TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 9 Episode 12: A New World Part 3

…it’s getting pretty hard to not give up faith in something you want to believe in when you keep seeing things go wrong in the worst of ways. Tonight was the penultimate chapter of The Flash and I’m seriously not excited for the series finale, especially after what we saw occur.

I want to harp on something important to start. Once again, The Flash, Barry Allen, the PROTAGONIST OF THE SHOW, was barely in the episode. And when he was in it, there was lots of talking, little action, and once again, he couldn’t beat a bad guy on his own and needed help from the “more powerful members” to save him. This is the final season, with Barry at his peak in power, and he can’t do anything on his own…how is that right?

Second, the Eddie Thawne storyline was comical in the worst ways. The killing of the captain who tried to help him? So cringe. The way that he was portrayed throughout the episode? Inconsistent and mind-numbing. He would literally go from being the “noble Eddie” we knew from Season 1 to acting like the Joker at the flip of a switch. We all knew he would accept the powers of the Negative Speed Force, but the way it was done with little explanations of what was happening was terrible and confusing all at the same time.

And then…there was Cecile. Oh…my…gosh, they are so hung up on these OC characters getting powers greater than Barry that they can’t help themselves. Because not only can Cecile apparently project her consciousness several DECADES into the future…she can rip the Negative Speed Force out of a person and cast them out…somehow…and her superhero name…is Virtue. Wrong. It’s just…so wrong.

Not the least of which is that over the last several seasons she’s acted anything BUT virtuous! And even when they called out her crap, they worked super hard to try and convince viewers that she made the right call! As we find out in her “future visit,” she hasn’t visited Joe or Jenna much. Only twice in a YEAR. So she fled back to the past and basically abandoned Barry to his face because she realized she made a big mistake…except…Chester came in and basically said, “Nah, you did nothing wrong! Just accept it and move on!” NO CHESTER!!! THAT’S NOT WHAT SHE SHOULD DO!!!!

Not to mention, we’ve seen NUMEROUS times in The Flash that the future can change based on decisions that were made in the past. Cecile could’ve promised herself right then and there that she would be a “better mom” and try to be there for her husband and daughter more. But NO! She was convinced that she had to “trust her future self” and pray that the decisions she makes in the future are the right ones.

You might think I’m being hypocritical here because of Barry & Iris and how the latter didn’t want to know her future and just “embrace it as it comes.” That’s different because she was being TOLD her future by Barry and was told to be happy about the spoilers. She was having her choices and decisions taken away from her because she knew the outcome. Cecile found out the outcome and it horrified her…and she disregards it after a terrible pep talk. She literally just said, “Eh, my superhero career is more important than my family,” and then went off to the future where she’s WAY more than just an empath and a telekinetic…which is still, once again, unexplained as to how that makes sense.

At this point, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Snow and Cecile dealt the finishing blows to the returning supervillains instead of Barry. Because at this point…it’s their show, not Barry Allen’s. How is that possible? I don’t know…but it’s what happened.

2/5