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The Flash (Season 8)
To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe in the impossible. Yes, I’m still turning off my brain to watch this show.
Boy howdy, do they have the routine down at this point. At one point, the mysterious alien antagonist tells Barry, "You're either very brave or very stupid," and I'm just, "Hey! I know this one!" I'm also entertained that they're doing a version of the Armageddon 2001 crossover plotline, except they can't use any of the major characters from that because they've already been used by other shows; and the crossovers are limited to one character per episode—often without a real purpose for being there—for budget and covid reasons. Of course, there’s also the giant glaring issue that when Despero tells Barry, “The world will be destroyed in 2032,” Barry doesn’t immediately respond, “My kids regularly visit me from 2049, so clearly there are time-travel shenanigans.” (Spoiler: There are time-travel shenanigans.)
The science has always been terrible, but a particularly bad case during the mid-season plotline: They don’t have the foggiest clue what “cold fusion” is and treat it like both the source of ice powers and a magic black flame that can burn something to ashes without consuming other things. Also, I think Caitlin tried to inject Frost with some, too. (Honestly, I’m okay when they talk about “cryokinetic cores” or “photokinetic fields” because that’s absolutely not science. It’s just as comic-book as the Still Force. It’s when they use real words that it grates on me.)
There are plenty of other things that don’t make sense if you think about them too hard: Three of the four Forces were normal humans who got empowered and then became force avatars, so where did the negative force versions of them come from? Also, while this does reconcile the “four forces” plotline with the negative speed force that powered Thawne in previous seasons, the idea that there are “evil and destructive” versions of each force goes against all the times the regular forces have been presented as morally neutral forces of nature that are perfectly capable of being evil.
I’m guessing one of the writers realized they didn’t have enough queer characters after all the het romance plotlines this season, so they tossed in a reveal that Nora/XS is queer when Barry briefly sees the future, including his daughter’s future wife. And it occurred to me when writing that that there are too many characters named Nora: Nora Allen (Barry’s mom), Nora West-Allen (XS, Barry’s daughter from the future), “Speed Force Nora” (the manifestation of the speed force that looks like Barry’s mom), and Nora Darhk (Damian’s daughter, formerly a regular on Legends of Tomorrow).
On and that topic of crossovers/cameos: Sue comes back for a several-episode stint and Ralph doesn’t even get mentioned; she’s just hanging out with her bestie Iris. Nora and Bart appear a bunch, as does Jay Garrick. They come up with two different unrelated reasons to have Eddie Thawne appear and bring back Ronnie for a while. Characters get mentioned who can’t come back because the actor is unavailable (Wally is the big offender) but to remind us that they still exist and matter. We got our throwaway line about baby Jenna being in kindergarten; I think the fact she never appears is just a running gag now.
I’m sure that Tinya Wazzo is going to show up again, and everyone will quietly forget that she attempted to flat-out murder Iris and would have succeeded if not for the Time Sickness plotline. (As a side note, “Tinya Wazzo” is a perfectly fine name for a 31st-century teenager from the planet Bgztl, but kinda weird for a 21st-century teenager from San Francisco.)
Hanging threads: Cecile’s new telekinesis power. (She’s come a really long way since getting “gestational telepathy” a bunch of seasons back.) The new version of Caitlin/Frost/new third personality. Various villains will probably return for one-off adventures, but we might finally, finally be done with Thawne?
Overall: More of the same from the last half-dozen seasons. This time they clearly knew they had one more season to go. I’m going to bet we see a few more crossovers/cameos that wrap up plotlines from other shows, since the next season of The Flash will effectively be the final season of the Arrowverse.
Boy howdy, do they have the routine down at this point. At one point, the mysterious alien antagonist tells Barry, "You're either very brave or very stupid," and I'm just, "Hey! I know this one!" I'm also entertained that they're doing a version of the Armageddon 2001 crossover plotline, except they can't use any of the major characters from that because they've already been used by other shows; and the crossovers are limited to one character per episode—often without a real purpose for being there—for budget and covid reasons. Of course, there’s also the giant glaring issue that when Despero tells Barry, “The world will be destroyed in 2032,” Barry doesn’t immediately respond, “My kids regularly visit me from 2049, so clearly there are time-travel shenanigans.” (Spoiler: There are time-travel shenanigans.)
The science has always been terrible, but a particularly bad case during the mid-season plotline: They don’t have the foggiest clue what “cold fusion” is and treat it like both the source of ice powers and a magic black flame that can burn something to ashes without consuming other things. Also, I think Caitlin tried to inject Frost with some, too. (Honestly, I’m okay when they talk about “cryokinetic cores” or “photokinetic fields” because that’s absolutely not science. It’s just as comic-book as the Still Force. It’s when they use real words that it grates on me.)
There are plenty of other things that don’t make sense if you think about them too hard: Three of the four Forces were normal humans who got empowered and then became force avatars, so where did the negative force versions of them come from? Also, while this does reconcile the “four forces” plotline with the negative speed force that powered Thawne in previous seasons, the idea that there are “evil and destructive” versions of each force goes against all the times the regular forces have been presented as morally neutral forces of nature that are perfectly capable of being evil.
I’m guessing one of the writers realized they didn’t have enough queer characters after all the het romance plotlines this season, so they tossed in a reveal that Nora/XS is queer when Barry briefly sees the future, including his daughter’s future wife. And it occurred to me when writing that that there are too many characters named Nora: Nora Allen (Barry’s mom), Nora West-Allen (XS, Barry’s daughter from the future), “Speed Force Nora” (the manifestation of the speed force that looks like Barry’s mom), and Nora Darhk (Damian’s daughter, formerly a regular on Legends of Tomorrow).
On and that topic of crossovers/cameos: Sue comes back for a several-episode stint and Ralph doesn’t even get mentioned; she’s just hanging out with her bestie Iris. Nora and Bart appear a bunch, as does Jay Garrick. They come up with two different unrelated reasons to have Eddie Thawne appear and bring back Ronnie for a while. Characters get mentioned who can’t come back because the actor is unavailable (Wally is the big offender) but to remind us that they still exist and matter. We got our throwaway line about baby Jenna being in kindergarten; I think the fact she never appears is just a running gag now.
I’m sure that Tinya Wazzo is going to show up again, and everyone will quietly forget that she attempted to flat-out murder Iris and would have succeeded if not for the Time Sickness plotline. (As a side note, “Tinya Wazzo” is a perfectly fine name for a 31st-century teenager from the planet Bgztl, but kinda weird for a 21st-century teenager from San Francisco.)
Hanging threads: Cecile’s new telekinesis power. (She’s come a really long way since getting “gestational telepathy” a bunch of seasons back.) The new version of Caitlin/Frost/new third personality. Various villains will probably return for one-off adventures, but we might finally, finally be done with Thawne?
Overall: More of the same from the last half-dozen seasons. This time they clearly knew they had one more season to go. I’m going to bet we see a few more crossovers/cameos that wrap up plotlines from other shows, since the next season of The Flash will effectively be the final season of the Arrowverse.
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But I kind of love the idea of injecting someone with the idea of cold fusion.