Obviously The Flash wasn’t going to just write off its lead, so I knew it was only a matter of time until Team Flash figured out how to get Barry back. But the premiere actually picks up a whole six months after his departure. Everyone has stepped up to fill the void he left behind, but no one more than Iris.
Instead of crumpling over the loss of her fiancé, Iris becomes more empowered than ever, taking over for Barry as team leader. She runs point from Star Labs with scientist Cisco “Vibe” Ramon (Carlos Valdes), her brother Wally “Kid Flash” West (Keiynan Lonsdale) and their dad Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) following her directions in the field to take down bad guys threatening Central City.
She throws herself into the role to honor Barry and “keep running” as he asked her to do before his departure. He wanted her to live her life and move on, and Iris does exactly that. But she also doesn’t allow herself to process the loss.
She still can’t bring herself to sleep in their bed or even look at a picture of him. She completely shuts down emotionally, even around her family and friends, in order to prevent herself from falling apart. Serving as team leader is a kind of insulating device that allows her to avoid focusing on anything but the present moment.
Iris even forbids the team from trying to rescue Barry, not wanting to get her hopes up. They, of course, do it anyway behind her back and successfully bring him back only to find that he has become mysteriously deranged.
While Iris may not be as mentally or emotionally healthy at the beginning of season four as she has been for the past three seasons, the benefits of her rapid and refreshing character development born from the pain of losing Barry cannot be understated.
The showrunners are letting Iris become a character in her own right rather than just Barry’s love interest. As was shown in her direction of the team, Iris is unquestionably smart, strong, resilient and resourceful.
She holds the team together and keeps them in shape. When they complain about how their success rate is lower than Barry’s, she refuses to let them give up. She also shows a knack for strategy when she outsmarts a criminal by figuring out what his next move will be.
I never doubted that Iris had the potential to be a critical member of the team, but for whatever reason, she was rarely given the opportunity to prove herself.
That fact is particularly apparent in season three, the latter half of which finds the team scrambling for a way to prevent Iris’ impending death at the hands of Savitar, an evil speedster. Literally everyone except Iris is given agency over the situation.
One of her only major plotlines focuses on her investigation, as a reporter for the Central City Picture News, into dangerous arms dealers, which the showrunners ironically use to highlight how helpless she is to change her circumstance.
While trying to catch the dealers, she is held at gunpoint. But channeling New Moon adrenaline junkie Bella Swan, she’s totally chill about it and even taunts her would-be murderer since she knows she isn’t fated to die yet.
To a degree, the storyline shows that she is fierce and perseverant. She pursues the investigation despite Barry and Joe, fearing for her safety, asking for her to stop. But it’s still a side story. She may seem to live her life on her own terms but, ultimately, her life remains in the hands of the team.
Throughout seasons one, two and three, Iris is primarily relegated to serving as Barry’s emotional support system, a glorified cheerleader, and as the motivation behind his heroics.
She is finally able to break that mold at the very end of season three when she ends up saving Barry from Savitar after her death is prevented. That was the first time I saw her truly realize her heroic potential, and the season four premiere brought the second.
Aside from leading the team, she almost single-handedly saves the day when a villainous mechanical Samurai warrior threatens to destroy Central City unless The Flash faces him in single combat. Knowing the only way to restore Barry’s mental state is to put herself in harm’s way, Iris forces the Samurai to take her prisoner before he is able to hurt anyone.
The gamble works. Barry becomes his normal self again and takes the warrior down but, for once, as the sidekick to Iris’ superhero.
I don’t know why showrunners waited three seasons to make Iris a fully fleshed out character and a linchpin of Team Flash, but I’m happy that I can finally root for her rather than bemoan her being unjustly ignored. I sincerely hope that last week’s premiere was not the peak of her character development now that Barry has returned.
