In an otherwise "meh" season of the Flash, this finale was probably my favorite episode of the season, and a really great episode overall.
! So looks like I was right on the HR swapping places with Iris idea. It was a good wrap up for his character to have died in a courageous way. I was super skeptical of HR's purpose throughout most of the season. I hated the way he was introduced, pretty much fishing for Wells' in the multiverse because Harry wanted to stay on Earth 2. You're pretty much begging for an alien invasion from another earth just because you want to fill the spot of a character. But as he progressed, became close with Wally, and ultimately proved to be the heart of Team Flash. His romance with Tracy was a bit forced, but I can excuse it with the lack of screen time with everything else going on.
! It does make me wonder what will be done with Tracy now, though. She pretty much dove right into Team Flash, and seems to fit in pretty well. We haven't seen her interact too much with the rest of the team, but it would make sense to have someone who goes on to become a brilliant scientist and someone who already risked their life for the team, to join them. Plus, given the losses of members they can probably use a little help.
! It was good to see Harry back, even if he only ultimately was there to get Tracy's head in the game. Glad to see he'll be sticking around for at least a little while. I'd love to see him stay on Earth 1 for the next season as that seasons' rotating Harrison Well(s). I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see Jessie, given we got Jay, Wally, Barry, and her father. But I guess you could say they were pressed for time and couldn't go find her on Earth 3.
! Everything else, from the Cisco/Gypsy stuff, the way Caitlin was handled, the ending with Barry, I thought was very good. I honestly wasn't expecting them to pull a Young Justice season 2 ending with Barry. I'm obviously doubt it will last many episodes, if even lasting past the first episode of season 4. But I wonder if they'll have Wally wear a version of the Flash suit, or just adopt the name and continue with his KF suit.
! I really loved the fact that Barry specifically mentions that he's been too dark this year, reasonably given what was happening. But one of the biggest critisims I've seen this season is people's anger that Barry isn't a bit more cheerful, like he was in season one. Or in the memory wipe episode. That's not really a big concern for me, I thought it was pretty reasonable given where Barry's character had gone after losing his dad, getting both his parents back, then letting them die again to fix his screw up, and then discover that he was responsible for Iris's future death.
! That being said, while I think the writing for his character, and most of the cast, made sense given the situations, I still wish we had focused on the Rogues. Savitar was fine villain for the last two or three episodes of the season, but that's it. Alchemy barely did anything other than give villains-of-the-week their powers, and he ended up just being Julian possessed by Savitar. Some seasons of these CW shows really show how these stories seem to be written as they go along, and not really thought of much in advance. The first season of the Flash felt very solid. All the hints and mysteries felt genuine, it felt like it all made sense. Seasons like Flash season 3 really feel disorganized in their writing, and that they are focused way too much on telling episodic chapters of a story, rather than a cohesive narrative.
! You can have the episodic, self contained feel and still have a flowing story. It's a problem that Arrow has suffered from too. Legends of Tomorrow has the feeling of individual unique episodes due to it changing it's setting, given the time travel aspect. However, it focuses on only a few villain characters and their plots. They do face other dangers and adversaries in their travels, however it serves the story as a whole.
! Having villains-of-the-week aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's all about execution though. The Trickster episode from the first season is one of my favorites in the entire show. Obviously having someone like Mark Hamil is going to help, but they focused on an interesting and entertaining villain, who in the end didn't serve much as far as advancing the plot of Barry finding his mom's killer. However, while the villain to face is the Trickster, the relationship between Barry and Wells is the focus of the characters interaction. We see how Thawne became Wells, and we see Barry still distrusting him, yet needing him to help him and eventually learn how to phase. It could have been just a popular actor cameo episode, poke fun at Hamil's connection to the Flash, and had a simple plot, it decided to focus on the characters, drop some bombshells with the main villain of the season, and also just be a fun episode.
! Comparing that to some of the episodes this season with the Flashpoint Meta's is just sad. The Magenta episode will probably remain my least favorite of the entire show(or the one with the kid that created a monster hologram). The characters really felt like way to delay the writing team to figure out what they wanted to do with the Alchemy storyline. They could have focused more on Edward Clarris and have him be a recurring villain to Barry and Wally. He pretty much served as an obstacle for Barry and then a warning that the Flashpoint mess wasn't all cleaned up.
! They name dropped the Thinker again in this episode, so I'm guessing that he will be our main villain, or at least one of them, for season 4. Glad to see that they aren't going to directly focus on another speedster. But then again, most of us thought that when they announced that Alchemy would be the villain this season.