The production team throws everything but coherent storytelling at the concluding episode of the Forces saga, a barrage of psychedelic light shows and plot twists that get untwisted almost immediately. It’s an unsatisfying wrap-up to a story arc that never really satisfied in the first place. The fact that it all comes down to another “All You Need Is Love” ode to family is just the sickly sweet icing on an under-baked cake.
Attempting to recap these shenanigans is a daunting task, but here goes nothing. Following last week’s cliffhanger ending, in which Iris, Bashir, and Alexa all appeared to be murdered by Nora and Dion, we immediately learn that it was all a Psyche-induced illusion. It won’t fool Nora for long, though, so in order to protect the not-dead trio, Barry whisks them to the dead Speed Force of the past, which takes the shape of a dusty, cobwebbed version of the home Iris and Barry grew up in. (How nice to get this reminder of the somewhat problematic origins of their relationship.) Bashir and Alexa don’t want to stay, however, so Psyche uses another illusion to trick Iris into giving up the device that will let them back to the present reality. Well, that was fun while it lasted!
The whole episode is like this. Everything that happens is undone a few seconds later. Nora, who gets increasingly Gothed-up as the episode goes along, threatens to destroy the city unless Barry brings her Force siblings to her. A huge lightning storm engulfs Central City, purple lightning strikes Cecile and puts her in a coma, and the walls of Iron Heights are breached, allowing dozens of meta criminals to escape. Except Nora didn’t do any of this; somehow the other three Forces caused the storm, because they’re the real bad guys. But wait a minute! Nah, actually, Nora is still the real Big Bad. Or is she?
I can’t untangle this mess anymore than Chester and Cisco can, so let’s leave it to Joe West, who has been sulking ever since he turned in his badge last week. He manages to snap out of it in time to deliver another pep talk as Iris and Barry are berating themselves for being bad “parents.” Joe points out that parents can’t solve every problem, and that it takes a family to protect a family. He’s been giving this speech since the early days, when he was urging Team Flash to work as a family, but these lessons never sink in. They always dissipate before the next episode starts, and there’s always another pep talk around the corner.
The frenzied climax of this arc packs in more special effects than the entire season so far, but there’s not much special about them. The big battle of the Forces takes place in a videogame hellscape and plays like a cutscene, but the conflict isn’t resolved until Dion uses the Still Force to give Nora a taste of life in an empty Central City. It doesn’t take long for her to break down and realize she doesn’t want to live alone forever, leading to a union of the Forces just in time to help Barry stop the destruction of Central City. They all go to live in a happy cloud together, and I only wish I was kidding.
Speaking of family, Frost is back! In perhaps the week’s weirdest development, she engages in flirt-fighting with bartender Mark, a.k.a. escaped meta Chillblaine. Later she shows up at Caitlin’s place to tell her she has a crush and oh, by the way, she’s now out on probation. What? After all that? Her life sentence without the possibility of parole is now over in a matter of days? It all feels completely pointless, and yet perfectly suited to an episode where nothing that happens has any lasting consequences.
Stray observations
- All the talk of Barry and Iris as parents to the Forces makes them eager to try the real thing, “I love that impulse,” says Barry as Iris heads to the bedroom, and yes, that’s a hint. Another future child of Barry and Iris, Bart Allen, will be zipping into the picture in the second half of the season as the speedster Impulse.
- Kristen Kramer doesn’t make an appearance in this episode, but having a bunch of metahuman criminals escape from Iron Heights would seem to be a big boost for her cause, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing her soon.
- The Flash returns in two weeks for what looks to be the Cisco Ramon farewell episode. Unless he changes his mind again.
84 Comments
So Nora, Barry’s mother-daughter…also wants to be his wife?The Flash, please stop with this Frost and Chillblaine storyline. It’s just gross. He tried to kill her. He doesn’t take no for an answer. He’s constantly on her to date him, trying to wear her down. And the worst thing is that you’re portraying it as Frost kind of liking it.I’ve been waiting for a storyline in which Barry has no good outcome. This episode almost came there, and then wimped out.Another Joe pep-talk?That Jitters scene was fairly cute. I’m not feeling that Allegra/Chester moment, but I don’t have anything against it.And just like that, Frost is out…but will the agent lady just let it lie?
Well, the episode went out of its way to remind us that Iris is both Barry’s wife and his sister. So… Barry’s daughter wanting to be his wife is not out of keeping for the show.
Well I am glad Frost is back. Her sentence was ridiculous and unconstitutional anyway. And it isn’t like Chillblaine is that much worse than Caitlin’s other love interests. I guess. So Cisco is going to take a job with ARGUS? Maybe he will run their base on Atlantis If I was married to Cecile I would stay by her side, too
Cecile has always been the #1 Arrowverse babe
I love all of the Flash babes, but definitely none more than Cecile, even though the show usually gives her nothing more to do than be direly hurt for unclear reasons and be pined over by JoeShe deserves more
When they exorcised the Reverse Flash from Nash Wells, she brought holy water and a wooden stake, just in case it turned into a vampire situation, too. How can anyone not love her after that?
That’s “Former DA Cecile Horton” to you and everybody.
So the sequence of events for Frost is:1. Get a ridiculously harsh sentence. (I can’t remember, was it it 10 years? 20? Life?)2. Break out of jail a few weeks into the enormous sentence.3. Beat up one criminal.4. Parole.
I don’t remember if Ollie had roughly the same sequence?
She told Caitlin she had beat up a dozen criminals we just didn’t see it all on screen which is good because that would have gotten tedious.
I mean, not wrong- but they did say that she helped round up more than one escapee. That was just the one they showed.
Frost tells Caitlin that after she “broke out” she stopped a dozen escaped metas and turned them in. So it wasn’t just “one criminal”.
Ridiculous, sure, I’ll agree, but a lot of that is because the show is hoisting itself up on its own petards constantly.
Unconstitutional? Yeah…. no. Not even close.SCOTUS, here in the real world, just put life without the possibility of parole back on the table for children. Children without superpowers, even. Not even crappy ones! None at all!It is not even a live judicial controversy to sentence a laundry-list adult defendant to life without parole, so long as they’ve got at least one really heinous felony in there, or they trigger subsequent-offender enhancements; failing both of those, the judiciary can also lay down a series of consecutive sentences that, for all intents and purposes, ends up being life without the realistic possibility of parole before death from old age.
And again: real world. No superpowers involved.
She was an effective Big Bad, but I have to say that I like Nora, Barry & Iris’s daughter from the future, and also Nora Darhk, both significantly more than Nora, the Speed Force who is also the reincarnation of Barry’s mother for some reason.
Nora is definitely only the fourth-best Nora in this franchise.But weirdly, there’s so far only been one Martha?
And Superman & Lois killed her off in the first episode!
I predicted the Frost thing when she was sentenced, but thought it would take until the season finale. Whatever, the whole thing was stupid. So was the Forces thing; that “family” angle just sounded so dumb, and made no sense, when it had the potential to be a cool, cosmic story. I keep watching out of obligation but, man, it’s hard.
You know, I think I’m ready to call it, this is the worst this series has ever been.I hate literally everything about this season. I tried so hard to make excuses because of the COVID-affected nature of this season’s production but I am just out. At this point I am not going to quit the show, but it’s not because I think they can turn it around, it’s pure sunk cost fallacy.
See, while I agree with all the criticisms of this storyline, I don’t think it’s the worst The Flash has ever been, purely because it’s not boring, as the show has sunk into being in the past. It may be incredibly, INCREDIBLY stupid now, but I’ll take that over dull.
I disagree. If it’s dull, you can look away and not pay attention until something interesting happens. If it’s actively, offensively shit, you can’t escape without turning it off entirely…
Glad I bailed in season 3 tbh.
As dumb as the plots are, it’s still better than Savitar IMO. The full season fakeout plot was so frustrating. At least this is half a season and fairly straight-forward low-stakes superhero nonsense.
Wrong
The Covid stuff is, I suspect, doing huge damage. The cast is overstuffed to the point that Camille and Allegra, for example, have done nothing of consequence all season, but since they can’t all be in the same room at the same time, people are getting these siloed off subplots that don’t really contribute and sometimes actively hurt the show. Frost got out of jail with a shrug and now is now dating a shirtless street magician or something, but if Panabaker wasn’t in this episode at all, nothing important would have to change.
Meanwhile, the “the forces are our children!” metaphor seems pretty forced since three of the four of them already had lives and identities before they caught a piece of the universe. More importantly, it means the emotional stakes of the primary plot don’t involve the main cast except for Barry and Iris (sort of), instead revolving mostly around these undercooked guest stars. All the characters with any history or dimension are off doing their own thing while the Flash works out the A-story with the guest stars.
One of the dullest, most unoriginal Flash stories and concepts in the comics in like over two decades, combined with the least energized Flash season ever(even without taking COVID into account, honestly). Who could’ve seen this coming.
Holy shit I really don’t know if I have any damn clue what in the hell happened in this episode. I was hoping this recap would help but wow ok it was a jumbled incomprehensible mess and I wasn’t just not paying attention.
I feel you.
I just wanted to announce to anyone who bothers to read this that of this week I finally dropped this fucking show from my rotation. Judging by this week’s score, it was a good idea. Honestly, I didn’t know why I tortured myself with it for so many years. I heard it’s a common occurrence, to hatewatch this show. I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to wait and hope for, like, one or two decent episodes a season, like the 90’s episode earlier in the season, which was good mostly cause it was a break of format. I hate Barry, I hate their platitudes, I hate the “let’s keep secrets from each other – oh no, that failed – let’s not do it anymore – let’s do it again” circular storytelling, I hate how they casually played out the “billionaires ain’t all bad” storyline last week like it’s an ok thing to do, I hate how some of the Wells’ alternatives are just tired, dated, out of touch caricatures, I hate how hard it’s trying to be fun without knowing how to be fun, and that’s just few of the things that I cannot stand about it anymore.I know that no one cares if I watch a show or not, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.
Yeah, after hate-watching the past few seasons of The Flash, I finally bailed at the start of this one. So I definitely see/support your decision. Now I’m wondering whether to bother catching up with the current seasons of Black Lightning, Supergirl and Batwoman, or if I should just rid my watchlist of the entire Arrowverse (aside from Legends, which is actually worth watching).
I’m sticking with Supergirl till the end cause it’s just a few more episodes to go and it’s been somewhat more fun – if, still, rather in the Berlanti “are we having fun yet?” kind of way.Batwoman has been watchable cause it’s somewhat dark-ish in the early-Arrow kind of way. Still bogged down by soap though.As for Legends… I kinda feel that they’ve been slipping this season. Nowhere as bad as season one but it feels like the burden of being the only critically supported show in the Arrowverse has been weighing on them. Like, they really want to hang on to this feeling of campy fun they stumbled upon seemingly by accident. Also there’s something to say about them having the exact same lead character arc as Supergirl.
Legends started slipping last season, honestly.
I disagree: Legends S5 was much better than S4 (with its surfeit of Gary and Mona and the whole confused Heyworld anticlimax thing).
Also there’s something to say about them having the exact same lead character arc as Supergirl.I never noticed this before. Now I wish we could somehow get Quinton to work with Sara and help her escape.
Not sure if you count it as Arrowverse, but Superman and Lois has been pretty good (I haven’t seen this week’s yet).
I’m enjoying Supergirl and Batwoman, although the latter pissed me the fuck off. I’m watching Legends until the gotdamn wheels fall off because I love that ragtag bunch of misfits so much.
Yeah, Supergirl is looking like a keeper at this point. Helps that it’s coming to an end.
I’m glad it’s going out on its own terms.
Supergirl always feels like it sticks the landing even if some of the lead up is weak. Flash seems beholden to its cliches and unwilling to break free of them at this point.
Get rid of them. Watch One Punch Man or Invincible or the DCAU.
I’m still watching it almost entirely because there’s almost nothing else on at the moment that I’m watching…
I just cant give up on the show. Everytime I try I wind up coming back in an episode or two. I can’t get over remembering how good it was in S1-2. But I totally respect your decision. The show is PAINFUL to watch right now
I’m come here for the kinja snark, and then I watch the episode. I think it’s more enjoyable that way.
I fell off at some point in S3, after falling off Arrow towards the end of S4.Nothing I’ve heard about either show in the years since gives me any xezire to change that.
That’s because neither of them climbed back to the ‘not great, but enjoyable’ levels of the first couple seasons.So many better genre shows out there.
It’s all down to the lack of Manu Bennett, haha
To be fair, they have a lot of limitations against them. They’re on a network with a low budget and lots of restrictions, they don’t have a set end date, etc…it would indeed be very hard for any writers’ room to write 170 episodes about the freaking Green Arrow (not much source material tbh) and keep it fresh and exciting the whole time.The Flash has plenty though. There’s no reason for it to be as bad it is/has been since midway through S2.
Do you know who could have made it interesting, the whole time?Manu Bennett!
I’ll keep watching it because there’s nothing else on TV and because at least the chicks are hot.
I’ve been watching mostly out of habit now. Up until this season I was hanging on by a thread because it was positioned as the central point of all crossovers. With Arrow gone and Black Lightning gone, I can’t say there’s much for me to care about crossover-wise moving forward. But I’ve invested this much in the season already and truly enjoy the comic incarnation of Impulse, so I’m going to stick around for him. But this season is likely to be my last.Unless they announce next season is the final season. Then I’ll just see it out the door…
I’ve hatewatched flash and supergirl now for at least 3-4 years. What happened to this show? It used to be so awesome
I didn’t think this was absolutely horrible, but it’s also quite representative of the declining quality the series has become (especially compared to tonight’s Superman & Lois). Lot of pseudo-science babble, lot of people standing around at STAR Labs, lots of heavy-handed pep talks. Joe’s become a parody of himself at this point. Not having read the comics arc, I think there were some good ideas here that were underdeveloped; Either Chester or Cisco calls the Forces gods tonight and I wish they’d focused more on the ‘squabbling gods’ aspect as opposed to the human avatars and Barry and Iris as pseudo-parental figures. The Frost/Chillblaine stuff was downright embarrassing, and I wonder why they felt the need to tie it up so quickly. I know Eric Wallace calls these ‘graphic novels’ to split the season, but even graphic novels have long-running subplots across volumes.The big battle of the Forces takes place in a videogame hellscape and plays like a cutsceneI totally thought they were going to bust into a turn-based RPG battle when that happened.
Not going to argue with the grade. Hopefully next episode will pull a head-fake and reveal Frost is into a totally different bartender. I think the writing and production team fell too in love with scene construction where what’s true at the beginning of a scene is the opposite by the end – and furthermore confused that with “keeping you on your toes” drama: The other forces are evil! (So they have to act menacing with Iris for a bit) Then – Ope! – they’re not, they’re good. … Iris gets up from the couch – Barry just hit on her! She looks put off. Then – Ope! – (dramatic pause) she’s into it. Yeah, there were like 5 other reversals. One to hit before every commercial break.So, anyway. Best was the shock cut from the battle into the dead silence of the abandoned city. Nora acted the heck out of that scene. My mind wanders and I always feel empathy toward actresses who have to mime shooting lightening bolts or growl like they’re about to turn into hulks or werewolves or whatnot. So my heart goes out to them.I still like the actors. Alexa was hot. Freckles. Great hair. I liked her new superhero-ish shirt in the last scene. Her, and the actors who played Dion and Bashir, all deserve bigger roles on other shows. I tend to think they’ll all be back as part of some Deus Ex Machina at the end of the season.
Kayla Compton has very intense eyebrows.
The Twelfth Doctor would like to have a word with you.
Alexa Rivera/ actress Sara Garcia has that Barclay Stockett thing going on that just melts my heart.Allegra/ actress Kayla Compton, I agree, has killer eyebrows.
I misread Alexa as Allegra. This story arc arc rotted my brain right out.
I’m not out, but I’m damned if I can figure out what this show is doing any more than the showrunners can. I don’t mind the idea of not having a Big Bad or having every episode end in a fistfight, but it feel like every plot this season has been “come up with an stupid and insolvable problem, not know what to do with it, and fix by having someone telling Barry to tell the villain that he wants to help them.” It’s not just repetitious, it’s dull. Hopefully, Bart’s inherent wackiness will provide some levity and relief, but if he turns out to be as annoying as Nora, there’s really nothing left for this show.
I still don’t understand why the S-Forces tried to destroy the Speed Force as soon as they were born.
The Speed Force goes full Dark Willow. She suddenly decides to live with the S-avatars because she fears loneliness more?
I expected to detest Chillblain, but this himbo is kind of affable?
The annoying thing is, Dark Willow’s fashion sense made sense. Her look is the culmination of six seasons of characterisation – it makes sense that an evil Willow would choose to look like that. Dark Nora is just… “well, she’s evil, so I guess she must be a Goth now, right?” – it’s so fucking lazy.
My kingdom for someone competent to run this show. The whole family metaphor w/r/t the Forces was absolutely ridiculous. 3/4 were actual normal human adults with actual normal human lives and suddenly we’re treating them like Barry and Iris’s children? Including the one as old as time who, and I cannot stress this enough, looks and acts like his dead mom????I’m also baffled that, after finally getting to know the Forces as people (and Ennis Esmer finally getting to take off that damn mask, which reminds me I still need to watch the last season of Blindspot) they’ve now all ascended to a different plane of existence never to be seen again. They actually managed to get decent actors for this nonsense and then gave them fuck-all to work with. And you know what? The brief mention of Patty Spivot last episode (or whatever episode it was) reminded me that they’ve been pulling this nonsense for six fucking years. At least back then we could blame it on Kriesberg taking petty revenge on actresses.With Black Lightning and Supergirl wrapping it up, all we’re gonna be left with is this show, Batwoman, and however many more seasons of Legends we’re lucky enough to get (which, with its Wile E. Coyote running-off-a-cliff-before-he-looks-down zaniness, always feels like a fragile thing). I’m sincerely hoping for some kind of serious revival in the future, because if story arcs like this are all that’s left in the tank it might be time to put it out of its misery.*I know Superman and Lois is technically Arrowverse, but so far it seems pretty embarrassed by that fact, despite the fact that both leads originated there.
Stargirl is also Arrowverse, and I’ve heard that they’re going to crossover this season.
I know Superman and Lois is technically Arrowverse, but so far it seems pretty embarrassed by that fact, despite the fact that both leads originated there.The showrunner says they had references to the other shows, but they were cut for time, because of COVID, and for other non-sinister reasons.
Lol Joe “what are we going to do pray to them?”
I still can’t believe the writers made an active choice to have Flash refer to the humans embodying the Forces he created as his sons and daughters. One of them is played by the actress who plays his mom! So is she his mother-daughter
So Barry’s mother/daughter was jealous of his sister/wife? I really wish someone would have sat them down to explain that they are not your literal children, you fucking freaks.
His outfit is trying to swallow his head!
This episode was SO BAD.First of all, they need to stop trying to make Chillblaine happen. Frost is reformed and nice now, so why does she have to be hooked up with this date rape on legs? Also, can we just not with Crunk & Allegra? We don’t have to pair up everyone!Did they ever explain why Psyche’s lightning zorched Cecile or were we meant to forget that when the Nora’s bad/Nora’s good/Nora’s bad shell game was going down?We’ve now wrapped up two big bads this season with the power of love. I hope Huey Lewis is getting royalties.Frost said “chill out” when she knocked out Mark. Barry said “I like that Impulse” when they were about to go fuck Impulse into existence. I sentence the writers to 30 lashes of Psyche lightning and being sent back to their high school prom nights by Dion.I hope the last 7 episodes introduce a love-proof big bad, like a big robot or something. Oh, who am I kidding, they’d probably find a way to make the robot swoon over ChillMark’s abs too.
This plot was PURE trash. The whole Barry/Iris as “parents” thing was sick- did the Speed Force want to sleep with Barry or be his mom or be his child? No wonder Cavenaugh and Valdes want out of the show so badly.The ONLY thing that gives me any hope for this show at ALL is the news that next season is going to open with a bunch of teamups with other heroes. THAT is the direction this show needs to turn in its final year or two- retool into more of a “Brave and the Bold” format with Flash teaming up with other heroes for multi-episode arcs. Not major show-wide crossovers, just teamups on 2-4 episode arcs. Black Lightning, Supergirl, hell some of the former Arrow heroes even. Oh and Stargirl too. As we near the end, bring back Oliver and have Barry and Ollie do a version of “Hard Traveling Heroes” from the GL/GA comics teamup. 6 episode arc. Then we end the show with Thawne coming back and killing Iris, sparking Barry to kill him and then go to the future to live with some other time traveling version of Iris.
It’s like it all fell apart as soon as they pulled Arrow out of the house of cards that was the Arrowverse.
This episode just really felt totally emblematic of all the real issues this show has. Nothing that happens actually matters because they’ll either reverse it in the next scene, or they’ll totally forget the lessons they learned from it by the next episode. Pair all that with their insistence on doing two big bad’s per season and we end up burning through story so quickly, but none of it actually resonating…
Ever since this arc started, a massive inconsistency has been bothering me.
If Barry channels the Speed Force, is its vessel if you will, then Nora is its personification.That makes Deon, Bashir and Alexa the same as Barry, NOT Nora. So where were the Speed Force lightning storms during Barry’s life as the Flash? How can Bashir, Deon and Alexa just give up their normal lives to live in the ForceCloud?Here’s hoping the show manages to rediscover what makes it fun and, you know, not-sucky on the start of the next arc.
This episode was bad and the arc was bad. And everytime someone says the word “lightning rod” in relation to Iris I cringe myself inside out.
I miss when this show was good.
The whole parental aspect of the Forces might actually be the thing that breaks me from this show. It was so overly hamfisted and trite. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t established as people who are just possessed by the power and not entirely new entities that Barry and Iris created. It was a metaphor that the show decided to make an actual thing and god forbid they let you forget it because they wouldn’t shut up about referencing the familial part.
Speaking of horrible dialouge, the Killer Frost vs Whogivesadamn fight was attroticious. Just full of the same “You like me, right?” “No, I don’t!” banter over and over. This is how Frost’s arc ends?
The whole parental aspect of the Forces might actually be the thing that breaks me from this show. It was so overly hamfisted and trite. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t established as people who are just possessed by the power and not entirely new entities that Barry and Iris created. It was a metaphor that the show decided to make an actual thing and god forbid they let you forget it because they wouldn’t shut up about referencing the familial part.
Sweet Beebo’s Chin Fur but that was bad. Not even Goth Mom Speed Force could save it. Can we Bobby Ewing this whole season?
I feel like I’m usually the person thinking that the episode grades should be higher. But honestly a C- feels incredibly generous. This may have been one of the absolute worst episodes the show has ever had.
Even when Arrow was at it’s absolute worst, I remember thinking it was too slow and too frustrating how the characters were acting. But like people be dumb, so its technically plausible.
Legends at it’s worse just felt clunky and like they didn’t really know what stories to tell with the characters they had.
But this episode was just BAD writing AND directing.
In a different episode that Caitlin subplot of the flirt fighting may have worked but it was just completely different in tone from the rest of the episode. Especially for something that feels like a would-be midseason finale, it felt super forced in. I didn’t even understand what the hot dude she had a crush on was stealing or why. And we don’t even get a hint of her catching any other metas.
Like all of this aside from the fact that she was literally sentenced to life without parole and boom its undone??? Also, how does “a good word from the Flash” come in handy now? She was literally on trial and they didn’t care about all the good she did and what the Flash had to say. None of this makes any logical sense.
Which honestly, isn’t even a deal breaker. Legends skirts around logic more than enough.
What is frustrating is that it completely undoes the emotions viewers went through with the entire prison sentence storyline. There’s no pay off for the viewers. There’s no growth or story. It’s just a magic wand.
And obviously the C plot of show had a tendency to not be the strongest, but I really think it’s the most frustrating thing that the show did that. It literally felt like everyone writing and running The Flash went on vacay this week and they let a teenager failing english run the show.
I’m happy this seasons plot is nicely wrapped up, because I was over it and I’m hoping we can just move the F on. But truly this was awful storytelling in so many ways.
Also what the hell was up with the order of things. First Cecil is hit by a lightening strike, but we don’t find out til later that its the whole city. And then we just skip ahead and Caitlyn and Bartender dude have already escaped and been out long enough that he had time to steal something? and then Nora threatens the city, but it’s not with the lightening strike that’s happening currently, she’s actually sad about that? But she’s also not going to help at all.
NOTHING MAKES SENSE.
I’m very disappointed in what’s happened to this show. It’s so rare that I quit watching a show. I once finished 7 seasons of a show where I started rooting for the cancellation in season 4. (I wanted a wrapped up ending, I just didn’t want more episodes.) And the rare times I do stop watching a show I usually at least finish the season.
But honestly, I think I may just stop here with The Flash.
Technically every storyline is wrapped up and all the characters are happy right now. Even if we got here in the most confusing, dumb way possible. We are at a rare point where basically there is no loose threads.
Cisco is about to move away but like if I end here its just Team Flash being happy. Cisco and Camilla in love. Caitlyn and Frost reunited. Joe’s a little sad about not being a cop but he’ll be fine and he has Cecile and a new baby anyways. Barry and Iris are happy and in love and about to start a family.
It’s rare that a show actually wraps up everything so well cuz usually they want you turning in next week. But I feel like the only thing I would tune in for is the Cisco goodbye episode and I don’t know if I even want that.
I can’t say for sure. I tend to be a glutton for punishment. But this may be the perfect time to stop watching the show. It’s just so disappointing that this is what has become of The Flash.
To quote Robert Plant, “Does anyone remember laughter?” What happened to our fun, sunny, and quick-witted The Flash? Greg, this isn’t Arrow, OK? Now move your head.
I just came to say I love this review it is so accurate and gave me the best laugh 🤣💯
Fuerza is Alexa Antigone in the comics but Alexa Rivera here.
Is she a different person in this continuity like Cicada? Unless she is
intended to be the same person with a different surname like Zari
Tomaz/Terazi?
So… I haven’t watched this season yet, actually I think I stopped seriously watching somewhere on the season with their ridiculous future daughter, I think I watched some of last season because of the crossover.. Oh well..I honestly do not remember.
Anyway, since I have Netflix and I can binge-watch it there, is this season any good?
So far I enjoy Superman and Lois (quite a pleasant surprise) and Supergil, although this season is meh but hey it is a show I liked and on its final episodes.
I gave up of Batwoman because is not really my thing and haven’t watched yet the latest Legends which I usually love.
As lousy and nonsensical as this arc has been (despite some entertaining character work), I must admit it brings me some measure of comfort to come to the AV Club comments section and find that everybody else was just as exasperated and bewildered at the asinine conceit of Barry and Iris having parental feelings (and vice versa) toward three grown people who happened to be possessed by cosmic forces. And a straight up cosmic force who, for reasons never fully explained, took on the physical form of Barry’s dead mother, which the characters validated by calling her “Nora.” Ugh.
I’m not out, but I can see why some of you are. When the Flash’s story arcs get bad, the redeeming quality for me is the characters, whom I enjoy spending time with, generally. This particularly bad arc was a test of that. I really hope the introduction of Bart can bring some fresh energy. Did the actor who plays Wally just quit altogether? When his story went nowhere on Legends, I didn’t imagine he’d be gone-gone. I thought he’d be back for big Flash events. I miss him, and more recently, I miss the Dibnys…you’re telling me they couldn’t have re-cast Ralph? He IS a shapeshifter, after all. And I liked Sue! With the loss of Wells and now theoretically Cisco, too, the supporting cast is gonna need a major revamp. Runk and Allegra are not exactly a deep bench for Caitlin/Frost at STAR Labs. I’m glad Frost isn’t written out. Even if the reversal of her sentence was wildly contrived, her sentence was wildly contrived in the first place, so I do not care. Let me add my voice to the chorus of HARD NOs with respect to Chillblaine. They could do so much better with a love interest for Frost. Also, while I like the Frost and Caitlin are two physically different people thing, this only makes me think of what a more fertile story it would have been if they had done Frost having a love interest while they were in the same body (something fellow CW show Nancy Drew has been grappling with this season, actually). It actually would have been a solid motivation for the separation.
Hey, why does STAR Labs still exist? How do Cisco and Caitlin make money, and what does the public think STAR Labs does? It’s almost embarrassing to be asking this after all these seasons, but I genuinely have no clue how that is a viable living when they are basically just the Flash support staff, which the public presumably has no idea about.
Oh Christ, Allegra seemingly only exists to give pep talks now. But giving a pep talk to Joe to get him out of a funk to give his own pep talk was almost Inception-like. I’m going to start knocking back whiskey every time there’s a pep talk, so I expect to be alcoholic approximately three episodes from now. Pep! Pep! Pep!I think the only thing less coherent than this episode was Transformers: Age of Extinction. At least this one looked pretty! I have to say, though. If Nora, being the speed force, really wanted to stop Barry, who takes his power from the speed force, ie. her, why didn’t she just…take his powers off him? She could have even zapped him with lightning to do it and shouted “You’re grounded!” like a proper angry mum who loves a good pun.All of this is to say, I look forward to how ridiculous The Flash is when it returns.
I will not take this Age of Extinction slander. It’s the best out of the live action movies!
Is anyone else having trouble finding AV Club reviews by season? The season option isn’t there for me anymore and it’s kind of annoying trying to find episodes that way.