It's safe to say that I haven't been this excited about a season of The Flash in *so* long! The closest thing was at the end of "Negative Part One" where the show had the *perfect* Savitar setup. But even then, one thought crossed the back of my mind. "How do they screw this up?" And low and behold, they screwed it up. But now, almost a year later, we've reached the *final* arc of The Flash. For all intents and purposes, this should be an absolutely *terrible* experience to sit though! And yet... This episode was *somehow* amazing!
I know! I can't believe it either! But it happened! We've now gotten TWO GOOD EPISODES IN A ROW!! How?? How is this possible?? I thought last week's episode was our customary good episode that we get once per season, but we now have TWO GOOD EPISODES IN A ROW?? And you know the weirdest part? Eric Wallace co-wrote this episode. Yeah, um... No, no I don't think so. Eric Wallace doesn't care about the Flash, and I have two and a half seasons worth of evidence to prove it.
This episode is like a fever dream full of things that will excite people that have been watching this show as long as I have! When Nora Allen says "He looks just like my father", that's a callback to the season 1 finale where she says that to the Barry that went back in time to try and save her. When Thawne vows that his life's work will be "finding new ways to kill you", that's a reference to how his motives are clearly laid out in season 8. When Barry says his name is Bart, that's a reference to "Cause and Effect" from season 3 where Barry gets his mind wiped, reads his own name off his ID, and says "Are you sure I don't go by Bart? Bart feels more natural." This is now the second consecutive episode with moments like that, and those are the tells that let you know that someone who cares wrote the episode. Which means it certainly wasn't written by Eric Wallace.
And we get to see Barry and Thawne face off in his house the night that Barry's mother was murdered! We even got to see season 1 Barry show up in the other room, and our Barry (not vibrating this time) hold out his hand to tell him not to intervene! They even remembered to include that moment from the season 1 finale! And while I personally would've liked an update on the CGI from that fight in the house, it didn't need to be updated and the moment works as is! (so long as you ignore the fact that the lighting in the scenes filmed for this episode is a lot worse than the lighting of the scenes from 2014) And for someone as intense about The Flash's final season firing Chekhov's Guns as I am, I didn't expect to see this moment take place during the show's run! But the fact that we did is awesome, and once again shows that Eric Wallace *couldn't* have written this episode!
We even got some new exploration on what happened after Thawne killed Barry's mother. We see a conversation that shows us Thawne's *official* origin story; the moment that he goes insane and vows that his life's work will be finding new ways to kill Barry! Barry even said to Thawne that he'll "always be grateful", and you just know that he had a sip of Thawne's patented "petty juice" before he said that! My god that line was great! And it just goes to show *again* that Eric Wallace couldn't have written this episode! He doesn't care enough to write a moment as good as that, and you can't convince me that he does!
Oh yeah, and Rick Cosnett is in this episode as (possibly, his character never gets namedropped) Malcolm Thawne. They're *finally* doing Cobalt Blue! I would've done him as the villain of season 7 right after Crisis, but at least he's finally here! It makes me a little upset that he's not gonna be Eddie, since we all know how great of a decision that would've been, but at least he's here! Though judging by how the show handled Red Death, I don't think I should be as excited for CB as I am...
But with Cosnett's few scenes during the episode, one of them is a recreation of the moment that Barry was struck by lightning! We see the liquids in the canisters begin to rise, we see him get slammed into a few sets of metal shelves, we get to see the lightning course through his hand. It's a surprisingly good recreation, and one that I wouldn't expect from this show considering... Well... All of the reasons!
This is another great episode for Flash fans! Two weeks in a row, I've walked away from an episode feeling excited to keep watching the season, and slightly disappointed that it's the last one. And because there was clearly a lot of care put into this episode, it's very clear that this was written by someone who cares about this show and these characters. Heck, we even get a scene of Khione writing to her dead sisters Frost and Caitlin about her day, and that's honestly not something I ever expected to see. This episode was great! And considering how the last two and a half seasons have gone, and all the evidence leading me to the logical conclusion that Eric Wallace has never cared about the Flash, you can't convince me Eric Wallace wrote this!
8 / 10.
I know! I can't believe it either! But it happened! We've now gotten TWO GOOD EPISODES IN A ROW!! How?? How is this possible?? I thought last week's episode was our customary good episode that we get once per season, but we now have TWO GOOD EPISODES IN A ROW?? And you know the weirdest part? Eric Wallace co-wrote this episode. Yeah, um... No, no I don't think so. Eric Wallace doesn't care about the Flash, and I have two and a half seasons worth of evidence to prove it.
This episode is like a fever dream full of things that will excite people that have been watching this show as long as I have! When Nora Allen says "He looks just like my father", that's a callback to the season 1 finale where she says that to the Barry that went back in time to try and save her. When Thawne vows that his life's work will be "finding new ways to kill you", that's a reference to how his motives are clearly laid out in season 8. When Barry says his name is Bart, that's a reference to "Cause and Effect" from season 3 where Barry gets his mind wiped, reads his own name off his ID, and says "Are you sure I don't go by Bart? Bart feels more natural." This is now the second consecutive episode with moments like that, and those are the tells that let you know that someone who cares wrote the episode. Which means it certainly wasn't written by Eric Wallace.
And we get to see Barry and Thawne face off in his house the night that Barry's mother was murdered! We even got to see season 1 Barry show up in the other room, and our Barry (not vibrating this time) hold out his hand to tell him not to intervene! They even remembered to include that moment from the season 1 finale! And while I personally would've liked an update on the CGI from that fight in the house, it didn't need to be updated and the moment works as is! (so long as you ignore the fact that the lighting in the scenes filmed for this episode is a lot worse than the lighting of the scenes from 2014) And for someone as intense about The Flash's final season firing Chekhov's Guns as I am, I didn't expect to see this moment take place during the show's run! But the fact that we did is awesome, and once again shows that Eric Wallace *couldn't* have written this episode!
We even got some new exploration on what happened after Thawne killed Barry's mother. We see a conversation that shows us Thawne's *official* origin story; the moment that he goes insane and vows that his life's work will be finding new ways to kill Barry! Barry even said to Thawne that he'll "always be grateful", and you just know that he had a sip of Thawne's patented "petty juice" before he said that! My god that line was great! And it just goes to show *again* that Eric Wallace couldn't have written this episode! He doesn't care enough to write a moment as good as that, and you can't convince me that he does!
Oh yeah, and Rick Cosnett is in this episode as (possibly, his character never gets namedropped) Malcolm Thawne. They're *finally* doing Cobalt Blue! I would've done him as the villain of season 7 right after Crisis, but at least he's finally here! It makes me a little upset that he's not gonna be Eddie, since we all know how great of a decision that would've been, but at least he's here! Though judging by how the show handled Red Death, I don't think I should be as excited for CB as I am...
But with Cosnett's few scenes during the episode, one of them is a recreation of the moment that Barry was struck by lightning! We see the liquids in the canisters begin to rise, we see him get slammed into a few sets of metal shelves, we get to see the lightning course through his hand. It's a surprisingly good recreation, and one that I wouldn't expect from this show considering... Well... All of the reasons!
This is another great episode for Flash fans! Two weeks in a row, I've walked away from an episode feeling excited to keep watching the season, and slightly disappointed that it's the last one. And because there was clearly a lot of care put into this episode, it's very clear that this was written by someone who cares about this show and these characters. Heck, we even get a scene of Khione writing to her dead sisters Frost and Caitlin about her day, and that's honestly not something I ever expected to see. This episode was great! And considering how the last two and a half seasons have gone, and all the evidence leading me to the logical conclusion that Eric Wallace has never cared about the Flash, you can't convince me Eric Wallace wrote this!
8 / 10.