Flashpoint (event)

For the episode of the same name, see Flashpoint.

"So, uh, what should we call this, uh, brave new world that you've whipped up for us? I was thinking... Flashpoint."

—Eobard Thawne^[src]

Eobard taunts Barry about creating a "mirage timeline"

"Flashpoint", coined by Eobard Thawne, is a timeline created by Barry Allen when he traveled back in time and saved his mother from the Reverse-Flash. The timeline was reset when the Reverse-Flash ran back in time and killed Nora Allen, restoring everything pretty much to how it was before. However, after Barry Allen used a superseding form of speedster time travel to live in this timeline's version of 2016 for three months, he found the world much different to the ones that existed before, with Cisco Ramon becoming the genius industrialist instead of Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan, Wally West becoming The Flash instead of Barry, and The Rival becoming a new menace of Central City.

As Jay Garrick later explained to Barry, speedsters are not gods, and can never recreate a timeline to their liking: it would be akin to gluing together a broken cup with some of its pieces missing.

The Flashpoint universe was seen again when Cisco vibed it to figure out the name of the officer Clive Yorkin was going after.

History

Shortly after Zoom killed his father, Barry, so distraught over all the tragedy that he had experienced, ran back in time to stop the Reverse-Flash from killing his mother. Barry arrived in the year 2000 shortly after his future self from 2024 took his younger self to safety, and once the coast was clear, Barry ran into the house and tackled the Reverse-Flash to the ground just before he could stab Nora, and beat him unconscious. He assured his petrified mother that she was safe and ran back to the present with the Reverse-Flash. He watched as the version of him from back in 2015 vanished in thin air as he altered time.

Barry Allen holding Eobard Thawne prisoner in Flashpoint.

Barry took Thawne and ran them to the 2016 version of the new timeline he created and placed him into a cage that dampened his speed. For the next three months, Barry lived in a life of pure bliss with both his parents alive and well, he still was a CSI for the CCPD and spent a lot of his spare time at CC Jitters waiting for the right time to ask Iris on a date. He noticed that there were a few differences around the CCPD such as there was a new captain and Joe West was a drunk that was in danger of losing his job as a police officer. On the day he was finally going to make his move and ask Iris out, Barry heard on the news about a fight happening across town between The Flash and The Rival. Barry was happy that this new reality had its own Flash so he didn't have to be but that changed when he realized that the alternate Flash was Iris' brother Wally. He also saw that they didn't have the same resources and aid that he had trying to protect the city.

Following this, Barry revealed himself to the West siblings, explaining what the truth of what had happened though Wally and Iris were a little skeptical. He tried to go and receive the help of Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow but their lives were so much different than from his own timeline and neither seemed to want to fight crime like their previous selves did. Soon, Barry began to notice that his memories of his previous life were fading away and Thawne revealed that this world was starting to rewrite their old one and if he didn't let Thawne go and reset it soon, Flashpoint would be permanent when Barry's memory of being the Flash faded. Barry didn't want to lose his parents or his chance to be with Iris in this new world and refused. Barry decided to help Wally stop The Rival and teamed up against him. In the fight Barry managed to defeat the Rival with the aid of Joe but Wally became gravely injured, so much that his hyper healing didn't seem to be enough to help him. Barry realized that all of his friends were starting to pay the price for him to have happiness in this new world and knew he had to put things back to normal.

He freed Thawne and told him that he needed to go back and kill his mother to put everything back. Barry, weakened by the loss of most of his memories, was taken by the Reverse Flash back to the year 2000 to when Barry had saved his mother. When they arrived, the versions of Thawne and Barry there vanished and Thawne preceded to kill his mother as before. Once they returned to the present, Thawne smiled at Barry and hinted that things may not be exactly as Barry had left them. When Barry reunited with Joe and Wally, he immediately noticed a number of massive changes. (However, since three months had passed, some of these changes may have happened during that time frame regardless of Barry's alteration of the timeline; only the changes older than three months are known for sure to be a result of Barry's time traveling.)

Legacy

The Flashpoint timeline can still be accessed by those with dimensional awareness even though this timeline was reset by Eobard. This was shown when Cisco vibed into Flashpoint to determine Clive Yorkin's next victim. The victim was thought to resemble a cop in Flashpoint.

Changes between the Pre-Flashpoint and Flashpoint timelines

• Henry Allen and Nora Allen are still alive. Barry grew up with them and still lives in their house.
• Barry Allen didn't get to bond with the West family, as he never lived with them. He did not keep in touch with Iris West after high school. He has a simple coworker relationship with Joe West and they are not that close.
• Joe West is estranged with his daughter and son and he is an alcoholic.
• Wally West became The Flash instead of Barry Allen, gaining a connection to the Speed Force after his experimental race car was struck by lightning, with Iris being his only ally.
• Edward Clariss became the speedster known as The Rival, Frankie Kane became the magnokinetic meta-human known as Magenta, an unknown man became the umbrakinetic meta-human known as Shade, and Clive Yorkin gained the power to disintegrate objects with a touch. (It is unclear how these individuals got their powers; there may have been a Particle Accelerator explosion that empowered people, as in the original timeline, or they may have gotten their powers through other means.)
• Clive Yorkin was arrested and put in Iron Heights.
• Julio Mendez became the captain of CCPD instead of David Singh.
• Cisco Ramon became the CEO of Ramon Industries (originally S.T.A.R. Labs) after or instead of Harrison Wells.
• Caitlin Snow became an ophthalmologist.

Changes between the Pre-Flashpoint and Post-Flashpoint timelines

• Joe West and Iris West became estranged for a time due to the revelation of her mother being alive.
• Dante Ramon died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. (This may have happened during those three months regardless of Barry's time traveling.)
• Caitlin Snow developed meta-human powers exactly like those of her Earth Two counterpart, however this resulted in her developing a cold personality as well. (This may have happened during those three months regardless of Barry's time traveling: it's possible that Caitlin had gotten powers from the Particle Accelerator explosion in the pre-Flashpoint timeline too and they simply hadn't developed yet.)
• S.T.A.R. Labs now has a speed lab where speedsters can train.
• John Diggle doesn't have a daughter anymore, but a son instead. In addition to the gender difference, Diggle's child was also born a month later in the new timeline.
• Julian Albert started working at the CCPD as a CSI in late 2015. He also inadvertently released Savitar several years prior, and unknowingly became Alchemy as a result.
• The future has changed, one specific change being Iris getting killed by Savitar in the future before the year 2024, with the future newspaper article instead being written by Julie Greer.

Additionally, the following events occur as a direct result of Flashpoint:

• Alchemy is able to restore the superhuman abilities of six meta-humans who only had powers in the Flashpoint timeline: The Rival, Magenta, Shade, Clive Yorkin, Wally West, and one other unidentified person.
• The Dominators launch an invasion of Earth, as they are alerted to Barry's time traveling and seek to prevent Earth's meta-humans from doing further damage to the universe.
• The time remnant of Eobard Thawne (with memories of his 'future' as Harrison Wells) escapes to the present. He finds himself pursued by the Speed Force's ultimate enforcer, forcing him to stay for temporary amounts of time whenever he time travels. He attempts to further alter the timeline to change his fate, eventually leading to the creation of the Legion of Doom.

Appearances

The Flash

Season 2 "The Race of His Life" Season 3 "Flashpoint" "Paradox" (vision) "Magenta" (mentioned) "Shade" (vision) "Killer Frost" (mentioned) "Invasion!" (mentioned) "The Present" (mentioned) "Borrowing Problems from the Future" (mentioned) "Dead or Alive" (mentioned) "Untouchable" (vision) "The Wrath of Savitar" (mentioned) "Into the Speed Force" (mentioned)

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 2

• "Invasion!" (mentioned)
• "The Legion of Doom" (indirectly mentioned)

Arrow

Season 5

• "What We Leave Behind" (mentioned)

Trivia

• The Speed Force was not affected by "Flashpoint" and the Dominators' memories weren't affected.
• Other Earths in the multiverse were not affected by Flashpoint, due to other Earths having their own timelines.
• As Joe mentions Barry just lost his father upon his arrival to the new timeline, this may be implying that his war with Zoom carried on for three more months, although this is unlikely as it would constitute a fairly major change to the timeline. Alternatively, Thawne dropped Barry off on the night right where he left off before he time traveled, but this is contradicted by later statements indicating that time has passed since Flashpoint began.

Behind the scenes

• "Flashpoint" affected not just The Flash, but also Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.