Yeah, that says that the barbs retracted, not that the whip released Flash. The whip would have coiled around Flash's ankle with or without the barbs due to the nature of a whips momentum. That's where my misunderstanding comes from; the barbs retracted, but nowhere was it said that the whip uncoiled from Flash's ankles, and I didn't want to say that it had released him when it wasn't clear whether it had or not.