FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 7×11- “Family Matters Part 2”

The Flash (7×11)- “Family Matters Part 2″

Written by: Thomas Pound (Teleplay) Jonathan Butler & Gabriel Garza (Story By)

Directed by: Chad Lowe

Surprise, surprise! The end of last week’s episode was a fake out by Psych. That means time for the final battle!

The gang gathers to figure out what to do about Nora. Iris thinks they need to hide Bashir, Alexa and Iris from Nora… by putting them in the Speed Force. There’s a plan that cannot possibly go wrong!

Speaking of things going wrong, Joe’s at home watching all hell break loose from the couch. Nora’s unleashing some sort of storm that has blown open the walls of Iron Heights so a bunch of Meta-criminals are loose. So he’s not having an easy transition into retirement. You know what will help, Joe? Purple lightning coming through the front window taking out Cecile in front of you!

Pardon?

Oh! I’ve been informed that will, in fact, not help Joe. It seems to have made things worse.

Seguing over to Barry and Iris’ apartment, Barry has returned from the Speed Force where he left Alexa, Bashir and Iris to find Nora and she’s a big gaudy crucifix necklace away from getting First Prize at the Central City Goth Convention and to top it she knows Barry’s hidden the other three away which is why she’s leveling the City with the Storm of the Century outside. Nora tells him about the emptiness and loneliness she felt when she died and goes on to explain that she won’t let herself be killed again. Well, Barry’s way past being nice himself so the conversation ends with the expected threat of “Bring the others to me or I’ll destroy Central City.”

Over to Ivo Laboratories where, Mark (the hunky but evil bartender from a few episodes back) is using his unexpected freedom from prison to steal stuff when he’s confronted by Frost who escaped prison as well to help stop all the sure to follow meta shenanigans from the jail break. Now Mark has two things on his mind! Stealing, of course and some of the sweet, sweet romance with Frost.

But he’s going to have a rough time, since Frost is one word away from going full Tsundere and that word is:

Which means it’s fight time!

Back in the Speed Force, Bashir has decided that he’s not happy with the hiding so he’s come up with a plan to get out and he’s using his powers to enlist Alexa’s help.

Barry finds Deon at the football stadium and he’s having a serious case of murder remorse. Sure he wanted to kill Barry, but not the others so he’s relived (in a very Deon way) the others are alive so relieved he wants to team up with Barry to murder Nora but Barry denies him and Deon escapes.

Barry catches Cisco, Joe and Chester up on what he’s learned but things are turning from bad to worse. Which you can tell because Joe’s gone full pessimist when he suggests murdering Nora might have to be Plan A. Allegra finds him and he is on the receiving end of a pep talk, Joe needs to figure out what he is now that he’s not a cop anymore.

In the Speed Force, Bashir and Alexa spring their plan on Iris using Psych’s powers to distract her while they take the transporter device Cisco gave her to get them out of the Speed Force. The pair then leave her behind in the Speed Force so they can go fight Nora on their own terms.

Barry checks in with Cisco and Chester one more time but the pair don’t think there’s any way they can capture and contain Nora so Barry’s running out of options. As the storms around the city get worse and the satellites pick up Nora’s energy signature Barry finally heads off to find Nora.

He tries to talk her down but she pulls the “you don’t get it” card and points out that it’s not just her that’s destroying the city it’s all the Forces. Barry thinks back on past events and realizes that Deon, Alexa and Bashir all must be involved.

This is all getting very confusing.

Deon shows up to attack Nora but gets injured in the process so Barry runs him off to STAR Labs. So they’re out of time, out of options and with Bashir, Alexa and Deon’s powers creating the storms destroying the city Barry’s out of hope too.

This is what finally shakes Joe out of his self-pity, he explains that the only way to resolve this is to bring them all together and let their “family” resolve their problems together. Barry brings the three to Nora and she takes them to the Speed Force and shows them how damaged it’s become before she attacks them. The fight seems pretty even so Nora kicks them out of the Speed Force before she unleashes her final attack. Using the Force Storm to reverse the Big Bang.

This seems like what my mother would call “A Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem” but it means Barry’s going to be occupied trying to stop the undoing of the Universe which leaves Nora plenty of time to play Cain and Abel with the other three.

But when she attacks them Deon and Psych put a combined whammy on her that shows her the emptiness and loneliness she described to Barry earlier and it is all too soon more than she can take and she surrenders to them and begs forgiveness.

After that, Nora, Alexa, Bashir and Deon help Barry undo the storm they created.

However, you can’t just have four Cosmic Forces living down the street so Nora takes the others to live in the Speed Force and the four of them set out to use their power to make the whole of the Universe a better place. They say goodbye to Barry and Iris before the pair return to “normal” world.

We go into wrap up time at STAR Labs, Cecile finally wakes up from her coma and Joe is there to greet her. Chester and Allegra meet with Cisco and Kamilla at Jitters and they make things awkward by being one of those couples before Cisco is interrupted by another text from ARGUS. Frost shows back up at Caitlin’s and explains that her heroism during the prison break help get her life without parole sentence turned into probation.

Lastly, at Barry and Iris’ the couple try to figure out what they’ll do without Nora and the other Forces around. Finally the pair decide that after two very weird versions of parenting maybe they should finally try to go the traditional route of starting a family.

Remember when I said this about the last episode: “A lot of things happened plot wise, things ramped up and characters are set up for new things I’m excited to see and at the same time it wasn’t a very good episode. The episode was kind of silly and low effort…”

I feel like the same could be said about this week’s episode. It kind of felt like the story ran out of steam before they go to the last part and they had trouble getting to the finish. This is actually a little troubling for a show that’s seven seasons in because it’s not often that a show that’s this far along gets a lot of chances to steer out of a skid so I hope the second half of the season arc goes a little more smoothly.

Like last week, I think I liked the idea they were trying to convey more than what the actual episode was. I liked the idea of the Cosmic Forces being so incredibly destructive as their avatars get into conflict with each other and I like the idea of them becoming more powerful as they work in unison but what we got as an episode was not terribly satisfying.

I hope the Cisco/ARGUS story picks up in the second half too because, if nothing else, Carlos does deserve a proper send off. As for the Frost/Mark stuff… Yeah, whatever.

I’m still invested in the overarching story being told but I really hope they can come back stronger starting next episode.

Things We Learned:

Nora was not the one tearing Central City apart in the end. She was part of it but the other Forces were as well as they were in conflict with each other.
Iron Heights had what seems to be a serious breakout from the Meta Wing.
Nora and the other three Forces have left the mortal plane to use their powers together.
Barry and Iris have decided to start a family.

Questions:

How many metas escaped Iron Heights and how many of them are still at large?
Did Frost turn Mark in?
How will Kramer react to the near destruction of Central City and Meta breakout? (He asked as though it wasn’t obvious.)
Will Barry and Iris bring Nora back into existence by having a child together? Or does the pending appearance of Impulse signal the birth of Don and Dawn?
Who’s going to tell Frost that no one actually likes Tsunderes?