The Blacklist (Liz & Ressler) vs. The Flash (Barry & Iris) – ‘Shiptober 2019

Welcome to ‘Shiptober 2019! Throughout the month of October, CarterMatt will be bringing you our annual tournament featuring some of best ‘ships in all of TV. What is a ‘ship? It is comprised of characters you want to see together romantically. Maybe they’re already together, or maybe they’ve never been together. It doesn’t matter. ‘Shipping is one of the most popular parts of any TV fandom, it’s super fun and this tournament is a celebration of that.

In today’s edition of ‘Shiptober, we are featuring two very-established ‘ships featuring characters who are clearly at different places in their lives. For Liz & Ressler of The Blacklist, we are still very much in will-they-or-won’t-they territory. However, for Barry & Iris of The Flash, we are in a position where the two are married and interested in starting a family someday … even though they are still dealing with the aftermath of what happened with Nora.

Voting Rules – Voting will be underway in the poll below from now until Sunday, October 20 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time. Vote however often you’d like! (For more voting instructions or technical questions, check out the bottom of this article for answers.)

Be sure that you subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube — there are frequent video discussions there for many of the shows discussed in this tournament!

Liz & Ressler, The Blacklist (#3 seed) – The Keenler fan base is one that has certainly been through tough times over the years — after all, they witnessed the full extent of the Liz/Tom relationship and it didn’t seem as though there was going to be a lot of hope. Yet, times have changed and now, the story is set up in a way where such a pairing feels truly possible. While there’s no guarantee that the writers are going to point the story in this particular direction, you can make the case that there are some pieces on the chessboard that point to a move being made. They have the chemistry, and they definitely have an understanding of each other.

Barry & Iris, The Flash (#2 seed) – In this case, there is obviously no need for will-they-or-won’t-they — they’ve been married for a while, they love each other, and there’s no real concern about them splitting up. With that in mind, the tension that exists between them comes elsewhere, such as the idea of Crisis On Infinite Earths coming and making it almost impossible for Barry to continue to be around those he loves. This is where the strength of their relationship will be tested. They’re going to continue to lean on each other to make it through, and come up with a solution where Barry survives.