TV Review: The Flash Season 8 Episode 3

The Flash Season 8 Episode 3 “Armageddon, Part 3”

Director: Chris Peppe

Starring: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, Brandon McKnight, Jesse L. Martin, Brandon Routh, Carmen Moore, Rachel Drance

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 42 minutes

Spoilers follow:

Well, that was something else.  As might be expected, “Armageddon Part 3”, which marks the middle of the event, makes significant progress explaining the mysteries at its core.  And to be honest those answers are fairly predictable, with the show falling back on what at this point is arguably its biggest crutch, however effective that crutch is.  And this episode highlights how a lot of the story being told will almost inevitably be undone, which is concerning.  But it also has an ambition and abandons beyond that of the past, similar Flash stories that make it quite compelling.

We start at the Hall of Justice (I love that I can say that about a live-action TV show) where Barry and Jefferson continue their conversation.  As many predicted, in the Arrowverse “Injustice” refers to a system of protocols the Justice League has set up in case a superhero becomes a threat.  In the event of a member going rogue, a specific teammate is responsible for neutralizing them.  In Barry’s case, that member is Jeff, who is supposed to take Barry’s powers away using his own.  Jefferson tries to calm Barry down, urging him not to be rash in making such a life-altering decision, as apparently if he takes his powers away he can only do so permanently.  But Barry is insistent that his speed must be eliminated as he thinks he’s losing his mind, citing the fact that he doesn’t remember Joe’s death as his major evidence.

Iris isn’t as sure that her husband is as deluded as he and everyone else is, however.  After Barry fled and Despero attacked she finally forced herself to watch security camera footage of Joe’s death.  Joe was supposedly hit by a train after falling onto the tracks in a simple accident but Iris notes that the frames of footage that would actually show him getting hit are missing.  This suggests to her that Barry may be right, that there is some kind of conspiracy involved, and that Joe may be alive or his death may be able to be safely undone.  Unfortunately, Cecile isn’t having any of it.  She lashes out at Iris, stating that they need to focus on helping Barry accept reality and protect him from Despero, not go into denial themselves.  Iris leaves to investigate, accompanied by Allegra, while Chester and Caitlin continue to work on finding Barry with Cecile.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, as even with Chester building a machine to amplify Cecile’s powers (he is very excited to make his own Cerebro) they still need more psychic power to find Barry before Despero.  This leads Cecile to offer a deal to supervillain Rosa Dillon/The Top (Ashley Rickards) in exchange for her help.  But on their first go using Chester’s machine Cecile becomes overwhelmed by all the thoughts she encounters and breaks down.  Dillon tells her grief about Joe is damaging her control over her powers and tells her to bury her feelings.  Although this initially works, with Cecile getting a brief image of Barry’s location before the machine shorts out, Caitlin is concerned.  She tells Cecile that Dillon’s advice isn’t healthy, especially as Cecile has already been bottling up feelings about Joe for months, much as Caitlin herself did when Ronnie died.  She encourages Cecile to let her emotions out.  Despero, who had been monitoring Cecile’s efforts, psychically attacks the group, nearly killing Dillon after she offers him a deal and he tries to get Barry’s location out of her mind.  He then tries to get the information out of Cecile but she is able to fight him off with her own powers and by following Caitlin’s advice and thinking about Joe.  The dialogue is, as usual, inconsistent in quality but this is a nice arc for Cecile and Danielle Nicolet does excellent work with it, possibly the best she’s ever done on The Flash.  The vibrancy of the emotions she taps into is palpable, especially in the argument with Iris.

Iris faces a setback in her investigation when a train station employee produces the missing footage, showing that Joe was indeed hit by the train.  This shakes her and causes her to believe Cecile was right and that she is simply acting out of denial.  Allegra continues digging, finding that the train hitting Joe was the result of an absurd number of coincidences, but Iris now refuses to buy into her own theory about someone pulling strings.  She changes her mind again when she notices particles like some she also spotted at the train station, that Allegra can’t see.  They guess that this has something to do with Iris’ time sickness and she goes to see Deon (Christian Magby), who controls the Still Force.  She has him undo all the treatments he’s given her for her time sickness, allowing them both to see that someone has indeed altered the timeline (using a negative Still Force, hence why Deon didn’t notice) and that Joe wasn’t supposed to die.  This plotline is a mixed bag.  Unraveling the mystery of Joe’s fate is intriguing, of course, but the sci-fi mythology is so convoluted at this point that it’s pretty much completely meaningless, and the characterization of Iris continues to be a problem for Season 8.  Candice Patton captures the characters’ grief well when she thinks Joe really is dead but there isn’t enough optimism in her performance either when she first theorizes Joe shouldn’t be dead or when she discovers it’s true.  The latter is a little easier to excuse, as the fact that someone is messing with the timeline means that an unknown villain with vast power is targeting Barry, which she must hurry to tell him, but either then or in the scene at Chester’s Iris should have shown a little more enthusiasm at the idea that her father could be saved.  In the early scene, it’s almost as if Patton and the creators, knowing how harsh the discussion between Iris and Cecile would become, had Iris come in preemptively grim.

Back at the Hall, Jeff and Barry continue to work on removing his powers, though Jeff is also still trying to talk his friend out of it.  He mentions his own experience with mental illness following the death of his friend Bill Henderson and tries to convince Barry that there are other options.  His refusal becomes more adamant when Barry lets slip the details about Despero’s role in his situation, which he had previously kept to himself.  Jeff won’t allow Barry to base his decision on fear and prepares to leave but Barry lashes out, telling Jeff that if he doesn’t help him he would be responsible for any harm he might cause to others, including Jeff’s family, which predictably pisses him off.  Still, Jeff keeps his cool and stands his ground.  A frustrated Barry turns things physical, leading to the obligatory but fun superhero fight.  A highlight of this is when Barry hurls Speed Force lightning at Jeff, which Jeff promptly redirects back at him, coolly telling him, “It’s your lightning.  You keep it.”  I’ve been waiting for Jeff to use Speed Force lightning since it was first announced he’d be joining the Arrowverse in Crisis so to see it really happen was a treat.   But this isn’t enough to neutralize Barry, who speeds Jeff around the Hall until they crash through Oliver’s memorial, destroying it and spewing his costume and arrows across the ground.  This is the wake-up call Barry needs and Jeff finally gets through to him by saying that even though he didn’t personally know Oliver, from what he understands about their bond he knows he would never believe Barry could go bad and wouldn’t want him to believe it either.  Barry handling his emotions this immaturely is a little forced for the sake of the action but I did love that it was Oliver’s memory that brought him back to his senses.  The way his character continues to affect the franchise two years after his death and the end of Arrow shows one of the strengths of shared universes, as it highlights how long the viewer has been spending time with the remaining characters and how much they’ve experienced with them.  Cress Williams’ performance is a delight throughout the episode and I can’t emphasize enough how nice it is to have him back as Jefferson.  His presence is constantly commanding, to the point where the viewer feels Barry made a big mistake by attacking him, but he also brings a lot of compassion to the role which is exactly what the character needs in this situation.  Black Lightning‘s final season, and especially its finale, failed to give the otherwise strong series the ending it deserved.  Jeff’s appearance here doesn’t really rectify that or bring better closure to his journey (not that The Flash should have been expected to do that) but it’s definitely a better use of the character, and while I hope Flash or one of the other series can bring Williams back again, if this is his final appearance in the role it’s a good one.

After Jeff gets through to Barry, Iris and Deon show up to tell them what they’ve discovered.  Barry surmises that the only way he can get the full story of what is going on is if he goes to Despero’s future time period.  Before he can do so, however, Despero himself arrives and attacks.  Jeff holds him off and tells Barry to make the time jump, which he does, after which an outraged Despero leaves.

Barry arrives in Central City, 2031, and notices a sign for a party hosted by the West family.  Upon entering he finds members of Team Flash and other Arrowverse characters, including Ryan Wilder/Batwoman (Javicia Leslie), Alex (who as of the end of Supergirl is now a superhero called Sentinel), and Crisis guest star Ryan Choi (Osric Chau) gathered to celebrate Iris’ engagement.  More shocking is the groom to be, Eobard Thawne, with Tom “did he ever really leave?” Cavanagh reprising the most popular of his many Flash roles.  Noticing Barry, Ryan Wilder angrily asks what he’s doing there before the others all turn to look with their equally disgusted expressions.  All except Thawne, who can barely keep a straight face as he sees Barry discover how thoroughly he’s messed up his life this time.  As I said early on in the review, having Thawne be behind everything is certainly no big surprise and arguably demonstrates that the series is growing less and less creative as it continues to return to the villain whenever it wants to spice things up.  On the other hand, Thawne is such an entertaining character, so well performed by Cavanagh, and the grudge between him and Barry is layered and personal it’s hard not to get excited when he shows up.  Plus the sheer audacity of Thawne altering things so that he essentially seems to have Barry’s life (and possibly vice versa) is beyond anything he’s done before and is quite amusing.  Hopefully the shift to focus on Thawne doesn’t take away too much from the other engaging material present in Armageddon, especially Despero’s place as the main villain.  If the show can avoid that, the addition of Barry’s archenemy (and all these other characters) should hopefully carry the crossover to new heights.

Notes:

• It’s a good thing the show acknowledges the X-Men connection with the Chester and Cecile stuff because the latter’s storyline here is almost exactly the same as the one experienced by James McAvoy’s Professor X in the X-Men: Days of Future Past movie.
• I suppose it’s not totally confirmed Cavanagh is playing Thawne rather than one of the million Harrison Wellses or someone else but based on the circumstances, his line delivery, and just… everything it’s pretty clear the Reverse-Flash is back.