And They Were Doing So Well…

I may have mentioned that I am very much a fan of CW’s The Flash.  If not, I am very much a fan of The Flash.

I am not a fan of Iris West.

Anyone else want to slap the smirk off her face?
image via latimes.com

She Lois Lanes (aka: does dumb shit and and needs saving, thereby distracting the hero from the actual innocents who desperately need his help) constantly.  She makes bonehead decisions that endanger not only her, but other people, and completely fails to consider the consequences (making her a dumb reporter rather than an intrepid one).  I think we’re supposed to view her as conflicted vis a vis the Barry/Eddie situation but in point of fact, she’s selfish and mean, treating neither Barry (I don’t want you but Linda Park can’t have you either) nor Eddie (you do exactly what I want no matter how you feel about it or I’m leaving you) very well.  Her pettiness is particularly emphatic in light of Kaitlyn’s independence and real love for Firesorm and Felicity’s genuine (if mildly irritating) angst over Ollie/Ray.

But.

(Of course there’s a but.  You should know that by now.)

But.  The above does not, in any way, mean Iris deserves to end up in the refrigerator.

image via geekappetite.com

Which is exactly what happened on this week’s episode (yeah, sorry, I’m a few days behind. Work.  Baseball).

Last week, Barry and Joe revealed the Flash’s identity to Eddie.  Fine.  Great.  Actually, it was great because it led to some epically hilarious opening moments this week.  The sausage trio decided they were going to continue to hide said secret from Iris to “protect her.”  That irks me, because independent agency as discussed on many a previous occasion, but then, Iris does have a terrible track record aka: acting like an adult female with half a brain, so okay, we’ll let it slide.

Well.  Iris, being an idiot but not a complete and total moron, knows Eddie is hiding something (for a cop, he’s a terrible liar).  She is upset about this and she tells him so (which I’m pretty sure is supposed to make her a “strong female character”).  Eddie tells Joe that he isn’t comfortable lying to Iris.  The rest of their conversation goes something like this:

Eddie: I’m her boyfriend.

Joe: I’m her father.

Eddie: When does my vote count more?

Joe: When you’re her husband.

Excuse me?

I three-quarters expected the rest of the chat to be about how many alpacas Iris is worth.

It’s odd for me to be up in arms about the way this character is being treated.  I love Barry and Joe and I like Eddie, which makes me prone to taking one of their sides in an Iris-based conflict but come on guys (or, rather, writers speaking through guys); boyfriend, husband, friend, brother, etc, I got news for you: you just made this woman you all purportedly care so much about an object to be fought over rather than a person who deserves a chance to grow and change.  You treated her like a thing rather than a human.  That is not heroic.  You’ve sacrificed her opportunity to be stronger, smarter, and more honest on the altar of you’re egos.

“I won’t accept any less than fifteen.”
image via comicsalliance.com

She is now a gallon of milk past the sell by date.

You can do better, Flash.  Get on that.