Iris' Most Heartbreaking Moment In The Flash
"The Flash" has kept DC fans well fed over the years, as it first kicked off back in 2014, introducing Grant Gustin's Barry Allen, who exists alongside the rest of the Arrowverse and frequently teams up with the likes of Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). He's a crime scene investigator who uses his job as a way of keeping his ear to the ground about metahuman criminals and supervillains. He's faced hordes of enemies across eight seasons, and The CW has already renewed the show for Season 9. It's pretty impressive that it's lasted so long, although the various crossovers have definitely helped keep the universe going.
But "The Flash" doesn't just revolve around super-powered fights and chase sequences, there's also a healthy amount of emotional drama too. In the first few seasons, Barry still struggles with the death of his mother, Nora Allen (Michelle Harrison), while also pining for his childhood friend, Iris West (Candice Patton). The hero's been in love with her since boyhood, and the show spends a lot of time weighing up the pros and cons of Barry confessing his true feelings.
Thankfully, the truth eventually comes out, and the two officially become an item in Season 3, Episode 2, "Paradox." Since then, they've had a whirlwind romance, and they even get married during the "Crisis on Earth X" crossover. But like any good superhero drama, there have been some ups and downs for the pair, and there's one heartbreaking Iris moment that stands out above the rest.
Iris gets trapped in the Mirror-verse
"The Flash" Season 6 delivers a truly tragic storyline for Iris, as she investigates the Black Hole syndicate that plagues Central City with its metahuman assassins. The clues lead her to McCulloch Technologies, created by Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor), who secretly calls herself Mirror Master. She's figured out a way of traveling into the universe connected by mirrors, dubbed the Mirror-verse, which has its own laws of physics and time. Unfortunately for Iris, she gets trapped in the Mirror-verse in Season 6, Episode 10, "Marathon," while her mirror doppelganger takes her place in the real world ...
It's heartbreaking for Iris because she's forced to watch her Mirror clone interact with her friends, her family, and worst of all: with Barry. Because Iris doesn't have any abilities of her own, she's completely trapped inside the alternate universe, leaving her completely helpless. What's worse is that Iris has to literally face her worst fears and insecurities as different versions of herself taunt her about mistakes she's made over the years in the Season 7 premiere, "All's Wells That Ends Wells."
Barry and the rest of Team Flash, fortunately, manage to break Iris out of the Mirror-verse in Season 7, Episode 2, "The Speed of Thought." But even then, she struggles to readjust back to her normal life. It's a shame the story arc made Iris into a damsel-in-distress for over half a season, but at least it also pushed her character development into new directions.