'The Flash' Season 4, Episode 1 'The Flash Reborn' Recap: Speed Force Side Effects [SPOILERS]

“The Flash” is back after leaving us with a cliffhanger last season. During the finale, fans were blindsided when Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) went into the Speed Force because Savitar’s prison is now empty. It caused a dangerous Speed Force storm. In the Season 4 premiere titled “The Flash Reborn,” six months have passed since Barry’s departure and everyone is working hard to protect Central City. But it isn’t “The Flash” without the Flash, with the six month time jump his absence is not for long. Barry is brought out of the Speed Force to help fight an armored villain—but he isn’t the same person.

Protecting Central City Without ‘The Flash’

To honor Barry, the others took it upon themselves to continue protecting the city. Wally/Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale) and Cisco/Vibe (Carlos Valdes) are doing their best to clean up crimes.  They might not have the same success rate as Barry, they along with Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Iris (Candice Patton) continue to do their job keeping the city safe. But it looks like the last six months have been hard for Team Flash. Everyone is grieving in their own way but it’s heartbreaking to see Iris lose hope.
Last season, Iris lost her everything, the man she grew up with and the man she was supposed to marry. But when an armored Samurai appears asking for The Flash, he was disappointed upon meeting Kid Flash and Cisco, refusing to fight the duo. The public loses hope when the Samurai threatens to blow up the city if they do not bring him The Flash.
Iris believes they can stop the armored Sumarai without Barry. When Cisco suggests there is a way for them to bring Barry back, Iris was the least excited about it. She truly believes Barry is dead and they should all move on and focus on saving Central City from the Samurai.

Cisco Brings Back Barry… Sort of

Out of everyone on the team, Cisco tries to bring back Barry from the Speed Force. After being shut down by Iris, Cisco seeks help from Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker). In the last six months since Barry got into the Speed Force, Caitlin is back to her old self and working in a bar. She takes him up on his offer and helps him in recalibrating his “Speedforce Bazooka.”
Cisco gathers everyone to witness the return of Barry Allen. Caitlin explains the modifications and how it will pull Barry from the Speed Force without any collateral damage. Excited to see his old friend again, Cisco fired up the bazooka to open a portal to the Speed Force. It looks like a bust but the portal opened somewhere else and Barry returns! But, it’s not something worth celebrating over.

The team was happy to finally see Barry but it wasn’t a warm reunion. They found him scribbling symbols on the walls and saying the stars were loud. Caitlin has two theories on why Barry came back the way he is. Either he was delusional or experiencing dementia due to being stuck in the Speed Force. He continues writing on the walls and speaks gibberish. Cisco believes he was sending some sort of message.
When it looked like Cisco finally had it cracked, the only message that appeared from the translations of Barry’s symbols made no sense—unless “This house is bitchin” is some sort of code only Barry can explain. When Barry loses control of his speed, Joe decides to detain Barry for his safety.

‘The Flash’ Saves The Day

Aside from writing strange symbols, Barry is actually in perfect health. He is faster and nothing else seems to be wrong with him. It could be the effect of being isolated in the Speed Force for so long. The team doesn’t know how long Barry might be in this state. They try their best to bring him back but the Samurai returns to the city to wreak havoc.

With Barry in his delusional state and the Samurai looking for “The Flash,” Wally decides to don Barry’s new suit to fight off the armored Samurai. But he was not fooled by Kid Flash. In order to save Central City, Iris decides to give herself to the Samurai in an attempt to lure the Flash. Shocked by his daughter’s decision, Joe informs the team Iris was captured. He told Barry in hopes to get through to him, after many attempts Joe was able to make a breakthrough.
Barry ran in true lightning speed and saved Iris from the armored Samurai, who later turned out to be a robot. Before the team finds out who programmed the robot, they made sure Barry was in good shape. Perhaps it was only a temporary side effect from being pulled out from the Speed Force. Iris in danger was the quickest solution to getting him back to normal.

Caitlin’s Inner Conflict and A new Villain

It’s not only Barry who is back on the team, Caitlin decides to rejoin Team Flash since she has left her Killer Frost days behind. But it looks like there is still some inner turmoil between Caitlin and her villain persona. When Caitlin told her boss she would no longer be cleaning tables and serving beer, they got into a heated argument. It triggered her to become Killer Frost once more.

Afraid to lose herself again, she fought her way back pushing Killer Frost deep within herself and it was a struggle as well as a shock for Caitlin. After a while, she’s finally back and ready to be with Team Flash again. Only time will tell how long she can keep it up, though.
Nearing the end of the first episode we find out it was the Mechanic and the Thinker who were behind the robot Samurai.  Their agenda remains unknown on why they forced Team Flash to get Barry back.
“The Flash” continues next week with “Mixed Signals,” Tuesday, October 17th at 8/9c on The CW.