The Flash Season 5: 3 Ups & 2 Downs From 'News Flash'

1. The Unplanned Villain

Spencer Young proved to be an interesting, if unlikely, criminal mastermind, using meta-tech and, for lack of a better term, fake news, to convince unsuspecting people (and superheroes) to follow her commands. How did she do this? Well, she was a much-loved blogger and vlogger with three times the following that Iris had. We discovered all of this juicy information through a few lines of dialogue from Nora, who had become obsessed with Spencer's app, but if she was such a revolutionary that rose through the ranks of media so quickly, then why are we only hearing about her now?

The reason for that is simple: her introduction was never planned and thus, she was merely a convenient way for the writers to introduce a character that could ultimately create a personal divide between Iris and Nora. Her fame and success was not cleverly-laced into previous episodes or subtly mentioned, laying the breadcrumbs for her eventual appearance and, given the fact that Iris has always been Central City's #1 blogger, we should have heard about Spencer long before this episode.

In a short space of time, the writers created a relatively compelling character that could have been an interesting foil for Iris. Unfortunately, the unplanned villain-of-the-week approach made the whole thing seem under-planned for no reason other than the fact that she was a convenient way to develop the overall plot. Thus, the whole thing seemed like a missed opportunity.

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