Linda Park


 * For her Earth-2 equivalent, see Linda Park (Earth-2).

Linda Park is a sports journalist for Central City Picture News, and former news reporter for KSFZ Channel 8. She is also the ex-girlfriend/ friend of Barry Allen.

Biography
Linda was reporting live from S.T.A.R. Labs right before they were going to turn their particle accelerator on. As they turned it on and it became unstable, she continued to report.

Dating Barry Allen
After Barry Allen and an intoxicated Caitlin Snow performed a duet at a bar, Linda Park complimented Barry's singing. She then gave Barry her number and told him he could do what he wished with her number. Later on, she was picked up by Barry Allen at the Central City Picture News headquarters for a lunch date. Afterwards, they went on another date for spicy tacos, which Barry has little tolerance for. On their third date, Linda cancelled Barry's plans to go out in favor of simply making out with him in his living room. However, Barry was called away to perform some duties as The Flash. Linda, unaware of this, believing he still harbored feelings for Iris, decided to end things, only for Barry to prove his worth by threatening to eat a very spicy pepper (referencing to their second date) if she didn't agree to go out with him. Barry eventually decides to break up with Linda after he finds out that Iris loves him (though his relationship didn't kick off due to his time travel).

Meeting her Earth-2 Counterpart
After Iris made the front page Linda came to congratulate her. Later she rejects Eric Larkin's request to interview a football player who abuses steroids and hit his wife.

During one of her shifts at night, a super villain named Dr. Light attacks her workplace and everyone escapes except for her, Iris, and Eric. The villain tells Linda of her plan to kill Linda and take over her life. Eric tries to stop her but Dr. Light accidentally kills him in the process. Iris shoots off Dr. Light's mask revealing herself to look exactly like Linda, who escapes shortly after. Linda is shaken that someone who looks like her wanted to kill her and murdered her boss, but is thankful for Iris' intervention. She is taken into police custody by Patty Spivot until the Flash captures her villainous counterpart.

Personality
Linda is shown be outgoing. She is also very fast in relationships and dating as she was already making out with Barry on their second date when Barry had made plans for them to go out. Linda is also shown to be very emotionally mature and understanding, accepting that Barry's romantic feelings are still towards Iris and ultimately she had a very civil and friendly break-up with him. She is also now good friends with Iris and has been shown to highly respect her as a writer.

Season 1

 * (footage from Arrow reused)

Trivia

 * In the DC comics, Linda Park is the love interest of Wally West, the third Flash.

The two Linda Parks
Linda Park was originally simply an Easter egg in the Arrow episode,.

Played by Olivia Cheng, she was seen on Barry Allen's Central City Police Department laboratory television, reporting on the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator disaster. Since that scene was crucial to the plot of The Flash pilot, Cheng's Arrow scenes were reprised in that initial episode of The Flash. Technically, then, Cheng never filmed scenes specifically for The Flash.

As the first season of The Flash progressed, the producers decided to bring back the character as the fourth leg of the "love rectangle" also involving Barry, Iris and Eddie. This time, the character wasn't a television reporter, but instead a print sports reporter.

According to actor Malese Jow in a February 2015 interview, the casting and character change was something "we don't really clarify". And because Cheng was really "the Arrow Park", Jow correctly implied that her version of the character was "The Flash Park".