This article will feature spoilers from The Flash season six, episode one “Into the Void," so read this at your own risk in case you haven’t seen the episode.
The sixth season of The Flash has finally kicked off on The CW as Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) enters the biggest year of his life. Following the tragic ending of season five, season six will put Barry and the rest of Team Flash through their toughest challenge with Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is the show that began setting things up for this year’s Arrowverse crossover all the way back in 2014. Five years later, the fastest man alive will be preparing himself for a Crisis where he is supposedly meant to vanish.
The season premiere Into the Void deals with the coming adventure head-on as well as setting up the next chapter of the Scarlet Speedster’s show. Now that the season six premiere has aired, it’s time to look through all of the season openers.
Flashpoint (Season 3)
The season three premiere was perhaps the most buzzed one leading up to Barry’s third year. The season two finale ended with the tease of DC’s Flashpoint storyline being adapted for the new season. Fans of the Arrowverse were, understandingly so, eager to see how Greg Berlanti’s DC TV franchise would tackle it. However, the small screen adaptation wasn’t exactly what viewers of the iconic storyline were expecting.
The premiere focused mostly on following this new timeline from a Flash perspective rather than see how the rest of the shows had been affected. In addition to that, Flashpoint lasted for only the premiere rather than a few episodes. With Barry and Eobard (Matt Letscher) ended up resetting the timeline, there were still a few changes to address in later episodes. Despite some great comedic and dramatic beats, “Flashpoint” is at the bottom of the premieres.
The Man Who Saved Central City (Season 2)
Following the cliffhanger in the season one premiere, The Man Saved Central City was a big kick-off for the second season. With the title initially hinting at Barry’s actions in the finale, we learn that Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell) a.k.a. one half of Firestorm died while closing the wormhole. With the Multiverse concept being slowly established in this premiere, Barry goes through quite the emotional struggle in this one.
In a similar fashion to Arrow’s Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Barry takes the blame on his own and pushes everyone away while protecting Central City on his own. But, thankfully, it doesn’t take long until Barry goes back to the status quo.
The Flash Reborn (Season 4)
After what ended up being a controversial third season for the series, due to its darker elements, season four did everything it could to shift things back into order. The Flash Reborn follows Team Flash as they have to live their lives without Barry after he sacrificed himself to the Speed Force prison. We get to see Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) be the city’s guardian speedster while Iris (Candice Patton) took on the role of leader for Team Flash.
The one thing that holds the premiere back, however, is the fact that Barry was only in the prison for roughly two-thirds of the episode. For comparison's sake, it was a stronger move by TPTB to have Barry being away for at least a few episodes to really let those stakes sink in. However, we do get the thrilling introduction of the big bad of that year with The Thinker (Neil Sandilands) emerging at the end.
Nora (Season 5)
After several cameos and teases in season four, the launching point for season five fleshed out the big introduction of Nora West-Allen a.k.a. XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Revealing herself to be Iris and Barry’s daughter from the future, Nora lives up to the great quality that we had in the first season.
The major moment where Nora tells her father that he never comes back from the Crisis that he has kept reading about in the future newspaper is when things get real. Who can forget the amazing team-up between Barry, Wally, and Nora as they get to save the day together as a Flash family? Nora captures what the show was always aiming for, which is heart, humor, and spectacle.
Pilot (Season 1)
What began this series was its extraordinary pilot that was just a taste of what was coming for the fastest man alive. The series premiere has everything you would want for a new show from establishing great characters and setting up massive storylines. From Barry exploring his powers to him finally suiting up for the first time, there is just too much to love with the show’s first episode.
But it’s not just the super-hero action that lifts the pilot up so much; it’s the relationships. From the introduction of Barry’s love for Iris to him befriending the people who would become his team, the pilot really allows you to fall in love with all of these characters from the get-go.
Into the Void (Season 6)
It’s a tie between the pilot and the season six premiere, as Into the Void launched the new season in a way that the last seasons have never done. While still having a good dosage of humor, this season premiere really felt like the show’s true beginning of growing up following Nora’s death. What really made this premiere as strong as it was is Barry and Iris dealing with the loss of Nora in their respective ways. Despite the four-month time-jump, the show properly addresses that these two are deeply broken by what happened.
We still get a great adventure of the week as well as the brilliant introduction of the big bad for the first half of the season in Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy). Into the Void in general feels like a breath of fresh air for the series, hence why it stands out from all the other season openers. As if this premiere wasn’t big already, The Monitor’s (LaMonica Garrett) arrival at the end as he reveals that The Flash’s death, which will save billions of lives, is coming on December 10, 2019.