TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 9 Episode 7: Wildest Dreams

Before I talk about my review, I want you to look at the poster that’s above this text. The final season poster. The emphasis here is “Final Season.” After watching “Wild Dreams” tonight, and reflecting on the horrible episode from two weeks ago, my immediate is, “Does this feel like a final season?” Because it honestly doesn’t. And tonight’s episode felt like an episode from another Arrowverse show instead of building up The Flash’s “final run.”

Because as was teased before the season, we got the crossover from Supergirl via Nia, the Dreamer. I’ll admit, I left Supergirl before she arrived, but she’s an important character in the Arrowverse due to her Transgender orientation, and her actress is Transgender herself and has fought hard to be better than the trolls that come after them, and I respect that. But this episode felt like it was about Dreamer more than anything else…and Supergirl ended a while ago. Her “arc” was that she was trying to get even more powerful and that led to…wait for it…her losing her powers…only to get them back and now she’ll be going on a “journey” to get even more powerful. Which is fine…if it was Supergirl. But it’s not, it’s The Flash. And by their own dialogue, Nia and Iris had only met ONCE, and that was at the “brunch” with some of the other Arrowverse ladies.

So when Nia said later on that ‘Iris is the only one who could help me find my path’ that made no sense because the two are basically strangers. Why her versus ANYONE else? And it didn’t help that all of Nia’s friends were conveniently off-world, as was the rest of the League, apparently.

But for me, the biggest faux pas in this episode was once again how a character was doing a Season 1 or 2 storyline in the FINAL SEASON. Care to guess who it was? Yep, it was Iris. Her “crisis of faith” about her job came off as so forced that it hurt. Remember, I hated the “future book” storyline because it made Barry look like an idiot because he thought Iris would love it. And now, that storyline reared its ugly head again and made Iris question her entire life. In her dreams, she came off as overly happy to be in these other lives despite the fact that she busted her butt to become the journalist she is now.

And it infuriated me when she had that dream of everyone, including Allegra, saying that she was a fake and a fraud. She’s Iris West! She’s the reason that all of them are HIRED, and she’s suffered more than all of them combined, and yet she still has fears of coming off as a fraud? That makes no sense. If this was Season 1, or 2, or even she fully started the Central City Citizen, these fears would be valid. But she’s published articles that have changed lives, and she gave purpose to other people’s lives, like Allegra, through her work. She even said that there piece she’ll win that award for was “her best work ever” right before she realized it was the “pre-ordained” win. Except…that’s not how it works. If she didn’t put in the work to make that article shine, she wouldn’t have gotten the Pulitzer! And Iris is smart enough to know that, but she didn’t realize that for some dumb reason.

Then, we find out that Nia and Iris were never in any real danger! Not that they were in there for overall plot reasons, but Cecil (in a very Cecil way) found out about the original Dreamer and said almost 4th-wall like that the two would be fine. Hence why my excerpt for this review was Allegra’s line about how “nothing really happened,” because nothing really did.

And don’t get me started on Mark/Khione. They’re trying way too hard to make this 3rd Snow sister someone to care about…and I don’t care about her. Not many do based on what I’m seeing online. The only good thing to come out of this was Mark leaving (for now…) because at least that’s something to do with a one-note character.

I know I’ve said it multiple times now. But this is the FINAL season, and yet, here we are, two episodes after the Red Death arc (which was bad, if you recall) and we’re…where, exactly? What is next? Where is it all going? What is looming in the back half of the final season? We don’t know, and that’s pretty bad given how much fans want to see this series end on a high note.

2/5