The Flash Season 8, Episode 19: Negative, Part One

This week on The Flash we get the first half of the big Season 8 finale, as Team Flash (or what's left of it) takes on the Negative Forces, Thawne dies and gets better (yawn!) and Iris finally returns from her vacation, er, I mean the time stream or wherever the hell she's been.

Overall this was a pretty lackluster and muddled episode, as little or nothing that happened made the least bit of sense. That said, it did feature a truly shocking ending that came out of nowhere, and allllllllmost made up for the rest of it. Not quite, but almost!

As for Iris' return... meh. Her lengthy absence has proven that the show doesn't really need her, and can do just fine without her. Which is kind of what I predicted would happen when Candice Patton took her extended leave from the series. 

There seems to be a lot of Candice Patton hate brewing on the internet lately for some reason. Personally I don't actively dislike her, but I can't say I'm a fan either. She's always seemed cold and aloof on the show, and has little or no chemistry with the other actors— especially Grant Gustin! That's not good, since the two of them play husband and wife!

As I keep saying, Barry's had more chemistry with Meena Dhawan in just a couple of episodes than he's had with Iris in eight seasons! Maybe Candice Patton's just not that great an actress. Or maybe she doesn't get along with her co-stars. Or maybe she's just not into the gig and phones it in every week, I dunno. 

Whatever the reason, her absence has only spotlighted the problem!

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
2049
Nora and Bart are playing a videogame when they get a holographic call from 2049 Iris. She tells Nora she liked her article, and wants her to write a followup. Suddenly the call's interrupted as the 2022 version of Iris appears in their apartment.

She tells them she's been lost in the time stream for weeks or even months. She asks where Barry is, but Bart says he's off planet with Jay (???). Nora tries to zoom Iris back to 2022, but they run into a Still Force barrier, and figure Deon's preventing them from time traveling. Iris clutches her head in pain, but then it passes.

2022
The Flash and Chester are at Fast Track Labs, where they're monitoring Meena Dhawan's speedster training. She's now wearing a cool black version of Barry's Flash suit. Meena runs on a treadmill, while her boyfriend, the Original Eobard Thawne (who's no longer evil) checks her vitals.

Suddenly Meena flies off the treadmill, crashing into the wall. Thawne tells her she's not invincible, and warns that she's pushing herself too hard. She snaps at him and zooms off. Flash follows to talk with her.

Flash catches up to Meena, who says the usual, "I'm not a hero" mantra that's so popular on this show. She says she's afraid she'll never be as good as him. Flash removes his mask and reveals his secret identity to her (of course!). He then gives her a Patented The CW Pep Talk®, telling her she's stronger than she knows or some such crap. He names her "Fast Track," and the two speed off together.

On Lian Yu, Deon confronts the Wells version of Thawne, claiming he's there to give him back his speed. Thawne asks what it'll cost him, and Deon says nothing much— just his life. He snaps his fingers, and Thawne instantly ages a couple hundred years and falls dead to the floor (!).

Back at STAR, Chester somehow detects temporal energy on Lian Yu, so Barry speeds there in a flash (heh). He finds Thawne's corpse, and makes the incredibly intuitive leap that Deon's responsible. He figures Iris' time sickness has corrupted Deon and turned him evil (even though it's not doing that to her).

At the West home, Joe's furious with Cecile for going out patrolling at night with her newfound powers. She says it's fine, as she's leveled up and can now induce vertigo in addition to her other abilities. He says that sounds a lot like Rosa Dillion's (aka the Top) powers. Right on cue, Rosa shows up at their door.

She says her powers are gone, and accuses Cecile of somehow stealing them from her. Cecile says she was near Rosa's house when she was out patrolling and thwarted a mugger, and theorizes that she can now absorb the powers of any psychic metas in the area. Rosa wants her powers back, and Joe says he has an idea.

2049:
Nora and Bart take Iris to Jay Garrick's wife Joan for examination. She detects negative tachyons in Iris' body, and says they're multiplying. Iris clutches her head in pain again, and Joan says eventually the strain will be too much for her. Nora says she's going to 2022 to find Barry.

2022:
Meena continues her training at her lab. Suddenly three of the Four Forces— Deon, Psych and Fuerza— appear. Meena asks who they are and what they want, and Deon says they're there to kill Eobard. Meena tries to speed him to safety, but Deon snaps his fingers and freezes them in time.

Just then Barry arrives, and Deon freezes him as well. Barry manages to exert enough Speed Force energy to counter Deon's powers, and hurls a blast of lightning at him and the others. This frees Meena and Eobard from their time lock. The Forces recover, and Barry asks what they want. Deon confirms they're all the NEGATIVE Forces, and they're tired of sharing the universe with their positive counterparts.

Eobard asks what any of this has to do with him, and Negative Fuerza says he's not the Avatar and his mere existence makes them all weak. Negative Deon cryptically says Barry will pay for what he did, and he and the other Negative Forces teleport away. Barry, exhausted from fighting against Negative Deon's time lock, collapses. Chester radios for Meena to bring Barry back to STAR.

Meanwhile at Caitlin's apartment, we see that she and Chillblaine have somehow built the cryo pod he proposed last week. He says with it, they'll be able to reactivate any trace of Frost that's still rattling around in her consciousness, and eventually figure out a way to give her a physical body again. Caitlin agrees, and steps into the pod. Chillblaine activates it, and the pod fills with chilled fog.

Back at STAR, Barry recovers from his ordeal with Negative Deon. Nora arrives from the future, and says she wasn't able to bring Iris back with her. Barry points out that there were only three Negative Forces, as there was no Negative Speed Force with them. He theorizes that when he severed Thawne's connection to the Negative Speed Force, it erased Negative Nora. He says that must be what Negative Deon was talking about when he said Barry had to pay for what he did. He says the Negative Forces are hoping Iris' time sickness spreads to the Positive ones and kill them. Then the Negative Forces could take over the entire universe. Sure, why not.

Cecile and Rosa go to Iron Heights to talk with Mona Taylor, aka Queen of the Royal Flush Gang. Why? It's not exactly clear. Anyway, Cecile asks Queen to read her mind. Mona tries, and suddenly screams that her powers are gone. Apparently Cecile absorbed hers as well! Rosa says Cecile's becoming one of the most powerful metas on Earth.

2049:

Joan tells Nora and Bart that Iris might not survive another time sickness attack. She says defeating the Negative Forces is the only way to save her. I love how all the "scientists" on this show pull the most outlandish notions possible out of their heads, and everyone instantly treats it as fact.

2022:
Back at STAR, Eobard asks Meena what's wrong. She says becoming a speedster was HIS dream, and she feels like she took it from him. She says she never wanted speed in the first place— only to help the world. He gives her another Patented The CW Pep Talk®, telling her that working alongside the Flash IS helping save the world. He says he's extremely proud of her, thereby guaranteeing he'll be dead by the end of the episode.

Meena wishes there was some way she could give her speed to Eobard. Just then Barry enters, and says there is, as he announces he's going to teach Meena to share her powers. Well there's no possible way THAT idea could go wrong.

Multicolored lightning begins flashing over Central City, as the Negative Forces move in. Barry tells Cecile, Allegra and Chester (!) to go out and try to stall them. Barry gives Eobard his old Reverse Flash ring (where the hell did THAT come from?), and he suits up in his old Reverse-Flash costume. Meena then enters the BLOC to charge herself. She worries that the device is powered by the Negative Speed Force, but Barry says her and Eobard's love for one another will cancel out any evil impulses. Oy.

Out on the street, the Z Team (Cecile, Allegra and Chester) confront the Negative Forces. Cecile uses her leveled up abilities to somehow negate Negative Deon's powers. Allegra blasts Negative Psych, who teleports away and begins taunting her. Negative Fuerza comes after Chester, but he surrounds her with an impenetrable forcefield that saps her strength.

Meena exits the BLOC, and Barry shows her how to transfer her power into Eobard. The speed flows into him, and he says he's never felt so alive. Suddenly he says he's being filled with hate (of course!), and Barry tells him he has to find a balance.

Eventually the Negative Forces manage to free themselves and teleport away. They reappear in STAR Labs, where they confront Barry, Meena and Eobard. Barry gives them one last chance to leave, and Negative Deon laughs, saying there has to be a sacrifice. The three speedsters then attack the Negative Forces. Flash manages to take down Negative Psych and Negative Fuerza, while Negative Deon freezes Fast Track and Reverse-Flash in their tracks. They eventually escape, and he teleports away from them.

2049:
Iris, who's been resting comfortably, suddenly wakes and says "It's a new moment in time!" Nora and Bart figure she's seeing things that are happening in 2022 that are changing the future (???). Iris says she can see Negative Deon killing Eobard.

2022:
The two sides regroup, and Negative Deon tells Barry he can't win. Barry tells Meena and Eobard he has an idea, and to keep the Forces in place. He then zooms off, while the other two run superspeed rings around Deon and the others.

2049:
Iris says she has to see what's happening, as the sacrifice isn't Eobard.

2022:
Barry runs several miles down the street and turns around, building up a massive charge of superspeed lightning. He approaches the Negative Forces and lets loose with a mighty blast of Speed Force lightning. Meena and Eobard move out of the way, as the energy blast heads right toward Negative Deon and the others.

At the last microsecond, Negative Deon snaps his fingers and 2022 Iris is yanked into the present— where she's hit squarely in the chest by Barry's blast, killing her.

Barry catches Iris' lifeless body, as Negative Deon says she's not the only sacrifice. He and the other Forces teleport away, and Iris' body disintegrates into glowing green temporal energy. It floats through the air and enters Eobard's body.

Eobard screams in agony and clutches at his head. He tears his skin open, revealing the Wells version of Thawne inside him!

Thoughts:

• We open on this view of 2049 Central City that we've seen several times before. Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but this is actually downtown Portland, Oregon— with a few holograms thrown in.

• We then check in with Bart & Nora, who're playing what appears to be a 2049 version of the Nintendo Wii!

Seriously, they're even holding little controllers in their hands! The only real difference between this game and the Wii (which was discontinued back in 2013) are the glowing headsets.

We then get a POV shot of their game, and... boy, is it something. I would have expected WAY more realistic and compelling graphics for a game that won't be invented for another twenty seven years. Maybe this is an older system, and Bart's just really into vintage gaming systems?

• The kids then get a holographic phone call from Future Iris, who's alive and well and living in 2049. A couple things here:

As I've been saying for weeks now, Future Iris' existence is a HUGE mistake on the part of the writers. The whole reason for the "Iris' Time Sickness Causes Her To Disappear" storyline is to make the audience fear for her safety or even think that she's dead.

Kind of hard to get too worked up about her vanishing when we see she's perfectly fine in the future! If she's OK in 2049, then why worry about her in 2022? 

Heck, her kids are even with Iris in the future as well, meaning she HAS to return at some point soon in order to start having them!

Secondly, take a look at that holographic image of Future Iris. Who'd want to talk to someone's transparent head for an entire phone call? Why does allegedly "advanced" technology in sci-fi shows always look worse than what we already have today?

• Future Iris' holographic phone call is disrupted, as Present Day Iris suddenly materializes in Bart & Nora's living room.

Boy, I can't wait for her to find out how Team Flash sat back and played D&D for months instead of trying fo find a way to rescue her from the time stream! That's gonna be one awkward conversation!

• After she materializes, Present Day Iris asks to talk with Barry. Bart tells her he's "off world" with Jay. Wait, what? 

What the hell does that mean? Surely they don't expect us to believe humanity's colonized other planets by 2049? That's only twenty seven short years from now— not nearly enough time for something like that. And even if there were planetary colonies, how the hell would Barry & Jay casually travel to 'em? Are there commuter spaceships in 2049? Or did Barry & Jay run through space?

Maybe Bart meant they're on one of the alternate Earths that aren't supposed to exist but do? Either way, his little offhand remark didn't make much sense.

Also, Bart just confirmed that Barry's alive in 2049! Which means his scheduled disappearance in 2024— which we've been seeing on the front page of The Central City Citizen for the past eight years— must not be that big of a big deal!

• Nora tries to zoom Present Day Iris back to 2022. Unfortunately some sort of temporal barrier prevents Iris from leaving. Nora then travels back in time by herself to let Barry know what's happening.

Note that Nora's gone to 2022 & back literally every time she's appeared all season. In fact she travels through time like most people enter their kitchen.

What happened to all the warnings about the negative consequences of speedster time travel? What happened to Barry cautioning Nora that her temporal activities could create another Flashpoint? And where are the Time Wraiths, whose sole purpose is to protect the timeline from meddling speedsters— except when they don't?

• Meena gets a proper speedster costume this week, and man is it a thing of beauty! She looks exactly like she stepped out of the pages of the comic! In fact this may be the most comic-accurate costume they've ever featured on the show.

The only thing missing here are the glowing white lines, which I really wish they'd have tried to incorporate. Ah well. It's still awesome.

Annnnd then Meena puts on her cowl and ruins everyone's fun.

Holy crap, that's a bad look. It's like she pulled a big black condom over her head! Plus it's so tight it makes her look like some sort of pinhead. They definitely needed to ditch the cowl, let her hair flow free and just give her a domino mask.

I guess it could have been worse though. They could have gone with her look from the comic, in which she had a ridiculously long, gravity-defying ponytail sticking out the top of her cowl!

• Last week we found out that Meena had a heart condition. In fact it led to her becoming a speedster, as she had a heart attack and Eobard quickly shoved her into the BLOC to save her life. 

This week Meena's obsessed with training, and constantly pushes herself to the limits of her endurance. Eobard mildly cautions her about working out so much, and Barry makes a very brief mention of her heart rate, but that's it. At no point does anyone mention anything about her potentially having another heart attack. Did the BLOC permanently fix her faulty heart?

• Meena doesn't think she's cut out to be a hero (yawn), so she runs away in shame. Flash follows and gives her a Patented The CW Pep Talk®, telling her that anyone can be a hero or some such hooey. To prove his point he removes his cowl and reveals his "secret" identity to her. Meena's gobsmacked to learn that he's really Barry Allen.

Honestly there're already so many people on the show who know his true identity that it took me a minute to realize that Meena wasn't one of them.

• As you can probably tell, I am NOT a fan of this show's constant maudlin Pep Talks. That said, the one between Barry & Meena this week was pretty well written— and acted! Check it out:

Barry: "You'd be surprised at people's capacity to rise up and help others during a crisis. They just need to be given the opportunity. That suit, that's your opportunity. I think you're gonna be surprised at how well it fits, but you have to give yourself the chance."

Meena: (smiling) "Damn, that's good."

Barry: "I have my moments."

Meena: "Fine. I'll give it a shot."

Of course one reason this Pep Talk is more bearable than most is due to the delivery of Kausar Mohammed as Meena. I love the relationship between her and Barry, as they've had more chemistry together in the last couple weeks than he and Iris have in eight seasons! I really wish it was possible for them to become a couple.

• When Barry's Pep Talking Meena, there's a poster on the wall next to him that prominently features a skull.

Nothing happens in a shot like this by accident, so I'm wondering if this is a not-so-subtle clue that someone near and dear to Barry's gonna die soon? Like at the very end of this episode?

If that poster placement WAS deliberate, then it's actually kind of cool. Obvious, but cool.

• When Meena decides to go all in and become a speedster, she says she needs a codename. Barry says she's already got one—"Fast Track." Named after her company, natch.

Lucky for Meena she didn't call her business "Amalgamated Scientific Research and Development LLC!"

• Negative Deon appears in Thawne's cell, where he kills him by aging him hundreds of years in an instant for reasons. A point to everyone who had "Thawne Dies For The 79th Time" on their Bingo cards!

• Last week Cecile went out on patrol to test her newfound psychic powers, and we saw she was being tailed by a Mystery Woman hiding in the shadows. I said based on the back of her head, it looked like Rosa Dillon, aka the Top. A few things here:

First off, it turns out the Mystery Woman was indeed Rosa. Score one for me!

Secondly, Rosa shows up at the West house this week, accusing Cecile of stealing her powers and demanding she somehow give them back. This finally explains HOW Cecile's suddenly becoming Professor X and started gaining new abilities left and right. Unfortunately it doesn't tell us WHY.

Third, Cecile throrizes she was able to give a mugger vertigo in the previous episode by stealing Rosa's powers. But last week she also discovered she could take one person's emotions and transfer them to another. So whose powers did she swipe then? Apparently it's none of our business, as this is never addressed.

Lastly, after a month or two absence, we get another instance of "Leveled Up," this season's most inexplicably popular catchphrase. As Cecile spouts her theory, Joe says, "Cecile, is that why you leveled up?"

• We've seen this shot of 2049 on the show before, but I had a couple new comments about it.

First, that's the CCC Media building on the right. Wow! Looks like Iris' little home-grown business is gonna grow & expand quite a bit at some point in the next twenty seven years, as it'll have its own skyscraper!

Second, note that they're projecting the top news stories of the day on the front of the building. I kind of like that idea, and it seems like something that'll probably actually happen soon. That said though, the public's gonna need reeeeeally good eyes to read that body copy from hundreds of feet away! Maybe they should stick to simple headlines instead of the actual articles!

• The episode then goes completely off the rails as the three Negative Forces suddenly appear. Because everything on this show needs an evil counterpart, dontcha know!

I actually called this last week in The Man In The Yellow Tie, where a clearly evil Deon appeared in Thawne's cell on Lian Yu:

"It's pretty obvious at this point that this isn't the Deon we all know and love. He's clearly the Negative Speed Force, as all four of the Forces apparently have evil counterparts. As we all know, Barry & Iris accidentally created the Four Forces while trying to restore his speed. Did they unknowingly create Negative Forces while they were at it? Or did they spring up on their own at a later date?"

So points to me for correctly anticipating there'd be additional Negative Forces. We still don't know WHY they exist though, as the writers haven't deigned to tell us that yet.

• The kids take Present Day Iris to see Jay's wife Joan Williams. She scans Iris, and determines that the time sickness she's been suffering from all season is being caused by negative tachyons in her body. 

So there's a Negative Speed Force created by Thanwe, Negative Forces of all Four Forces and now negative tachyons. I get the feeling the producers just stuck the word "negative" in front of everything this season and all went home early.

By the way, the episode completely blurs over it, but there are now TWO Irises currently existing in 2049— the older one who's supposed to be there, and the present day one. I guess that fact wasn't important enough for the writers to explore?

• This episode is filled to the brim with Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plans, that make little or no sense. We'll be going through them one by one.

Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plan #1: This first one explains the Negative Forces' master plan, and why Negative Deon killed Thawne earlier in the episode. It's so, so monumentally stupid that it's actually a thing of beauty. Let's let the characters themselves explain it:

Nora: "Dad, you said that it was just Negative Deon, Alexa, and Bashir, but there was no Negative Speed Force Nora. Where was she?"

Barry: "This other Deon said I had to pay for what I did, and I took away Thawne's speed by severing his connection to the Negative Speed Force."

Nora: "Which might have erased Negative Nora."

Chester: "That must be why they're weaker now and why they blame you."

Nora: "Maybe they think that killing Thawne will somehow bring back the Negative Speed Force Avatar."

Allegra: "Hold on, if they're tired of sharing their turf, they'd want to level the playing field."

Barry: "By weakening the Forces we know. Iris' time sickness, it was never about her. I mean, they knew Deon would try to help." 

Nora: "And Mom's sickness would spread to the Positive Forces."

Allegra: "Taking them out of the picture."

Chester: "Wait, hold up, what happens if the bad Forces end up being the only ones left?"

Barry: "Then every speedster we know could cease to exist. Leaving the entire planet unprotected from the Negative Forces."

So basically Barry accidentally killed Negative Nora when he severed Thawne's link to the Negative Speed Force. This angered the other Negative Forces, causing them to seek revenge against Barry. To that end, they gave Iris her time sickness, which they hoped would somehow spread to the Four Positive Forces. This would weaken them enough for the Negative Forces to destroy them.

So how is any of that revenge against Barry? I guess because it caused his wife to disappear? And maybe cause him to lose his powers? It still seems like a lot of trouble just to get back at one guy.

Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plan #2: This week we check in with Caitlin and Chillblaine, who amazingly are STILL trying to resurrect Frost. Their plan is pure Comic Book Bullsh*t Science too.

Chillblaine: "Caitlin, why are you helping me? I thought you gave up on Frost."

Caitlin: "I had, but after I saw your designs, I realized I'll never stop trying to bring her back. I can't."

Chillblaine: "Okay, if all goes according to plan, the pod's cerebral circuitry should stimulate, and then reactivate Frost's residual subconscious left inside your mind."

Caitlin: "And then I'll get her voice back."

Chillblaine: "Yeah, and when she's with us again..."

Caitlin: "We can pick up where we left off and build her a new body."

OK, remember that for decades, Frost was a separate personality inside Caitlin's mind, who occasionally "spoke" to her as a voice in her head. Once Frost accidentally got her own physical body (through even more Comic Book Bullsh*t Science), Caitlin no longer heard her thoughts.

Apparently this episode would have us believe there's still some minute trace of Frost's entire personality rattling around inside Caitlin's head, and all they have to do is activate it and then somehow recreate the one in a trillion accident that generated a separate body for her. Sure, why not.

• Barry stares at a readout showing how the Negative Forces' powers are growing and expanding over Central City. Chester then says:

Chester: "It's all three isotopic energy masses: Electrochemical, temporal, and geothermic. They're gathering strength on their own planes of existence. That's what's bleeding through."

OK, electrochemical energy is what fuels our brains, so that's likely Negative Psych. The temporal energy is clearly tied to Negative Deon. That leaves geothermal energy for Negative Fuerza. That.,.. that doesn't make any sense! She's the Negative Strength Force. What's that got to do with heat from the Earth?

• We get another "Leveled Up" in this episode, this time from Allegra:

Barry: "Have you heard back from Cecile yet?"

Allegra: "Yeah, Joe said she was at Iron Heights and that it's important. She thinks she might know how her powers are leveling up, but she'll be here as soon as she can."

Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plan #3: In order to find out if Cecile can actually swipe powers from other psychic metas, Joe arranges for her and Rosa to visit Iron Heights. There they'll meet with Mona, aka Queen of the Royal Flush Gang, to see if Cecile absorbs her telekinetic powers.

Wait, what? Surely to Thor there was a simpler way to test this theory? As is, it's like seeing a gun for the first time, firing it at someone and killing them, then firing it at a SECOND person to see if it's what caused the first person to die.

• At Iron Heights, Cecile and Rosa bring Mona into a special cell:

Cecile: "Mona, I don't have much time, so here's how it's gonna go. I'm gonna take those off, you're gonna read my mind, tell me what I'm thinking if you can."
Mona: "With pleasure."
Rosa: "Don't get any ideas, Mona. She's taking the cuffs off, but this is a meta-interrogation cell. The walls are meta-dampened, so you won't be able to read anything except us."

OK, the meta-cuffs are obviously to prevent Mona from using her powers on anyone inside the room. So apparently the walls prevent Mona from using them on anyone outside the cell?

That's actually pretty smart. But then Cecile does indeed absorb Mona's telepathic powers, and can suddenly hear the thoughts of everyone in Central City. But... they just said the walls were meta-dampened to prevent just such a thing.

I guess we're to believe that Cecile's somehow become so powerful that she's negating the meta-dampening walls?

I really hope we're gonna get an explanation for this soon, as so far it's come completely out of nowhere and doesn't make the least bit of sense sense.

• Eobard demands to know why Meena's pushing herself and training so hard. She says she doesn't want to let him down, as being a speedster was HIS dream— one she never wanted anything to do with.

That's actually a pretty interesting take on the subject. Every other speedster on the show has always reveled in their powers and craved as much speed as possible. It's kind of refreshing to find someone who doesn't want it!

• Sorry, FX Team, but black lightning that somehow still glows just doesn't look right. It looks pasted on top of the scene, rather than a part of it.

Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plan #4: Actually this one isn't all that convoluted, but it's definitely stupid!

Barry needs help in order to fight the Negative Forces. To that end, he tells Meena to charge herself with Negative Speed Force energy, then shows her how to share it with Eobard to make him a speedster too.

Wow, what a plan! Giving a formerly psychotic villain his powers back seems like a wonderful idea, and I don't see any way it could ever possibly go wrong!

Meena has the same concerns about this idea, but of course Barry says Eobard won't turn evil because of the Power Of Love. Jaysis.

• Once Eobard's all charged up with speedster energy, Barry gives him his old Reverse-Flash ring, which apparently contains his costume.

So how is it Barry has the Reverse-Flash's ring? Good question! One that I can't fully answer, as I'm not sure the writers even understand it. Here's what I know about it:

Thawne's Reverse-Flash ring first appeared way back in Season 1's The Man In The Yellow Suit. He stored his costume in the ring, which used some sort of future tech to cause it to grow to human size once it was released. The ring also acted as a key on several occasions.

The Reverse-Flash was wearing the ring when his ancestor Eddie Thawne killed himself, which wiped Eobard out of existence. For some unknown reason, the ring survived. 

Barry had Cisco try to reverse engineer the ring, so he could have one of his own to store his costume in. Unfortunately Cisco wasn't able to figure out the futuristic tech. Barry eventually got his own Flash ring from his daughter Nora West-Allen, who brought it to him from the future (thus making his ring a bootstrap paradox). 

Eventually the Reverse-Flash ring was put on display in the Flash Museum sometime around 2030. At this point in time Thawne had been resurrected, and was mentally manipulating Nora. He talked her into taking the ring from the museum and using it to open the STAR Labs Time Vault for reasons. 

This future timeline was erased when Cicada's dagger was destroyed (don't ask), but Thawne managed to survive somehow— along with his ring. 

At some point after that, the ring came into Barry's possession. Just how did that happen? Your guess is as good as mine, as I gave up trying to figure out Thawne's chronology lonnnnng ago. I suppose we could chalk it up to Crisis, since that seems to be the producers'  answer for just about everything on this show.

Bottom line: Barry has Reverse-Flash's ring because he does.

• The three Negative Forces appear, and Team Flash— kind of— shows up to confront them.

OK, Allegra I can definitely see, as she's the second most powerful member after Barry. Cecile as well, as she's "leveled up" her powers lately. But why's Chester there? What the hell's he gonna do? Fling his Black History Month oaths at them?

To be fair, he does eventually produce some sort of force field that envelops Negative Fuerza, but she gets out of it pretty easily.

• Speaking of Negative Fuerza, why's she stay in her "Alexa Rivera" form all through the episode?

If you'll recall, when she first appeared back in Season 7 she could morph into a ten foot tall behemoth, not unlike She-Hulk. So why doesn't she do that here to fight Team Flash?

If I had to guess, I bet the producers are still stinging from the mocking they received due to her subpar CGI mode, and decided not to bother this time. That or they just couldn't afford to include a fully digital character this week. Or both!

• At one point Negative Psych lures Allegra away from the others, and she stupidly follows him. We then see her lurching along like she's never walked before, with her arms awkwardly raised in an unnatural position.

I assume she wanted her hands at the ready so she could blast Negative Psych at a second's notice. But surely there was a less stupid looking way to do so.

Negative Psych then taunts Allegra by projecting decoys of himself that appear all around her. Of course she frantically fires at each copy, which all vanish right before they're hit. She does this over and over, never seeming to learn from her mistakes.

Why didn't she just build up her strength and release one massive 360º blast? That way she couldn't miss and would have been sure to hit the real Negative Psych!

• All through the episode, Negative Deon activates his powers by snapping his fingers, Thanos-style. During their confrontation, Cecile foils him by using her telekinetic powers to freeze his fingers so he can't snap them. 

Wow, it's too bad he doesn't have another set of fingers he could snap on his other hand. Oh, wait...

• Negative Deon finally manages to gather his strength and snap his fingers, teleporting Cecile, Allegra and Chester outside of Fast Track Labs. He and the other Negative Forces then appear before them, and he says it's time to make them disappear permanently.

So... why didn't he just do that inside the building? Why was it necessary to move everyone outside in order to kill them?

• Barry, Meena and Eobard— who's wearing his old Reverse-Flash suit— then appear to battle the Negative forces. 

For years now, fans have been DEMANDING the return of the Matt Letscher version of the Reverse-Flash. Unfortunately the producers ignored their pleas, and steadfastly stuck with the Tom Cavanagh version— even when his appearance didn't make any sense.

Now at long last Letscher's finally back in his old suit! Unfortunately this is NOT the Reverse-Flash fans all know and love to hate. This is a touchy-feely, fueled by love version that no one asked for.

Then to add insult to injury, we don't even get the epic Flash/Reverse Flash rematch everyone wanted. Instead Eobard wears his costume for three minutes tops, and pretty much stands around doing nothing. 

Sigh... What a complete and utter waste of a guest star!

• During the battle with the Negative Forces, Barry takes Meena and Eobard into Flashtime with him, so they can secretly discuss their strategy while the rest of the world's frozen in time. OK, that was actually pretty darned cool!

• After battling the Negative Forces for a bit, Barry decides he's had enough. He zooms around the city, building up a massive charge of Speed Force Lightning. He then fires a huge blast at the Negative Forces. 

At the last possible instant, Negative Deon snaps his fingers and somehow teleports Present Day Iris from 2049 and materializes her in front of him. She then takes the full force of the blast, and Barry watches in horror as she's killed. A couple things here:

First of all, it's really too bad that a guy who can run so fast that time literally seems to stand still had no way to zoom his wife out of the way of the blast. 

Secondly, the fact that Iris was actually killed here means that Barry fully intended to murder the Negative Forces! Holy crap! What happened to the whole "Heroes Never Kill" thing?

Lastly, it was nice of the Negative Forces to all stop trying to kill Barry so he could cradle Iris' lifeless body in his arms for a few minutes. Classy!

• Stupid, Overly Convoluted Plan #5: We then finally learn the full scope of the Negative Forces' Plan B. Like their earlier strategy, this one's so ridiculously complicated and unlikely that it's a wonder to behold:

The Negative Forces are still pissed at Barry for robbing Thawne of his powers, which destroyed the Negative Speed Force. In order to restore the cosmic balance, Negative Deon killed Thawne (?). He and the other Negative Forces then attacked Barry, knowing he'd retaliate. Negative Deon then yanked Iris from 2049 so that Barry would accidentally kill her. For some reason, this caused Iris to disintegrate into a ball of Negative Still Force energy, which drifted over to Eobard and was absorbed into his body. Thawne then literally tore Eobard's body in half and emerged from it as the new Negative Speed Force. Sure, why not.

I have many questions about this so-called plan. Why did Iris' body turn into a ball of glowing AfterEffects particles? Why would her negative TEMPORAL energy resurrect a speedster like Thawne? Doesn't he get his power from the Negative Speed Force? And even if temporal energy could somehow bring him back, why the hell would he materialize INSIDE of Eobard?

The answer to each of these questions is apparently none of our goddamned business, as none of this is ever addressed or explained.

• Holy crap! Now THAT was an ending! Thawne literally tears Eobard in half and emerges from inside him, like something out of a Cronenberg movie.

It was horrifying, incredibly bizarre and completely unexpected. I loved it! Too bad the rest of the episode didn't have an impact like this!

This ending was clearly inspired by 2017's The Flash #26. The only real difference is the cover features the Reverse-Flash emerging from within the Flash, and not Eobard. Despite that, it's obvious the producers were paying homage to that comic here.

The Flash Season 6, Episode 19: Success Is Assured

This week on The Flash, it's the truncated finale of Season 6!

As you're no doubt aware, Season 6 was originally meant to consist of 22 episodes. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic had other ideas. 

Due to the worldwide lockdown, production on The Flash was shut down before they had a chance to finish filming the entire season. According to showrunner Eric Wallace, they'd shot about 90% of Episode 20 when The CW gave the order to shut down.

As a result, the producers were left with an incomplete season— one without a clear and definite ending. This meant that this week's Episode 19 would have to serve as a makeshift season finale, whether it was intended to be or not!

Luckily, Success Is Assured can kind of function as a season finale, if you stand back from it and squint real hard. The Joseph Carver storyline is wrapped up this week (in the most underwhelming way possible), as is the "Joe In Witness Protection" arc.

That still leaves a ton of plot threads dangling though. Will Barry save Iris in time, as well as Kamilla and Singh? Will Barry figure out a way to build a new Speed Force? What will happen to Sue now that's she's been framed for murder? And the most important one of all— how will Barry defeat Eva?

All in all, it's a very unsatisfying end to the season.

In addition, thanks to the shutdown, Season 6 marks the first time that Team Flash doesn't defeat the main villain in the finale! At the end of this week's episode, Eva kills her husband Joseph (spoilers!), incapacitates Barry and gets away scot free!

It's not all bad news though. According to Eric Wallace, the plan is to complete filming of Episodes 20, 21 and 22, and move them to the beginning of Season 7. So even though it won't happen until well into 2021, eventually we WILL see how things turn out.

And just for the record, I realize that a TV show not getting to film its season finale is the LEAST important side effect of this whole pandemic crisis. I get that. It's still annoying though.

Lastly, a thought occurred to me this week— what the hell was the point of the big Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover? Before it premiered, the producers stated they wanted to use the Crisis to eliminate the Multiverse and move all the Arrowverse characters— including Supergirl and Black Lightning— to Earth-1. The thinking was once everyone was on the same world, it'd be easier to do crossovers.

So what happened to that idea? It's been seven months since the Crisis, and Barry hasn't teamed up with Supergirl or Black Lightning. Heck, he hasn't even MENTIONED either one of them! I don't think there's even been a reference to National City since it became part of Earth-Prime! 

Again I ask— what was the point of it all then?

SPOILERS!

The Plot
Picking up where we left off last week, Mirror Singh arrives at Eva's warehouse. She's emerged from her "reflection modulation chamber" and is now wearing an "acclimation costume." She tells Mirror Singh it's time to deal with her husband Joseph Carver.

At Caitlin's apartment, Nash, Cecile and Allegra help Frost pack for her trip to the Tannhauser Facility, where her mother Carla will heal her. Cecile's power senses that Frost is anxious about meeting Carla, and she tries to reassure her. Carla arrives, and is taken aback to see Frost instead of Caitlin. The others make a hasty retreat to give them some privacy. Carla says she'd like to run a few baseline tests on Frost before they leave.

At Barry's CSI lab, he, Nash, Ralph and Allegra discuss Eva and where she's gone. Barry thinks if they can find Black Hole, they'll find Eva. Ralph shows them the giant diamond that Sue gave him a few episodes back, and says it has a microscopic Black Hole logo engraved in it.

Allegra detects energy coming from the diamond. She focuses a UV blast through it, which projects an odd symbol on the floor. Barry tells her to point the projection at a map of Central City. She does so, and the center of the projection lines up with a street address. Boy, will we be talking about THIS scene in the thoughts below! Ralph looks up the address and says it's a warehouse with five subterranean levels, belonging to Joseph Carver. He and Barry go to check it out, while Nash and Allegra go to Star Labs for some reason.

At the warehouse, Barry and Ralph find several security guards who've been stabbed to death. Ralph sees stacks and stacks of file boxes, including one labeled "Dearbon." He opens it and sees it's filled with records proving Joseph Carver's blackmailing Sue's parents.

Just then Barry sees Mirror Singh pouring gas all over the warehouse. When Barry asks why, Mirror Singh says Eva wants revenge against Carver for never trying to save her from the Mirrorverse, and profiting off her tech. He then pulls out a flare gun and aims it at the gas. Barry tries to reason with Mirror Singh, hoping he'll develop free will just like Mirror Iris did. It doesn't work, and Mirror Singh fires. He flees as the warehouse bursts into flames.

Barry tries to put out the fire with his nearly depleted speed, but can't. He and Ralph run from the warehouse just before it explodes. Barry says as bizarre as it sounds, they need to protect Carver from Eva.

The next day, Barry meets with Carver at Jitters. He says he knows Eva wants him dead, and he needs to go into Witness Protection just like Joe did. Carver says there's no danger, as his wife is dead. For some reason he shows Barry security footage of Iris being yanked into the Mirrorverse by Eva. He says his people studied the realm and discovered it's incompatible with the human brain, and that both Eva and Iris are either dead or unrecognizable at this point.

Carver asks why Barry would think Eva was coming after him. Barry says it's because Eva burned down his warehouse. Carver denies owning the property and leaves, visibly shaken.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris and Kamilla are trying to find the real Singh. Iris stares at a monitor as its display comes into focus for a second. As it does, she experiences a stabbing headache, and realizes she's acclimating to the place and needs to get out as soon as possible.

Ralph invites Mr. & Mrs. Dearbon to his office, intending to tell them he's found Sue (he's just now doing this?). Just then Sue enters as well, and pretends to meet Ralph for the first time. She makes up a story about how she joined a retreat in India and just "lost track of time." Ralph asks to speak to Sue alone and takes her into the hallway.

Ralph asks Sue what the hell. She says Carver called her a week ago and said he was no longer blackmailing her parents because he had "a change of heart." Ralph doesn't trust Carver, and Sue says doesn't either, but figures her parents are safe now and she can go home.

Cut to Carver's mansion, where his Black Hole minions Doctor Light, Ultraviolet and Sunshine are prepping for battle. Sunshine walks past a mirror and suddenly disappears. Moments later, Ultraviolet does the same. Realizing she's under sneak attack, Doctor Light draws her blaster and searches the room for the unseen assailant. She stops next to a window as she hears Eva's voice. She sees Eva's reflection on a nearby wall and fires. Suddenly Eva reaches out of the window and pulls her in.

Minutes later Carver enters, and finds his minions are gone. He sees the scorch mark on the wall from Doctor Light's blaster, realizes Eva took his little army and hauls ass out of the room.

Carver shows up at Barry's lab and says he's changed his mind about Witness Protection. He says if they help him, he'll stop trying to kill Joe and he can return home. Barry realizes Eva took Carver's minions and agrees.

Carla runs tests on Frost, and says she wishes Caitlin was there to help interpret the results. She then realizes what she just said and apologizes. Frost figures Carla sees her evil husband Thomas when she looks at her. Carla says that's not true, and that she's grateful to Frost for protecting Caitlin. She says she'd like to get to know her better.

At CCPD, Barry arranges for Carver to be placed in Witness Protection. Unfortunately. Mirror Singh approaches and says he's there to personally escort Carver. Barry pauses, reluctant to hand him over to the mirror clone. Mirror Singh whispers to Barry, saying it he lets him have Carver, he'll hand over Iris. 

Nash, who's also there for some reason, sees Barry hesitating. Nash throws down one of his teleportation smoke grenades, and he, Barry, Ralph, Allegra and Carver are all transported to STAR Labs. Nash looks over and hallucinates Harry Wells, who tells him, "The Barry Allen I knew would never have considered Singh's offer."

When Carver asks what the hell just happened, Barry explains that Singh is one of Eva's mirror clones as well. Carver doesn't trust Team Flash to protect him, and says he has a secret, high-tech, impenetrable panic room at McCulloch Tech. They agree to take him there.

Before they go, Nash tells Barry he knows he was considering Singh's offer. Barry says he'd do anything to save his wife. Nash asks what Iris would think if she knew Barry was ready to trade another person's life for hers.

Cut to McCulloch Tech, where Nash, Allegra and Ralph are evacuating the building. Nash gives Allegra a large ruby she can power with her UV rays. She angrily asks when he's going to stop trying to win her over, and he says never. Just then Ralph spots Sue heading for an elevator. He confronts her, realizing she must have agreed to work for Black Hole in exchange for her parents' freedom— and now she intends to kill Carver from the inside.

Sue congratulates Ralph on his deductive reasoning, and says there's no other way. He gives her a short Patented The CW Pep Talk®, saying he believes in her and knows deep down she's a good person. She tells him she's sorry and sprays him with knockout gas.

Meanwhile, Barry escorts Carver to his panic room. There, Carver activates a force field around the entire building. He says nothing can possibly get in or out while it's up. Right on cue, the field shorts out and drops.

In the lobby, Doctor Light, Ultraviolet and Sunshine enter. They announce to Carver that they're now working for Eva. He offers double what she's paying them, and they reply that it's not about money, but payback. Ralph recovers and somehow suits up as Elongated Man just as the three minions attack.

Ralph, Nash and Allegra then battle Eva's minions for a good chunk of the runtime. Carver calls his security team and tells Barry to activate the backup generator in the subbasement. Barry runs to the basement, where he sees Mirror Singh. Suddenly Singh shatters, and Eva emerges, decked out in her Mirror Master gear. A blaster forms over her hand and she fires at Barry, knocking him out. She heads upstairs for Carver.

Meanwhile, the battle rages on in the lobby. Allegra confronts Ultraviolet— who's her cousin— and asks why she'd doing this. Ultraviolet blames Allegra for everything bad that's happened to her, and says she's nothing to her now. Just as she starts to kill her, Allegra shoots a UV blast into the ruby Nash gave her. It fires a beam of light at Ultraviolet, incapacitating her as it causes her to experience her worst fears.

Ralph battles Doctor Light, and is suddenly joined by Sue (in her catsuit), who apparently gave up on her plan to kill Carver.

Carver watches the battle on a large flatscreen monitor. Just then Eva steps out of it, much like the girl in The Ring. He tells her it's not too late to talk things over. She says there's nothing to talk about after he sold and corrupted her tech and left her for dead. She shatters a mirror and causes the shards to hurl toward Carver.

Just then Barry speeds in out of nowhere and protects Carver with his body. The shards impale Barry, causing him to collapse. Eva tells Flash she has no beef with him, and Carver isn't worth saving. She uses her power to force one of the shards completely through Barry's body (yikes!) and fly into Carver's chest.

As Carver collapses, he says his real wife died in the Particle Accelerator explosion. Eva says he's wrong, as she's never felt more alive. Carver then ups and dies. Well that was anticlimactic!

Eva telekinetically pulls the shards out of Barry's body and tells him they're on the same side. She contacts her minions and tells them to stand down, as Carver's dead. Barry tells her he'll never stop coming after her. She tells him he's trespassing in her building, and he'd better go.

The next day, Eva holds a press conference at CCPD. She says six years ago an international crime syndicate took her captive and stole her tech to weaponize it. She says her husband Joseph Carver found and rescued her, but was murdered shortly after. She vows to work with CCPD to find her husband's killer, as well as resuming her duties as CEO of McCulloch Tech.

That night Ralph shows up at Sue's apartment. She says now that Carver's dead, she can quit Black Hole and go home to her parents. Ralph says not so fast, and says Eva's framed her for Carver's murder.GASP!

Barry goes to Caitlin's place to tell her goodbye. She's in Caitlin form now, and gives him a Patented The CW Pep Talk®, telling him it's not his speed that drives him, but love (ugh). She says she knows he'll find Iris and bring her back. Carla says she'll bring Caitlin & Frost back as soon as possible.

Allegra thanks Nash for giving her the ruby, as it saved her life. She hands it back to him, but he tells her to keep it in case she needs it again. Awwwww... she's finally warming up to the creepy guy who befriended her doppelganger.

At STAR Labs, Barry gives Team Flash a MASSIVE Patented The CW Pep Talk®, saying they may not have won, but they still have hope and he knows they'll get their people back soon. Just then Cecile enters with Joe, who no longer needs Witness Protection (since Carver's dead). He tells Barry it's time to get busy and save Iris and the others.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris scans the city and locates a life sign at Central City Hospital. She tells Kamilla it has to be Singh (or IS it?). Kamilla realizes Iris can now control the Mirrorverse, just like Eva did (?). Suddenly Iris doubles over in pain and disappears.

Thoughts: 

• "Success Is Assured" is not only this week's title, but the little motto Eva's mirror clones always spout at the end of their conversations with her. Eh, I guess it's OK as catchphrases go, but it's no "Resistance is futile."

• At the end of last week's episode, Cisco said the key to springing their people from the Mirrorverse involved a perpetual motion machine— which could only be found in Atlantis. I predicted we'd never actually see him go there though, as there's no way in hell the show's budget could afford to depict a massive undersea city.

Sure enough, Cisco's absent this week, as his little jaunt to Atlantis happens totally offscreen.

• After ten episodes, Eva FINALLY gets a costume and becomes Mirror Master. Honestly this should have happened weeks ago, but instead we had to watch her and Iris stand in the same room for several months straight.

By the way, at the end of last week's episode we saw Eva emerge from some sort of glowing chamber. We never got an explanation as to just what it was though. I wondered if maybe it was some sort of energizing chamber, or if it was realigning her cells to cure the neural dissonance caused by spending six years in the Mirrorverse.

This week we find out that's exactly what it is. She tells Mirror Singh it's a "reflection modulation chamber," that's helping with her acclimation process.

• Man, Team Flash sure gets around in this episode, don't they? First Nash, Cecile and Allegra are at Caitlin's apartment. One scene later, Nash & Allegra— along with Ralph— show up at Barry's office at CCPD. Then we immediately cut to Nash and Allegra hanging out a STAR Labs. A bit later, Nash, Ralph and Allegra join Barry back at CCPD again. Then the whole gang teleports back to STAR. Annnnnd after that they all schlep over to McCulloch Tech. 

Jesus Christ! They spend the whole episode running back and forth across Central City like basketball players hustling up and down the court!

• And now we come to the dumbest and most baffling part of the episode. Ralph shows Team Flash the diamond Sue gave him back in So Long And Good Night. Allegra shines a beam of UV light through it, which projects a strange symbol on the floor. Nash claims the symbol's a "Triangulation Cartograph," whatever the hell that is. 

Barry tells Allegra to shine the image on a handy map of Central City. She does so, and Barry says the center of the symbol is pointing to 47th and Darby, the location of a warehouse owned by Joseph Carver.

Wait, what? How could that possibly work? Look how she just aims the symbol at an arbitrary spot on the map. She's not aligning it to anything! She could just as easily have pointed it six inches to the right, and then the "center" would have been over a completely different building!

• Caitlin's mom Carla Tannhauser comes to take her & Frost to her lab "up north," where she can heal her of her wounds.

I didn't realize till this week that Carla's played by actress Susan Walters. If she looks familiar to you, that's because she played Jerry's girlfriend Delores on Seinfeld. You know, the one whose name rhymed with a female body part!

• Caitlin & Frost ride that couch for the third episode in a row, in a flailing attempt to hide Danielle Panabaker's real-life pregnancy. Hopefully by the time the show comes back next year that'll all be over and done with, and we'll get to actually see Caitlin walking around again without a stack of pillows obscuring her midsection!

• When Cecile's helping Frost pack for her maternity leave, er, I mean her trip, she just straight up scans her with her telepathy and sees she's upset. Isn't that a huge invasion of privacy? Or are we supposed to believe Cecile has no control over when her power activates itself?

• For decades now, Star Trek fans have joked about "redshirts" and their high mortality rate on the show. They've got nothing on The Flash's security guards! Almost every week Barry finds at least one who's been callously slaughtered on the job by an evil metahuman. I bet Warehouse Security Guard is the the most dangerous profession in all of Central City!

• Barry & Ralph investigate Carver's warehouse. Inside, Ralph discovers a wall of file boxes, including one containing info on Sue Dearbon's parents.

The names on the other boxes are all characters we've seen this season, who have some sort of connection with Carver. "Garcia" is Esperanza Garcia, aka Ultraviolet (and Allegra's cousin). "Rawlins" is Millie Rawlings, aka Sunshine. "Hoshi" is Kimiyo Hoshi, aka Doctor Light. And Merkel is Merkel, aka Rag Doll.

Not sure who the "Gore" could be. The name sounds familiar, but I can't think of where I've heard it before.

• Nice Attention To Detail: Last week Iris discovered Kamilla hanging out in a copy of STAR Labs inside the Mirrorverse. Appropriately enough, everything in this reflected version of STAR was reversed— down to the printing on the coffee mugs. 

This week Iris returns to Mirror STAR Labs, and stares wistfully at Barry's Flash costume— which features a reversed lightning bolt symbol! Now that was a nice touch! Kudos to whoever thought to flop that bolt!

• Um.. why is Ralph JUST NOW calling the Dearbons and telling them he located Sue? He found her MONTHS ago, way back in A Girl Named Sue! Has he really been that busy since then?

• I gotta point out the fact that Ralph's desk drawer contains one of those multicolor ink pens that kids always have (the thick light blue one).

• Barry meets with Carver and tells him he knows Eva's been trapped in the Mirrorverse for the past six years. Carver snaps back, "If Eva did ex-scape that wretched place, I'd know about it." Eh, it's just a flubbed line, guys. No need for a second take!

• This is some heavy duty nitpicking, but whatever. The exterior of Joseph Carver's luxurious home...

...doesn't look anything at all like the spartan, Brutalist-style interior. Why, it's almost like inside & outside were filmed at two completely different locations!

I suppose you could argue that this spacious, airy room with wall full of windows is in the back of the house, and not visible in the establishing shot. Still, there's nothing about these two shots that looks the least bit similar.

• When we first see Doctor Light, Ultraviolet and Sunshine, they're all speaking in their native languages. Oddly enough, they all seem to understand one another with no trouble. Even stranger, later on we see they can all speak fluent English! So why the international dialogue in this scene?

• Carver knows his wife's still alive, has the power to control any mirror and is coming for him. So of course he doesn't do anything about the large number of mirrors and reflective surfaces in his home. Sure enough, his little army of metas are kidnapped by Eva.

• When Ultraviolet and Sunshine disappear, Doctor Light realizes she's next. Unfortunately for her, she stands too close to a window and Eva yanks her into it.

OK, the concept of pulling a person into a mirror makes a certain amount of sense (in a comic book science way). After all, when you look into a mirror, it seems like there's an entire backwards universe inside it.

But yanking someone into a sheet of glass? How? It's completely transparent! There's nothing "inside" it. To me this feels like it violates the sci-fi rules they previously set up.

• The writers have totally given up on the whole "Current Wells Needs To Hide His Identity Because He Looks Like Mass Murderer Eobard Thawne" thing at this point, right? In this episode, Nash walks right into CCPD and nobody says a word.

• More Attention To Detail: When Carver comes to CCPD for help, he and Barry walk past a framed commemorative photo of Chief Singh.

The way the shot's framed, it's obvious they want us to see the photo. I guess to remind the audience that the real Singh is a hero and not a clone doing the bidding of an evil meta?

• At STAR Labs, Nash turns and sees a vision of Harry Wells warning him about Barry. Yikes, what the hell happened here? This may be the all-time worst special effect I've ever seen on this show! 

Yeesh, look at it! It's patently obvious they had Tom Cavanagh stand against a green screen and then hastily pasted him into the shot. You can tell because Harry & Nash are being lit from two completely different directions. The main giveaway though is Harry's shadow. It doesn't match the density of the other shadows in the room, and it's clear that it wasn't cast by him. It looks like they picked "drop shadow" from a menu and just let the computer create one.

Did the FX team run out of time and had to finish this shot in fifteen minutes? Did someone have to complete this shot in a makeshift studio in their kitchen during the virus lockdown? Did they pass it off to a new intern? Whatever the reason, it's pretty darn bad.

Why didn't they just do a simple split screen shot? You lock down the camera and film Nash's part of the scene. Then you have Tom Cavanagh get changed into Harry and shoot him on the same set. Then you cut the two scenes in half and combine 'em in the computer. That way Harry'd have a real shadow and the lighting on each character would match.

• Carver may be scheming and devious, but he ain't too bright. At no time does he ever figure out that Barry's really the Flash— even after he's teleported to STAR Labs!

• My favorite part of the episode: Ralph (who's in his street clothes) wakes after being gassed by Sue. We cut to Barry & Carver for literally FOUR SECONDS, and we we see Ralph again he's suited up in his Elongated Man costume. Somehow he even found the time to apply the black makeup around his eyes!

Note that this definitely is not a case of a long amount of time passing between shots. Ralph and Barry actually converse with one another here, implying that it's all one continuous scene. Whoops!

How the hell did such a huge gaffe happen? According to showrunner Eric Wallace, this episode was filmed, edited and in the can before the lockdown began, so they can't even blame it on a disruption from the coronavirus!

• Did Ang Lee direct this episode? During the big fight scene, the screen suddenly splits into multiple frames that look like comic book panels.

Eh, I didn't hate the effect. It's a comic book show after all, so it makes sense for it to look like one. But it makes me wonder why it took them a whopping SIX YEARS to think of doing this!

• During the big setpiece battle, Allegra confronts her cousin Esperanza, aka Ultraviolet. The two have a heated exchange as they speak in Spanish.

I'm guessing actress Kayla Compton, who plays Allegra, isn't a native Spanish speaker. Even I can tell her dialogue is stilted and awkward.

• Why do Nash, Ralph and Allegra just stand around and watch while the three meta gals kill dozens of innocent security guards? It takes 'em a good ten minutes before they finally act and try to stop Doctor Light & Co.

• Are the Doctor Light, Ultraviolet and Sunshine we see in the big setpiece battle real, or are they mirror clones? They certainly seem real, as they don't call Eva "mother" and seem to have free will.

So far every time Eva's abducted someone she's made a clone of them to do her bidding. If these three are still the real things, then why? Why would she let them back out of the Mirrorverse without making copies of them?

• Eva must be a fan of The Ring, as she emerges from the TV monitor in Carver's safe room. 

Earlier in the episode Carver said he had the giant wall-sized mirror in his office coated with nanoparticles to prevent Eva from popping out of it. Too bad he didn't think to do that to this monitor as well.

By the way, did you notice Carver's panic room is in the exact same place as Eva's secret monitor lab in the Mirrorverse?

• Eva shatters a mirror and sends the jagged shards flying toward Carver. At the last second, Barry zooms in and shields him with his body, getting impaled in the process. Eva then telekinetically causes a huge shard of glass to slowwwwwly slice completely through Barry's body and into Carver's chest (!).

Jesus Christ! How the hell is Barry still alive at this point? There're all kinds of major arteries and veins located in the shoulder, and that piece of glass just severed ALL of them on Barry's left side! Heck, I'm wondering how his arm is even still attached at this point! 

Yeah, I know he has speed-healing and all that, but it isn't instantaneous— it generally takes him hours to recover from a serious injury like this. He should definitely be dead at this point.

To make things worse, once Carver dies, Eva tells Barry she has no beef with him and uses her power to yank out the remaining shards from his body! Holy crap! That likely made things even worse, as pulling a knife or other sharp object out of a wound generally causes it to bleed even more.

• Why does Eva hold her press conference at CCPD? Wouldn't it have made infinitely more sense to do it in front of McCulloch Tech? You know, the corporation that she actually owns?

• In the wrap-up, Ralph informs Sue that Eva's framed her for Carver's murder. Several things here:

First of all, I wondered why the hell Eva would accuse Sue of all people. Have the two of them even met before? Or did Eva just look in the society column, see Sue's name and think, "Ah, I'll blame my husband's death on this innocent random heiress!"

Then it occurred to me that Eva probably used her mirror monitors to find out that Sue's secretly cat burglar who was intending to kill Carver herself. Once you realize that, it makes perfect sense.

I still think it'd been nice if one of the characters briefly mentioned that though, so I didn't have to do the writers' job for them.

Secondly, note that the article on Ralph's phone is from the Central City Picture News. That's where Iris used to work before she went off on her own and started the Citizen. That's some more nice attention to detail. It makes sense that the article's not from the Citizen, since Iris is still in the Mirrorverse and her clone's dead. I guess the Citizen's no longer being published at this point?

Lastly, at her press conference, Eva declares she'll find the heinous culprit who killed her husband. In the very next scene, she frames Sue for his murder! Talk about working fast!

• As we all know, the Speed Force is dead and Barry's struggling to somehow create a new one he can use. 

When he visits Caitlin, she gives him a Patented The CW Pep Talk®, telling him, "The reason you've beat Zoom, Godspeed, Thawne? It's because speed isn't what drives you. It's love. That's your true force, and there is nothing artificial about that. So as long as you stay true to yourself, you will always find a way to beat the bad guys."

Sigh... they're totally going to have the new and improved Speed Force fueled by the power of Barry's love, aren't they? Oy gevalt. How sappy can you get?

And just in case you think that's improbable, remember that in the Green Lantern comic, there was a Violet Lantern Corps whose rings were all powered by love.

• At the end of the episode, Barry bids an emotional goodbye to Caitlin. She and her mom then exit as they head "up north." Note that they leave Barry standing alone in the middle of Caitlin's apartment!

And in case you're skeptical, this is most definitely Caitlin's apartment here— it's the one she's been sitting in for the past three episodes.

What the hell? Why would they film this scene that way? I guess they thought it was more dramatic to show Barry watching them leave, rather than following them out the door like a normal human would.

• Allegra's change of heart toward Nash deserves some scrutiny. Ever since she found out he was friends with her doppelganger, she's been giving him the cold shoulder. 

In this episode he gives her a magic ruby to protect her. When her evil cousin Esperanza tries to kill her, Allegra fires a blast of UV energy through the ruby and aims it at her head. Esperanza doubles over in pain, allowing Allegra to escape.

Later on, Allegra asks Nash what the ruby did to Esperanza. He says it forced her to relive her worst memory. Oddly enough she then gives Nash a slight smile, as she finally begins to tolerate him!

What the hell? Seems to me like finding she used the ruby to inadvertently hurt her cousin (even if she isn't a nice person) would make Allegra hate Nash even more!

• In the tag scene, Iris & Kamilla are still in Mirror STAR Labs. Iris detects a life sign inside Mirror Central City Hospital. She says that's where they'll find the real Singh. 

Eh, not so fast there, Iris. I don't think that's Singh!

Remember earlier in the episode when Carver was mortally wounded? He told Mirror Master that his wife died six years ago in the Particle Accelerator explosion. Then with his dying breath, he told her she's not even human.

I'm starting to suspect that wasn't just hyperbole on his part. I think Carver believes that Eva really did die in the explosion, and the one we've been seeing for the past eighteen months (OK, maybe it just seems that long) is a mirror clone who thinks she's the real thing.

I'm also thinking that Carver was only half right. Eva wasn't killed in the explosion, but we have been watching her clone all this time. I think the life sign Iris detected in the Mirror Hospital is actually the REAL Eva, who's been lying in a coma or something for the past six years.

Unfortunately we'll have to wait till next year to find out if I'm right! 

• Right after Iris discovers "Singh's" life signs, she doubles over in pain as her body becomes faceted and disappears.

So what the hell just happened? Did Eva pull Iris out of the Mirrorverse? Did her newfound control over the Mirrorverse allow her to teleport herself back to the real world? Does the Mirrorverse contain its own version of the Mirrorverse, and Iris was sucked into that? I honestly have no idea at this point. And it'll be months before we find out.

• Thanks, Covid-19! This is the first time in the history of the show that we've gotten a "To Be Continued" title card at the end of a season finale.

• This Week's Best Lines:

Meh. Nothing again this week.