The Flash Season 3: Barry Allen Will Forget His Powers

When The Flash returns this fall for it’s third season, the events of Flashpoint will change everything we know about the Scarlet Speedster. In the finale of season 2, Barry Allen made the decision to travel back in time to save his mother from certain death, changing the entire timeline as we know it. Even though series star Grant Gustin already told us that the Flashpoint story arc won’t take up the entire season, we can expect a huge fallout with permanent ramifications, even bleeding over into the rest of the Flarrowverse.

The Comic-Con 2016 trailer offered a few glimpses of what’s to come on The Flash season 3: Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) will become Kid Flash, Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) is “the richest man in America,” and Barry Allen (Gustin) is a complete stranger to both his adopted father Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and his best friend Iris West (Candice Patton). Barry also seems to be having some serious memory problems in this new alternate universe that he created. But, at least his parents are still alive, right?

In the most recent episode of DC All Access (above), Grant Gustin explains that his memories aren’t the only thing Barry is having trouble with, but that he will also forget his speedster powers:
“In the same sense that he’s forgetting a lot of memories, it means he’s forgetting his powers too. It’s like he’s having a full ‘Back to the Future’ moment, where essentially his hand is disappearing in front of him.”

Gustin goes on to explain The Flash’s memory loss and how it will affect him and his relationships with others, ultimately leading to his mission of “fixing” everything:

“Barry is the only one that knows the timeline is different, and his memories are starting to get replaced from the previous timeline with new memories, like graduating high school and graduating college, moments with his family. When he realizes those memories are replacing other memories, that’s when he starts to realize how selfish of a decision this was and that maybe he should try to put things back the way they were.”

Martin added that the relationship dynamics of the characters we have grown to love will be completely different:

“This Flashpoint thing is just…blowing my mind because yes, we’re all the same people, the same characters, but everything is a little different. It’s almost like playing a new character.”

And a bit on Kid Flash:

“Wally is definitely in Joe’s life and he’s definitely Joe’s son. But Wally has a completely different life that Joe knows nothing about.”

With all of these big changes coming in The Flash season 3, Flashpoint is sure to be an an exciting story. But, if Barry can’t remember his own powers how will he attempt to put everything back together the way it was before he saved his mother? The fact that his core memories are being replaced by false ones might prove to be quite a lofty nemesis when Barry finally tries to own up to his mistake. And don’t forget our favorite speedster will also be dealing with two main villains this season, as well. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what lies ahead for Barry and the rest of Team Flash.