‘The Flash’ Introduces a Memorable Green Arrow Villain in “Enter Flashtime”

Tonight’s The Flash put the Scarlet Speedster in a unique predicament — which was brought on by a surprising foe.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of The Flash, “Enter Flashtime”, below!

The episode saw Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) scrambling to stop a bomb from detonating in Central City, forcing him to enter the speedster-specific dimension dubbed “Flashtime”. After thirty-odd minutes of trying out different ideas, Barry ultimately figured out how to stop the bomb, and Team Flash soon discovered who was behind it.

The woman, named Veronica Dale, had detonated the bomb and recorded a video manifesto beforehand where she explained that she was detonating the bomb in the name of Eden Corps. And for fans of some of Green Arrow’s various comic appearances, those names probably rang a bell, as Veronica Dale had a memorable appearance in the 1995 Green Arrow run.

In the comics, most notably in the “Where Angels Fear to Tread” arc, Veronica served as the leader of the Eden Corps, an eco-terrorist organization that Oliver Queen was tasked with infiltrating. During his time at Eden Corps, Oliver developed a romantic relationship with Veronica, which created a pretty complicated situation as she began to enact her plan. She, under the name Hyrax, strapped Oliver to a bomb that was expected to be launched over Metropolis, but Oliver ended up detonating the bomb early, sacrificing himself in the process.

Fans first caught wind of Veronica appearing on The Flash earlier this year, but weren’t sure exactly how she would enter the fold. And in a way, her live-action debut both does and doesn’t align with her comic appearance. On one hand, Veronica’s affect on the series’ main hero remains essentially the same from the page to the screen, with Barry being put into a next-to-impossible situation to try to stop her bomb.

But on the other hand, fans didn’t really get an inkling as to her motivations or her backstory until the episode’s final moments. The casting description for Veronica described her as an insane “animal liberator turned domestic terrorist”, who operates Eden Corps as a “cult-like” organization. Obviously, the episode wanted to focus more on Barry’s race against the clock, but those cult-like elements would’ve been fun to see The Flash explore further in some fashion.

But with Veronica (presumably) being taken to jail at the episode’s end, who knows? Maybe her arc could continue in a later installment of The Flash.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.