For more than six seasons, Team Flash has been zipping from one threat or crisis to another, with little time to reckon with the after-effects of any given disaster before the next one hits. “Central City Strong” acts as a bit of a corrective, aided by its place in this unusual season. This isn’t a premiere, but rather a way station between the conclusion of the Mirrorverse saga and whatever comes next.
With Iris back from the Mirrorverse, Barry is determined to make up for the fact that he spent months believing her mirror duplicate was the real deal. How better to do that if you’re a recently revitalized speedster than whisking her around the globe for a series of mini-vacations? It’s not that easy for Iris to get over the time she spent behind the mirror, as she learns when she attempts to write an article about the whole affair. Allegra points out that her writing on the topic is shoddily researched and covering old ground, when she should be giving a first-person account of her own experiences. As Iris learns when visiting a Mirrorverse survivors support group, she’s not quite ready to deal with her trauma.
Trauma inflicted through the past exploits of Team Flash also figures into the appearance of this week’s returning guest villain Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian). Kadabra reappears in Central City on a mission to assemble three obelisks into an anti-matter bomb with which he plans to destroy the city. (Is this an intentional reference to the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and its three mother boxes? Who knows.) In a retread of the “bad guy wanted to be captured” trope, Kadabra finds the third obelisk in an ARGUS facility after being too easily subdued by the Flash and Mecha-Vibe. (That’s apparently Cisco’s new moniker, as he learns from the future-dwelling Kadabra.) Yes, the Flash was tricked again—which makes you wonder if it was really such a good idea for him to ditch that super-speed brain.
It turns out Kadabra is bent on revenge against Barry because he was able to remember his pre-Crisis life and the wife and child who were wiped out when the timeline reset. There’s no way to disarm his bomb, as it’s covered with an impenetrable material, so once again Barry has to use his heart to get the job done. (Chester even makes a comment to that effect, which leaves me wondering how often we’re going to hear the same thing this season.) He convinces Kadabra (real name: Filipe) that the wife and child he’ll never know wouldn’t approve of him destroying a whole city, especially since doing so won’t bring them back. It’s a redemption arc that’s cut almost embarrassingly short when a new threat suddenly appears. I have no clue who this is supposed to be, so I’ll just have to go with “some kind of giant CGI guy” for now. (Please, feel free to enlighten me in the comments.)
Anyway, the giant CGI guy kills Kadabra with one swipe and absorbs the anti-matter bomb without much trouble at all. Thus it’s left to Iris to confront her trauma in a way that will hopefully have a more lasting effect than the magician from the future was given. She promotes Allegra from intern to staff writer and returns to the support group, where she speaks on the importance of getting through the aftermath of their shared Mirrorverse experience together. And speaking of sharing experiences together, that’s something Caitlin and Frost will evidently no longer have to do, as they’ve been mysteriously split into two different beings. Team Flash can pause for a moment to process what they’ve been through, but there’s always a new crisis around the corner.
Stray observations
- So now Tom Cavanagh is gone from the opening credits, making his appearance last week even more puzzling. I guess the creative team wants to have a Wells in pocket just in case?
- The mentions of Crisis this week prompted me to check on whether there will be a crossover event this season, and unsurprisingly, there won’t be. Pulling that off with Covid-19 protocols in place is a bridge too far.
- Speaking of which, the pandemic isn’t happening in the CW-verse, but the effects of the real-world Crisis can be seen onscreen nonetheless. I’m thinking of the support group scenes in particular, where most of the members are seated in socially-distanced fashion.
- I never identified with Iris more than when she was staring at that blank computer screen. Every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Central, that’s me.
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Discount CG Lady Hulk aside, I rather enjoyed that. I’m always a fan of superhero shows solving their problems without punching, though obviously there’s a time and a place for punching as well. It’s a shame covid means we probably won’t be able to see if Kara or Clark could take down discount CG lady hulk, but such is life. And that ending tag with Caitlin and Frost? Total delight, it was like a reverse of the current Gunnerkrigg Court plot.
I loved how goofily happy Frost was! Though as Caitlin reminded Cisco, she still has to lay low as there are still a lot of warrants out for herDavid Dastmalchian was an upper tier rogue as Abra Kadabra. RIP (?)
And it’s the Flash! This is what I’m paying (proverbially) for, he’s the polar opposite of Oliver Queen’s idea of crime fighting.
I’m thinking they’re adapting the relatively-recent comics storyline where Barry found out that the Speed Force is one of a number of forces: The Speed Force, the Strength Force, the Sage Force, and the Still Force. I think the big CG beast woman was the Strength Force conduit. The promo for next week showed someone that seems like they’re using psychic powers, so that would be the Sage Force.
Candice Patton was quoting last season as saying she wasn’t sure if she would sign another contract after this season & it would depend on if she was happy with Iris’s storylines. I would hope that she is. She has (finally) had a lot of great storylines of her own & as always has knocked her scenes out of the park
This last year-ish has been the best use of Iris in the show’s entire run. I too hope it’s been satisfactory for her
iirc when the current showrunner took over, giving iris more to do was one of his objectives
Know who I want to see more of, and given more to do? Wally!
Candice has been amazing so I am glad for this. I know Covid precautions and all, but I laughed hard when Barry and Iris were going to kiss and the camera cut away. For a couple that supposedly have an epic love, they curiously have the most chaste relationship depicted.
What’s interesting is that the CW shows don’t seem to be consistent about that. Superman & Lois has kissing scenes and apparently Riverdale has love scenes but some shows aren’t doing kissing scenes.
I’d imagine part of that has to do with what the actors themselves are comfortable with.
Not to be mean, but I doubt that after doing a superhero tv show after 6 years, offers would rain on her.
When the Flash said “I let this city down”, it’s almost as if he were repeating the Green Arrow’s catchphrase: “You have failed this city.” And he mentions Oliver’s death later on in the episode, so I think it’s rather appropriate.
If anything, Barry was holding back:
Barry: “You think that’s bad? My friend John had a DAUGHTER and then he had A SON!”
Filippe: “You are REALLY bad at this.”
Caitlin’s mother is still out there and maybe another Killer Frost herself, right? I feel like I lost track of that story.
Abra Kadabra was caught because that was his plan all along! I am shocked.Though killing him off immediately after completing his redemption arc was…lame.Hey, this new Caitlin and Frost split could be fun at least. I know it might mean overtime for Danielle Panabaker, but I’d love to see a whole lot more of them together.I get that Barry is feeling the usual guilt (because of course he was) but I found him oddly out of tune with his own wife’s emotional state.
Hey,
this new Caitlin and Frost split could be fun at least. I know it might
mean overtime for Danielle Panabaker, but I’d love to see a whole lot more of them together.It also means you can shoot scenes with that many fewer people there.
Speaking of which, the pandemic isn’t happening in the CW-verse, but the effects of the real-world Crisis can be seen onscreen nonetheless.Some of the outdoor soft-focus close-ups really bugged me in this episode, almost looking like they were filmed on a blue screen/sound stage (particularly the interview in the beginning). There’s also numerous times where the edit cuts between multiple medium-close shots of the characters, as if they were all shot separately and could only be in close proximity for the master shot for a limited time. I may just be reading into this, since I don’t recall noticing anything with the first couple of new episodes.The CG she-beast-creature reminds me of Mongal, but I’m pretty sure it’s not her. Coincidentally Mongal is part of The Suicide Squad movie that David Dastmalchian is in, so possibly there’s a nod in there somewhere. Enjoyed the support group scenes, very reminiscent of Endgame. I know the series likes to treat the Citizen like it’s a huge deal, but I groaned when Iris “promoted” her singular reporter/intern.Oddly excited for the Frost getting split up storyline – great to see Panabaker will finally get a chance to work with an actor she’s admired for her entire life and I’m sure their chemistry will be extraordinary and there’ll be fireworks on set. ^^
So that was definitely the show version of Fuerza, right? I’m into it.
The episode was fine as a stand alone episode. Although I found it unintentionally laughable. My biggest gripe is the fact that although I liked the actor David Dastmalchian and I felt for his motivation in his dastardly plan. I couldn’t help but laugh the whole time that everyone seemed to forget that he painfully killed a man at the beginning of the episode. Someone’s son, brother, friend, father, or whatever. I laughed at how much they mourned Abra Cadabra’s death and with nobody saying he did murder a volunteer that was helping in rebuilding a city. I liked to imagine there’s a deleted scene where the Joe told the team not to be too heart broken for that victim cause they discovered in his mother’s basement he was a neo-nazi with a bunch a dead fetuses buried under bricks upon bricks of cocaine. I mean remember when Captain Cold used his gun to kill an Usher at a theater just to see if Flash was fast enough to save him? The other laughable moment was the CGI hulk bad. The grey early 1990’s pony tail hulk. I laughed because thinking that before this thing was dead set on jumping around it took the time to properly tie it’s hair in a ponytail. It reminded me of Duncan Macleod of the clan Macleod on steroids.The other minor laughable moment was Iris’s story and the support group. I did enjoy the fact the show tried to show the aftermath of how villians affected ordinary people’s lives. But this was just unintentionally funny for me. One, there were villians that did much worse to people than Mirror Monarch. Grodd and Bloodwork for example. But also Iris has gone through much worse than being left in a sims environment. I mean good on her for not needing therapy for all things she has had to endure. Most of it she couldn’t talk about in detail but I’m sure in this universe, there are physiatrists that are trained to help people who have horrible experiences with metas and all shenanigans. And good on CW for finding a very affordable song “You Gotta Be” to capture Iris’s moment at the meeting. I laughed because it’s so on the nose and yet it was probably the only one they can afford. I’m sure there has to be at least one other song since 1994 that also fits for that moment. Now I just want to see someone re-edit that scene by removing the song and replacing it. Like Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, or that Happy song. Fun episode for how unintentionally funny it was for me. The series….meh.
The other minor laughable moment was Iris’s story and the support group.
Yeah, that whole scene came off wrong, and not just because of the needle drop. I guess the takeaway is Iris’ idea of dealing with her trauma will be running for political office.
I was hoping for a: “Hey, Philipe. I’m Barry. Now lets you and I go back in time and undo you killing that guy with the stabby playing cards. Okay?”
Yes to everything said. CW super shows have a soft spot for forgiving murderous villains. They did the same thing with Black Siren (repeatedly) but even when she (finally) decided to be good only hours after stabbing security guards to death with Shadow Thief.How do you not even give a crumb about deus ex hulkina? Such a WTF moment, on so many levels (pony tale, bad CGI, perplexing homemade Goro costume).I know that bridge is burnt, but The Flash seriously misses Ralph and Sue. They were becoming the best part of last season, they were actually fun, and now it’s back to melodrama. Allegra and Chunk add nothing.
I was really annoyed that the vague future threat Kadabra mentioned, the Chronarch, was pronounced ‘crow-narch’. It’s obviously supposed to rhyme with Monarch, right?
I have no clue who this is supposed to be, so I’ll just have to go with “some kind of giant CGI guy” for now. (Please, feel free to enlighten me in the comments.) If I’m right they’re adapting a fairly recent arc in comics wherein it’s discovered that there are other forces like the Speed Force (in the comic they’re unleashed when Barry and Wally West run so fast they shatter some previously-unestablished-wall inside the SF, whereas in the show it seems that they just come out by those other lightning bolts in the SF’s resurrection) out there that, much like the SF grants speed, grant other powers. One is, as you may have guessed, the Strength Force, which, well *gestures at big Hulk monster*. In the comics, the Strength Force doesn’t make you a mindless Hulk though, they can still talk and reason just like normal. The primary bearer of the strength force is a woman named Alexa from South America, so if that’s her all hulked out, I’m sure they’ll figure out some reason for her (and all the other Force users) to be in Central City.If they are adapting that whole arc I hope they find a new ending because the comic one was bad.
(winner)
That would explain the lightning strikes with different colors. I’m gonna assume Grodd will return as the Still Force?
Whoa, I’m seeing double! Four Caitlins!
I, for one, enjoyed Allegra being promoted to “staff writer” at a two-person news operation. I can only imagine what Iris’s paper looks like. She doesn’t go out reporting, we never see her doing any kind of journalism (leg work, phone calls, internet research), so what does the website publish? I guess she’s as useful on the job as Barry is — and what a shock to see him working this week.
It’s a website: It publishes articles based on articles on other websites, articles that consist of lists of Tweets and articles that talk about what people are Tweeting or posting on Instagram.
10 banana recipes Gorilla Grodd doesn’t want you to know he loves!
Top 10 Lifehacks for Cleaning Up Superhero Caused Destruction10: You’re gonna need more than club soda to get all that super blood out of the carpets, try wood spirits!
Which Speedster are you? Take our online test (Sponsored by Jolt Cola)!!
Yep Iris definitely runs the Buzzfeed of the CWVerse haha!
And they’re currently suing Jitters over trademark issues…
Don’t forget slideshows!
The best part of this was when Iris was in a hurry for the notes because they had to “go to press”. Like she’s got a giant newsprint machine hiding in her office somewhere to print out her blog. Also, they should learn about Google Docs or WordPress or something, you can do collaboration without wasting all that paper and red ink!
Sorry are we watching the same show? Iris got trapped in the Mirrorverse chasing a lead on a story, has been shown multiple times interviewing sources, physically investigating stories, and genuinely working her ass off to get The Citizen off the ground. I have no idea what you’re even talking about.
Plus she was stuck in a mirrorverse for what, months? That site has got to be hemorrhaging numbers.I guess maybe half the articles are Flash interviews and she’s just taking advantage of Barry, the same way Peter Parker gets the best Spider-Man photos or Clark Kent gets a lot of inside scoops on Superman stories.
On the contrary! The site was run by Mirror Iris for months – thanks to her drive, clarity, boldness and organisation, it’s been thriving! Whenever Iris is looking at her computer and seeming upset now, it’s because she’s reading all the comments on the site complaining about how it’s gone downhill now that Real Irish is back…
Between this and Lois’s two-person paper, the Arrowverse’s take on journalism is…well, sadly accurate, I guess.
And yeah, does Barry take some time out of these world-shattering crises to go clock in for a shift of running fingerprints at gas station holdups? I’ve never seen anyone but the 3-4 employees who are also series regulars working at Star Labs; can’t they hire him as a consultant or something? For that matter, what does Star Labs actually do? Does anybody in CC notice that this huge, museum-sized lab campus doesn’t seem to produce anything?
Remember, Barry owns S.T.A.R. Labs (Thawne-Wells left it to him when he “died”). That’s how he got ahold of the Hall of Justice, which was some old S.T.A.R. Labs warehouse. I’m fairly comfortable with the idea that Thawne-Wells had enough patents to keep money coming in to keep the lights on and more than pay a small staff. As for producing nothing, most people probably think they have some ultra-secret government contracts. Plus, god knows what’s in there that may make the building too dangerous to tear down.Yes I thought waaaaay too much about this.
Or maybe people don’t think anything is going on there, since if it was, they would have repaired that roof-fin by now?
Yeah, that roof fin has been bothering me for years.
I knew one of them owned it now, but I forgot that it was apparently Barry. Which honestly makes things even weirder. Imagine if Tesla were similar in size and value but produced nothing, had four employees, and Elon Musk worked a full time job as a local CSI. Sure, the average citizen might not notice immediately, but surely, like, the IRS and local business reporters would be raising some red flags. It’s less about how they support themselves and more just, WTF? Nobody has any questions about that? Is it because their city’s news team is two people running a glorified blog?
Still, gotta admire his work ethic, which I belive both his real parents and Joe instilled in him. And, as a CSI, that’s pretty close to “detective”, which explains why he’s such a Batman fanboy in the “Elseworlds” crossover.
They have worked with the police to develop power neutralizing handcuffs and also developed that meta “cure” that was a big plot point for like… part of a season?
I wonder if Allegra got a raise or any sort of increased benefits.Also who is managing the Wells estate now that Wells is gone? Does Team Flash get a stipend of any kind?
Technically Wells has been “gone” since “Thawne Wells” became a criminal and died, leaving S.T.A.R. Labs and my guess the rest of the estate to Barry (figuring out how to write that nearly gave me a stroke with all the time travel/FlashPoint/Multiverse revisions). So whatever money is in the company and revenue from patents from before 2015 (which you know Thawne-Wells had to have had plenty of) probably helps keep the lights on and pay for the short jaunts to Monaco.
True, it’s just confusing to me then why these guys have normal jobs. Back in S3, H.R. (I think) tried to make the lab into a museum to make money and he seems to be the only one who thought about money lol.
The show used to care about STAR Labs making money, but eventually decided “Who cares?” and never mentions it again.Just like how Barry used to have to eat hugs amounts of food (or protein bars) due to his speed burning off massive amount of calories. Or running at superspeed would ruin normal clothes. Or Barry having to take care not to give someone whiplash when holding onto them and running. The show used to care about all of these. But after awhile, “Ah, why bother?”
I would think that S.T.A.R. Labs would have its own on-site power source, not needing to pay someone else for it. I think that’s how it works at the nuclear lab complex I live near.
What was the Chrono-something Abra Kadabra namedropped?
The Chronarch, a villain from Kadabra’s time period. As I mentioned elsewhere, I always assumed it should rhyme with monarch and ‘crow-narch’ sounds super weird. He’s so obscure I’m having trouble finding an individual listing for him on fan wikis, here’s the page for an issue he’s in.https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/The_Flash_Vol_2_68
I liked the too-literal Argus agent.
Yeah he was a really fun choice to make a super minor one scene character memorable.
What was up with that? I thought for sure he was going to turn out to be a robot or something.
Yeah that was an odd moment with seemingly no payoff.
He was a hologram. Flash said something like “are you for real?” and he replied that he could not confirm or deny that he was a hologram.
I think I had conversations with telemarketing robots that went the same way.
So I guess we can sorta confirm that they took Cisco’s powers away because they don’t want to deal with incorporating it into storylines, due to how overpowered they made it become.
but it could have been so easily remedied by some future tech or him burning out a portion of his powers due to saving barry from something
With no crossover event this year I wonder if the next one, whenever we might get it, will bring Supergirl into it even though her series would be over at that point? Her interactions with the larger team are the best parts of those crossovers and it would be a shame to lose one more chance to see that because her series is ending following a disruption in the shooting schedule that likely stopped whatever the crossover following Crisis would have been.
The name of this show should be the The Flush
Anti-matter bomb that’s gonna blow the entire city will go off in less than an hour and what does Barry do? Take 15 minutes to angst… Good job Barry-bear.
So new villain hinted at is Ronda Rousey?
Glad to see Frost/Caitlin split—hoping for more of Caitlin this season. Will be interested to see how much more of Cavanagh we get, or if he turns into an infrequent guest moving forward.
This Strength Force avatar looked to be Rampage not Fuerza/Powerhouse.
(Rampage doesn’t have anything to do with Flash in the comics, but
neither did King Shark.) Empathetic pep talks kill! This can’t be the
last we see of Abra Kadabra; he hasn’t turned Barry into a marionette
yet! Fortunately he won’t even need to be resurrected for puppet-transmogrification since he’s a time traveler.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2021/03/24/getting-up-to-speed-on-the-flashs-seventh-season
Good point; there’s gotta be many possible futures for an Abra Kadabra to travel back from.As for Kaitlin & Killer Frost being 2 separate people now: does that actress have an identical twin sister we didn’t know about before, or just digital copy/paste in post?
Methinks it’s digital witchcraft.
I thought the PTSD storyline with Iris was good! Glad to see them throwing the character a real bone.Mecha-Vibe is DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBB. They managed to just toss his entire “sacrifice my powers” thing. Oh well. Frankly I’m surprised Cisco’s actor remains with the show, but its a steady paycheck in uncertain times.If the hulk thing is the Strength Force its an even dumber concept than it was in the comics. My word. Plus theres no way the show will be able to afford CGIing that thing constantly. Heck they could barely seem to afford to render Savitar at times!
We went from this villain gruesomely murdering a random guy in the beginning of the episode to the villain “dying a hero”. It was cool seeing the Barry speech talking down the villain of the week but all I could think of was that murder. They’re talking at the end about where to go from here and I’m like JAIL FOR MURDER! Ah well, it helped that he died.
Team Flash keeps doing this. In the last episode, they just let Eva go back to the Mirrorverse, when she *also* should have been in jail for murder. I’m guessing they either forgot, or thought “her husband was a dick anyway, who cares”…
OK, we need to see more of that not-She-Hulk that whacked Abra next week!
Barry and Iris either don’t know or don’t care that you can’t just show up in a country. Then again, Barry broke a guy out of prison and whisked him away to China, so I shouldn’t be surprised.