“We knew Barry had leveled up to a degree the place he had nearly godlike talents this season,” Wallace explains. “And as large as his foes have been this yr with Deathstorm and Despero, I used to be like, effectively, how do you prime that? All proper, we’re going to place Tom [Cavanagh] in a brand new swimsuit and he’ll be the adverse model of The Flash. But what does that imply emotionally? You can’t simply get increasingly highly effective and have that energy be unchecked.”
Barry Allen’s best weapon has at all times been his humanity—his compassion, empathy, and talent to place himself within the sneakers of the worst kind of monsters. Yes, we’ve generally made enjoyable of his capacity to principally pep discuss villains into altering their lives for the higher, however what makes Barry a hero isn’t his superspeed. It’s his coronary heart.
“The theme is, actually, regardless of how a lot you degree up, at all times understand you’re a human being. And human beings not solely have limitations however we wish individuals with limitations,” Wallace says. “We need individuals with humility. We need individuals who know when to face down and are compassionate. So I used to be very excited to actually get that theme throughout in an entertaining, form of nutball, loopy means this season.”
One of the most important overarching themes of season 8 has been the thriller of what’s occurring to Iris. Since growing a mysterious time illness in season 7, she’s been often experiencing debilitating ache, misplaced time, and infrequently straight-up vanishing into the ether.
“As storytellers, we’ve recognized the place we have been driving the entire time. We knew Candace [Patton, who plays Iris], wouldn’t be in 4 episodes. We don’t have anything to do with that. So when individuals are like, ‘Why isn’t Iris on the present?’ That’s simply the way in which issues occur in life generally,” Wallace explains. “It’s not an evil plan. But we all know it’s coming—and I understand how exhausting it’s as an viewers member to ask ‘Wait, the place’s my favourite character? Why isn’t she on the present this week? Grrrr.’ I get it as a result of they’re not within the author’s room, and [they don’t know] that when she comes again, we choose proper up at that story, and we’re going to repay her season-long journey, which is she has to degree up too, identical to anyone else.”
According to Wallace, he had to consider what that meant for a personality like Iris, who has already been by way of a lot over the course of the previous few seasons, from getting trapped within the Mirror dimension to battling the time illness that’s been zapping her out and in of actuality for a season and a half.