TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Series Finale

…it’s nice to have hope. It’s nice to believe that something you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into will pay off in a meaningful way. But there are times when that just doesn’t happen. We can all think of movie or TV franchises that “don’t nail the finale.” And sadly, The Flash is going to be among them.

There are many sad ironies to that statement. The first is that, unlike Legends of Tomorrow or Batwoman, The Flash knew it was going to have a series finale on its own terms. But unlike Arrow or Black Lightning (most people didn’t like the Supergirl finale for multiple reasons), there didn’t feel like there was a meaningful “departing” to the characters. As some have noted, this felt more like a season finale than a series one. Moreover, the series finale, much like most of the season, wasn’t about its true main characters in Barry and Iris.

In fact, outside of a few scenes, the episode once again focused on EVERYONE ELSE aside from Barry and Iris—sometimes to abhorrently frustrating effect.

Let’s start with the first thing, the villains. After the birth of Cobalt Blue (which, to be blunt, was short-lived and wasted), he assembled Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar, and Godspeed together to take on Team Flash. On the surface…this would’ve been ok. But then it all fell apart once the fighting actually started. Why? Because Team Flash took out everyone with LAUGHABLE EASE!

Remember, these are the villains whom Barry STRUGGLED with for whole seasons and was sometimes even killed (technically) or seriously injured by…and yet…they were able to beat them no problem. Nora beat Savitar in one shot to the back of his suit. How? I don’t know. Khione took down Savitar without any struggle (and with no help from Mark who was just…there.) Allegra one-shot Thawne…which is just wrong. And then…there was Cecile. Who can not only FLY NOW SOMEHOW but was able to take down a speedster like Godspeed without taking a single hit. That’s not just wrong. That’s REALLY wrong.

And Barry? He didn’t defeat anyone in a fight. Not even Cobalt Blue. This should’ve been Barry’s best fight yet. Like Arrow/Spectre versus The Anti-Monitor, or Black Lightning finally beating Tobias Whale. But instead…he didn’t do much. In his OWN FINALE…he didn’t do much.

Then, Khione tries to “change the game” by saying they can exist WITH the Negative Forces instead of fighting them…which is totally random and makes no sense. And not only do they do just that…they do it with LAUGHABLE EASE! Even with the corruptive power of the Negative Speed Force nearly overloading his body, all it took was one pep talk for Eddie to break the cobalt stone and stop things. And then…it was all good? Really? That’s how you end it? What was the point of it all?

Sadly, the bad times didn’t end there. More random and dumb things kept happening to the WRONG CHARACTERS. Chester was nearly electrocuted by Thawne and was only saved because…he has black hole powers…which I bet many of you forgot was part of his “origin.” And yet this was only being detected and is useful NOW! Not to mention, if the show really wanted to “pay tribute to Thawne,” he wouldn’t have electrocuted Chester. He would’ve put a hand through his chest like he did to Cisco. But I guess Hawking Radiation can’t stop that.

Then, there’s Khione. Who literally is the “MacGuffin” of this entire season. Not ONLY could she SOMEHOW put Barry into the Negative Speed Force and stop Savitar, but when she “ascended” to the next plane of existence (which was dumb), she was able…to bring Caitlin back to life. That’s…no. Just…no.

Going back to Cecile, when the crew was together celebrating the birth of Baby Nora…Joe comes out and proposes to Cecile…essentially stealing the spotlight away from his OWN DAUGHTER…once again. This isn’t the first time that an event like this has happened either, as many fans have said online. This should’ve been about IRIS AND BARRY and once again, it’s taken away from them. Why? I don’t know. But it just was.

So was there ANY good moments in this finale? A few. Emphasis on “few.” First, Joe singing to baby Nora was great. As was Iris reliving her “life with Barry” and how they got to that moment. THAT should’ve been what the series finale was about. And I did like Barry’s speech about trying to make a “better world” for Nora. But it was kind of undone by Barry creating three new speedsters out of the blue. Yes, they were references to other characters…but it felt so random, especially given the comic histories and the importance some of them really had on Barry and co in DC Comics.

In many ways, this just didn’t feel like an ending, but a new beginning. A “New World” as they had been beating over our heads for four episodes. Except, it’s not a new world. It’s not a new beginning. It’s an ending…and it just…wasn’t a good one. This is basically the end of the “true Arrowverse,” and unlike the show that started it all…this one ends it on a whimper.

2/5