The Flash's Barry Allen Killing Thawne Dilemma Is REALLY Old Now
Warning: Spoilers for The Flash season 8, episode 20
Barry Allen’s dilemma about killing Reverse-Flash needs to be laid to rest after The Flash season 8. Supposedly, Tom Cavanagh’s Eobard Thawne has been defeated for good. But though the episode ended with the impression that their troubles with Reverse-Flash are over, that hardly means anything where this particular character is concerned.
In The Flash season 8, episode 20, titled “Negative One”, Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen engaged in what was presented as his final showdown with his greatest enemy in the Arrowverse. With Barry and Thawne powered by the Positive and Negative Forces respectively, the two were able to fight it out all over the Central City in a no-holds-barred brawl. But instead of fighting it out until one of them died, Barry refused to continue after finding out that Iris was still alive, which resulted in Thawne incidentally destroying himself with an overload of his Negative energies. In other words, it was ultimately Barry’s refusal to finish Thawne off that caused his defeat.
Related: The Flash Teases A Surprising Frost Recast For Season 9
Of course, it took most of the episode for Barry to reach a point where he no lingered deemed it necessary to kill Cavanagh's Eobard Thawne. While Barry has a well-known no-killing rule in the Arrowverse, his inner conflict over Reverse-Flash’s fate was not an unfamiliar struggle for the character. In fact, it’s one that’s gotten really old. After all, this isn’t the first time that Barry has deliberated over killing Thawne while also facing opposition from his teammates over his reasoning. The Flash already did this story once in season 8 (“Armageddon, Part 5”) so there really wasn’t a need for the show to do it
Read more on screenrant.com
