Team Flash got a makeover in Season 3 when Wally West gained superpowers and claimed the mantle of Kid Flash. The Flash now officially has two speedsters looking to fight crime in Central City. Considering that Barry is currently facing his biggest big bad yet in the form of Savitar, a little extra help on the speedster front could be a good thing. Unfortunately, Kid Flash may be more of a hindrance than a help to Barry in the second half of Season 3.
Wally spent most of his time in the first half of Season 3 wishing for superspeed, and nothing that Joe or Iris could say would convince him that he could always just fight crime as a normal person without any superpowers. He even endangered his life on the off-chance that he could spark superpowers in himself, and he hasn't gotten any less reckless since becoming a speedster. His enthusiasm to want to help people is endearing, but his tendencies to ignore orders and follow random impulses have put people in danger. Now that Barry has to start carefully calculating every one of his moves to try and prevent Iris' death in the not-too-distant future, Wally as Kid Flash might be too big of a variable for Barry to want to trust on his own. The stakes are almost impossibly high with Iris' life on the line, and there's just not room for error now that Barry has resolved not to mess with the past anymore.
Admittedly, we haven't seen much of Wally West in the field as Kid Flash just yet, so it would be hasty to say that he has no place in the superhero biz while the stakes are so high. After all, he has helped Barry out in the past with his superpowers. Still, a sneak peek at the midseason premiere of The Flash Season 3 indicates that Barry will have a low tolerance for Wally West disobeying orders. Take a look:
The rest of Team Flash seems on board with Wally doing his own thing in the field with Barry, but they may change their tunes once something inevitably goes wrong and somebody gets hurt because the city's speedsters weren't on the same page. Even if Barry hasn't always been the most responsible guy in the world when it comes fighting crime, he does understand that there are very real consequences for misuse of superpowers. Unless he can give Wally a bit of a reality check, Barry is going to have a rough time trying to balance saving Iris with trying to keep Wally from making everything worse. I'd suggest that Barry call Oliver Queen up on Arrow and ask him how he dealt with Roy going rogue, but something tells me that "Shoot him with arrows!" won't work too well on Wally.
The Wally West of The Flash has been a pretty far cry from most depictions of Wally West in DC Comics, all things considered. We'll have to wait and see if the show's version of Wally will begin to resemble his beloved comic counterpart. Hopefully he'll wise up before something awful happens to Iris.
The Flash returns to The CW for the second half of Season 3 on Tuesday, January 24 at 8 p.m. ET. Check out our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what else you can catch on the small screen in 2017.
