Mild spoilers for anyone not keeping up with The Flash's third season.
During its third season, The Flash completely flipped the previous years' scripts with Flashpoint and its subsequent reversal, and Barry's life has been in turmoil ever since. It sounds like a similar kind of objective is being put into play with the drama's upcoming midseason finale, which will apparently usher in another narrative reinvention of sorts. Here's how it was explained by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg.
There's a villain coming up who's another one of the husk villains that was created by Alchemy, so there's that to deal with, but the midseason finale kind of creates a new problem for our heroes that they weren't anticipating -- something that they've never faced before. And it's so big we're actually considering changing the saga sell from talking about Flashpoint to talking about that, because that's what's driving a lot of the episodes, actually. Flashpoint won't loom as large as the threat that presents itself in 309.
WTF? Many fans went into Season 3 thinking The Flash was going to put the Flashpoint storyline through some development, but it was almost immediately retracted in order to explore its ramifications. And if Andrew Kreisberg's words are to be believed, the comic-familiar storyline could be completely eclipsed by the time the season comes back from its winter break. I'm not exactly complaining, since I'm always interested in new threats that upend expectations, but I wonder if the lukewarm Season 3 reactions and ratings have caused The Flash's creative team to refocus.
Whatever the reasoning, The Flash will give the S.T.A.R. Labs team a completely new obstacle to deal with, which could literally be anything in any number of universes. Let's not forget that this new threat is coming the week immediately after Barry brings Supergirl to Earth-1 for this week's mega-crossover where all The CW's DC heroes take on the alien Dominators. And it was just two weeks ago when the show brought in its entirely new big bad, the god of speed Savitar. So if whatever comes after all that is remarkable enough to still defy everyone's expectations, it's bound to be a doozy, right?
Andrew Kreisberg made this announcement at a screening of the crossover, according to ComicBook.com, but it doesn't sound like he went into any other details about what fans can expect from the midseason finale, which is interestingly titled "The Present." We don't know if this new problem will spawn from the crossover's aliens or Alchemy's husk-villains or Savitar's powers or what. But if I had to put money on it, I'd bet it has to do with at least one new vitally important element that won't be introduced until the final seconds of "Invasion!" That guess is also set up to include "time travel."
With questions about Alchemy's identity and more needing answers, The Flash airs Tuesday nights on The CW, with the midseason finale already coming next Tuesday. Head to our fall TV schedule and our midseason premiere schedule to see what you can watch while waiting for Season 3 to come back.
