For the longest time, I had been a fan of superheroes, but had never selected one out of the many cool, creative, and powerful variety of them introduced. That was up until May in 2017, when I was first introduced to CW’s “The Flash”. While the show has not been able to replicate the magic that it once did to the huge fanbase watching at the time, that still did not prove to be a valid reason for me to stop devoting my time and effort to sit through the newer episodes. With that, there are some recent episodes of “The Flash” that are going to make this list, and while some may find these picks controversial, keep in mind this is in my general opinion. Without further ado, let us begin.

1. “The Flash” Season 2 Episode 6 — “Enter Zoom”

Season 2 of The Flash is undoubtedly the best season that the show has ever done, in terms of pacing, storyline, plot, characters, and not to mention, villain. In season 2 we received the scary speed demon dressed in black, Zoom, and it would not be inaccurate to say that he was feared by many at the time. In episode 6 of that season, Zoom’s official debut was made onto the show, after being cameoed in a couple of episodes leading up to that point. With Barry and the team spending a majority of the episode to successfully trap zoom, he makes Barry and the team show them what they are truly up against, with him fighting against Barry and totally destroying him, as well as claiming the mantle as the fastest man alive.

2. “The Flash” Season 1 Episode 15 — “Out of Time”

When I think back to the glory days of The Flash, my mind thinks back to season 1, when times were simpler, the team was very limited and shared good chemistry with one another, and Barry was still a novice learner trying to discover more of his power’s capacity. Well in episode 15 of this season, Weather Wizard proves to be quite the threat as he causes a lot of chaos for the characters. He captures Joe West and plans on killing him, but not until he witnesses Central City, including Iris, get flooded by a giant tidal wave under his control. The scene when Barry is about to create a wall of wind to stop the tidal wave before it floods the city was one of the best scenes throughout the entirety of the show, with Grant Gustin and Candice Patton delivering some of their best work on camera with the kissing scene and confessing their feelings towards each other. Subsequently when Barry begins to run back and forth the pier of the city at the fastest speeds he has ever gone, he accidentally time travels, erasing everything that happened that day in everyone else’s mind, but us as the audience did not forget anything.

3. “The Flash” Season 3 Episode 13 — “Attack on Gorilla City”

In my opinion, season 3 of The Flash’s VFX teams utilized their skills to the highest level possible unlike anything we had ever seen them do up until that point. Savitar, the dominators, the big monster that terrorized Central City, and not to mention, our favorite evil telepathic gorilla, Grodd. With all the “controversial” CGI work that The Flash had ever provided us with, Grodd has always been looking good whenever he would show up on screen. Now try making a 2-part episode, with Grodd as the main villain, and making much more live action CGI gorillas exactly like Grodd, with “The Flash’s” budget. This episode was enticing, with Grodd wanting to attack Central City with his gorilla army, and the fight between Flash vs Solovar was visually thrilling to watch. I am still astonished with how good the Gorilla army looked, and very little complaints I hear it receive.

4. “The Flash” Season 4 Episode 15 — “Enter Flash time”

We all know The Flash is fast, but just how fast? If you were a fan of The Flash around the time of season 4, then you may remember watching the mind-blowing episode that was episode 15. When Barry is trying to stop a nuke from detonating, the exact time it is detonating, he proves throughout the entirety of the episode that he is truly the fastest man alive. What would be 3 seconds for the nuke to blow up Central City, Barry is able to slow down time to the point where 3 seconds can last hours. This episode was exclusively made for Barry to show just how fast he can really move as The Flash.

5. “The Flash” Season 6 Episode 7 — “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Pt. 1”

The first half of The Flash season 6 was truly a very amazing return to form for the show, as promised by new showrunner at the time, Eric Wallace. With the first 8 episodes being the first graphic novel out of the 2 he had planned for the season, season 6A of The Flash really did its job by keeping the viewers intrigued as every episode went on. Episode 7 of that season was the first half of the climax of that graphic novel for the season, and saw Barry being taken over by Ramsey Russo AKA “Bloodwork” subconsciously. The episode was a very emotional and a rollercoaster, especially for Barry, as Ramsey was trying to convince Barry to take his everlasting life blood so that Ramsey could be the cities, and the worlds hero. At the end of the episode, we discover that Ramsey was successful in taking Barry over, leading him to become the Negative Flash, which was undoubtedly one of the best moments, and episodes in The Flash.

6. “The Flash” Season 6 Episode 8 — “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Part 2”

Yes, this is a 2 parter. The following episode to the 2-part climax for the graphic novel was just as good as the first part. This episode made for an amazing finale to the storyline, as the stakes were very high for Team Flash because The Flash was not present throughout their mission to save the city from him and Bloodwork. I enjoyed this episode because of the spotlight that new characters, such as Allegra are given. With Ramsey’s plan being to use the particle accelerator to achieve his blood affecting the entire city with it, Allegra was given the spotlight to be the hero that she was known to be. Negative Flash had also given Iris a great arc for the episode, as Cisco tried to convince her that Barry would die anyway in Crisis, so it is best to already start considering that he is dead, but Iris refuses and knows Barry is in Negative Flash somewhere. Overall, the 2-part episode finale for this graphic novel was very well done.

7. “The Flash” Season 8 Episode 2 — “Armageddon Part 2”

Moving on to more recent episodes that had aired on The Flash, Armageddon was an amazing start to the season, and an overall great addition to the series in general to show that The Flash still is worth watching. This episode was done very well and even made my jaw drop when watching it live. In this episode, after Despero had informed Barry that he would lose his mind and cause Armageddon, Barry has one of his worst days ever. He loses his job, STAR Labs, his teams trust, and even discovers that Joe had been dead for 6 months. While one would assume that this episode would be very negative and emotional, the moment when Barry faced off against the telekinetic villain Xotar was when I had that jaw dropping moment I mentioned earlier. When Xotar had Barry in her psychic grip, Barry’s powers began overpowering hers, and he released a huge amount of lightning that struck everything within his vicinity. The episode was another amazing take on The Flash’s power increase that fans had promised they would see for the episode, and throughout the season.

8. “The Flash” Season 1 Episode 9 — “The Man in the Yellow Suit”

These last 3 episodes are going to be ranging between different season in non-order, as while they are still dearly loved by me, I just love the episodes at the top of the list a little more. Going back to the glory days of season 1, the first Christmas episode of The Flash was one for the memories, since this was when Reverse Flash first made his debut and had his first fight with Barry. The 8-season long rivalry that is still going on currently throughout The Flash’s run all stemmed from that episode. The choreography of the fight was satisfying to watch, with Reverse Flash kicking Barry’s butt. A meme had also started becoming social media wide from the scene whenever Reverse Flash talks to Harrison Wells, and he says, “My goals are beyond your understanding.” Great meme started from a great episode.

9. “The Flash” Season 2 Episode 23 — “The Race of his Life”

Season 2’s finale was a very nice fan servicey way to end what had been a great season all throughout its run. But don’t forget that some more memorable events took place before Barry ran back in time and created Flashpoint. The episode was the climax to Barry and Zooms rivalry, after Barry is more than ready to kill him without a second thought after Zoom killed his father. As the title of the episode indicates, Barry races Zoom with his life depending on it, in order to save countless lives from the multiverse destroying. The CGI in this episode was phenomenal, especially during the race scene between the 2 speedsters, which leads me to say that this was a great finale, as well as a great episode.

10. “The Flash Season 1 Episode 1 — “Pilot”

Finally on this list we have the episode that started it all. The first episode of The Flash was a great introduction to the character to be displayed on TV in his own standalone show. The Lady Gaga moment in this episode was hilarious, with that being Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin’s first ever time interacting with each other together as Team Flash. I very much enjoyed the talk that Oliver and Barry shared on the rooftop, which reminded me of the good old days when it was just them 2 teaming every 8th episode of a season together, and we would witness that good old stubborn chemistry. Weather Wizard as a villain challenged Barry as the first meta human he ever encounters, which leads to a very reminiscent moment with Harrison Wells telling Barry the iconic line, “Run, Barry, Run.” The pilot did the character of The Flash a great entrance into the live action TV world.

Top 10 Episodes of CW’s “The Flash”