I’ve been looking at moments from “The Flash” in celebration of the long run this show has had. For today, I want to bring up three characters, and then present a takeaway.
Character
#1: Ralph
Season 4 was a solid season with a very formidable villain, but the best part
of the year was the introduction of a character named Ralph Dibny. When we first meet Ralph, he is unethical, bitter,
and selfish. He obtains the superhuman
power to stretch, contort, and elongate his body; he eventually is dubbed
Elongated Man. Barry takes Ralph under
his wing. Ralph’s transformation is
amazing to behold; it’s not that long before he becomes brave, noble, and
selfless.
By season 5, Ralph Dibny is a trusted member of Team Flash. So much so, that by season 6, when Barry
believes he is fated to die (I will touch on that storyline in more detail in a
moment), to prepare for this event, Barry says, “Central City has to be ready
for a world without The Flash and Elongated Man should be its sole protector
once I’m gone.” They set up what Ralph
believes to be routine deposition, but it’s actually a press conference to
present Ralph as the main hero for the city.
At the press conference, Ralph gives a marvelous speech, and promises to
“defend Central City with my dying breath.”
So
what? Ralph
Dibny is one of my favorite characters on “The
Flash”. I think one reason why is
because he is an example of how anyone, no matter selfish or sinful, can
change. Better stated: as a Christian, I
believe that God can come into a person’s life and revolutionize them from the
inside-out. The Bible says anyone who is
in Christ is a new creation, old things have passed away; all things are new (2
Corinthians 5:17).
Character
#2: Nora Nora West-Allen is the
daughter of Barry and Iris who travelled from the future to meet the father
that she didn’t get the chance to know in her time (as future Barry had
vanished in an ominous event called Crisis).
Eventually the secret comes out that it was Eobard Thawne, in 2049, who had
taught Nora how to travel back in time in the first place. Thawne was condemned to die and claimed that
wanted to do some good; he stated that he wanted to help Nora and Team Flash
neutralize Cicada, a vicious killer that future Flash never caught.
But it was Ralph Dibny who solved the case: Thawne had been
manipulating Nora every step of the way.
It was all a devious plan to ensure that he escapes his prison in the
future. When Nora learned the truth, she
blamed herself. She asks her father how
she can fix it. “I don’t know if you
can, Nora.” Barry said. “You made a mistake…sometimes in life, all we
can do is live with the consequences. So
what you have to ask yourself is what kind of hero are you going to be? One who takes a do-over after every mistake,
or one who lives with it and moves forward.”
In the exciting season 5 finale, Nora’s hand begins to
sparkle and fade; Thawne explains that a new timeline is setting in, and it is
erasing Nora from existence. Ultimately,
Nora chooses to let the timeline fully solidify. “Sometimes all you can do is live with the
consequences,” she says. Thawne gets
away. Nora fades out of existence. She had saved countless lives, at the cost of
her own.
So
what? In a
message she had recorded in the event of her death, she said, in part, “I
always wanted to be a hero.” She proved
herself to be one, but she had to make hard choices to do so. In his book, “Fight for integrity” Dr. Russ Frase, Jr. writes, “Heroes encourage
us, strengthen us, and motivate us…heroism is an ideal that raises our
standards and our eyes to something that is higher than ourselves, pushing us
to live a life of valor, of principle, of integrity” (page 37). That’s certainly what both Ralph and Nora do
for me. But there’s one more…
Character
#3: That other Barry Season 6 of “The Flash” is one of my favorite seasons. A mysterious, seemingly all-knowing
character, known as The Monitor, forecasts to Barry and Iris: “In order for
billions to survive this coming Crisis, the Flash must die.” In the end, Barry and Iris agree that Barry
must sacrifice himself, when the time comes.
Everyone who loves Barry mourns this development. It’s emotionally gripping. I wish I could go on and on with each episode
to build the tension, as this was a storyline that took 9 episodes before there
was a resolution. But let me cut to the
chase.
Ultimately, Team Flash meets up with the Flash from
Earth-90 (a clever inside-joke as this is John Wesley Shipp, who played
Barry/Flash in the 1990 TV show, reprising his role here). They realize that this is the moment that
they had been preparing for: Flash needed to vanish in Crisis to save billions
of lives. Grant Gustin’s Flash steps up,
ready to sacrifice himself, but John Wesley Shipp’s Flash volunteers. “The Monitor said the Flash needed to die,”
he begins. “He never said which one.” “Let me do this,” he implores, “Let me save
you all.” Reluctantly, Grant’s Flash
agrees.
As John’s Flash heroically sacrifices himself, the theme
song from his show plays in the background.
That 1990 Flash TV show was my first introduction to the Barry Allen
version on the Flash. So I confess I cry
every try I see this moment. Kristin
Parrish, in her book, “No cape required”
writes, “How blessed we are that our
hero is a real one who had such
compassion for us sinners that He took on our sins and died for us on the cross
so that we can experience everlasting life.”
Amen belongs here!
Next time, I plan to wrap this Flash series up. So stay tuned!
Kevin
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