It's the Season 7 premiere of The Flash! Well, sort of.
To recap: Season 6 of the series was originally meant to consist of 22 episodes. Unfortunately that whole "Viral Pandemic/End Of The World" thing popped up, throwing a monkey wrench into the plan.
Due to the worldwide lockdown in March of 2020, production of The Flash was forced to shut down before Season 6 was finished. According to showrunner Eric Wallace, they'd shot about 90% of Episode 20 when The CW gave the order to suspend filming. This meant that Success Is Assured (Episode 19) had to serve as a makeshift season finale— one without a clear and definite ending.
And yes, I realize that in light of all the horrific results of the Covid pandemic— over 500,000 Americans dead, an economy in shambles and millions out of work— a TV show not getting to film its season finale is hardly a tragedy. It still stinks that it happened though.
Sadly, All's Wells That Ends Wells doesn't feel like a typical season premiere, as it's more like a filler episode. That's because it was originally meant to be Episode 20 of Season 6, which explains why it's seems so stilted and disjointed.
I don't know about anyone else, but I just want this whole Mirror Master/Mirroverse storyline to end already. It feels like it's been going on for a year or more, and I'm bored with it. I doubt I'm the only one who feels that way.
And lastly— SPOILERS, I guess— this episode also gives us the death of a major character: Nash Wells. Actually it ends up killing off several all at once, as ALL the various Wellses die this week— including Harry, HR and more. Jeez, what is this, The Walking Dead?
Unfortunately Nash's demise was a complete washout, in my opinion. His death might have felt more poignant if Team Flash had actually been there to say goodbye to him. Where the hell were Cisco and Caitlin? They really needed to be there, and their absence is inexcusable.
OK, enough with the intro. On with the review.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
At STAR Labs, Cisco's still on his walkabout or whatever and Frost is still off with her mother, which leaves Chester P. Runk to hold down the fort. An alarm sounds, indicating Eva McCulloch, aka Mirror Master, is up to no good again. Chester opens a Cyro Pod, where Barry's apparently been keeping himself in order to preserve what little Speed Force energy he has left (!). Barry suits up and takes off.
We then see Eva, who can move through mirrors and other reflective surfaces, as she travels inside the windows of various Central City skyscrapers. I know, just go with it. Eva stops and once again tells Barry to stop with the chasing, as they're on the same side. He demands she return Iris to him as he attempts to punch her. She easily avoids his blow, commenting that her "fractal photons" can move faster than light. She then zooms away before Barry can follow.
Eva arrives at a warehouse owned by her late husband Joseph Carver (who she murdered last season). She says her goal is to cleanse the city of everything related to Black Hole, Carver's secret organization. Inside the warehouse she encounters Sam Scudder, the original Mirror Master, and his partner Rosa Dillon, aka the Top.
Eva fires a blast at Scudder, which shatters him into a million pieces. A distraught Rosa wails over his remains, but Eva tells her that Scudder was secretly one of her mirror duplicates (?). She then zips away just as Barry finally arrives.
Cut to Iris, who's enjoying a lovely meal with Barry. Everything seems perfect— a little too perfect. Suddenly Iris clutches her head in pain, and Barry disappears. She realizes she's still stuck in the Mirrorverse.
At CCPD, Barry tells Joe & Cecile that Eva's targeting Black Hole sites. Cecile asks how much speed Barry has left, and he says just a few hours. Cecile, who's Rosa's defense attorney, says she'll try to find out the location of the remaining Black Hole sites, so they'll know where Eva will strike next.
Back at STAR, Nash Wells and Chester continue working on a way to generate an artificial Speed Force. Barry arrives and they tell him they can't figure out how to permanently power the device. Barry & Chester go out for coffee, leaving Nash alone. Once again he begins hallucinating various versions of Harrison Wells who were destroyed in the Crisis.
Four different Wellseseses appear, including Harry, HR, Sherloque and a new one, Harrison Orson Wells, who's a film director (oy). They tell him they've cracked the fuel problem— they can use their multidimensional particles to power the Artificial Speed Force. All they need is an organic receptor— namely Nash. There's just one small problem... doing so will kill Nash. He says he's not about to die yet and storms out.
Eva sits at her desk, remembering how how her husband Joseph said she wasn't even human (Plot Point!). She stares at a video of herself from the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion and starts to play it, but stops. She sees a photo of herself with Joseph and smashes it.
Elsewhere, Cecile tries to get Rosa to talk. Rosa says Scudder handled all the details, but Cecile reads her mind and realizes she's lying. A change comes over Rosa, as she says her powers don't just give people vertigo, they can also affect emotions (?). She demonstrates by filling Cecile with self-doubt before releasing her. Rosa then boasts that SHE was the brains of the outfit, and says her next mission will "blow the city away."
Back at STAR, Nash tries to figure out how to power the Speed Force generator without dying. Allegra brings Nash some coffee (I thought she hated him?), saying it's nice to see him caring about someone besides her. Nash realizes she's the answer.
Nash gathers the others in the lab and says Allegra can use her powers to blast the multiversal particles out of his body and into the Speed Force generator sphere. Chester says the energy will be unstable, but Nash insists Allegra's powers can somehow contain it. Comic Book Science!
Allegra blasts away at Nash, and we see the energy flow from within him into the sphere. Allegra then ignites the sphere, which is somehow supposed to contain the energy. Unfortunately the power levels become unstable, and she warns she can't hold it much longer. A huge blast of energy emanates from the sphere, as Barry shoves Allegra out of the way. He's hit with the full force of the blast and promptly collapses onto the floor.
The others revive Barry, and are shocked when he begins speaking French. Nash realizes Barry's mind has been taken over by the residual energy of Sherloque Wells. Barry then begins speaking like HR, and then Wells The Grey.
Allegra blames herself for the snafu, and Nash tells her to blast the particles out of Barry and back into him. Just then Barry goes into convulsions and collapses again.
In the Mirrorverse, Iris tries to send an email to Kamilla. Mirror Iris (who's supposed to be dead) appears and tells her to knock it off. She tells Iris that her mind is broken from exposure to the Mirrorverse. Iris then begins hallucinating clips from past episodes, in which she was always a victim. She runs into an office and locks the door behind her.
Mirror Iris appears in the office anyway, and says she has two options— survival or madness. Somehow Iris realizes this isn't her mirror clone. She concentrates, and Mirror Iris vanishes. Eva then appears in a mirror to taunt her, and Iris says she must be distracting her so she can't escape. She punches the mirror and Eva's image disappears.
At STAR, Chester examines Barry and says his mind is overloading from all the brain patterns contained inside it. He says the only thing keeping him alive is his speed healing. Once he runs out of Speed Force energy, he'll die.
Chester says they need some sort of organic receptor. Allegra says Nash was studying them earlier, and demands to know why he didn't mention them. Nash says because he's the only logical receptor and he doesn't want to die. For some reason she's then mad at him for lying or something, and accuses him of "not changing." I'm honestly too tired to try and understand her thought process here.
Nash goes to the Medbay as Barry wakes. He tells Barry he doesn't understand why, out of all the Wellses, HE'S the one who got to live. He says the others were all much better people than he is. Barry/Wells tells him there's a good man inside him somewhere.
Back at CCPD, Cecile tricks Rosa into telling her what her big plan is. She finds out a supersonic jet carrying tons of Black Hole weaponry is heading toward Central City. Rosa's planted a bomb on the plane, and if it detonates, bye bye downtown. She and Joe alert Barry, but worry that he won't be fast enough to stop the plane.
At STAR, Chester & Allegra (?) cobble together a device that'll funnel the multiverse energy out of Barry and back into Nash. Allegra powers it up, and the device does just that. Now back to normal, Barry confirms he doesn't have enough speed to stop the approaching plane.
Nash makes a decision and grabs onto the sphere. Immediately his hands begin glowing as the energy of all the Wellses begins flowing out of his body and into the sphere. Barry pleads with him to stop, but Nash says they need the Flash more than they do him. Nash says for the first time in his life he feels proud of something.
The various Wellses all manifest and say goodbye to Barry as they're funneled into the sphere. Harry's the last to go, and tells Barry he showed him how to be a better person. Of course he says, "Run, Barry, Run" one last time before he's gone.
Barry enters the Particle Accelerator Ring, and begins running around it as the Artificial Speed Force powers up. Nash tells Chester & Allegra to look out for one another (???) and disintegrates. His energy fully charges the sphere, which funnels its full power into Barry.
Barry zips out of the Ring, puts on his costume and zooms through downtown Central City. He runs up the side of a building and leaps onto the approaching plane. He grabs the bomb and throws it high into the sky, where it explodes harmlessly.
Later at STAR, Barry, Chester & Allegra mourn Nash's death. Barry says ARGUS captured the Black Hole plane and its deadly weapons cargo. Allegra regrets losing Nash before she got to know him (yeah, that's on you, girl). Barry wonders how he can go on knowing Nash sacrificed himself for him. Chester says that was kind of the point.
Elsewhere, Eva broods as she reads an article— written by Allegra!— detailing how the Flash saved the city from the exploding plane. She opens the video again and this time watches it. She sees security footage of the night the Particle Accelerator exploded and threw her into the Mirrorverse. She watches the footage a frame at a time and realizes she died that night, and that she's actually a mirror clone. Wow, how shocking.
Thoughts:
OK, enough with the intro. On with the review.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
At STAR Labs, Cisco's still on his walkabout or whatever and Frost is still off with her mother, which leaves Chester P. Runk to hold down the fort. An alarm sounds, indicating Eva McCulloch, aka Mirror Master, is up to no good again. Chester opens a Cyro Pod, where Barry's apparently been keeping himself in order to preserve what little Speed Force energy he has left (!). Barry suits up and takes off.
We then see Eva, who can move through mirrors and other reflective surfaces, as she travels inside the windows of various Central City skyscrapers. I know, just go with it. Eva stops and once again tells Barry to stop with the chasing, as they're on the same side. He demands she return Iris to him as he attempts to punch her. She easily avoids his blow, commenting that her "fractal photons" can move faster than light. She then zooms away before Barry can follow.
Eva arrives at a warehouse owned by her late husband Joseph Carver (who she murdered last season). She says her goal is to cleanse the city of everything related to Black Hole, Carver's secret organization. Inside the warehouse she encounters Sam Scudder, the original Mirror Master, and his partner Rosa Dillon, aka the Top.
Eva fires a blast at Scudder, which shatters him into a million pieces. A distraught Rosa wails over his remains, but Eva tells her that Scudder was secretly one of her mirror duplicates (?). She then zips away just as Barry finally arrives.
Cut to Iris, who's enjoying a lovely meal with Barry. Everything seems perfect— a little too perfect. Suddenly Iris clutches her head in pain, and Barry disappears. She realizes she's still stuck in the Mirrorverse.
At CCPD, Barry tells Joe & Cecile that Eva's targeting Black Hole sites. Cecile asks how much speed Barry has left, and he says just a few hours. Cecile, who's Rosa's defense attorney, says she'll try to find out the location of the remaining Black Hole sites, so they'll know where Eva will strike next.
Back at STAR, Nash Wells and Chester continue working on a way to generate an artificial Speed Force. Barry arrives and they tell him they can't figure out how to permanently power the device. Barry & Chester go out for coffee, leaving Nash alone. Once again he begins hallucinating various versions of Harrison Wells who were destroyed in the Crisis.
Four different Wellseseses appear, including Harry, HR, Sherloque and a new one, Harrison Orson Wells, who's a film director (oy). They tell him they've cracked the fuel problem— they can use their multidimensional particles to power the Artificial Speed Force. All they need is an organic receptor— namely Nash. There's just one small problem... doing so will kill Nash. He says he's not about to die yet and storms out.
Eva sits at her desk, remembering how how her husband Joseph said she wasn't even human (Plot Point!). She stares at a video of herself from the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion and starts to play it, but stops. She sees a photo of herself with Joseph and smashes it.
Elsewhere, Cecile tries to get Rosa to talk. Rosa says Scudder handled all the details, but Cecile reads her mind and realizes she's lying. A change comes over Rosa, as she says her powers don't just give people vertigo, they can also affect emotions (?). She demonstrates by filling Cecile with self-doubt before releasing her. Rosa then boasts that SHE was the brains of the outfit, and says her next mission will "blow the city away."
Back at STAR, Nash tries to figure out how to power the Speed Force generator without dying. Allegra brings Nash some coffee (I thought she hated him?), saying it's nice to see him caring about someone besides her. Nash realizes she's the answer.
Nash gathers the others in the lab and says Allegra can use her powers to blast the multiversal particles out of his body and into the Speed Force generator sphere. Chester says the energy will be unstable, but Nash insists Allegra's powers can somehow contain it. Comic Book Science!
Allegra blasts away at Nash, and we see the energy flow from within him into the sphere. Allegra then ignites the sphere, which is somehow supposed to contain the energy. Unfortunately the power levels become unstable, and she warns she can't hold it much longer. A huge blast of energy emanates from the sphere, as Barry shoves Allegra out of the way. He's hit with the full force of the blast and promptly collapses onto the floor.
The others revive Barry, and are shocked when he begins speaking French. Nash realizes Barry's mind has been taken over by the residual energy of Sherloque Wells. Barry then begins speaking like HR, and then Wells The Grey.
Allegra blames herself for the snafu, and Nash tells her to blast the particles out of Barry and back into him. Just then Barry goes into convulsions and collapses again.
In the Mirrorverse, Iris tries to send an email to Kamilla. Mirror Iris (who's supposed to be dead) appears and tells her to knock it off. She tells Iris that her mind is broken from exposure to the Mirrorverse. Iris then begins hallucinating clips from past episodes, in which she was always a victim. She runs into an office and locks the door behind her.
Mirror Iris appears in the office anyway, and says she has two options— survival or madness. Somehow Iris realizes this isn't her mirror clone. She concentrates, and Mirror Iris vanishes. Eva then appears in a mirror to taunt her, and Iris says she must be distracting her so she can't escape. She punches the mirror and Eva's image disappears.
At STAR, Chester examines Barry and says his mind is overloading from all the brain patterns contained inside it. He says the only thing keeping him alive is his speed healing. Once he runs out of Speed Force energy, he'll die.
Chester says they need some sort of organic receptor. Allegra says Nash was studying them earlier, and demands to know why he didn't mention them. Nash says because he's the only logical receptor and he doesn't want to die. For some reason she's then mad at him for lying or something, and accuses him of "not changing." I'm honestly too tired to try and understand her thought process here.
Nash goes to the Medbay as Barry wakes. He tells Barry he doesn't understand why, out of all the Wellses, HE'S the one who got to live. He says the others were all much better people than he is. Barry/Wells tells him there's a good man inside him somewhere.
Back at CCPD, Cecile tricks Rosa into telling her what her big plan is. She finds out a supersonic jet carrying tons of Black Hole weaponry is heading toward Central City. Rosa's planted a bomb on the plane, and if it detonates, bye bye downtown. She and Joe alert Barry, but worry that he won't be fast enough to stop the plane.
At STAR, Chester & Allegra (?) cobble together a device that'll funnel the multiverse energy out of Barry and back into Nash. Allegra powers it up, and the device does just that. Now back to normal, Barry confirms he doesn't have enough speed to stop the approaching plane.
Nash makes a decision and grabs onto the sphere. Immediately his hands begin glowing as the energy of all the Wellses begins flowing out of his body and into the sphere. Barry pleads with him to stop, but Nash says they need the Flash more than they do him. Nash says for the first time in his life he feels proud of something.
The various Wellses all manifest and say goodbye to Barry as they're funneled into the sphere. Harry's the last to go, and tells Barry he showed him how to be a better person. Of course he says, "Run, Barry, Run" one last time before he's gone.
Barry enters the Particle Accelerator Ring, and begins running around it as the Artificial Speed Force powers up. Nash tells Chester & Allegra to look out for one another (???) and disintegrates. His energy fully charges the sphere, which funnels its full power into Barry.
Barry zips out of the Ring, puts on his costume and zooms through downtown Central City. He runs up the side of a building and leaps onto the approaching plane. He grabs the bomb and throws it high into the sky, where it explodes harmlessly.
Later at STAR, Barry, Chester & Allegra mourn Nash's death. Barry says ARGUS captured the Black Hole plane and its deadly weapons cargo. Allegra regrets losing Nash before she got to know him (yeah, that's on you, girl). Barry wonders how he can go on knowing Nash sacrificed himself for him. Chester says that was kind of the point.
Elsewhere, Eva broods as she reads an article— written by Allegra!— detailing how the Flash saved the city from the exploding plane. She opens the video again and this time watches it. She sees security footage of the night the Particle Accelerator exploded and threw her into the Mirrorverse. She watches the footage a frame at a time and realizes she died that night, and that she's actually a mirror clone. Wow, how shocking.
Thoughts:
• So just how much time has passed between this episode and the previous one?
In past seasons, The Flash has happened more or less in real time. If a character mentions it's May 5th during an episode, it will indeed air on that date. And at the beginning of each season they'll usually even acknowledge the months-long summer hiatus.
Even though this is the Season 7 premiere, technically it's Episode 20 of Season 6. Which means only one week should have gone by for the characters since Success Is Assured.
So why does it feel like an entire year's passed between the two episodes? There're so many changes this week— Chester and Allegra are apparently now full-fledged members of Team Flash, and seem to have become substitutes for Cisco & Caitlin. Barry has a brand new, even more high-tech suit, and is spending all his time in a cryo pod to conserve his speed. And poor Joe looks at least a year older since we last saw him.
Obviously it's been far more than a week since the previous episode. As I mentioned in the intro, All's Wells That Ends Wells was 90% completed with the pandemic forced production to shut down. I suspect when filming resumed, they must have tweaked the episode and shot a lot of extra footage in an effort to make it seem more like a season premiere. Hence all the changes.
• Um... did we somehow skip an episode here?
To refresh everyone's lockdown-addled memories: Season 6 ended with Iris & Kamilla still trapped in the thrice-cursed Mirrorverse. Iris scans the city and locates a lone sign of life inside Central City Hospital. She tells Kamilla it has to be Captain Singh. Kamilla gasps in awe and says Iris can now control the Mirrorverse, just like Eva.
Suddenly Iris doubles over in pain and vanishes, leaving a puzzled and terrified Kamilla all alone. We're then treated to a Best Of Both Worlds-esque "To Be Continued..." caption as the screen goes black. Wow! Now THAT was a cliffhanger ending!
So what happened to Iris? Why did she get all prism-y and disappear? Where'd she go? Did Eva abduct her for reasons? Did she teleport back to the real world? Was she transported to a second Mirrorverse inside the first Mirrorverse? And what about poor Kamilla? Is she now all alone in this hellish realm? Will she survive without Iris?
Welp, apparently none of that's any of our goddamned business, as absolutely NOTHING from that final scene is addressed in this episode. Iris is still stuck in the Mirrorverse, but there's no explanation as to why she disappeared. Heck, it's not even acknowledged that she did disappear! And Kamilla doesn't even show up this week at all.
It's almost like that Season 6 cliffhanger never happened at all. I'm starting to wonder if the pandemic forced the writers to change their original plans for this episode, so they just ignored the ending that already aired and hoped we'd forget about it over the summer.
• Sigh... I noticed Chester & Allegra's faces have now replaced Ralph's in the title sequence (Jesus Christ, I think The Lord Of The Rings had a smaller cast than this show!). Ralph's absence is pure and utter bullshit, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.
I discussed the topic at length last year, so I won't rehash it again here. I will reiterate that I strongly disagree with The CW's decision to summarily fire actor Hartley Sawyer after he jokingly tweeted some remarks that gave SJWs icky bad feelings. Networks & studios need to adopt a "We Don't Negotiate With Terrorists" policy when it comes to these people. No matter how much they bend over backwards to appease their shrill demands, it's never enough. They'll always find something new to complain about and "cancel culture" you out of business.
Sawyer's firing left a bad taste in my mouth, to the point where I honestly questioned whether I wanted to continue watching the show or not. Obviously I'm back, but with much less enthusiasm and enjoyment than in past years.
• The title of this episode references the Shakespeare play of course. But it's also the name of a book written by HR Wells back in Season 3.
• Speaking of titles: When we first see Chester, he's reading a book that's very obviously called Quantum Gravity & The Universe by Dr. Meena Dhawan.
Meena Dhawan's a fairly new character from the comics, who debuted in 2016's The Flash #3. A "Speed Force Storm" hit Central City, which gave random citizens superspeed. Meena was one of these speedsters, calling herself Fast Track.
Meena became a friend and confidant to Barry Allen, helping him train the other sudden speedsters to use their powers responsibly. When Godspeed attacked the trainees, Meena tried to defend them from him. Unfortunately things didn't go well, as she was kidnapped and brainwashed by Black Hole and became the Negative Flash (which I guess is totally different from the Reverse Flash).
Barry was ultimately able to rescue Meena and restore her, and she became a member of Team Flash.
So what do we think here? Is the appearance of Meena's name in this episode just a fun little nod to the comics? Or are the writers are foreshadowing her live action appearance on the show? At this point it's way too early to tell. Stay tuned!
So what do we think here? Is the appearance of Meena's name in this episode just a fun little nod to the comics? Or are the writers are foreshadowing her live action appearance on the show? At this point it's way too early to tell. Stay tuned!
• When Chester detects Eva attacking Central City, he activates a cryo pod and we see poor Barry stagger out of it. Apparently he's been keeping himself in suspended animation in an effort to preserve what little Speed Force he has left.
Jesus Christ! How long's he been frozen in that thing? Days? Weeks? Months? I get that his powers are almost gone, but freezing yourself till needed seems like a pretty drastic solution.
And who the hell built this thing? Chester? Nash? The two of them together? Since when did they become substitute Ciscos?
• Apparently Barry's suit now has Marvel Cinematic Universe tech, as his cowl magically forms around his head. Where in the name of Stan Lee's Mighty Toupee did he get that kind of tech? It couldn't have been Cisco who built it, as he's still on special assignment in Atlantis or wherever the hell he went. Did Chester design it? If so, when? And how?
And why does Barry need a magic cowl in the first place? Can it really form faster than he can simply reach up and pull it over his face at superspeed?
I suspect there's a real-world reason for this. As I've pointed out many times, whenever Barry removes his cowl, they'll show him reaching up and grabbing it, then quickly cut away to someone observing him, then focus on him again once it's off.
And why does Barry need a magic cowl in the first place? Can it really form faster than he can simply reach up and pull it over his face at superspeed?
I suspect there's a real-world reason for this. As I've pointed out many times, whenever Barry removes his cowl, they'll show him reaching up and grabbing it, then quickly cut away to someone observing him, then focus on him again once it's off.
That's because his costume's cowl is skin tight, and the edges may even be glued to his face. It likely takes an entire team of "cowl wranglers" to wrestle the thing off his head. Once it's removed, his hair's probably plastered down with sweat, prompting a hairdresser to swoop in and fluff it up to its usual gravity-defying height.
By using a CGI cowl, they can eliminate these costly production delays that happen every time he puts it on or takes it off.
• After Barry suits up, he chases Eva across Central City. He eventually catches up and throws a punch at her, but she easily avoids it because her "fractal photons" (whatever the hell those are) can move at the speed of light.
You know who else can move at the speed of light? Barry Allen! Back in the Season 4 episode Enter Flashtime, a group of terrorists detonated a nuke in Central City. Barry was able to move so fast he literally froze time, in order to figure out a way to reverse the explosion and save the city.
That had to involve moving faster than light, right? I guess Barry must have conveniently forgotten he can do that. Or maybe he can't do it now because he's almost out of Speed Force energy, I dunno. His speed's always been pretty arbitrary, increasing and decreasing with the needs of the plot.
• Speaking of Eva... I really don't understand her motivation here. OK, originally she was filled with hatred for her husband Joseph Carver because she believed he abandoned her inside the Mirrorverse.
But now she's out, she killed him in revenge and she has all sorts of cool superpowers. Apparently that's still not enough for her though, as she's now going after Black Hole— the shadowy organization Joseph built. I guess she wants to destroy everything he ever created out of spite?
Even if I accept all that, I have no idea why she's still holding Iris captive in the Mirrorverse. It's like she's just being petty & petulant at this point. In my opinion she's the worst Big Bad the show's ever had— and that's saying something!
• At one point Iris shares a gourmet meal with Barry, who says, "The Kansas State Fair funnel cake was Clark's recommendation."
Obviously that was a reference to Clark Kent, aka Superman. He & his crew used to be from Earth-38, but after the Crisis they're living on Earth-Prime with all the other Arrowverse heroes. I assume they shoehorned this shout out into the episode to promote the new Superman & Lois series— which airs right after The Flash.
I'm still not convinced that series is set on Earth-Prime though, as for now it appears to be taking place on its own separate world— just like Stargirl.
Does that mean the real Scudder's somewhere in the Mirrorverse? Was he the life sign Iris detected in the Season 6 finale? Will he somehow figure into defeating Eva and helping Iris finally escape this nightmarish plotline?
By the way, if you watch "Scudder's" death scene closely, you'll notice that he's killed about half a second after he appears onscreen, and we never actually get a good look at his face.
I'm betting that actor Grey Damon, who played Scudder back in Season 3, wasn't available for this episode, so they used a face-hiding stand-in and dispatched him the first chance they got.
So... Joe didn't think to put power-dampening cuffs on this dangerous metahuman before allowing his wife to be alone with her? Good work there, Chief!
Why the hell did they take Rosa to CCPD in the first place? Just toss her in the STAR Labs Secret Super Jail— which neutralizes any & all superpowers. Then let Cecile safely interrogate her from the other side of the door!
Or course they did all this for plot reasons and to drag out the runtime, so Cecile could get attacked and then rally her strength and fight back later on.
• Cecile mentions that she put Rosa behind bars several years ago when she was a prosecuting attorney. Now she's a defense attorney specializing in metahuman clients, and is actively defending Rosa.
Really? I freely admit I don't know much about the law, but is that allowed? Can an attorney really switch from prosecutor to defender? Wouldn't that be some kind of conflict of interest?
• Somehow Rosa's aware that the Flash is almost out of speed. How the hell does she know THAT? I guess maybe Eva filled her in? If not, and it's just common knowledge among the underworld that he's virtually powerless, then Central City's in big trouble.
• Despite my misgivings about this episode, it was great seeing the various Wellses again. It made me realize how much I've missed Harry on the show. Heck, I even miss HR and his goofiness (Sherloque not so much though).
That said, technically HR shouldn't be here. He died long before the Crisis, so it shouldn't have been possible for his residual energy to exist in this episode.
• Allegra wanders into STAR Labs and sees Nash reading a book, titled Organic Receptors In Nuclear Physics— the exact same scientific theory he & the Wellses were talking about earlier! What a coincidence!
I'm confident that despite the existence of this book, there's no such thing as an organic receptor in the real world.
Also, note that this bogus book is authored by Sam Chalsen and Lauren Certo. They just happen to be the writers of this particular episode!
• Much of last season was devoted to the death of the Speed Force, and Team Flash attempting to build an artificial one before Barry ran out of residual energy. Believe it or not they're STILL at it this week! Several things here:
When we first see the alarmingly depleted Team Flash working on the Artificial Speed Force, Chester absentmindedly reaches out and almost touches the power sphere. Barry stops him just in time, saying the sphere would disintegrate him if he touched it. Seriously? Shouldn't a brainiac like Chester know something important like that?
Then a few seconds later, Barry literally walks within an inch of the thing! In fact he has to move his arm out of the way to keep from brushing against it as he strides past it. Jesus Christ! Hey, here's an idea, guys! You know the incredibly dangerous object in the middle of the room that can kill you if you touch it? How about putting a guard rail around it? How'd that be?
Secondly, I gotta say it pisses me off no end that it's Nash, Chester and Allegra (!) who finally solve the technical conundrum and successfully build the Artificial Speed Force. Yes, that's right, the League Of C-List Side Characters manage to do what Barry, Cisco and Caitlin couldn't. Are you freakin' kidding me?
OK, I get that the showrunner probably wanted to shine the spotlight on the secondary cast for a change. But having these relative newcomers so easily save the day felt like a slap in the face to Cisco, who's been the resident genius/tech guru since the very first episode.
And then there's the solution they came up with, which involved Nash sacrificing himself and all the other Wellses in order to permanently power the new Speed Force. Was... was that ever a thing last season? Did they ever once hint that someone would have to die in order for Barry to get his speed back? If so, I certainly don't remember it.
This solution was obviously designed to be an emotional, tear jerking sendoff for the Wellses, but it felt rushed and unearned, with absolutely no setup.
You gotta lay some groundwork for this stuff, guys! If you plan on killing a character to power your technobabble device, then you need to drop a few hints that it's a possibility first. You can't just yank a plot element like that out of your collective asses and expect the audience to nod and say, "Yep, that checks out."
• While attempting to jumpstart the Artificial Speed Force, Barry's accidentally filled with the brain energy of all the Wellses. In fact you might even say he's possessed by them. At one point he's taken over by Sherloque Wells, who says, "Vite, mes Ami. We face a mystery stranger than the King Tut Killer of Earth-66."
That's a reference to the 1966 Batman TV series, which often featured King Tut as its villain of the week.
• Grant Gustin is a terrific actor, who regularly fills his portrayal of Barry Allen with heart and emotion. He's one of the best performers on the show.
That said... an impressionist he's not. In this episode Barry's possessed by the minds of the various Wellses, which required Gustin to mimic actor Tom Cavanagh's top notch characterizations. Sadly, it didn't go well. Gustin's attempt at Sherloque Wells' French accent was downright embarrassing, and his HR Wells was pretty cringeworthy as well.
Stick to the emoting, Grant, and leave the impressions to the experts!
• When Barry's "possessed" by Harry, he dons that particular Wells' characteristic eyeglasses. First of all, where the hell did he get those? Did he find a pair in the STAR Labs Lost & Found box? Even more puzzling, why would he need them in the first place? Did manifesting Harry's personality make Barry's eyesight get worse?
• Allegra has the power to shoot waves of UV light/radiation from her hands, right? So why aren't Nash & Barry cooked alive when she blasts them? She bombards 'em both right in the chest in order to drive the multiversal energy from their bodies, and neither one so much as finches.
• Whenever Nash was possessed by one of the other Wellses, there was a circular discharge of glowing energy around his head.
Unfortunately the effect looked exactly like a cartoon character who'd been knocked out. All that was missing were stars or chirping birds flying around Nash's head. I laughed every time it happened!
• Late in the third act, Nash ends up heroically sacrificing himself (and all the other Wellses) in order to jumpstart the Artificial Speed Force, allowing Barry to get his powers back and save Central City.
• As Nash/Harry dies, he manages to get in one last "Run, Barry, Run." That's been the series catchphrase since the very first episode, uttered by various characters at least once per season.
According to my Official Run, Barry, Run Counter, this episode marks the 13th time someone's said the phrase to Barry on The Flash or over on Arrow.* Seems like the count should be higher!
*Note: I'm counting the original phrase here, not variations where someone said "Run, Iris, Run" or something like that.
• Late in the third act, Nash ends up heroically sacrificing himself (and all the other Wellses) in order to jumpstart the Artificial Speed Force, allowing Barry to get his powers back and save Central City.
The Death Of The Wellses should have been an emotional, watershed moment in the history of the series, as several popular and beloved characters all died at the same time. Unfortunately this event was marred by the glaring absence of Cisco and Caitlin.
C'mon, guys! The two of them of them along with Barry make up Team Flash! They've been through the wringer together since the show began. Not having the old gang present for Nash's death was a major miscalculation, and slap in the face to the legacy of the Wellses.
I'll give Caitlin a pass, since actress Danielle Panabaker was on maternity leave when this episode was filmed. But there was absolutely no reason for Cisco to be AWOL. He and Harry had a wonderful semi-adversarial relationship, as they were constantly bickering to humorous effect. Cisco's absence most definitely lessened the impact of Harry's death.
Nash's death was also diminished somewhat by the fact that this is a superhero show. As we all know by now, comic book characters regularly die and get better on practically a monthly basis.
There's no doubt in my mind that some form of Harrison Wells will return again soon. Nash literally just turned into energy and became one with the new Artificial Speed Force! It's only a matter of time till he pops up again.
For years now Barry's been communicating with the Original Speed Force— which took the form of his late mother Nora. It would not surprise me if something similar happened with Nash, and he appears whenever Barry accesses this new Artificial Speed Force.
• After Nash's death, what's left of Team Flash sits around moping. Allegra says, "So Nash died a hero. And I never really got to know him."
Well whose fault is that, stupid!?!?
Nash reached out to Allegra over and over for most of Season 6, and she rejected him every single time. Now he's gone and she's finally experiencing guilt & remorse, and the audience is supposed to feel bad for her. Screw her! She got what she deserved, as far as I'm concerned!
• So Barry gets his speed back in the least satisfying way possible. Is he gonna tell Wally there's a new Speed Force in town now? Or will Wally sense it on his own? Will he even be able to tap into this one, or is he screwed and will have to live the rest of his life as a normal person? Or do the writers hope we all forgot about Wally and plan on never bringing him up again?
• In the final scene, Eva watches security footage of the night she was supposedly thrown into the Mirrorverse. She's shocked and stunned though when she examines the tape and sees that's not what actually happened.
It's hard to make out, but it appears that a wave of energy from the Particle Accelerator explosion kills the REAL Eva when it hurls her backwards against a mirror, causing her to bounce off it. The energy then creates a duplicate of Eva that somehow flies into the mirror.
This means that the Eva we've been seeing since Season 6 isn't the original, but a mirror duplicate. Um... gasp, I guess?
It's clear that this was meant to be a game-changing, shocking plot twist. Unfortunately all it did was generate a yawn from me. Maybe if I wasn't so sick of this interminable plotline I'd be more excited by this "shocking" revelation. As is, it feels like the Mirrorverse saga has been dragging on relentlessly for years.
Part of that's due to Covid and the lockdown, which delayed the resolution of the storyline for almost twelve goddamned months. But it's also because the whole plot is just so... dull. How many weeks can we watch Iris & Eva stand and talk in the same set? Do something already! Thank the gods old and new this arc's finally gonna wrap up next week.
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