TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 8 Episode 9: Phantoms

As many people noted on Twitter, remember last week when Cecil said she wouldn’t read people’s emotions without consent? Which was a key plotpoint for Barry’s plot to prove that one guy was innocent? Yeah, she broke that rule a LOT today…and didn’t even care. Just saying.

Anyway, “Phantoms” honestly didn’t move things forward in the direction I was hoping. Mainly because the two main plotlines…didn’t add up, at all. Chester (whom I still feel is one of the weakest links in Team Flash since his addition) once again had a head-scratching story that made no sense. In this case, he was having PTSD of a sort of his dad dying in a fire. That in and of itself was fine and could’ve been meaningful…if he voiced it previously. But he didn’t, despite having MULTIPLE episodes trying to convincee him to “accept the team as family” and open up about things (see: feeling not as good as Cisco, Ray “hating him”, etc.).

Then, out of nowhere, he thinks that the flames are his father…which made no logical sense on any metric, and he should’ve known that. This is a guy who has made mechanical devices out of scrap, and yet he couldn’t see the flaws in terms of the flame NOT being his dad? Such as…why would his dad kill random people that he never knew? Or, why did his dad try and burn him alive? Or haunt him at all? That didn’t occur to him until Cecil expositioned everything and “made him realize the truth”. Then, the “PSA moment” at the end with him, Cecil and Allegra? Wow…just…wow…so bad.

Then, there was Iris, who was given the “all clear” by Dion…only for him to realize “something was wrong” when she literally voiced her concerns (and apparently Dion doesn’t know about Armageddon…why?) and apparently “it’s not good news”. But to get away from her troubles, she went on a road trip with Sue (who randomly popped back up, also, no mention of Ralph…) to find a new meta because she needed a distraction.

All in all? That would be fine. But it quickly became a convoluted mess as they found Tenya (aka Phantom Girl from the comics) and Iris was convinced she could help her be a hero and “tell her story” even though…she had no reason to think that was what she wanted. What made her think that this was a good idea to just approach her like that? For all she knew, Tenya could’ve been evil. But she went all in from the go because…she wanted to recreate “The Streak”? Uh…what?

It also didn’t help that at the end of the episode, Barry basically told Iris to stay away because of the flames…which is very anti-Barry because he’s been away from Iris too many times and he should KNOW BETTER than to try the “stay away to keep you safe” manuever. Seriously, why are they trying this again?

All in all, “Phantoms” didn’t really do much on any level, and while it did have some ok moments, it’s just…dragging.

2.5/5