderline Invincible Villain who's succeeded through nothing but Ass Pull developments and heroes grabbing the Idiot Ball, seeing Barry utterly beat Zoom to a pulp was pretty satisfying. Seeing the Time Wraiths then dragging him away just added to it.
  • To a somewhat lesser extent than the above, Barry once again giving Eobard Thawne a Curb-Stomp Battle, knocking the latter unconscious and preventing him from killing Nora.
• Fridge Brilliance: Barry's plan to lure out the Time Wraiths to finish Zoom off despite only Joe knowing that they were after Zoom makes a lot more sense when one remembers one thing: Barry used the time remnant trick ONCE and the remnant died in a Heroic Sacrifice. Zoom's done it twice (that we and Barry know of) and killed both of them personally. If Barry creating one and it dying of events independent of Barry's actions was enough to anger them, then Zoom doing it twice and killing both of them himself would definitely hit their Berserk Button a bit harder.
• I Knew It!: Many people had correctly guessed that the Man in the Iron Mask would be the real Jay Garrick and played by John Wesley Shipp, since Barry's maternal grandmother's maiden name was Garrick.
• Shocking Moments: Nobody foresaw Barry being so broken that he goes back in time to save Nora.
• The Un-Twist: Almost every reveal in the episode, save for Barry saving Nora, was predicted by fans. The real Jay Garrick being the Man in the Iron Mask, John Wesley Shipp playing him, Time Wraiths being former Speedsters, and Zoom being turned into one — all were guesses made by fans.

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