Season 8 of The Flash premieres tomorrow, Nov 16 on the CW. It’s going to start off with a five-episode crossover event entitled “Armageddon”.
TRAILER
SYNOPSIS A powerful alien threat arrives on Earth under mysterious circumstances and Barry, Iris and the rest of Team Flash are pushed to their limits in a desperate battle to save the world. But with time running out, and the fate of humanity at stake, Flash and his companions will also need to enlist the help of some old friends if the forces of good are to prevail.*
I gave up halfway through the finale last year.
OTOH, I like the crossover/events.
So, to watch this, do I need to finish the finale? Do I need to catch up on Batwoman (which is stacking up on my DVR because I don’t feel compelled to watch?) Can I just go in knowing that the finale (which I don’t really remember) was resolved through the Flash’s unique combination of love and stupidity and we’re now set up for a new threat to the universe?
I think “level up” is the new buzzy term everyone’s using. Do you think we should level up the script by using “level up” at least once in every scene? Because I think that will level up the whole show.
…
Level up.
So…the Arrowverse version of Despero is…a time travelling vigilante? Ooookay. That’s…a thing they decided to do. And he for some reason (coughCGI budget overrunscough) sometimes appears in his true form but mostly appears as Vicent Van Gogh with a fauxhawk?
We did get some idea of how the Central City Citizen can compete with CatCo WorldWide Media - apparently it’s now more than a blog with an intern. I kinda think the veteran journalists have some legitimate gripes, though. I’m personally not fond of viewpoint journalism, but I get it. But if you’re a veteran journalist who built their career on objective journalism, and then have your story shot down, by someone that was just promoted from intern with one year of experience and no education beyond high school to managing editor who “just happens” to be the publisher’s bestie, and she insists that you ignore your entire previous journlistic career and rewrite your story to engage in viewpoint journalism, and implies you’re an idiot for not knowing that’s how all CCC stories are supposed to be written to begin with…The fact that they all apparently meekly submitted to that may be the most gritty, realistic element that this entire series has ever had - that’s how hard-hit newsrooms even in the Arrowverse have been hit by layoffs, that they’re willing to swallow their pride and their journalistic integrity just to keep their jobs at a start-up.
I did like the Royal Flush Gang bit - it was kind of fun having all the build-up of an early-season style threat, only to have Flash dismantle them in a few seconds, because he’s…I refuse to say it. But you know.
I also liked seeing Ray again. I didn’t realize quite how much I missed him on Legends of Tomorrow. I didn’t particularly like Brandon Routh as Superman (although I thought he absolutely nailed Christopher-Reeve-as-Clark-Kent), but I really liked his genuinely nice and earnest Ray Palmer. It was just…nice to see him again.
If nothing else, this episode seemed a lot more coherent than most of the last season, even with juggling multiple sub-plots and characters. Hopefully that continues through the rest of this season.
Allegra’s plotline followed that of Wesley Crusher in an episode of TNG (“Pen Pals”)
Agree it’s really nice to see Ray. It’s a shame that he didn’t go to 1925 with the legends (he could have run into young versions of Shuster and Siegel who would have liked his style)
I would have liked to have seen Barry battling the Royal Flush Gang for a whole season or maybe a half season. They were exactly the kind of goofy fun that’s been missing from the show recently. The season arc could have been structured like the Forces last season, with Barry battling the members individually, coming to realization that they’re all part of the same gang, and then battling the whole gang. I hope that there’s still an Ace out there somewhere, since Barry only captured the King through 10. Maybe they weren’t the real Royal Flush Gang, since a true royal flush should all have the same suit, and the jokers that Barry caught each had a different suit.
It looks like the extent of the crossover will be having a guest star from a different show each episode. Five episodes, five different guests. Next up is Alex from the recently concluded Supergirl.
Despero’s CGI was at least better than last season’s Fuerza. One could say that the effects team leveled up.
You probably don’t need to have watched the finale. On the other hand, the finale did manage to salvage something out of the shambles of last season.
I’m not caught up on Batwoman myself. I’ve seen Season 2 but only the first couple of episodes for Season 3. My guess is that Barry will probably be surprised at encountering a different person wearing the suit.
THE FLASH SEEKS HELP FROM BLACK LIGHTNING - Despero (guest star Tony Curran) warns The Flash that great tragedies will befall the speedster and cause him to lose his mind. Once that happens, Armageddon will begin. Determined to prove Despero wrong, Barry doubles down on proving his innocence but a devastating revelation from Iris pushes him to the edge and sends him to seek counsel from Black Lightning (guest star Cress Williams).
Last week, Barry took on the entire Royal Flush Gang, all four of them, and defeated them by entering Flash Time faster than their psychic could think. This time, Barry couldn’t even defeat a singular psychic without her affecting his mind. Did he forget how to go into Flash Time?
So far, Barry has been suspended from the force, gotten S.T.A.R. Labs shut down, destroyed Gideon, attacked Central City at random, plus apparently Joe West died six months previously?! Someone must really really hate Barry to cause all this misfortune on him. Could it be, [speculation:] Reverse Flash?
I guess Alex making a Facetime appearance is the extent of the crossover with Supergirl. And she made excuses that Kara and J’onn were offworld. But what about Dreamer and Brainy? Or Lena for that matter. They have a whole host of Super Friends over there.
If it’s Reverse Flash, then next week everyone will be saying “Who is this Chester you keep talking about, Barry? Records show there was a kid named Chester Runk but he died years ago in a house fire”
That was a weird episode. I guess intentionally so. But it seems like the show is headed back into the incoherent storytelling of last season. sigh
Yeah, that bugged me, too. To be fair, though, I don’t think it was that he was acting faster than Queen could think, at least not exactly. I think what happened was Queen read his mind and anticipated his attack plan, but then Flash came up with an alternate attack plan in a fraction of a second, after Queen had stopped reading his mind. But, still, the show makes a big deal out of how he’s sigh levelled up to the point he can out-speed a telepath, and then throws two more telepaths at him, and he just…seems to forget about how he just defeated a telepath? If the show were more ambitious in its plotting, I’d think there might be a connection there to Joe’s retroactive death, like it’s a plot point that we the audience see him defeat a telepath then seem to immediately forget how to do that, but I think it was just really sloppy plotting.
Speaking of…Barry Allen owns STAR Labs? And that’s a matter of public record? And he’s still just working as a frontline CSI for the CCPD? That’s…kind of odd. And Central City has had an Emergency Act since the Dark Matter explosion, and it has an emergency radiation containment team that with municipal resources is just kind of off-handedly planning a massive, Chernobyl style containment effort…and we’ve never seen or heard of any of this before? Again, if the show were more ambitious in its plotting, I’d suspect that’s supposed to be actively weird and a clue that there’s some serious reality distortion going on, but…
Oh, and there are holo-emitters that can conceal all of the Team Flash areas of STAR Labs (which is basically every area other than the lounge that we’ve ever seen), but the Time Vault, which was established all the way back in the first season as being undetectable, is so vulnerable to random city inspectors that Gideon has to physically self-destruct to protect the Flash? Like…she can’t just disconnect from the STAR Labs servers after wiping them? I mean, if they find the Time Vault and her melted plinth, I think the jig is up, anyway. Yet again, that makes so little sense, I’d wonder if it’s supposed to be nonsensical, and if we the audience are supposed to realize Gideon’s actions and Flash’s reactions don’t make any sense, but…
Unfortunately, I think this season is looking like it’s going to be as incoherently plotted as last season. At least it seems like they’re going to stick with one story arc at a time, instead of randomly mixing them, but still.
BLACK LIGHTNING, RYAN WILDER, ALEX DANVERS AND RYAN CHOI APPEAR - Barry meets Black Lightning (guest star Cress Williams) at the Hall of Justice after things take a dire turn with Despero (guest star Tony Curran). Iris suspects something is off with Despero’s vision of the future so she seeks help from a powerful ally.
It was my impression that, at the end of Crisis, all the heroes were just sitting around the table at the Hall of Justice, congratulating themselves. That was apparently not the case as they took some time to work out some things like the Injustice protocol – what to do if someone goes rogue. Black Lighting would take down the Flash. I would guess that Batwoman would take down Supergirl since she has that shard of kryptonite. What would the other pairings be, I wonder?
The source of Barry’s troubles was, as I suspected, Eobard Thawne all along. There’s still a lot that needs to happen though for Iris to agree to marry him in 2031.
And, judging by the exterior shot last episode, take care of exterior maintenance and landscaping. Not so much with the interior, though, which is still an unfinished warehouse with pools of standing water, for some reason. Sure seems like all the furnishings would be pretty rusty and moldy by now…
Also, the plan for Black Lightning to take down the Flash is apparently…for the Flash to take down the Flash, by the Flash rigging up enhancements to Black Lightning’s suit after the Flash has gone rogue, and then for Black Lightning to slowly deplete the Flash’s powers, in stages, while the Flash stands there. Huh. I mean, I really like the basic idea of the Injustice protocol, but…boy, does the DCW Justice League need an actual Batman (or Green Arrow…).
Apparently? Although the show seemed very careful not to actually say which Tom Cavanagh character we see in that last scene. It could be one the alternate Wells rather than Eobard-Thawne-Playing-Harrison-Wells, or even some other temporal/parallel doppleganger. I mean, it sure seems like ETPHW - Cavanagh certainly seems to be using his mannerisms and inflections. At the same time, though, it just seemed to me like the show was really being coy about not actually using his name or clearly identifying him. Eh, I’m almost certainly overthinking it, and it’s just ETPHW.
BARRY FACES OFF WITH EOBARD THAWNE - Barry is shocked when Eobard Thawne (guest star Tom Cavanagh) returns in the most unexpected way, and with a tie to a loved one. Damien Darhk (guest star Neal McDonough) offers advice to Barry but there is a catch. An epic battle begins with Reverse Flash pitted against The Flash, Team Flash, Batwoman (guest star Javicia Leslie), Sentinel (guest star Chyler Leigh) and Ryan Choi (guest star Osric Chau).
Reverse Flashpoint was so much cooler than actual Flashpoint, the Arrowverse version at least. (I remain hopeful that the movie version will capture the spirit of the comics.) Batwoman! Sentinel! Atom! Real superhero team-up! The return of Damien Dahrk, who even managed to make the Power of Love much cooler than last season.
Flashpoint easter egg: Robern, the restaurant the West party was being held at, was the name of Eobard’s brother in the Flashpoint comics.
