THE FLASH “Legacy” Review

The Flash — “Legacy” — Pictured (L-R): Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne and Grant Gustin as The Flash — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW

THE FLASH “LEGACY” REVIEW

BY JUSTIN CARTER

In my review of Arrow’s finale, I made the note that it felt like that show was pulling an Avengers: Endgame with its emotional payoffs and setting, if not a bold, then at the very least an interesting future for its characters ahead of its final season. I suppose, then, it only makes sense that The Flash serves as the Infinity War for the Arrowverse as it becomes increasingly clear that things are really going to hit the fan during the crossover.

Surprisingly, Ralph ends up managing to stop Flash from destroying Cicada’s dagger and freeing Thawne in 2049, but at the cost of getting himself messed up for a portion of the episode. It falls on Team Flash to stop Cicada another way, by using Nora’s psychic connection with both Graces to convince the younger Grace to take the cure and wipe away her serial killer future. Because that’s how time travel works, somehow, which seems to be the general throughline this episode.

Grace takes the cure and her future self is wiped from existence, but only after Barry destroys the dagger, which means Thawne’s out and loose again in 2049! Before he can begin his new killing spree in earnest, Barry and Nora travel to his prison so the guards at his execution can be whisked away to safety during a neat rewind sequence. This leads to a nice moment where the rest of Team Flash shows up and everyone takes turns wailing on Thawne; Iris gets to shoot him, Frost freezes him in place, and Ralph punches him into the sky before Barry and Nora dash through the Speed Force to give him dual hits of lightning. After how long he spent the season torturing them behind the scenes, it was more than a little cathartic to watch.

But of course, you can’t get the good without getting the bad, and that in this case means that Nora gets erased from the timeline after destroying the dagger. (I don’t know how this makes sense, but go with it.) Instead of clinging to the Negative Speed Force for life like her teacher, Nora instead pulls a Peter Parker and dies in her parents’ arms. I’ll confess to missing Nora; Jessica Kennedy provided a different kind of energy to the show almost instantly and it seemed like the show finally had a handle on how to handle multiple speedsters at once.

Then again, maybe this isn’t the end of Nora’s story. After a moving video message to her parents to close out the episode, we see the newspaper from 2024 start to change. The Crisis is coming this year, and since we know from Arrow that means finding help from the multiverse to prevent it….purple lightning may be able to return this winter. We’ll see. Until then, we have another season of The Flash wrapped up, and our team in a stranger place than usual.

Nora isn’t the only one to leave the show; both Sherloque and Cisco are out of the hero game now. I suspect that Sherloque could come back should Thawne become the main villain next season, or if things with Renee don’t work out. Cisco, though, seems more of a permanent departure since he took the metahuman cure and is no longer Vibe. But who knows, if he is back next season, there could always be a way to reverse that if the show so chooses.

I feel about this overall season of The Flash the same way I did about Arrow, which is that it was largely solid. Nora was a good addition to the cast and the show either tried or wholly succeeded in ironing out some rough spots that have been around for some time, such as artificial tension between characters and not everyone having something compelling to do. Cicada wasn’t the most compelling villain even before the swap, but serviceable for a story that ultimately was about family and the legacy one chooses to leave behind. The show’s returning with a full season in October, but it doesn’t have to worry about a bad legacy anytime soon.

Additional Notes

• During the end, other characters get some neat developments of their own: Joe becomes captain of the CCPD, Cisco gifts Caitlin with a new Killer Frost costume–she’s really gone the longest of Team Flash without one of her own, huh — and Ralph decides to jump back into private investigation.
• Cast MVPs this season obviously go to Jessica Kennedy, Gustin, and Patton, with Cavanaugh and Sawyer taking silver.
• The case file Ralph looks at says “Dearbon,” which is a reference to Sue Dibney, who later becomes his wife. And then dies and becomes a zombie. (It’s comics, and not exactly a stellar moment in DC’s fairly recent history.)
• Assuming Thawne isn’t the big bad next season, and he very well could be since he says he’ll be around during the Crisis, who we thinking is the next villain of the season?