5) Stop. Keeping. Secrets!
Keeping secrets is part and parcel of superhero fiction, but The Flash has a bizarre obsession with characters withholding information from their friends that goes beyond the norm. The STAR Labs gang has kept so many secrets from each other over the past three years that we’ve lost count and by this point, it’s sigh-inducing when it happens again.
What’s annoying is that season 3 has flip-flopped on the matter. Sometimes the truth has come out either immediately or pretty quickly – Barry witnessing Iris’ fate – while other times it has been frustrating as ever – Caitlin keeping her ice powers a secret for episodes on end. By this point, it just makes the characters look dumb for not trusting their friends and it comes across as fairly lazy writing: a rote, cheap way of creating drama and tension.
The trope was actually lamp-shaded in a recent episode, when Killer Frost mocked the gang for always keeping so many secrets. The fact that the writers have started to make jokes about it does suggest that they’re aware that it’s gone on too long and are planning to dial the trope down next season.
Published: May 12, 2017 01:39 pm