I come to you today with a heavy heart. As you may know, the last 6 or 7 months have been very difficult for me and I have had to step away and take care of my mental health. I never intended to be away this long, but depression is unpredictable. As time has passed and I have worked through a lot of things, I have come to realise that running FFDO although fun, has been incredible stressful. So it comes with great sadness that I must say goodbye to the site
The longer my hiatus became, the more I fell behind and the less capable of running the site I felt I was becoming. Being in a different timezone to all of the news started to become more difficult and I constantly felt like I was letting you all down and bringing you “old news” which was not how things had been when FFDO first opened. I was only ever running this site for you, not myself
I have love every minute of running FFDO. I was given some amazing opportunities by the cast, crew, producers, network and by DC Comics. I have also made some wonderful friends through running FFDO so please understand that this decision was not easy to make
The site will not be taken offline. Everything that is up will stay up, I just will no longer be updating. I know you all probably got used to that already, but I felt you deserved to officially be told. I will check twitter every now and then to see how everyone is doing, i can also still be contacted by email
I would like to thank each and every one of you for an amazing few years. You all mean a great deal to me and I am truly sorry to have let things end this way
5 weeks ago, London experienced some severe storms. Owing to poor drainage and my house being built on what used to be a river that connected to the Thames, my house was flooded causing over £15,000 worth of damage. All of the possessions that were in my lounge, kitchen and hallway were destroyed. All our furniture was condemned and personal belongings taken away
In the weeks that have followed on from the initial flood, our floors have been ripped up, industrial driers installed and what feels like a million different assessments done. During this time, myself and my family have all been confined to our bedrooms as we have nowhere else to go. This has taken a severe toll on both my mental and physical health
Running a site like Flash Fans Dot Org can be incredibly stressful and right now I do not feel well enough to do it. My house is going to be in this state for a few more months yet. We have a long way to go. We have a lot of things that need to be replaced. Please bear in mind while reading this that the lounge is/was where all my comic books and memorabilia were kept, along with my games consoles and guitars
I apologise for leaving it so long to explain where I have been. I have decided that this hiatus will continue for a while longer so that I can hope to be back and ready for the beginning of Season 3
Thank you for your understanding and apologies for any inconvenience caused
If you follow Flash Fans Dot Org on twitter, you’ll know that I had announced a few days ago that I would be doing a giveaway next Friday (July 1st) to celebrate my birthday
Unfortunately I am going to have to cancel this giveaway. Last night my house was flooded. All of the belongings I had in my lounge that were low to the ground were either destroyed or ruined (including all our furniture as well as my Flash memorabilia, comic books and my video games consoles). The money I had set aside for the giveaway now has to be spent on repairs and replacing all my super cool stuff
As much as I hate to cancel something I had announced, I’m pretty sure you will all understand why I have to do this
The Flash Season 2 Episode 23 Quick Cap: The Race of His Life
By FlashFans.Org contributor Colis (contains spoilers)
Sorry for the delay Flash Family…
…but I really didn’t know what to say about this finale: Controversy abounds! It was good and it was bad, it made sense and it didn’t, it was a great homage to classic comic book tales and ruined other legacies. Even though everything in this episode happened with that ending now did they not happen? Two things you can’t deny are this divisive episode will definitely be talked about all summer and that was one heck of a cliffhanger so let’s get to it!
The Good
Skipping the angst that could have been Wally West turning on his family or Barry for not trusting him was an intelligent choice. He just immediately understood that it was for his best interest. Sometimes it’s hard for a CW show not to fall victim of the “obligatory anguish” but The Flash has sidestepped it on more than one occasion adeptly. Having Wally be the only one to have faith and release Barry from his locked cell was also another particularly great development in his character.
The performances in this episode were superb. Danielle Panabaker particularly stood out because she was given a lot more to do as Caitlin this episode. She’s been able to stretch her acting legs quite a bit as Killer Frost this season but it was great to see her able to shine in her main role. Of course Jesse L Martin will also get a nod for his smile and delivery of “it was killing you”. Grant Gustin of course brought the emotion in every single scene he had. From the anger and pain when dealing with Zoom to the heartfelt goodbye to Iris and Team Flash before saving his mother, Gustin continues to punch us in the gut with the feels.
The reveal of the Man in the Iron Mask as Jay Garrick of Earth 3 was a pretty decent payoff and did provide enough fan-service with JWS suiting up as the Flash again. Though the mystery seemed to lack a certain prestige with the character not really playing a role in this season at all I’m sure it will be worth it next season having him pop in and out to offer Barry guidance.
For the first time in pretty much the entire series Barry showed he truly was the fastest man alive. Whether it was the looming presence of Reverse-Flash last season or the straight-up beating that Zoom gave him at the beginning of this season, even though Barry introduces himself as the Fastest Man Alive at the beginning of each episode he has never really held that title; this episode changed that. He was easily able to take out Zoom’s time remnant in the opening scene and then soundly defeated Zoom himself in the final clash of the season. Then, not to forget his greatest nemesis, he effortlessly dealt with Reverse-Flash in order to save his mother. Looks like the trip to the Speed Force has made him faster, but not smarter.
The Bad
The plan to send Zoom back to Earth 2 made no sense as they did not explain how they were going to keep him there since he has shown his ability to open breaches at will. Speaking of plans that don’t really make sense, Zoom stated that he planned to conquer other worlds and now he was planning on destroying them? Also, so if it takes 2 speedsters 500 laps to create enough energy to destroy the multiverse, wouldn’t it just take 1 speedster 1000 laps? And finally, speaking of Zoom, his whole “end me” to turn Barry to the dark side became cumbersome and pointless throughout the episode, especially since he needed him to power the magnetar.
The Flashy
In the straight-to-DVD release of “Crisis on Two Earths”, Owlman (Batman’s evil counterpart of Earth 2) attempts to destroy the multiverse with a machine that looks just like the magnetar. This was subsequently a nod to the canon the Antimonitor used to try and destroy the multiverse during the 1985 DC Comic Spanning Event “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. During “Crisis on Infinite Earths” Barry Allen sacrifices himself in the very same way that the Time Remnant sacrificed itself in this episode to destroy the canon.
The large lightning bolt on the real Jay Garrick’s costume was very reminiscent of the large lightning bolt from the 90s Show Flash Costume. As Jay’s costume in the comics is much more reminiscent of the costume Hunter Zolomon wore as “Jay”, this was no doubt a nod to John Wesley Shipp’s time on that show.
In the comics, there is a Black Flash, an avatar of death that presents itself when a speedster dies. As the Time-Wraiths took Zoom away into the Speed Force, Zoom’s appearance morphed, complete with red-lightning and a red-logo, to that of the Black Flash. The Black-Flash has spelled doom for many a speedster with Wally West being the only Speedster to outrun it.
The Verdict
While the plots and schemes didn’t quite seem to add up at times the action was sensational and the race between Zoom and the Flash, though contrived, was absolutely spectacular. It was awesome to see Cisco stepping up with his powers in the clutch as well as each member of Team Flash stepping up in their own right especially Harry’s acceptance of Team Flash with his heartfelt “Cisco” was perfect. All-in-all it was a solid ending to a solid-sophomore season that leaves all of us jonesing for Season 3! It’s going to be a long summer Flashmigos but at least now we have two full seasons to rewatch! See y’all in the fall! Same Flash Time, Same Flash Channel!
ARC CON: Arc Con in Association with Flash Fans Dot Org takes place in just three weeks time in Brussels. You can still get your passes and extras here
US RATINGS: First figures showed that The Flash episode 2x23 “The Race of His Life” pulled in 3.30 million viewers, a demo rating of 1.2. There was a rise to 3.35 million viewers, a demo rating of 1.3 in the final figures
