Director: Marcus Stokes
Writers: Eric Wallace and Kelly Wheeler
So here we are, the epic finale of the seventh season of The Flash. Our screenshot skips ahead to the happy ending, with Cisco oddly officiating at a vow renewal ceremony for Barry and Iris, while Nora and Bart watch on awkwardly from the side. But let's save that for the end.
Our episode begins with Bart still in a coma after his fight with the Godspeed clones. Nora and Caitlin cry about him for a bit, while giving us a quick recap of the previous episode. Meanwhile, Barry has journeyed into August Heart's mind to speak with the real Godspeed. He tells the Flash that he hates Impulse because he appears to take his natural speed for granted, whereas Godspeed had to work hard to develop a serum that grants him super speed. Godspeed then promises to reabsorb all his clones if Barry gives him "organic speed," but Barry says that's not only a terrible idea, but also impossible.
Barry regroups with the others, and Nora surprisingly votes to give Godspeed what he wants. Barry and Iris are steadfastly against this, but Jay says if they don't give August organic speed, then they need a big idea. Barry tries to respond cleverly by saying they actually need a fast idea. And after a couple of pointless cutaways, we find out that Barry was referring to the Speed Force itself, which can manifest itself in the form of a woman, because of course it can. The Speed Force says she's going to give them all a boost of power to combat Godspeed, and this boost even includes Iris because she once had super speed back in season whatever. Nora calls this "schway," which is was the futuristic slang word coined by Batman Beyond.
The Speed Force had to work a little harder to wake up Bart, calling him her "impulsive boy." Bart quickly rejoins the others and thanks his "Speed Force Nana" before realizing that Caitlin oddly decided to retouch the silver paint on his fingernails while he was unconscious. Bart's also stunned to see "Uncle Jay" is with them, and Jay finds it odd to be called an uncle, but he graciously welcomes the title. Barry says it's time to end this war, and we dramatically cut to commercial.
All our speedsters then run out into a horde of Godspeed clones, who repeatedly say they must kill "The Adversary" (Bart) and his allies. Impulse opens the fighting with the nonsensical technique that Nora mentioned last episode, of creating lightning throwing stars and launching them like shurikens at four clones. And for whatever reason, these lightning stars instantly knock down their targets. Nora also knocks down four clones with her lightning whip that we saw last time. The Speed Force snaps her fingers and knocks down five clones, causing me to wonder why she can't just take them all out at once. Jay very stupidly knocks down five by throwing his hat at them. Barry and Iris stand back-to-back, while he throws lightning and she creates mini whirlwinds.
Suddenly, all the clones quickly stand up again and the Speed Force realizes that the clones are feeding off her. So she quickly leaves, while the clones surround our heroes. Allegra somehow teleports right into the middle of the fight with Chester's machine, which works correctly this time and knocks all the clones down. So everybody heads back to the lab, where they learn that there are even more Godspeed clones still causing havoc in the city. Nora laments that they threw everything they had at them, which causes me to raise an eyebrow, since that brief fight didn't quite feel like everything.
Our heroes watch the fight between some clones and Frost and Mecha-Vibe (guess he can't just be Vibe anymore), while Chester explains that his machine only affected people with artificial speed. Unfortunately, the device is broken now and it'll take him several weeks to build a new one. Nora repeats her request to give Godspeed what he wants, but Barry and Iris say that as parents, they can't put their kids in danger like that. But Bart says Central City doesn't need parents right now — it needs heroes.
Bart, Nora and Jay then rebuild Chester's machine, but for whatever reason, he said they still need a couple of days before it's up and running. Barry then dramatically enters the room, saying he and Iris have changed their minds and now want to give August organic speed. Bart starts to laugh before realizing it wasn't a joke. Barry credits his kids for changing his mind, saying they've shown him their future starts now.
So they set up August with a weird harness thing and explain that Barry is going to try to channel Speed Force energy into him. Bart realizes they are now creating the future by doing this and everything from this point will be different. Barry pushes some energy into August, who maniacally says he now realizes he likes being the bad guy as he somehow flies away. Barry tells his kids to stay here, saying he and Iris have a plan. Godspeed "flies" up to the roof of S.T.A.R. Labs and pulls all his clones back into himself, just as Barry arrives for one last showdown.
Barry gets off to a bad start in the fight, quickly rolling on the ground like Luke Skywalker being electrocuted by the Emperor, or rather, Godspeed. Bart starts to head out, saying he won't let Godspeed kill anyone he cares about, but Jay stops him, saying they need to trust Barry's plan. And he even repeats that stupid line about it being time to take his hat off.
Suddenly, Eobard Thawne shows up, courtesy of the Speed Force. For whatever reason, Thawne agrees to help take down Godspeed, who then prepares for this new battle by calling down a bolt of lightning, which he then wields like a sword. Barry and Thawne match this by producing their own lightning swords, igniting them as if they were lightsabers. What follows is the most ridiculous fight scene I have ever seen, mercifully ending with Thawne delivering a near-fatal blow to Godspeed. Thawne then tries to attack Barry, but realizes that Barry is now faster than him. So he runs away, vowing to come back and kill him later.
Everybody head back to the lab, where Bart and Nora are now suddenly wearing civilian clothes (did somebody buy them some clothes or what?). Iris explains that she helped the Speed Force tap into the Negative side to free Eobard Thawne, who had apparently been trapped there since season whatever. Bart (who is also now wearing earrings) asks why Barry chose Thawne instead of his children. Barry says that Godspeed was dangerous because he has no limits. Thawne also has no limits, except one: He'll never let anyone else kill Barry. So Barry felt he'd be the perfect ally for this fight, just as long as he was prepared for Thawne to turn on him at the end. And now, even though Thawne is free, Barry isn't worried about him for now. Barry also explains that August is now in Iron Heights and the Speed Force erased part of his memory, so he doesn't know the Flash's secret identity anymore.
Barry then offers to treat everyone to dinner and unnecessarily asks Iris to renew her vows with him. I guess he felt like she didn't get the wedding she deserved or something like that. We then skip ahead to that vow renewal ceremony, which takes place on "the following Tuesday." I don't know how long that was from Godspeed's defeat, but Bart and Nora apparently spent all that time just hanging out in the past with their parents. I guess.
The ceremony lazily takes place at the West family home (saves on building a new set). Jay and Joan consider renewing their vows, and Joe West and Cecile start to consider getting married themselves. Thanks to a last-minute web search, Cisco claims authority to officiate the ceremony while wearing a S.T.A.R. Labs stole. Cisco begins the proceedings by handing the microphone to Bart, who then proceeds to sing an original song called "1949." Barry calls the song "crash," but Bart says it's too weird to hear his dad use that word. Cisco then calls this ceremony the greatest sequel since The Empire Strikes Back, and Barry and Iris exchange incredibly cheesy and sappy vows. The husband and wife then kiss, with Barry using his speed to romantically slow down time around them.
I almost fell off the couch laughing at this episode. And I was laughing for all the wrong reasons. I had no idea this show was capable of descending to such ludicrous levels. We're talking about off-the-wall sheer insanity that is only the result of the supreme, inexcusable laziness of everyone involved from the actors to the writers to the wardrobe department. I'm 90% sure that Bart's civilian clothes were just what Jordan Fisher happened to be wearing that day, since those are the same earrings he typically wears in real life.
I am glad that Fisher wasn't asked to do too much again. He was a lot more comfortable in this episode, especially once he got out of that ridiculous costume. I am curious about the story behind Bart's song. Did Jordan Fisher demand the opportunity to perform an original song, or did the show runners specifically seek him out (or another singer) because they had this idea? In either case, it really doesn't feel like Bart's character to sing a slow-paced ballad — even for his parents. This whole episode was yet another example of people telling us how impulsive Bart is, while we never get to see him do anything impulsive.
Nobody really wanted to be here. And who could blame them? "OK, Candice (Iris), in this scene, you're acting as the anchor for the Speed Force. So just stand there and kind of close your eyes a bit. Good enough!" Jesse L. Martin (Joe) and John Wesley Shipp (Jay) looked like they were in physical pain just being on set. Carlos Valdes (Cisco) could barely muster the energy to get through his lackluster jokes.
But as usual, the greatest sins were committed by the script. Defeating Godspeed was what this whole season had been building up to. And after a fight scene that I cannot overstate how ridiculous was, we quickly jumped to Grant Gustin revealing August Heart's fate in just a couple of lines of dialogue. No. We needed to see Godspeed be incarcerated. We needed to know if he still has his speed or not. And why is everyone so nonchalant about erasing August's memory? Didn't they see the anguish his amnesia had been causing him?
Last episode seemed to be setting a special Impulse/XS combined attack. But that never came up here. Both episodes spent an inordinate amount of time on Chester's stupid machine, which ultimately accomplished nothing, other than pad out the show. A show that bizarrely thought a three-way lightsaber duel would be the best way to wrap up the season. A lightsaber duel completely without Bart's involvement. Remember how Godspeed was supposed to be his arch enemy? Yeah, this show forgot about that, too. They quickly threw away one line of dialogue about Godspeed loathing Bart's impulsive nature, but that was it! Bart Allen really had no business being involved in this story. And his status for the next season is uncertain. Are Bart and Nora still trapped in 2021 or can they finally return to the future? Nobody said either way, because nobody cares.
Honestly, I hope Bart doesn't return. Unless this show gets a major overhaul, it will only be a disservice to the legacy of this character. And it's a terrible shame, since there is so much storytelling potential with Impulse. Like I said last time, this show should have played up the Allen-Thawne romantic dynamic of Bart's parents. And if they wanted to play around with unique, bizarre super-speed powers, they should have brought back Bart's scouts. Wouldn't that have been a better ending than randomly bringing in Eobard Thawne? Jay tells Bart to stay in the lab, and Bart says, "OK. I'll stay, but he won't." And he creates a golden energy scout right there that races off to give Barry the edge he needs to win. A simple solution that would have helped this episode a whole lot. Not enough to redeem it, granted, but it would have been better than what we got. Heck, anything would have been better than that hallucinatory light show that tried to call itself a fight.
Next time? I honestly don't know. I pray this isn't goodbye — I'd hate to end this blog on such a sour note. But currently, there are no plans for Impulse to appear in any comics in the foreseeable future. Hopefully Kid Flash will show up in the Young Justice animated show, which should debut its fourth season in October. In the meantime, I guess we'll just have to watch and wait.
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