That long, lingering stare from Barry. Caitlin looks lovely. In comes the Storm…
Alright guys…*deep breath* when I first heard Ronnie Raymond was returning I thought to myself “Wow, just how much can these writers squeeze the empty toothpaste from Snowstorm be over already?” “When will the dead horse stay dead?” “Didn’t you say you wanted to do films?” “Even Kenny from South Park says “Cool it.”” “Take a hint, if you keep dying the writers have no story for you.”
And then it occurred to me, there was a picture, of course not just any picture. A picture that reveals more about Snowstorm than I believed possible.
Let’s go from the beginning shall we?
Barry has just got finished outrunning one of those ghost ripoffs that is conveniently placed in for plot device. Do we know why they are there? Not a clue, but Barry is supposed to outrun them, alright he does. Now he’s inside the elevator that ghost Eddie told him to go to in order to save Wally which leads him to the hallways of STAR Labs. Low and behold, he hears a soft cry of an infant.
Onward he goes to investigate why he is hearing this and what do you know? In all the midst of chaos there is still something, someone to slow down for…
It’s a baby, not just any baby, Caitlin Snow’s baby.
Upon seeing this scene his mouth curves in proud smile that radiates right back at us. This is something that is there, that is not something made up. Grant looks absolutely alive in that scene and it shows through with Barry glancing Caitlin’s way.
Barry approaches in the gentle of ways toward the infant. His face warms with joy as he watches on as Caitlin sings softly a lullaby to her baby girl. Then he does something he hasn’t done since he was with Patty, he smiles.
A genuine smile like it was the first time in a long time.
Here’s the kicker, what rips off that smile? Of course, you guessed it.
The subtle exchange of dialogue between them says so much:
Barry: “That baby…is she?” (why would Barry have to question whose baby it was if he already knew?)
Ronnie: “Beautiful…just like her mother.” (notice he does not say the baby is directly his. he doesn’t even say the baby has any qualities/looks like him, just that she is %100 Caitlin’s genes, hmm…)
Notice how Barry says Ronnie’s name, it’s not in congratulations. Not in a proud moment. He is sad. Somewhere, deep down inside, he wanted a family and seeing Caitlin holding the baby, the scene made you feel like this was the family they themselves both deserved had it not been for Iris’ manipulation of Barry. You would probably think he feels like he cost Ronnie and Caitlin a future together as a family. But…how is that exactly his fault?
Ronnie is a hero, just like Barry is. Heroes sacrifice. Heroes know the cost of sacrifice. That is the price you pay when you put yourself in a position to change life for the better.
In a sense, Ronnie was meant to die because he chose to. He made that choice. Just Eddie made his. Just like a soldier self-sacrifice on the battle ground. They know what they are getting into, they know about the consequences and they still make the decision that puts the greater good over their own happiness. Guilt-pressing Barry didn’t make sense and it sounded sinister of these ghosts to outright accuse Barry of something he did not cause.
If you guys re-watch the scene you will see only Ronnie talking and not Caitlin. Why? Could it be that this, even though it is shown as a scene for a “Snowstorm happy ending,” is not the future Caitlin is meant to have, and more specifically, with Ronnie? I am not saying she isn’t meant to have kids, the future is not set yet. But how can you have children with a dead man? Please explain? Or man that chooses an easy path for fate to take his life.
The reason Caitlin is not talking and so stoic is because if this really would have been her life, her expression right here would tell you the truth that this particular moment would be her happiness. Is it only Ronnie’s? Why isn’t Caitlin smiling? In fact why is she singing in a monotone voice instead of a content/benevolent/magical one? This is her happy ending presumably, OK, so why isn’t she, for lack of a better word, happy?
To be honest, she looks just as dead as Ronnie sounds and is. Anybody looking, really looking at that scene would not conclude she is happy. She looks stuck, silenced. Wearing the name tag of “wife” “devoid of ambition” “lifeless” “dull” “listless.”
Assuming this would be an example of a scene in which they do become a family and Caitlin marries Ronnie, like she would have been had she chose not to stay behind and help Barry and the team out. Is this a foreshadowing of her life had she actually left with Ronnie whence he asked her back in Season 1? Or is it really Ronnie’s happy ending we are seeing? If so, what does that mean for Caitlin’s happy ending?
She appears to look like she is supposed to be numb. Is this the life she really wanted? Is this the man she was meant to have this future with? How is that the only one smiling in this scene is Barry? Where’s Ronnie’s smile? WHY. AREN’T. THESE. PEOPLE. OVER. THE. MOON. HAPPY?
You have a baby. You have a marriage. You’re not dead. Why aren’t you cracking a small smile?
What didn’t make sense again was Barry uttering:
“Caitlin and Ronnie should have had that. Family. A future.”
Then Ronnie as if finally realizing Caitlin didn’t want the same things that he wanted; that all along, Caitlin chose to stay behind. So maybe, that was the reason why he sacrificed himself, because he saw that Caitlin, in the end, didn’t choose to be with him.
In the lines Ronnie followed with it made things pretty clear he gave up on her that day he stopped the singularity.
“The future doesn’t always turn out as we want it to.”
Ronnie is speaking in terms of both sunken ships: WestAllen and Snowstorm. DOA ships that never stood a chance ever since Caitlin and Barry met. Their bond is too strong, too powerful to be ignored.
Also, when Barry refuses to leave in hopes to save Wally, what a way for Ronnie to show his outright jealously of Barry but to sick Caitlin’s sociopathic ex Hunter Zolomon his way. That was cold dude.
You get the feeling by the end that Barry was going to fight Ronnie, or he was going to have someone do the fighting for him, hence Zolomon. Why? This is an incarnation of Ronnie Raymond. Why would he want to try to guilt, trap and kill Barry?
It just goes to show, even in death how deep his jealously really goes.
Scenes like these just prove over and over that the writers have something up their sleeve and it doesn’t include what they started out with.
Snowbarry Talk 