The Flash Season 8

Cafe Society
21

Ok, yeah, I think you’re right, that makes a lot more sense. So Barry dies as an infant, and Eobard just creates a fake Barry Allen he pretends to be as Reverse Flash so he can have an arch-enemy and be a hero by defeating. Still…why does he have Harrison Wells’ face if he’s not pretending to be Wells? Why does the actual Barry Allen have the Reverse Flash costume in alt-2031?

Ok, yeah, I think the dialogue was actually something along those lines. So if he accelerates quickly, he doesn’t create problems, but if he accelerates more slowly, he destroys the planet? That still doesn’t actually make sense, but I guess it’s maybe at least consistent with what we’ve seen in previous episodes.

So, still outstanding:

Why is midnight important? (That one I’ll concede as standard timey-wimeyness)

Why does Damien Darhk think he needs to hang out at the starting point?

Why is Ryan Choi kind of a jerk when he’s supposed to be the Paragon of Humanity? (I’ll concede that one as a butterfly effect of Reverse Flashpoint and he isn’t actually a Paragon in this timeline).

How does the Despero plotline make sense? From Despero’s perspective, Barry Allen as the Reverse Flash destroys the world in 2031, and Eobard Thawne has always been the Flash, yet he comes back in time to stop Barry Allen as the Flash from destroying the world, and in the previous episodes it seems like he knows Barry Allen as the Flash, and that in the future he came from the Flash goes crazy and destroys the world.

22

What, like one evening together 10 years earlier somehow carrying the same emotional impact as something that happened last week?

They might as well have set the ‘future’ in 2022 or 2023 for all that 2031 mattered. I guess “10 years” is a nice round number.

Even Austin Powers time travel makes more sense than whatever this was.

ETA: At least Neal McDonough got some work and looked like he was having fun chewing scenery.

23

Yeah, that part I did enjoy.

24

I’ve got to say, all things aside, this 5 episode series-within-a-series thing is a pretty good format. The story telling is a lot tighter and other shows should take a look at it.

25

I’m still trying and failing to process the timeline in the last episode*. But I do agree with this. Last season just kind of…meandered in and out of plotlines, and I couldn’t follow what was happening from one episode to the next. In this season-within-a-season, there’s a clear throughline, and the episodes actually flow from one to the next. I don’t think the plot points in Armageddon actually make sense, but at least I do actually know what they are. Last season, by the time we got to the showdown with Godspeed, I couldn’t even remember if they had even tried to explain the clones, much less what the explanation was.

And, hey, Neal McDonough being deliciously evil and Tom Cavanagh being schemingly evil. That’s a genuine plus. (I’m just a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see them playing off of each other).

*If Thawne altered 19-- to kill Baby Barry and 2013 to become the Flash and and create a new timeline that existed in 2031, how does 2021 still exist in the original timeline? And what was the point of any of his shenanigans in 2021 if he’s wiping out that timeline entirely?

26

The writers on this show have never managed one thing: how to make a season long arc (or even a half season arc) with a compelling villain who isn’t yet another speedster for which the solution doesn’t boil down to “Something, something, teamwork, power of love” with a touch of “Barry run faster than other speedster”. After the 3rd or 4th iteration, it gets stale.

All the failures have been attempts to do something different, which I do applaud, but with decidedly mixed or poor results.

27

My take on it is, Eobard impersonates Barry while acting like a dick in the future, prompting Despero to visit 2021 and tell Barry, hey, you’re going to dick things up.

Eobard then visits 2021 and impersonates Barry while acting like a dick, prompting Barry to take Despero seriously and ask Black Lightning to please zap my superspeed away. BL gets some of it, but not all of it.

Barry then decides it’d make sense to visit 2031; but, right about then, Eobard visits 2013 to change history: debuting as the Flash, romancing Iris, making it look like the yellow-clad Reverse Flash is Barry, and so on. So when Barry visits 2031, he visits that 2031.

In that 2031, Eobard (a) figures Barry can’t travel back in time, due to the 2021 shenanigans; and (b) gloats at him that, oh, hey, I just got back from a visit to 1990, where I killed you in your crib; by my calculations, the effects should arrive here by, like. midnight? If you could still run fast enough, you could get there in time to stop that; but I tricked you, hahaha, so spend the next few hours regretting your mistake while being hated by folks who no longer recall ever having teamed up with you.

Turns out, though, Barry is still that fast.

Does that seem like an accurate summing-up?

28

Except Despero doesn’t travel back to tell Barry he’s going to act like a dick, he travels back to kill Barry because he’s going to destroy the planet. And then in this episode, we find out Barry is going to destroy the planet in 2031, as a side-effect of accelerating up to time-travel speed. He actually explicitly tells Despero that is the planetary destruction he witnessed, but now it’s never going to happen because Barry restored the “Sacred Timeline”. So Despero is apparently from alt-2031.

After some more thought, I can maybe fanwank that part. Maybe. Despero comes to Earth sometime between 2021 and 2031, and settles in. He’s aware of the Flash, but never meets him, and doesn’t really know much about him, other than that he’s based in Central City. So when “the Reverse Flash” starts ripping the planet apart while chased by “the Flash”, Despero just knows that a Flash is for some reason ripping the planet apart, and it’s too late to stop it, so he goes back in time a decade to kill “the Flash” before he goes crazy and destroys the planet. At that point, he doesn’t actually know who the Flash is, hence needing to draw him out (and we’ll ignore the city-wide telepathic scans he’s capable of to identify and locate an individual), and he doesn’t realize the the Flash is “supposed” to be Eobard Thawne instead of Barry Allen.

Which still doesn’t really mesh with what Despero said when he first appeared, but it kind of maybe hangs together.

But then what was the point of Thawne’s 2021 shenanigans, other than that’s when the current season actually takes place? Again, Despero is apparently from alt-2031, which was created by the Reverse Flashpoints in 1990 and 2013. But if Thawne’s creating Reverse Flashpoints in 1990 and 2013 to erase Barry Allen from existence, why does he need to mess with him in 2021? And alt-2031 can only exist for Despero to witness planetary destruction in and travel back from if Barry Allen’s already been retconned away, but if he’s already been retconned away, he shouldn’t exist in the 2021 timeframe, either, much less there be reasons for Thawne to mess with him in that timeframe.

And why does Barry have a Reverse Flash costume in 2031? Shouldn’t he still have the same costume he left 2021 in? He’s still the Barry Allen from 2021, everything else about him, including his memories, is the same. Why did his costume and absolutely nothing else change?

29

My crazy and almost certainly false theory is that what Thawne is yet to do results in the apparent disaster that Despero is concerned with - this week’s disaster in 2031 is a red herring.

But at least now I understand Thawne - he hates the yellow costume and longs to wear red, but Barry got there first - the fiend.

30

Same way Kirk and company beamed into their counterpart’s uniforms in “Mirror, Mirror”.

31

S08E05 Armageddon Part 5

THE EXCITING CONCLUSION TO THE FIVE PART ARMAGEDDON EVENT BRINGS THE RETURN OF MIA QUEEN - The conclusion to Armageddon presents an opportunity for The Flash to end his lifelong battle with Reverse Flash (guest star Tom Cavanagh) for good, but the payoff could be too much for Barry and team to handle. Meanwhile, Mia Queen (guest star Katherine McNamara) drops in from the future looking to save a lost loved one, and she won’t let anything stand in her way.

32

Hooray, Joe West is back! Not that there was any question of his return as Jesse L. Martin was still being listed in the opening credits even as Joe was supposedly dead. Also, Damien Dhark stuck around for some reason, long enough to see his daughter Nora for one last time. Is that plot point going anywhere? Or is it going to be like William Queen’s kidnapping in the future? It seems like that was just an excuse for Mia to make an appearance.

All in all, I feel like this was a pretty solid “crossover” experience, despite the writers only having four episodes of material and stretching it out to five. Hopefully we’ll continue to see shorter story arcs in the coming season.

33

So what was the deal with the final scene? Some folks (Chester? ) got added to the picture?
Forgot that Mia’s timeline changed and is now Mia Queen, not Mia Smoak.

Brian

34

Barry and Iris’s future kids, Nora and Bart, appeared in the Christmas 2014 picture. More time travel shenanigans.

35

I think I’m glad we quit watching while it was still more fun - before stretchy guy left.

36

“The Flame of Pytar may be alien, but it’s still fire!”

Is it? I mean…it looks flame-like, but…it’s psychic energy, right? But somehow it’s also the chemical combustion of of oxygen?

“That means we can channel it with a vacuum!”

That’s…that’s not how that works. That’s not how any of that works.

“But then we still need to disperse it.”
“I’ve been working with the PED circuitry from the future, and I think I’ve got something that will work.”

And that’s…boots. Chester made energy dispersing boots. Because…boots are cool?

And then, the Flash stomps Despero, which severs his link with the Flame of Pytar, because energy dispersing boots, I guess? But then the Flame that’s been dispersed and that he’s no longer connected to…reappears and obliterates him?

What…what just happened?

Also…the Flame of Pytar was building up energy equivalent to a nuclear weapon, and when he released it, he…created a small-scale light show and set all of two cars on fire

I will say, though, I did think revealing Despero as the despot who unintentionally got his whole planet destroyed, and who then was willing to commit atrocities to save Earth, was actually good character work. His character actually made some psychological sense. His abilities and plotline didn’t, but as a character, I think the writers actually had some idea what they were doing there.

And taking away Thawne’s “Negative Speed Force” somehow stops him from being erased from the timeline? But…the timeline that he comes from no longer exists. I guess that, combined with the fact that he managed to escape that timeline before it was erased, but…that’s never been how resetting timelines worked in this series.

And we finally find out Thawne’s origin, and…it’s that the Flash unintentionally stole his glory? I guess I get it - there’s no deep meaning, Thawne is just nuts. I think I’m ok with that. Honestly, I kind of expected/wanted something more epic, but, as I think about it, I think that does work. Sometimes people are horrible and do horrific things, and there’s no real reason for it.

Also, I liked having Joe back, and I liked his lecture to Barry and Iris.

37

S08E06 Impulsive Excessive Disorder

THE FLASH ZOOMS TO WEDNESDAY NIGHTS - Picking up where season 7 left off, after returning home from a visit for their parent’s vow renewal, Bart (guest star Jordan Fisher) and Nora (guest star Jessica Parker Kennedy) quickly realize that things are not exactly as they left them. The duo race to repair any fissures in the timeline and restore everything back to the way it is supposed to be.

Note the new timeslot. The Flash will now be airing on Wednesday night, in the slot just vacated by Legends of Tomorrow. I think this is the first time the show will be seen on a different night.

38

This was a fun romp back to the first season. Great to see Rick Cosnett back in action, even if only for an episode. Good to see the Royal Flush gang back, too. I knew that they were too good to waste on a single episode. I anticipate seeing the still missing fifth member getting the gang back together. Nora and Bart had some great chemistry together. I wouldn’t mind seeing a spinoff series with them in the lead. Also, Jay Garrick is alive again!

What was with Iris’s disappearing hairbrush? Don’t tell me they’re going to do the time sickness thing.

39

Yeah, that was fun. And Bart and Avery make a ridiculously cute couple.

40

S08E07 Lockdown

SIT TIGHT – When a criminal invades the CCPD, Barry and Kramer (guest star Carmen Moore) must trust and rely on each other if they are going to make it out safely. Meanwhile, Caitlin learns a valuable lesson while out with Snow and Mark (guest star Jon Cor).