The Flash – “Heart of the Matter, Part 1”

Director: Eric Dean Seaton 

Writers: Eric Wallace and Lauren Barnett

Well, here we are. Jordan Fisher is Impulse in all his silvery glory. Next to him is his older sister, Nora, aka XS. And in front of them is their mother, Iris, who technically was stuck in the Still Force or something like that, but was able to come back temporarily, I guess. I don't know. It's needlessly complicated and very stupid and ultimately doesn't matter. So, on that upbeat note, let's dive into the first full appearance of Bart Allen on The Flash.

Our story begins in Central City in 2049, which mostly looks the same except for annoyingly large holograms on the top of each building. Godspeed is running through the conveniently empty streets, ranting about "infinite velocity" and how all will bow down to him. Suddenly, XS ensnares him with a purple whip that she somehow created with her Speed Force energy. But she doesn't keep the whip on him for long, enabling Godspeed to blast her with a bolt of lightning from his fingertips, just like the Emperor in Star Wars. But before Godspeed can get in a second attack on the floored XS, Impulse comes zooming in behind Godspeed and vibrates through the villain.

As Godspeed collapses on the ground, Bart laughs about how "crash" that was. Nora, however, is upset and lectures her little brother on risking quantum entanglement with that stunt. But while the siblings argue, Godspeed disappears. Luckily, their computer is able to tell them that Godspeed has run off to the Flash Museum, which is actually the old S.T.A.R. Labs building that Barry uses in the current time, with the addition of an ugly gold statue of the Flash placed in a completely empty parking lot. Anyway, our heroes find Godspeed using the Cosmic Treadmill to travel back through time and they decide to follow him.

We then cut back to good ol' 2021, where Nora and Bart are talking with Barry and Chester P. Runk (who has nothing in common with the Chunk of the comics!). Apparently, the Godspeed they battled in the future, August Heart, is now residing at S.T.A.R. Labs with no super speed or memory of who he really is. And for whatever reason, there are dozens of clones of Godspeed (still with their powers) constantly battling each other out on the streets.

Chester formally introduces himself to the "kids" (can I call them kids when they're in their 20s?) but Nora and Bart already know him, and Bart reminds Chester to help him with his homework in the future. They also already know Cecile (the team empath, who was originally based on a nonpowered lawyer from the comics) and Caitlin (the nonpowered human half of the formerly evil Killer Frost — ugh! Why is everything so convoluted?!).

Cecile is happy to have some added muscle for their war against the Godspeed clones, but Nora says they need to protect the timeline and return to the future. But Barry points out that with those clones drawing energy from the Speed Force, there's no way for them to travel through time right now. In other words, Bart and Nora are stuck here until they defeat Godspeed. So they all get to work. Caitlin and Cecile leave to help August regain his memories, while Chester shows off a machine that should drain the artificial speed powers from the clones. He just needs an hour to finish charging it.

We then cut to an excruciatingly unfunny scene of Bart eating Chinese food very quickly and burping. After a nonsensical reference to the "other Nora" from the previous timeline, an alert comes in of some Godspeed clones causing some trouble. So Barry and his kids race off to save the day, with Barry ordering Nora and Bart to make sure no civilians are in harm's way. This is an entirely pointless order, as there is not a single bystander to be found on these ghost-town streets. 

Bart darkly says they should let the Godspeed clones kill each other. Before Barry can respond, the clones stop fighting each other and menacingly move toward our heroes. Barry tells everybody to split up and keep running until the clones have to leave to recharge. However, all the clones choose to follow Bart, calling him "The Adversary." Barry tells Bart to circle back so they can all face the clones together, but Bart tries to lead them out of the city instead. However, he's knocked down by a clone and instantly surrounded. All the Godspeeds dramatically raise one hand sparking with energy, but before they can strike, they all disappear in a flash of lightning. When Barry and Nora catch up, Barry asks why the clones went after Bart. Nora and Bart exchange dark glances as we dramatically head into a commercial break.

When we come back, everybody's back in the lab and Barry is starting to yell at his adult children. Nora says they can't answer his question, but Bart just blurts out that Godspeed is his "Thawne," aka his arch nemesis. Barry tells Bart not to casually throw around the name of the man who murdered his mother, to which Jordan Fisher tries — and fails — to act angry. Nora tries to calm everyone down by suggesting she and Bart go train and work on their "Fathwoom Boom," whatever that is.

Meanwhile, Chester asks yet another metahuman character, Allegra (in the comics, she was the daughter of the obscure villain Wavelength), to use her electromagnetic powers to charge his machine. Iris makes her underwhelming return from the Still Force, saying she's only here temporarily because reasons. And Jay Garrick is kidnapped by the Godspeed clones.

When we return to Bart, he's being chastised by Nora for being unable to catch a ball of his lightning despite being able to throw stars with it. She tells him to start focusing and stop parkouring off every surface he sees. Luckily this boring argument is interrupted by the arrival of Iris. Bart wants to show off the new move he's been working on to use against Godspeed, but Barry forbids him from going out into the field. Iris agrees with her husband, saying the fight with Godspeed is too personal for Bart. Bart insists that he can keep his cool, but Nora says he can't. So Bart gets sad and runs away. Nora tells Barry that she's known Bart for 19 years and says she'll talk to him.

We find Bart at the West family house, which, according to Nora, is where he always goes when he's angry. Bart accuses her of turning on him and says she doesn't understand the pain Godspeed has caused. Poor Jordan Fisher then has to try to act very sad — which he can't do convincingly — and talk about how Godspeed murdered "Uncle Jay" right in front of him. Bart talks about how Barry and "Uncle Wally" (who's conspicuously absent in this season finale) both taught him how to run and meditate, but Jay was the only one who really understood him and saw his impulsiveness as an asset, not a flaw.

Bart wishes they could tell Barry about this, so then he'd understand that Bart has to be the one to take Godspeed down. (Of course, Bart didn't display any of this angst during this episode's opening scene, but that's beside the point.) Nora asks Bart what he thinks Jay would tell him right now, so Bart pull out a cheesy old quote from Jay: "Sometime you have to take your hat off." Bart symbolically pretends to take off a hat and Nora promises to take Godspeed down, as long as Bart stays in the house.

Allegra fails to charge Chester's machine because she's too sad about her sister's death or some other nonsense like that. So Barry charges it with the Speed Force and he and Nora try out the machine on the clones. However, Barry's charges caused the machine to work incorrectly, and the Godspeed clones soon began to ... steal Speed Force energy from Barry and Nora? I guess? All I know for sure is it looked very silly to have those clones slowly walk forward with their arms hanging by their sides, while a mini vortex of wind shot out from their chests. Barry protects Nora and is suddenly saved by Frost, who showed up out of nowhere. Of course, Frost is only able to knock the clones down, giving Barry enough time to pick up the injured Nora and retreat to the lab.

At the lab, Chester apologizes for not realizing that Barry's energy would make his machine strengthen the clones, and he runs off to give Allegra a long, boring pep talk so she can produce enough energy to make the machine work properly. Barry, meanwhile, confides to Iris that even with that machine, they don't have enough manpower. Bart suddenly appears, revealing that he had been hiding in the room, vibrating so fast that he became invisible — even invisible to Barry and Nora.

But to Bart's dismay — and Nora's shock — Barry doesn't want either one of them to continue the fight against Godspeed. The kids protest, but Iris stands with Barry, who even goes as far as threatening to lock up Bart and Nora until this war is over. The kids run off in a huff and their parents rededicate themselves to stopping Godspeed now to prevent him from tormenting their family in the future. Mercifully, the plot finally returns in the form of a Godspeed clone somehow figuring out how to hack into the S.T.A.R. Labs computers to deliver a message: "Turn over The Adversary or the one he loves will die — Jay Garrick!"

Bart and Nora overhear this and Bart naturally wants to spring into action, telling his dad they don't have time to come up with a plan. Chester tracks down the source of that transmission — Zauriel Cathedral (named after the angelic hero Zauriel) on Morrison Avenue (named after writer Grant Morrison). Bart instantly takes off and Nora needlessly tells Barry that he has to save Bart since he's likely running into a trap. (Seriously, Nora, did you think Barry wouldn't have saved him?) Barry agrees, and to Nora's surprise, asks her to come along.

Bart blasts into the cathedral and is horrified to see Jay's helmet on the ground. Suddenly, a bunch of Godspeed clones appear and throw an injured Jay at Bart's feet. When Bart realizes he's surrounded, one of the clones says his inability to suppress his rash nature shall be his undoing. By the time Nora and Barry arrive, one of the clones has Bart suspended high in the air with two mini whirlwinds blasting from his hands. Bart's screaming and I can only assume his powers are being drained, even though this looks quite different from that earlier scene of draining Barry and Nora. Or maybe that wasn't a power drain at all, but just some weird energy blast? Who knows.

Nora yells out to all the clones, "You want speed? Take mine!" And even though the clones only care about killing Bart, they all tack off after Nora — all of them except the one actively draining Bart. That clone keeps Bart up with one hand and aims a whirlwind attack at Barry. But Barry runs through the "draining blast" and keeps on running right through the clone himself, causing him to collapse. He then catches Bart just before he hits the ground and Jay conveniently decides to wake up. Nora returns with five clones right behind her. Barry and Jay prepare to pick up Bart and retreat, but more clones show up out of nowhere and surround our heroes.

Jay stupidly says, "Let's give them heck, Flash!" But before any fighting can occur, the cathedral doors slam open, dramatically revealing Cisco, aka Vibe (who used to have a much larger role on this show). Vibe hits all the clones with a purple energy that freezes them in place just long enough for the speedsters to make their escape, as Nora begins to cry that Bart won't wake up.

They hook Bart up to some medical equipment at the lab, and Caitlin reports that he's in some sort of comatose state and whatever speed he had left is being used to keep him alive. Nora blames herself and Jay explains that the Godspeed clones basically sucked him dry by the time Bart arrived. Barry explains that he decided to mimic Bart when he took down that one clone, saying it sometimes pays to be impulsive (even though phasing through Godspeed only knocked him down for a few seconds, but whatever). Vibe also blames himself for not arriving fast enough to save Bart. But everybody is quickly able to formulate a new, bizarre plan — sending Barry's consciousness into August Heart's.

This is bad. Like really, really bad. Like Mexican soap opera bad. I never thought I would actually miss Smallville, but here we are.

So what happened to this show? I can't say for sure. But I can say what it feels like. Everyone seems bored here. The actors, the writers, the costume designers, everyone. They're bored with the power of super speed, so they've resorted to making up nonsensical powers that are only tangentially related to speed. The story feels like the writers just made it up as they went, too lazy to go back and fix any continuity errors or even attempt to make their techno babble comprehensible. The budget is stretched too thin to afford any extras in the background or make the costumes look half-decent — that Godspeed suit is straight out of Power Rangers. It is embarrassing to watch this show.

But what about Bart? I think the kindest thing I can say is that there's a lost of wasted opportunities here. Let's start from the top: Making Bart Barry's son instead of grandson. The children of Barry and Iris are boring. That's why there's hardly any stories about them over the past 50 years. But Barry's grandchildren are interesting. Bart was the child of an Allen and a Thawne — a classic Romeo-Juliet forbidden romance that this soap opera show would have eaten up!

In the comics, Bart was raised in a virtual reality a thousand years in the future. This made him completely oblivious to the concept of danger and essentially turned him into a living video game character, blissfully bouncing around everywhere he went, heedless of the consequences. This show had none of that. You can keep saying he's impulsive, but unless you actually show him being impulsive, then it doesn't count. Yes, I know Bart becomes quite interesting when trauma makes him super focused and serious. But that only works when you've established the baseline of Bart's impulsiveness. This show was too impatient to do that, robbing itself of a decent storyline.

I highly suspect that Eric Wallace and Lauren Barnett didn't read any comics in preparation for this episode and chose instead to watch some Young Justice. That really explains everything from his costume design to his use of the word "crash." And maybe that wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't also shoehorned Bart into this convoluted Godspeed storyline. In order to justify Bart's random inclusion, they decided to arbitrarily make Godspeed his arch nemesis. They never say why that is, only that Godspeed killed Jay to torment Bart. A flashback of that scene would have been really helpful, but we were instead left with Jordan Fisher pretending to cry on a couch. But that's not even the worst part. Why was Bart so nonchalant during their fight with Godspeed in 2049? That goofy little battle is in direct contradiction with the rest of the episode.

Are there any positives? Sure. I liked how Fisher was always slightly off-kilter whenever he ran into a room. Of course, his costume was too stiff to allow him to really play around with that, which is such a tragedy, given Fisher's dancing background. Fisher did display a nice enthusiasm at times. Unfortunately, this awful script asked him to do a few things out of his wheelhouse. But if we had gotten to know this character a bit more, and maybe even seen Jay be killed, then there's a chance Fisher could have pulled off those emotional moments. Maybe. 

The family dynamic had some potential, but was mostly cheesy. It could have been fun to see Grant Gustin in old-man makeup in 2049, but again, this is a very lazy show. Ultimately, it is just a bit sad and weird that Bart is so old. In the comics, when he was 19, he was the Flash. Not that I'm saying we need to adapt that storyline! It's just ... this doesn't feel like Impulse. A pale imitation. Well, I think I've ranted on long enough.

Next time, the "thrilling" season finale!