User Reviews

Look I have really enjoyed this season overall. Sure it's had its bad moments and even episodes but it's a vast improvement over season 7. Last episode I thought was fantastic, especially with that cliffhanger. With that in mind I was expecting this finale to be even crazier than that, but it disappointed me. To start, we have Thawne telling Barry his plan and why he's alive and back in the flesh, with Barry going full sith lord on Thawne, which was actually a very cool and well acted scene. Skipping forward quite a bit we saw Thawne get an "upgrade" having an entirely new suit (which looked amazing), and now having the power of all of the negative forces. That running fight scene between Barry and Thawne although short was awesome! Now on to the "negatives" of this episode. Haha get it... negative, and that's the name of the episode. Okay i'm sorry. Anyways, let's start with Cecile once again because I cannot bring myself to enjoy any scenes with her anymore. Her character has been driven so far down to the trenches that she should be written out completely, and I don't say that lightly. YOU DO NOT NEED SOMEONE TO SAY HOW SOMEONE IS FEELING FFS! You have talented actors such as Grant Gustin and Candice Patton who are good enough to portray emotions without us being told what they are. I'm sure Eric Wallace had no idea where to go with Cecile's character so he decided to make her powers convenient enough so she can be present in every scene by telling the audience people's feelings so she's "useful." That right there is my biggest issue with this episode and unfortunately it brought it down quite a lot. My other problem I had with this episode was the outcome. Yes Thawne did die, but for once can we just give Barry the satisfaction of killing him himself! Like Thawne murdered his mother, tormented his life and had his wife killed, (who did come back of course) but still his intent was there. Now I will say the one really good thing that came out of this finale is the ending, where they teased Cobalt Blue! Finally! I have been waiting for years for them to do Cobalt Blue as the villain and it looks like season 9 may be the case. Overall this episode just felt like it could have been so much better if executed properly. I really wanted to give this a 10/10 but I'd be lying so this episodes getting a 7.5/10 for me.

Not a terrible episode...at the beginning. Other than Barry's typical "I do what I want, everyone else just get behind me because I am always right" attitude, it started shaping up to be a fantastic end to a not horrible season (especially the Armageddon episodes). I really enjoyed the fight scene and loved seeing the fallout as a result, the city was truly feeling the effects of the showdown, something that was never really addressed before on The Flash. Of course the only person that could bring Barry back to his senses was the return of Iris, who was able to bring herself back with the power of positive thinking. It's difficult for me to take any battles involving pretty rainbow colors seriously. I was reverted back to my childhood, watching an episode of the Care Bears and clapping my hands in glee when the colors popped out and went into Barry. Then I remembered that this wasn't a cartoon and this was supposed to be the War to End All Speedsters war and just shook my head in disgust. To top it all off, Barry just decided to stop fighting and sat down in the middle of the street, presumably to meditate. Meditation brought the end of Reverse Flash. Great television right there.

Whatever. Please keep Psych, make him the new hero. I love him. Everyone else can just please go meditate somewhere else.

The finale to Season 8 of THE FLASH was another speesterpalooza with more than half a dozen characters with super speed squaring off in one way or another, and I'm not counting the yin and yang representatives of the positive and negative speed force. And yet again, it all came back to Eobard Thawne-not the nice one played by Matt Letscher, but the evil one from all the way back in Season One played by Tom Cavanaugh-who just wants to do nothing more with all his power than to kill Barry Allen, along with a bunch of fleeing civilians in a parking lot. The plot of "Negative, Part Two" picks up right after the rug pulled out from under everyone final scene from "Part One" where the bad Thawne was reborn as the avatar of the negative speed force by literally bursting forth from the body of the good Thawne, and then seemingly killing Iris right in front of Barry. The bulk of the rest of the episode is a battle of the avatars that sees the return of Jay Garrick, Nora and Bart, and a pertinent appearance by Neal McDonough's Damian Darhk (who is now one of the Arrowverse's longest continuing characters). Personally, I'd like to have seen a return of Leonard Snart, but that's not happening. There are crisis of faith, moments of despair, evil nearly triumphant, redemption and new found resolve, and the defeating of the Big Bad in a way that doesn't morally corrupt the hero or destroy the world as we know it. All pretty much par for the course.

I found the resolution of all this to be satisfying, if a little predictable, but there is comfort in that. The Reverse Flash is vanquished-hopefully for good as the Thawnes have worn out their welcome as far as I'm concerned, Barry and Iris are reunited, and Nora and Bart are back in 2049 where they belong. A few hints are dropped about what is to come, including Cecile developing telekinesis, and that nearly forgotten plot thread about the revival of Killer Frost seems to be bearing fruit. That and a clue to who the new avatar of the negative speed force might be, but I am glad things ended on an upbeat note, very similar to this season's finale of SUPERMAN & LOIS. A couple of seasons ago, I wrote in one review that I thought it was time for this incarnation of one of DC's great legacy heroes to consider packing it in because the gas in the tank was getting low, and this Flash's treads were wearing down. But with the virtual end of CW's Arrowverse, I'm not quite sure I'm ready to say goodbye yet if for no other reason than to have a Flash episode that gives us some closure for THE LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, a show that never lost its goofy charm, and still had some millage in it. And as for the future, I like to add my support to having Grant Gustin take over the role of Barry Allen in the DCEU in the wake of all the Ezra Miller troubles. Probably won't happen, but it should.

The cameo was imo wayyyyy too overhyped and so I had low expectations but damn does this finale feel better than season 3-7 finales. Super good my top 3 finale. Excited for cobalt Blue and Bloodwork and Killer Frost. Awesome episode. The forces Barry Vs forces Thawne was an awesome fight. This season is better than 3 highly recommended.

A fine end to a somewhat better season than the last one.

To start with the pros, the Allen-Thawne rivalry was amazing. The fact that the everything in this season was connected from the start to end was fantastic and the way they connected the dots was somewhat acceptable. The CGI was decent. Superb acting by the crew, especially Grant Gustin. He nailed every scene he had been in. Tom and Candice were also amazing!

However the cons cannot be overlooked. Especially the fact that Cecile got way too much screen time than required. Honestly, she's become quite an intolerable side character. Not to forget, the upgrade to her powers was totally unessential. Some scenes were absolutely non sensical for example when Thawne was attacking Central City and killing civilians, some people were actually running towards him rather than running away from him. Moreover they had been hyping us for a surprise cameo since the last month. If it had to be Damien Darkh then the hype was futile. They cramped too much in this episode and the writing was poor.

In retrospect, the episode was decent and deserves a solid 7/10. Waiting eagerly for season 9.

This episode was very well done and it was remarkable seeing everything play out!! From beginning to end this episode was suspenseful, mysterious, and action packed, very well done!! Loved the fight scenes and the "unstoppable" feeling Thawne gives us, it was amazing!! And overall one of the best scene was the reversing of time from the expedition that Barry did that uptime you took down reverse flash was sick!! As well as the things that they left in question such as frost and that blue crystal is really cool leaving this for next season!! Over all insanely good episode and great finale!!!! Wow season 8 was AMAZING!!!!

The season 8 finale sticks the landing and delivers on all levels. It is packs an emotional punch, gave me literal chills on numerous occasions, managed to wrap up the main storyline in a satisfying and mind-blowing way, teased what's to come in season 9, and featured fabulous performances from Grant Gustin and Tom Cavanagh.

I will be replaying the final fight between Barry and Thawne on a loop till it comes back sometime in 2023. Barry channelling all the forces in him to become the ultimate Flash and Eobard Thawne possessing the negative forces thus becoming the negative Reverse Flash is the highlight of the episode. The visual effects in this scene is top-notch and one of the best-looking scenes in the history of the series.

I did not expect Neal McDonough to reprise his role as Damien Darhk in this episode. This was quite a surprising cameo, although I hoped it would be Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West aka Kid Flash. Damien's speech to Iris gave me chills and highlights how far she has come.

Iris levelled up, which is a recurring theme in season 8. So far, each character has levelled up in some form or another. Iris is Barry's lightning rod and vice versa. It works both ways. They both lean off each other. That WestAllen couch scene was cute, heart-warming, and what the fans deserve after frankly quite a dark and traumatic season for the power couple. Barry and Iris spent most of their time apart this season, especially in the final graphic novel. This episode, however, showcased Grant Gustin and Candice Patton's natural chemistry together. I hope to see more WestAllen scenes in season 9.

The blue crystal showcased in the final seconds of the episode probably references Cobalt Blue and foreshadows him potentially becoming the new Avatar of the negative speed force. Cobalt Blue might become the main villain of the first graphic novel in season 9. For a slight second, I thought that Rick Cosnett would be revealed as Malcolm Thawne aka Cobalt Blue in this episode. It isn't outside the realm of possibility. In fact, one of the series' tropes is that dead characters somehow re-emerge and either pose a threat to Team Flash or become close allies.

All in all, this might be my second favourite season finale of the series. It encompasses everything that makes this show successful. It is an action-packed and visually stunning finale that further exemplifies Barry's bitter and outmatched rivalry with Eobard Thawne aka the Reverse Flash. Overall, the season 8 finale is just *chef's kiss*.

Final verdict: 10/10

Ranking the season finales of the Flash:

1. Season 1 (10/10) 2. Season 8 (10/10) 3. Season 2 (10/10) 4. Season 7 (9.5/10) 5. Season 6 (9.4/10) 6. Season 3 (9.2/10) 7. Season 5 (9.0/10 8. Season 4 (7.0/10)

Ranking the eight seasons (in terms of my enjoyment):

1. Season 2 (9.3/10) 2. Season 8 (9.7/10) 3. Season 1 (9.8/10) 4. Season 6 (9.1/10) 5. Season 7 (9.0/10) 6. Season 4 (8.5/10) 7. Season 3 (8.9/10) 8. Season 5 (8.3/10)

Unrelated note: Eric Wallace has great taste in movies. His favourite romantic comedy is "Notting Hill", which is an underrated classic, in my opinion.

After the cliffhanger in the penultimate episode, I was thinking that this episode would prepare the show for a majestic final season where the reverse flash is finally powerful enough to challenge not just the Flash but the entire superheroes of the Arrowverse. I was thinking of a mega crossover with as many Arrowverse superheroes they could talk into reviving their characters. Obviously not all 13 episodes in season 9 should have been hyper focused on the objective, but they could add some fillers to make a great ending for the Arrowverse since the Flash season 9 would be the last show of the entire multiverse introduced in the Arrowverse (Black Lightning, Batwoman, and Legends are cancelled and Supergirl and Arrow ended).

Instead, they decided to kill the reverse flash in a scene that I can only describe as terrible writing (will talk about later) and started a new storyline that will end in the next season. Why should that season be any different than the previous ones? I don't know. But in any case, this show seems to be ending like all the other shows in the Arrowverse to point out that these complicated entanglements they created over the years never even mattered.

Now about the terrible writing issue. I imagined as the most persistent adversary of the Flash, the final battle between him and the reverse flash would be more hilarious. Instead, the Flash decided to avoid fighting and killing him, and brokered a truce between the Negative and Positive Forces that ultimately ended in the annihilation of the reverse flash. At least that's what it looked like to me. I mean concentrating and doing mind work has never been a solution for the Flash who runs and throws lightning, why start now?

Overall, while I enjoyed the finale, I thought they would do something to honor the name of the Arrowverse and end it on an incredibly high note. Too bad it does not seem to happen.

The episode was all-around good but I wish we some more speed battles with the flash. This was basically i good way to wrap up the season and they also built some I meant for the next with what happen with the ice chamber. The black suit has to be one of the best suits we have seen as well.

I just loved the way everything played out in this episode!! From end of part one to the beginning to part to was just so entertaining to watch!! The fight scenes was really well done and entertaining!! Loved this episode and loved the dinamic of this episode as well as the quote on quote "cliffhangers" like frost and that stone!! Season 8 was impeccable beginning to end loved this season and this episode!! Excited for season 9!!

The title says it all. Now of course, you may have really loved this episode and this season and that's fine - everyone has things they like or don't like. For me, this season has been an exercise in lazy writing and character development, cost-savings with limited use of special effects (except these last two episodes), and a seemingly decreasing chemistry between Gustin and Patton. And it always seems like the arc has to lead back to Thawne (Cavanaugh), even all these years later. And every time, the result is the same. What do you want to bet we see Tom Cavanaugh yet again in the next season?

Maybe the newness of the "The Flash" has worn off, but this last episode felt more like a bad "Power Rangers" episode from the 1990's, including the cheesy multi-colored lightning and the Green Goblin/Doctor Doom-style mask Cecile uses in the third act (yes, yes I know - that's a Marvel reference, not DC).

And just how many speedsters can a series support? In this episode, I guess the answer is 6, including the Barry and kids, TV's "original Flash", the new "Fast Track", and the muscled-up black Reverse Flash (and what a horrible suit design that was). It also goes without saying that the Flash's secret identity must be one of the worst kept secrets in town, as he seems keen to take off his mask for just about anyone.

The teaser at the end is who (or what) comes out of the chamber that is supposed to revive Frost (clever way to use only Panabaker's voice briefly, considering her pregnancy). You'll have to tune in next season to find out more (don't people know it's never a good idea to try to reanimate someone who's died?)

Other than that, you can't say for sure what's in store for next season, but with only 3 of the original regulars remaining full-time (Jesse L. Martin will only be part-time as he has another gig), the writers better get their act together. Enough of pouting/self-doubting Barry, enough of the obvious dislike between actors Gustin and Patton, and enough of the "meta of the week" story lines. Time for some original story-telling that rekindles the spirit of first season. Otherwise, it's the decline and ultimate demise of "Supergirl" all over again.

I thought this was a good finale but I was expecting a better teaser for the next big bad. The number 1 thing that disappointed fans was because Cecile's actor said there would be a big reveal and there wasn't.

Bad story, very very bad fight, and finally a very bad ending for reverse flash, thawne suite was awful, it wasn't even yellow, fight between barry and thawne was awful too, in last 3 seasons flash just hit lighting in fight, and this is so boring, and finally you bring Iris back that was so bad idea, showrunner and writers really don't know anything about the flash.

This episode had so much potential to be truly great. I can see it now. Iris's death leads to a massive climactic battle between Barry and a Negative Force Powered Eobard Thawne. Barry tries everything to stop him; Speed Force Lightning, Flashtime, he even tries to vibrate his hand through Thawne's chest but nothing seems to work. So he creates Time Remnants and Thawne slaughters them all. Well, all but one, which he leaves scarred and disfigured as Barry and the Time Remnant are able to use their combined powers to stop him once and for all. The Time Remnant is still angry about Iris's death, but Barry's accepted that he can't bring her back as his kids from the future have already faded away. And so with everyone disagreeing with the Time Remnant's anger, it leaves to become Savitar. We get a Caitlin as Killer Frost tease, show that Barry and Meena have some chemistry between them, and we end the season on an unbelievable high note.

Wouldn't that have been so cool if it had happened? It totally would've! Instead, we got this farce that breaks pretty much every rule in the show's book!

I got bingo this week, bringing my total to a 4 and 16. I honestly thought it would be higher than that considering the direction this show's been going. It was actually a double bingo because this episode has so many modern CW Flash tropes that it's nuts! More than half my bingo board was crossed off this week!

I'd love to talk about this episode, really, I would. But I'd like to instead talk about the season as a whole and see if it's definitively better than season 7 or not.

Let's start with my Highest vs Lowest episode score out of 10 for the last two seasons. My highest rating from season 7 was a 7 / 10 for the episodes "The Speed of Thought", "Central City Strong", "Fear Me" and "Good-Bye Vibrations". Compare that to this season where my highest score rose up to a 9 / 10 with the episode "The Fire Next Time", though there was only one occurrence of that score. My lowest rating for season 7 is the episode "Mother" which completely squanders the Eva storyline and is sitting at a lowly 1 / 10. That would've also included "Heart of the Matter, Part 2", but I no longer stand by that score and have since increased it to a 4 / 10. My lowest score for season 8 however is a 3 / 10 with the episodes "Keep it Dark" and this episode "Negative, Part 2".

Next, let's take a look at my average episode score between the seasons. Season 7's average sits at a 5.38, a median score of 6, with me ranking six episodes at that score. Season 8's average however sits at a 5.85, a median score of 6, with me ranking only three episodes at that score. The number that appears most often is a direct split between 5 and 7, with six episodes each receiving of those scores. So the overall episode score appears to have gone up from the previous year. Looks like the signs of improvement are showing.

Now that we've gone over the numbers, let's talk directly about my bingo card. I have changed it quite a bit since the initial inception, but many of those initial rounds included things specific to the Armageddon event. The final iteration of the bingo card finally took shape around episode 15 "Into the Still Force". The reason for so many changes is just the complete lack of focus during the season. And one final note was that Pep Talk was not added to the bingo board until week 15. I just can't believe I forgot to add it, that should've been a given. So while during the summary I will only be including the things that were included on the final/definitive iteration of the bingo card, a good, say, 70% of what's on here was included during the bingo card's inception. With that, the amount of times each thing was crossed off the bingo card is...

-Barry Getting Sidelined: 5

-Barry Talking Down a Villain INSTEAD of Fighting Them: 1, and even that one can be waved away since it was Despero at the end of the season premiere.

-Barry Losing an Argument: 5

-Barry Losing a Fight he Should Definitely Win: 1, and only in the episode "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen" where the writers make him stupid on purpose.

-Barry Being Right: 0, and I'll talk about this one later.

-"Run Barry, Run": 3

-Iris: 16

-"Family": 8

-Non-Speedster Main Villain (Referring to the villain of the arc, not a "freak of the week" villain): 9

-The Power of Friendship: 2, but I'm going to give myself a third point because I removed it from my bingo card for "Armageddon, Part 5", but then Iris saved Mia Smoak from Despero's control with the power of friendship, so I'm going to count it.

-The Power of Love: 5, but I'm going to give myself "Armageddon, Part 4" as well because... Come on, you've seen the episode.

-Allegra: 20, with the one on "Keep it Dark" completely blacked out.

-Bart/Nora: 6, but remove one of them as Nora was only in a Flashback, which were exempt from the bingo card.

-Cecile: 20, with the one on "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen" completely blacked out.

-Kristen Kramer: 4, but I'll add two additional points because she was in the first two episodes of the season "Armageddon, Part 1" and "Armageddon, Part 2".

-Forgiving Known Murderers/Criminals: 9, but you could probably squeak out a few extra points from Damien Darhk in "Armageddon, Part 5" and Chillblaine in a few extra episodes.

-Bad CGI: 20, though that's not really a writing problem.

-"That's Not How The Speed Force Works!": 8

-"Level Up!": 4, but they made up for the lack of episodes it was in with the quantity of times it was in those episodes!

-Retcons: 13

-Thawne: 7, but the fact he showed up at all speaks for itself

-1+ of the Force "Kids": 7, with Deon being the most common one to show up. You could also get at least one additional point for "Armageddon, Part 3".

-Freakin' Chillblaine idk: 7, plus an extra one for his appearance in "Armageddon, Part 4" before I put him on the bingo card.

And finally...

-Pep Talk: 6, but it's actually 20.

So what do these totals show us? Well, some of the ones relating to Barry are things that frequently happened during season 7 like "Barry Getting Sidelined", "Barry Talking Down a Villain INSTEAD of Fighting Them" or "Barry Losing a Fight he Should Definitely Win". During season 7, Barry was basically a side character on his own show, so he'd frequently be sidelined to prop up other characters. However, with relatively low numbers across the board on those, it's safe to say that the writers took that criticism to heart and gave Barry a lot to do this season despite him not really having an arc. He was a very active protagonist this year, which is a massive improvement over season 7! Additionally, Barry won every fight he was in with the exception of the ones in "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen" where the writers made him stupid for an entire episode, so that seems to be an outlier. I admittedly didn't know whether to count Barry getting struck by Negative Speed Force Lightning in "The Man in the Yellow Tie" as him losing a fight, but Barry was winning and outrunning Meena that entire fight until that point to, so I'm willing to give that to him as well. The writers fixed a lot of our issues with Barry this year and let him be powerful again! And even when Barry wasn't the main character, he was still doing something plot relevant most of the time. Thank you! That was one of the major issues!

As for "Barry Being Right", this refers to when Barry would have a disagreement/argument with another member of Team Flash, and would then be proven right by the end of the episode. It happened at least twice during "The Fire Next Time" and "Resurrection", but it wasn't on the bingo card to count them then. Those were the episodes that convinced me that I needed to add it to the bingo card.

With the characters, there's three things of note. The first is the two times I blacked out a square, Allegra in "Keep it Dark" and Cecile in "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen". These characters are annoying, take up space, and need to be cut from the show immediately. They literally make the show worse every second they're on screen. And considering that this is Jesse L. Martin's last episode as a series regular, you'd think Cecile is leaving with him, but no that's a freaking lie! Cecile is coming back for season 9 because I did something really horrible in a past life, and now I'm paying for it! The second thing to call out is that the four episodes Iris wasn't in this season, "Into the Still Force", "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen", "Keep it Dark" and "The Man in the Yellow Tie" were all objectively bad episodes with the exception of "The Man in the Yellow Tie" which was better than what this show typically puts out. This shows that Iris is not the core issue with the show, and that it's something else entirely. And the third thing is Chillblaine, the Force Kids, and even Eobard Thawne to an extent. These are all side characters that aren't remotely interesting and detract from the storytelling of the main plot.

Thawne appears to have finally died during this episode, though we'll see how long that lasts. Apparently all traces of him were erased from the timeline, but that's impossible because then Barry's parents would be alive. These writers still don't understand time travel.

So it looks like this season has improved over season 7 in some ways, and in others it's doubled down on what made season 7 such a disaster! Notably, the Force Kid stuff and the abundance of side characters. Also, Eric Wallace wrote this episode, and I think he just needs to stop. If you want a perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with modern CW Flash, I'd show you this episode.

So yes, there were some improvements, but the general episode quality still appears to be very low and plagued by retcons. I recommend showing the writers seasons 1 and 2 (and 3 dangit!) and have them figure out what made them work as well as they did.

3 / 10.