Barry might have tried to re-set the timeline he altered in last week's The Flash season premiere, but this week he discovered somethings can't be changed. After a brief, and unsuccessful attempt at going back to the Season 2 timeline, which included a lecture on time travel from other Flash Jay Garrick, Barry realized he was now stuck. He has to accept the fact that, in this new timeline, Iris and Joe had a falling out, he never kissed Iris, and he now has an officemate: Julian Albert, who is played by Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy). But that's not all Barry changed by going back in time and living in an alternate reality. So, what exactly did Barry change on The Flash after Flashpoint? Get ready for some major alterations to The Flash Season 2 timeline.
The consequences of Flashpoint are still revealing themselves, but in "Paradox" Barry had to face the fact that a lot of those consequences would not be pretty. First, Barry discovered that Iris stopped talking to her father after she found out he had lied about her mother dying, which then led to a change in the timeline that made it so Barry and Iris never kissed (don't worry, WestAllen fans, he fixed that at the end of the episode). Barry's no good, very bad day continued when he learned that Cisco hated him for refusing to go back in time to save his brother, Dante, from being killed by a drunk driver, that Diggle has a son (John Jr.) instead of a daughter (RIP Baby Sara), and that he has a new colleague in Julian, a CSI and metahuman expert who shares his office. Oh, and Julian also hates him.
At first, it didn't look like there was any real reason reason behind Julian and Barry's mutual hatred. But, after Julian found out that Barry somehow took a sample from one of Julian's metahuman crime scenes, he told us. "There is something not right about you, Allen. They don't see it, but I do," Julian said. Julian doesn't trust Barry, and that's not going to change any time soon.
Of course, Julian isn't Barry's main problem in this new timeline. Barry had to come clean to his friends and family while also dealing with some nifty new villains to fight. Dr Alchemy revealed himself this week when he gave Edward Clariss his speed back from "Flashpoint," turning him into The Rival and unleashing him onto Central City. Well, thanks to Julian, it looks like Barry will be getting a rival in his normal, human life too.
Images: Dean Buscher/The CW; flashallens/tumblr
