Warning! The following contains spoilers for The Flash’s Season 8 premiere “Armageddon, Part 1.” Read at your own risk!
The Flash Season 8 opened on a check-in with Barry Allen six months after all the chaos in Season 7. Barry is the strongest he’s ever been, and all episode long, there was the sense that his immense power is too much for any villain. Unfortunately, that could be a bad thing as Despero arrived from the future intent on killing Flash on the grounds that he’ll cause an armageddon in ten years from the present timeline.
The accusation that Barry Allen is the big bad of this mega-event sounds unbelievable, but is it really? The Flash star Grant Gustin spoke to TVLine about Barry’s thoughts in the premiere and teased what’s ahead that makes this seemingly unbelievable scenario a little more feasible.
He, of course, thinks there’s no way that this is possible. There’s nothing that would make Barry turn on the world that he has vowed to protect. And because he and the whole have leveled up, he feels very confident — initially — that this is not going to be a problem. There’s a turn, and that is why Barry goes to the Hall of Justice and seeks out Jefferson [Pierce]. He needs help with something that I won’t spoil, because it’s a big twist that kind of sets the rest of the five-parter into motion. But by the end of the second episode, there is a development that makes Barry think that maybe [The Flash causing Armageddon] is possible.
Barry Allen’s villainous twist doesn’t seem possible in The Flash premiere, but perhaps by the end of the next episode, fans will understand that it can happen. I guess it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility, especially when considering Savitar was a future version of Barry Allen. If Future Barry could become Savitar, it’s not too crazy to believe he’d also become the destroyer that Despero thinks he’ll be.
With that said, Despero is a supervillain in DC Comics. His debut on The Flash made him seem like a stoic guy willing to give Barry a fair shake, but make no mistake. He’s a manipulator and master of psionic powers and mind control in the comics, so he could absolutely be tricking Team Flash, and so could Grant Gustin with his comments. In short, I’m still not so sure we’ll see Barry actually be responsible for the destruction of everything, unless of course someone else has a hand in manipulating him.
The Flash Season 8 airs on The CW on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Season 8 is off to a great start, especially if Barry is about to be a villain. We’ll have to wait and see exactly what’s going on and what other heroes will drop by in the coming weeks.
