This week’s episode of The Flash saw Iris, through some metahuman shenanigans, accidentally granted Barry’s speedpowers, giving her the chance to be Central City’s hero for a little while. But it was not to last, and Iris has hung up her briefly-used (but excellent) hero costume for a return to… well, blogging.
Sadly not an image of Barry (Grant Gustin) staging an intervention when Iris (Candice Patton) says she wants to blog again. Photo: The CW
As Iris has rightfully been given more and more of a role on The Flash, becoming the team’s mission leader, the show has just sort of… forgotten that at one point she was meant to be a journalist. God, remember when she was at Central City Picture News? It feels like aeons ago.
But the show finally remembered this fact at the end of the mostly delightful “Run, Iris, Run”. After becoming a speedster thanks to a metahuman who can transfer one person’s metahuman powers to another, Iris saves the day and manages to convince the latest Bus Meta to both help Team Flash in their ongoing troubles with the Thinker and swap back Barry’s speedforce DNA after he accidentally granted it to her in the first place. In her brief time as a superhero Iris apparently realises that it was never her destiny to be a Flash like Barry, but instead be a journalist. Except, she isn’t going back to Central City Picture News…
I’m never complaining about our CMS ever again. Screenshot: The Flash (The CW)
She’s resurrecting her blog from the first season, Saved By the Flash. A blog, I’d like to remind you, that was actually really really bad. Like, comically, awfully, “has anyone writing the show ever seen a blog before” bad. And apparently, in the past three years, Iris has still not updated that horrible layout. That CMS she uses is making me want to rip my eyes out.
But as much as I joked – and continue to joke – about Saved By the Flash, I actually have a lot more confidence that Iris will be a much better blogger this time around. First off, she was severely hampered in season one by basically being written as a complete idiot who couldn’t figure out that Barry was the Flash despite the fact they hung out together constantly, and the few times they were apart she actually ran a website dedicated to him, and she is definitely not that character any more.
More importantly, Iris has grown into a much more layered and integral character to The Flash. Hell, she’s practically running the show at Star Labs these days! As she’s been swept up into Barry’s crazy world, she’s become more confident in herself and her own abilities, becoming a driving force and leader among the show’s ample supporting cast. Even choosing to give Barry’s powers back so she could follow her own path alongside him in this week’s episode shows how much she’s grown since she first created that horrifyingly bad logo for the first iteration of her blog, The Streak Lives:
Iris’ first crack at blogging in season one, complete with awful logo. Screenshot: The Flash (The CW)
Go forth and blog, Iris. Just, I dunno, maybe look into Squarespace or something while you’re at it.