The Flash is now one of the longest-running DC superhero shows on The CW. It's had its ups and downs over the years but it has carved out its own niche audience and genre, centered around time travel, crazy metahumans, and, of course, Barry Allen himself.
Despite this, there is one issue that always seems to plague the show and critics often pick up on it in their reviews. There is a perception that Barry Allen is actually a very poor decision-maker and that he makes too many mistakes over the show's history. While we know Allen is a hero at heart, we're looking at 10 of the Flash's most controversial decisions across the series!
10 SENDING NORA BACK TO THE FUTURE
The last season of the show saw Iris' and Barry's daughter, Nora, go back in time to reunite with her parents. She was trying to prevent her father's disappearance in the future and helped out on many different missions. Her speed was a huge help for team Flash as they battled some incredible meta tech-powered individuals.
When it was revealed that Nora was being guided by Thawne in the future, however, Barry didn't give his decision a second thought. He rushed her into her real timeline and left her there stranded, without letting anyone even say goodbye to her. It was heartless, cruel, and potentially out of character.
9 FALLING IN LOVE WITH IRIS
The relationship between Iris and Barry is pretty weird. Viewers have been left feeling uncomfortable about it for quite some time. They were brought up in the same household as stepbrother and sister. They shared all the same family events that any traditional family would have done. Yet, despite their sibling relationship, they are now married!
There have been plenty of other love interests for Barry across the series and right in the first season, it appeared that Iris would be married off to someone else. Yet, Allen has still found himself married to Iris, with a kid in the future! It's definitely an awkward decision for both of them to make.
8 TRUSTING THAWNE
Barry and the Reverse-Flash have a very complicated relationship due to their history. The murder of Barry's mother at the hands of Thawne meant that Allen has hated the man all his life. He has reappeared countless times to cause villainy and menace. However, in season 5, there were numerous occasions where Flash actually trusted Thawne!
Episode 8 of the season saw Nora and Barry go back in time to get assistance from the Harrison Wells version of Thawne. Then, in the later half of the series, Barry decides to eventually trust him again, working with the scientist to defeat Cicada. Of course, it's all a trap in order to help Thawne escape his death sentence and Barry really should not have believed any of it!
7 CREATING FLASHPOINT
There has been one event that has haunted Barry all his life. Over time he has come to deal with it in different ways, but during season 3 of The CW show, Barry made the decision to change it all. He traveled back in time to prevent the death of his mother, fighting off Reverse-Flash and completely changing the universe he lives in.
This had dire consequences for the rest of the Arrowverse as reality itself was shifted. Some events that had passed never happened, while other things were completely changed, like the gender of Diggle's child. It was a reckless move from Barry and one that put everything in danger.
6 LIVING IN THE SPEED FORCE
Season 3 continued to show us the consequences of Barry's meddling and the finale had to pay off the biggest storyline of the year. There was only one way to undo the damage that Allen had caused by all his time travel and that was to enter the speed force himself to restore some order and balance the forces of the universe.
Of course, there were so many other ways they could have solved this problem in the end, but eventually, Barry could leave the speed force, albeit with a muddled mind. Barry should never have gone in, however, as there was always going to be a different solution to the issue. Instead, he hurt his family and friends and did unnecessary damage to himself, just to be a 'hero.'
5 THE PIPELINE
Superheroes are supposed to have an unbreakable moral code. For Barry, that means bringing legal justice to all those that have done wrong in the world. Sometimes the law isn't enough, though, and he has to take matters into his own hands. He doesn't want to kill and feels like imprisonment is the best punishment for any villain.
Yet, despite his moral compass, he often locks these criminals inside the Star Labs prison known as the Pipeline. With no trial and seemingly not human rights, they are locked up in glass cages and left to rot. We don't know what's happened to the countless villains that have been put away down there, but we know that it certainly isn't humane!
4 BRINGING IN JAY GARRICK
Allen has a habit of trusting people he really shouldn't, and the appearance of Jay Garrick is no exception! Season 2 of the show brought Garrick into the fold, although not everything was as it seemed. There were warning signs when it was revealed that Garrick was getting his speed from a drug that had been created. However, the team didn't look into him any more than that.
It really came back to bite the Flash when it was revealed that this wasn't the real Jay Garrick at all but an imposter. The real man they had been working with was Hunter Zolomon, also known as Zoom. He quickly showed how ruthless he was and betrayed the team, revealing his true colors. He was eventually defeated and transformed into the Black Flash, but not without cost!
3 LEAVING IRIS & NORA IN THE FUTURE
Barry has gone into the speed force once and realized it was a terrible mistake, so he'd never go again, would he? Well, that's seemingly exactly what he has done in the future. The series has been leading up to the disappearence of Barry, which is famously reported by Iris in a newspaper in the future. It's what drove Nora to travel back in time to defeat Cicada and is a part of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Our assumption is that Flash has chosen to leave everything behind, perhaps on a heroic quest. It seems that he's entered the speed force, either to stay there or to travel through time again. No one has seen him since, though, and so there are many questions to be answered in the upcoming crossover episodes.
2 TRUSTING HARRISON WELLS
You may notice there's a theme here, and it's Barry's assumption that everyone around him is just as good as he is. The very first season of the show had one of the best twists in the whole of The Flash, and it was the reveal that Harrison Wells was anything but the good doctor he had made himself out to be!
Eorbard Thawne had been masquerading as the man in the wheelchair for far too long before Barry realized the truth. It's amazing considering how many signs there were that Wells wasn't to be trusted, but Allen's gullible nature blinded him to the truth.
1 CREATING META HUMANS
Team Flash has a remarkable ability to create their own threats. They've repeatedly put powers in the hands of criminals. While Barry isn't always the direct result of these decisions, the latest problem to cause this was as a consequence of his actions. At the end of season 4, he chose to destroy the Thinker's satellite.
For any fans of season 5, they will realize that this was perhaps the worst decision he could have made because it created shrapnel, which formed meta tech and metahumans. The decision created Cicada and, consequently, the second Cicada, and it was also the catalyst to create many of the villains he had to fight across that season.