The Flash Armageddon storyline comes to a close as Team Flash faces a life and death dilemma. Mia Queen (Katherine McNamara) comes to Central City and gets caught up in the Team’s latest crisis.
OMG! So much happens on this episode!
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Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) is alive! Barry (Grant Gustin) is super excited but about to cry. He tells Joe about his latest run in with the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh). Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) interrupts them. Somehow the time stone pulled him back in time to 2021; however, Nora Darhk (Courtney Ford) isn’t there. He doesn’t have the time stone with him, so Barryn quickly retrieves it for him.
Last week, we saw the Reverse Flash follow the Flash through the portal. He shows up at CCPD to cause a scene. Barry is at STAR Labs, telling everyone about the Reverse Flashpoint timeline. He gives the PED to Chester (Brandon McKnight) so he can study it. They are more than grateful that he was able to restore their timeline and save Joe. They get an alert about Thawne’s shenanigans. Barry races to stop him and that’s exactly what Thawne wanted him to do. But it’s the Green Arrow that shows up instead.
Mia Queen is time traveling too. She came back in 2021 to find her brother William (Ben Lewis). She faces off with Thawne, but he’s just a tad faster than she is. Thawne is ready to kill Mia when the Flash shows up. Thawne says he’s not there to start trouble, but instead to ask for the Flash to save him.
MIA’S QUEST
Barry takes Mia and Thawne back to STAR Labs. Mia says she picked up on Thawne’s temporal energy and followed him. She won’t say why she’s there, but Chester is more than happy to help her with whatever Mia needs. Thawne is phasing in and out of existence … kind of like Marty McFly in Back to the Future. The Reverse Flash doesn’t have much time before he is erased from existence. When Barry used the time stone to restore his timeline, he made it so there is one permanent timeline. So if Thawne disappears, that’s it. He’s gone for good.
The team decides to discuss whether or not they will allow him to disappear or not. Mia doesn’t understand why there needs to be a discussion. Iris (Candice Patton) says they talk as a team before making any final decisions. With the worst attitude ever, Mia doesn’t like it and leaves them to discuss.
Iris follows Mia to find out what’s really going on. Do you remember that Arrow episode, The Green Arrow and the Canaries when Mia became the Green Arrow? At the end of that episode, a group of men knocked out Mia and took William. That was two years ago. The only thing she has left is a rock called a Hozen with a distinct symbol on it.
The temporal energy found at Oliver’s statue led her to 2021, but she ran into a dead end. She didn’t ask for Felicity’s (Emily Bett Rickards) help because she doesn’t think her mom would understand that Mia is willing to do whatever it takes to find William. Even if that means she has to kill someone. Iris says Oliver was like that. He killed people to save the city, but it also ruined his life too.
Iris thinks Mia is afraid to see Felicity. Mia turns the tables on Iris saying Thawne killed her dad and changed the timeline to steal Barry’s life. There was a future where Iris was about to marry Thawne. Mia says Iris is afraid to give Thawne what he deserves. She wonders if Iris’s life will be ruined if Thawne lives.
LIVE OR LET DIE
While Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) examines Thawne, she determines that he has about two hours before he disappears. Thawne is confident that Team Flash will save him because they are the heroes. He starts talking about Ronnie, making Cailtin remember all of the awful things Thawne did. Even though she’s a doctor, she knows she will lose patients. Caitlin lets Thawne know that she’s okay with him dying. She spent the last eight years hating him. She says he should look for someone else to save him.
Caitlin tells Barry about her conversation with Thawne, prompting Barry to have a chat with him. He asks what he did to make Thawne hate him. Two centuries into the future, Thawne figures out how to get super speed. He set up a crisis so he could run in and save the world. But Barry beat him to it, stealing his thunder. That was the first time they met. Thawne felt humiliated and vowed to be faster than The Flash to destroy him. Barry asks what happens if he saves Thawne. Thawne says he will go right back to his work and find new ways to kill the Flash
Despero (Tony Curran) returns to let Flash know that he has to kill Thawne. It’s the only way to prevent Armageddon from ever happening. Despero could kill Thawne, but letting him fade away would ensure his death.
When the Team meets up to discuss Thawne, Barry says they have to let him die. Iris and Caitlin agree. The others aren’t so sure. Chester and Allegra (Kayla Compton) remind them that Team Flash saves people. Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) just doesn’t feel right about letting Thawne die. Caitlin and Iris say the others haven’t dealt much with Thawne and they don’t know how terrible he can be.
YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE
Joe hears everything and pulls Barry and Iris away to talk about it. He asks when they started letting people die. Barry and Iris are certain that their family will never be safe if they let Thawne live. Joe wants Thawne dead too but being a hero means to protect everyone. Iris feels like they don’t have a choice, Thawne will destroy their family. Joe yells saying they always have a choice.
Joe asks if they thought of a way to save Thawne. Barry says they can take away his speed, changing his fate and saving his life. Joe walks away saying if they let Thawne die, they will be destroying their family. Barry and Iris decide to talk to Caitlin. Despero is watching and he doesn’t like what he sees. He decides to kill Thawne himself. He reaches out to Mia and possesses her.
Team Flash meet again and decide not to let Thawne die, but take his speed away instead. They also asked Cisco to make room for Thawne at ARGUS. Barry will use Jefferson Pierce’s (Cress Williams) technique to remove Barry’s speed on Thawne. Caitlin says jail won’t make up for the horrible things Thawne has done. She’s right but Barry says they can’t let Thawne change who they are.
Despero arrives, calling Team Flash fools. He says Thawne recovered his powers before and he can do it again. He tells Team Flash to stand aside or face the consequences. Barry says no, so Despero transports them outside to fight. The power goes out in the lab. Iris sends Frost (Panabaker) and Allegra to protect Thawne, but Mia is already in Green Arrow mode. She knocks them out with a sonic arrow.
ARMAGEDDON
Despero calls Flash an enemy to humanity. Flash calls him a bully. He thinks Despero was the aggressor on his homeworld and now he’s trying to do the same on Earth. Despero says he will do what he has to do to save the world. The two fight while Mia lurks around STAR Labs.
Despero uses Mia to shoot arrows at Team Flash, hitting Caitlin in the leg. They approach Iris, saying she made the decision to save Thawne with the Flash. Now she will die because of it. Cecile and Iris try to talk Mia out of killing Iris. Cecile can feel Mia inside and projects her powers to her to help her fight off Despero. Iris tells Mia to think about William and what he would want. It works and Despero loses his connection to Mia. Mia tells them where to find Allegra and Frost. She apologizes for trying to kill them, but they know it wasn’t her.
Despero admits to using Mia on the inside. But since that failed he will continue to do what he must. Despero says he will be the hero of the world. Flash runs at him and Despero transports Flash back to STAR Labs. The alien decides to destroy Central City just to kill Thawne.
Despero conjures the Flame of Py’tar. Team Flash brainstorms on how to quickly stop Despero so they can save Thawne. Barry says he can harness the flame, but he needs something to help him disperse it to the atmosphere. Luckily, Chester took the PED and put the technology into new boots for the Flash. With the enhanced boots, the Flash is able to harness the Flame of Py’tar and send it into the sky, cutting off Despero’s connection to the Flame. Despero vows his vengeance against the Flash and the entire world before burning up and disappearing.
THE RIGHT THING TO DO
The team has 30 seconds to save Thawne. Flash rushes back as the Team gets ready to hit Thawne with enough lightning to disconnect him from the Negative Speed Force. It works, but Thawne is outraged. He says his speed was his life and Flash took that from him, leaving him in Hell.
Barry rents out a restaurant for the team to celebrate. Damien shows up and Mia jumps at the chance to kill him for what he did to Laurel Lance. Damien thinks it may be what he deserves so Mia backs down. The fact that Damien is still there means Nora is still dead.
Iris and Mia have a chat. Iris found the symbols on the Hozen matched some documents in Berlin, but the documents were redacted. Mia plans to reach out to Felicity for help. She says she can still become the person her mom wanted her to be. Mia thanks Iris for her help. Iris says Oliver would be proud of her and invites her to come around more often. She even suggests Mia meet Bart (Jordan Fisher) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy). (Hmmm …)
Chester stares at Allegra while Frost watches him. She encourages him to make a move on Allegra, even though he insists they are just friends. He takes a chance anyway, but they are quickly interrupted by Barry. Barry just wanted to thank them for calling him out about Thawne, but Allegra and Chester make it super awkward.
REDEMPTION
Joe thanks Damien for helping Barry restore the timeline. Damien is starting to accept that he’s supposed to be there without his daughter. Joe says maybe it’s that Damien still has some work to do. Damien hands the time stone to Joe and disappears.
Damien goes to a world in between life and death. Nora is there. He’s happy to see her one more time before he goes. She doesn’t want him to go, but it’s the way things are supposed to be. Damien disappears again, gone for good.
Nora appears in the restaurant, completely confused. She’s even a little angry that she lost her father all over again. Joe steps forward and takes Nora aside to tell her what’s going on. He promises that Damien did whatever it took to save her.
Barry makes a speech saying they survived because of their choices. Their choices make them heroes. He toasts to the team creating their own destiny and protecting it together.
FLASHY SHENANIGANS
At the CCPD, a couple of cops talk about how things will go back to normal. They pass by a photo of the police force in 2014, that includes Joe and Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett). Lightning covers the photo as Bart and Nora Allen appear in the picture.
RELATED: Catch up on all of The Flash recaps here
- Thank goodness they visited the Mia/William storyline. I really hope we get to see what happens
- Did anyone else pick up a vibe of a Mia/Bart/Nora spin-off? No? Just me? Okay …
- And I have hopes for more Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford appearances in the future.
- I’m sorry. Chester and Allegra. I just don’t see it. The writers need more work on their chemistry. They’re great as friends, but I feel like they hit us hard with this ship last week and are trying to force it on us again. In my opinion …
- Great start to season eight! I’m excited for the 2022 return and the jump to Wednesdays!
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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