The Flash EP Reveals Whether The Original Timeline Could Return

After going back in time (in the Season 2 finale) and preventing his mother from being murdered by Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen thought the new timeline, known as “Flashpoint,” would be ideal, but it wasn’t, and by the end of the Season 3 premiere, he begged his arch-nemesis, Eobard Thawne, to go back in time once more and kill his mother.

Barry had assumed that would reset the original timeline, and while this post-Flashpoint timeline is similar to the pre-Flashpoint timeline, it does have some significant changes, such as Iris and Joe not being on speaking terms, though that was quickly resolved; Cisco being grief-stricken after his brother, Dante, died in a car accident; Cisco being angry with Barry for not going back in time to save his brother, though that too was quickly resolved; Barry sharing his lab with a boss, Meta-Human CSI Specialist Julian Albert, he never knew before; Caitlin Snow is now a meta-human and slowly transforming into Killer Frost; and John Diggle now has a baby boy, John Jr., instead of a baby girl, Sara.

Of course, altering the past is more complicated than it seems. This season, Jay Garrick, Henry Allen’s Earth-3 doppelganger, explained it best after preventing Barry from traveling back in time again. “This coffee cup right here, think of it as the space-time continuum. Whenever you go back in time, it breaks (Jay vibrates his hand until the cup breaks). You can reset the timeline; you can try to fix it (Jay puts the broken pieces of the cup back together). But no matter how hard you try, it’s never going to be exactly how it was.” Jay concluded the conversation with a very important question: “The question you need to ask yourself is: What kind of hero are you going to be? Are you just going to take a do-over everytime you make a mistake? Or are you going to live with them and move forward?”

Since then, Barry hasn’t gone back in time; he’s chosen to live with his mistakes and move forward. But is there still a chance the show will go back to the pre-Flashpoint timeline?

“I’m not sure that we can [return to the original timeline], given what we’ve established,” Executive Producer Greg Berlanti said on Saturday during the EW PopFest. “If we’re not challenging ourselves and creating new territory and new obstacles for the characters, I think it’s less rewarding to watch and probably less rewarding to play. We like to grow ourselves and grow our characters.”

CAITLIN CALLS ON HER MOTHER FOR HELP WITH HER GROWING META POWERS — Desperate to understand what is happening to her, Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) visits her mother, Dr. Tannhauser (guest star Susan Walters), a renowned biomedical researcher, in the hopes that her mother can provide some answers about Caitlin’s growing meta-human powers.

However, when Dr. Tannhauser treats her daughter like a test subject, Caitlin grows cold and brings up past wounds causing the two to have a major blowout. Meanwhile, after a mysterious new meta-human attacks Central City, Barry (Grant Gustin) tries to convince Julian (Tom Felton) to let him assist on the case.

The episode was directed by Kim Miles and written by Zack Stentz.

Based on the characters from DC, The Flash is from by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (Arrow, Supergirl), Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow, The Flash), Sarah Schechter (Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow) and Aaron and Todd Helbing.

“Monster” episode of The Flash will air Tuesday, November 1 at 8/7c on The CW!