The Flash Season 2: 8 Ups And 2 Downs From 'The Race Of His Life'

Zoom finally gets his just desserts, whilst the Man in the Iron Mask is too much.

by Andrew Pollard
The Flash Season 2 Finale
The CW

So there we have it: Season 2 of The CW's The Flash is now in the books.

Overall, the season as a whole was a hugely enjoyable, and the same can be said about the season finale. With Zoom's plan for multiverse domination and destruction coming to a head, it was down to the Scarlet Speedster to delve deep into his bag of tricks in order to try and take down the rogue who has troubled him this year and who last week killed Barry's pops.

As ever with a good season finale, there's a multiple payoffs here; the 'big bad' gets what's coming to him, the Man in the Iron Mask is revealed, the hero finally gets the girl, and the SFX work is amped up to 11. Added to that, though, the show went one further by its final moments and potentially had Barry Allen changing the world as he knows it. Can anyone say Flashpoint Paradox? It looks like it's coming...

The Race of His Life was an explosive and fitting way to end this season of The Flash, and it was largely a triumph. That's not to say that there wasn't just a couple of missteps along the way, though, so let's take a look at what the episode got right and what it maybe could've handled better.

10. Ups...

The Flash Barry
The CW

Grant Gustin's Performance

Whereas it maybe took Stephen Amell a good few months to really get into the skin of Oliver Queen, Grant Gustin hit the ground running as Barry Allen. Even though he’s regularly encapsulated the definitive Barry, his performance here was the former Glee actor’s best turn as the Scarlet Speedster to date.

As soon as The Race of His Life opens, we picked up the ball where the previous episode left off, with Henry Allen killed by Zoom, but it’s Gustin’s anguish-etched face that really hit home what was happening and set the tone for what lay ahead.

The emotion on show from Gustin here was phenomenal and got the Season 2 finale off to a hard-hitting start for the Sultan of Speed and for those watching at home.

Gustin would display a whole variety of emotions as the finale went on, and he deserves a hell of a lot of credit for the fantastic job he did here.

In this post: 
The-Flash
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.