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Television

FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 7×09- “Timeless”

The Flash (7×09)- “Timeless”

Written by:         Kristen Kim & Joshua V Gilbert

Directed by:       Menhaj Huda

So we pick up with Iris doing her best Leonard McCoy imitation for Alexa…

…and Nora unveils her big heel turn promo. It’s good too, the night Iris reignited the Speed Force she and Barry somehow brought the other Forces into being and Nora’s cleaning up their mess and Barry’s going to help.  Barry’s not too keen on killing anymore but Nora isn’t exactly asking she’s telling.

It’s a good heel turn but Nora probably should’ve hired Paul Heyman to be her advocate, really drive the point home.  Anyway, you guys have a big problem. The source of Barry’s power has turned a little bit evil and a whole lot psycho so what can you even do to counter that. 

Even better, she did it by hitting Barry wears he’s weakest, she manipulated his trust and after last season and the Not-Iris crisis Barry isn’t playing around with his trust.  Even worse, Chester and Cisco use the STAR Labs satellites to confirm Nora’s claims about Barry and Iris creating other Forces.

Don’t you hate it when the Villain’s telling the truth?

The next morning, Cisco’s having coffee with Kamilla while catching her up on what they’ve learned and he has a gift for her.  He’s Cisco-teched up her camera to detect the Forces.  The best gifts are thoughtful and functional I always say.  Meanwhile, Kamilla has news of her own.  A gallery in San Francisco wants to show her pictures and they want her to come there to show them off so they can write Carlos and Victoria off the show at the end of the Season!

I mean, “have her input!”  Isn’t that great?

Guys?  Is-isn’t that great? That Kamilla’s career is going well?

Okay… Tough crowd.

Back at STAR Labs, Barry has a bold plan to defeat Nora.  Really bold.  He wants to use time travel to wipe out the other Forces.  Giving the villain what they want? Well, Chester, Iris and Cisco are all very much not on board and all for different reasons.  Cisco points out that they have a horrible record when it comes to manipulating the past, citing Flashpoint specifically.  Chester is worried that they could mess around and destroy the Speed Force too and Iris is pretty sure that this is morally wrong and they need to try and talk to Nora and try to convince her to turn away from the Dark Side of the Speed Force. (I had to, okay? Stop looking at me like that.)

But despite everyone having valid reasons for Barry not to do it he’s just as convinced there’s no other options to fix this.  He even has a decent plan using the tachyon enhancer to siphon off the particles from the initial burst of energy that reignited the Speed Force.  But it will need one more person’s help, Earth One Harrison Wells.  So Barry travels back in time to get him.

With Wells’ help and his powers they can protect the timeline enough to wipe out the Forces without destroying the Speed Force and not create a new Flashpoint paradox.  All that leaves is to soothe Iris’ problems with Barry’s plan, speaking of Iris.

She, Allegra and Kamilla have been using Kamilla’s fancy camera to try and track down Nora since it seems that Iris is reacting to the different Forces enough for the camera to detect it.  They walk around town for a while but Iris realizes they’re not going to succeed by treating Nora like energy and they start thinking about where Nora might go… Gee, I wonder.

Back at the Lab, Chester’s finished upgrading the tachyon device when Deon shows up.  He was drawn to STAR Labs and hasn’t exactly resolved his anger issues.  He quickly figures out something is going on so he uses the Still Force to stop everyone in the room.  Only Barry is unaffected and he tries to explain the situation to Deon but he’s not exactly excited about losing his powers and when he realizes the importance of the tachyon device he destroys it and leaves but not before showing Barry that he can stop even him.

Fortunately, Chester had pocketed the modified collection disk they were going to use to siphon the particles.  However, Cisco’s been swayed by Deon’s desire to keep his power because it’s a part of him.  He wants to help Barry but he also knows they’re on the wrong path.  Even better for Barry, Chester’s been swayed by Cisco and Wells is no longer sure himself.

So Barry goes to Joe for some advice which is always a good plan.  Joe talks about when Wally first showed up in Joe’s life that it was hard for him to try and figure out how to include Wally in his life and that it was just as hard for Wally to try and figure out how to be in theirs.  In a lot of ways, Barry is like their father and he owes it to these Forces to at least try to help them.

Unsurprisingly, Iris, Kamilla and Allegra arrive at the Allen house but instead of Nora they find Psych and he puts the whammy on Kamilla and Allegra before demanding to know why Iris wants to find Nora.  He’s strangely protective of Nora before he puts the whammy on Iris and she’s confronted with Nora who attacks her feelings for Barry.

Back at STAR Labs, Chester and Wells have finished rebuilding the tachyon device just as Cisco returns to help them despite his concerns.  With Cisco ready to help, Wells takes Barry back to the moment Iris reignites the Speed Force before they head up to the roof to see the energy going out into the world.  Barry steps into the lightning and starts to siphon the other Forces out of the Speed Force.

As Iris tries to get through to Psych by pointing out that she and Barry are connected to them Barry’s actions begin to affect the present and Psych and Deon suffer the effects.  In the past, Barry sees the moment the other Forces are created and he realizes why the others were against his plan and connects it to what Joe was trying to tell him about being a father.  The guilt of what he’s trying to do is too much for him and he destroys the device for he and Wells return to the present.

Later, Barry and Iris discuss what their next step is because when Barry watched their creation he saw the good that the Forces can do he realized he owed it to Deon and Psych and the Forces themselves to try and fix things.  There’s a tremor in the building and they both realize that it was Alexa.  The pair use their connection to the forces to bring Alexa back from the dead… Hmm.

Later, Kamilla and Cisco say goodbye to Wells before both admit that they are being written off the show at the end of the season alongside Tom Cavanagh

I mean, “They both want to leave Central City.”

That night, Deon is in the park listening to DMX on his late nineties Walkman when Nora shows up looking not at all evil and crazy, nor is her arrival accompanied by ominous music in any way.  No sir.  So when she calls herself a Reckoning we know that everything is going to be fine.

That was something, wasn’t it?

I still think that this turning the Speed Force evil is going to be difficult to pull off, they’ve seemingly given themselves an out by implying that something is wrong with Nora but this is going to be a tough story to get through successfully.  As for this episode and the revelation that something has connected Barry and Iris to the Forces is interesting but it does have that same problem of making Iris the “Key to Everything” as they had with Iris and Eva “last season” so we’ll add that to the list of things they’ll have to tread lightly with.

As for the Cisco plot, well it certainly takes the air out of the sails that word got out that Valdes and Cavanagh are being written off the show this season so we know immediately where it’s going.  Still, I liked seeing Cisco stick to his guns in the argument with Barry.  I also liked that everyone had a different problem with Barry’s plan, it allowed for more debate than just “Barry you’re wrong and we all see it” it felt more like “This may be a problem that has no right answer.”  Which is probably the case.

So in the end, I’m still cautious about this storyline but I like what I saw this week.

Things We Learned:

  1. Nora killed Alexa, though Barry and Iris were able to access the Strength Force enough to bring her back.
  2. Barry and Iris are connected to the new Forces somehow and they intend to try and protect Psyche, Deon and Alexa from Nora until the situation can be resolved.
  3. Wells saw himself and Barry from the future the night Iris reignited the Speed Force.
  4. Deon and Psych are gaining control over their powers.
  5. Cisco and Kamilla plan to leave Central City.

Questions:

  1. What exactly is Barry and Iris’ connection to these new Forces?
  2. Is that connection what is affecting Nora?
  3. Will Alexa continue to seek help from Team Flash or will she blame them for her death?
  4. What exactly did Barry see when he saw the good the new Forces could do?

Just another guy on the internet.