Step aside Iris, you might finally have some competition for the heart of Barry Allen, though judging by the history of the CW and its love triangles, the whole point of this new love interest for Barry might be solely to get you jealous and wanting Barry for yourself.
Putting aside commentary on the predictability of the CW’s romance angles, it seems that following the (*SPOILER ALERT*) traumatic events at the end of ‘The Flash’ Season 1, which saw Iris’s (Candice Patton) fiance Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnette) sacrifice himself to prevent the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) from ever being born, thus saving Barry and the present timeline, she will clearly need some time to get over her heroic past lover, which means Barry will have to look elsewhere for a romantic arc this season.
Hence the news that ‘The Flash’ is casting a new romantic character for Barry, who will be named Wendy, and according to TV Line is described as ” spunky, fun and funny,” not to mention a science genius, which means she will fit right in with the folks over at Star Labs. Her backstory places her as a fellow scientist on the police force with Barry, and the showrunners have made it clear they would like the character to be similar to ‘Arrow’s’ Felicity Smoake, a character who has already done some flirting in Season 1 with the Scarlet Speedster.
Of course, as stated above, even if she is an awesome character who jives great with Barry, there are some rather predictable problems that will arise. First off, unless they have her discover Barry’s secret right away, she will be the new Iris in that she will spend a good amount of the season playing dumb, as in not able to figure out that Barry is really the Flash. Plus with all the set-up for Barry and Iris getting together in the future, we all know Wendy and Barry’s relationship is most likely doomed, meaning we will eventually get down to the old love triangle situation, with Barry inevitably choosing Iris.
Now as an ardent fan, I actually do hope to be proved wrong by the show, which has broken conventions before, with the finale a prime example of out of the box thinking. Here’s hoping they have a great plan for Wendy, and that she’s a welcome and interesting addition to the cast.
