Kid Flash is back on this episode of The Flash. That’s right, Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) returns to Central City in “Death of the Speed Force.” Cisco (Carlos Valdez) returns as well from his world wide excursion! It’s a big reunion after all of the team were scattered for the last couple of weeks. But we still have some questions to answer.
Like, what’s going on with Nash (Tom Cavanagh)? What is Eva’s (Efrat Dor) power and how did she create the Iris (Candice Patton) doppelganger? And most importantly, why hasn’t Barry (Grant Gustin) figured out Iris 2.0 isn’t his Iris?
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Wally West, aka Kid Flash returns to Central City and immediately stops a helicopter crash. Once a hero, always a hero. Team Flash has a nice little homecoming party for Wally. The Real Iris has to watch from a mirror.
Iris is still in the mirror dimension with Eva. Eva hasn’t revealed that she’s evil yet. All we know about Eva is that she is directly linked to the Iris doppelganger in the real world. They have a mission that involves Eva’s husband Joseph Carver (Eric Nenniger). It’s really strange that none of Iris’ family has realized that she’s not Iris.
Cisco comes home too from his search for Earth Prime changes and anomalies as a result of the Crisis. He crashes Wally’s party, but it’s not a party without Cisco. We also learn that Nash rented office space next to Cecile’s (Danielle Nicolet) office, which is down the hall from the Central City Citizen and Ralph Dibny’s (Hartley Sawyer) Detective services. Small world! Speaking of Ralph, he’s still out of town searching for Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfus).
As for Wally, family isn’t the only reason he came home. He says there’s something wrong with the speed force. Barry hasn’t noticed it, well, not really. He has experienced strange things happening with his speed healing but that could be because of everything that happened in Crisis. Besides, the speed force would have told him if something was wrong right?
Maria Volkova (Elizaveta Neretin) was on that helicopter and she suddenly died shortly after…in Jitters. It’s not as simple as it seems. A villian dubbed Turtle 2 killed Maria. Cisco is familiar with her. She has a card in Cisco’s Who’s Who Binder. She creates green bubbles, potential energy force fields that surround individuals and drains their kinetic energy.
Her real name is Frida Novikov (Vanessa Walsh). Joe (Jesse L. Martin) once busted her for running an international drug ring. He deported her back to Russia. Cisco heard stories about her throughout his travels. He came home to find out more about her time in Central City. Now they have to find a way to stop her.
Cisco returns to STAR Labs to get started. He’s going to use the Velocity-X formula to speed up Novikov and neutralize her kinetic energy meta powers. While he’s working, Nash stops by to welcome Cisco home. Of course, Nash has an ulterior motive.
Nash asks Cisco if he’s seen other doppelgangers, who might have been dead, return to Earth Prime. Cisco treats him like he’s crazy, saying any doppelgangers would be dead by now because of neurological degeneration. (Like what happened to Alice and Beth on Batwoman.) They can’t coexist on the same Earth. And Cisco can’t take Nash seriously if he’s seeing ghosts. Nash gets upset. Cisco gets upset. They argue about Cisco being selfish and Nash leaves.
Later, Nash is working on a new device when the electricity starts going crazy. He walks outside of his office and sees a pair of red glowing eyes. It’s Reverse Flash’s eyes. The eyes rush towards Nash.
Wally tells Iris about the Speed Force and how Barry is avoiding talking about it. Iris mentions that Barry and the Speed Force had an incident a few months ago. Strangely, she says Wally doesn’t have time to hang around the Citizen. They are interrupted by Kamilla (Victoria Park) taking their picture with a new hi-tech camera. A gift from Cisco. Wally asks for a copy of the photo and leaves. Iris demands that Kamilla delete the photo. Her reason is that there shouldn’t be any pictures of the Citizen staff in case someone tries to assassinate one of them again. The photo looked fine to me.
Wally confronts Barry about the speed force, upset that Barry is just blowing him off. Barry tells Wally about the incident when Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) infected his mind. The speed force tried to help him, but Barry attacked it. That’s why the speed force won’t talk to him. Wally takes Barry into the speed force and the whole place is in turmoil. They find the speed force, in the form of Nora Allen (Michelle Harrison).
Nora tells the speedsters that the speed force is dying because of something Barry did. Wally removes them from the speed force and asks Barry what he did. Barry says he didn’t think his issues affected anyone else., but Wally gets upset that Barry has just been ignoring the warning signs. If he had mentioned his issues earlier, they could have gone in and fixed things.
The speed force showed Wally the future. He says it was like a chain of lightning stretching through centuries. Wally saw his kids running with other speedsters and he saw Nora. Now that chain ends with him and Barry. Barry thinks they can save the speed force, but Wally won’t take him back in. He leaves and tells Barry to get another teacher.
Barry uses a tachyon enhancer and Gideon to enter the speed force, where it is still in the form of Nora Allen. He asks Nora how to fix things, but Nora says he can’t. A substance entered the speed force a few months ago that they’ve never encountered. It contaminated the speed force, upsetting the balance of the speed force energy. It’s infernal power is beyond the laws of the speed force’s nature.
Barry realizes what the substance is. Spectre. During Crisis, Barry made the Spectre give him power to enter the speed force. So it is Barry’s fault. He apologizes and says he didn’t know. Nora knows that, saying Barry did the right thing to save the universe. They didn’t know the cost. Barry will lose his speed soon, but Nora knows he will use his steps wisely. The lightning chose Barry and it’s the best decision the speed force ever made. Barry showed the greatest force of all. The speed force dies.
Wally tells Joe about the speed force. He says they have a residual amount of speed left, but once it’s used up, it’s gone forever. Wally blames Barry, saying he does what Barry always does. Barry assumes he’s the only one who can handle it. Joe tries to calm Wally down saying Barry will beat himself up over this enough.
Joe reminds Wally about how much he’s grown up. He’s a great man and it’s not because of the speed force. It’s because Wally worked on himself and he has a responsibility to continue that work. They are interrupted with news on the Novikov case. Maria Volkova was an informant for the CCPD who helped deport Novikov. There is a second informant that they are trying to protect from Turtle 2. Before he leaves, he reminds Wally that everything he’s going through with losing his powers, Barry is going through the same thing.
Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) checks in on Cisco. Of course she notices that there’s something wrong. He blew off Nash and he won’t spend any time with his friends. Cisco admits that even after all of his adventures, he’s no different than when he left. Caitlin suggests that he lean on his friends. But first he needs to fix things with Nash. He asks Caitlin to take a look at his work while he’s gone.
Wally finds Barry crying alone at the lab. Barry accepts responsibility for what happened to the speed force. Wally understands why he accepted the Spectre’s power. He would have done the same thing. Wally tells Barry a story with the message that he’s not alone in his pain. And Wally forgot that. Barry thinks he deserves Wally’s anger because he’s angry too. Wally tells him to use it. They can’t change their past mistakes, but they can take responsibility for their actions, no matter how big the obstacle is. Barry taught him that lesson.
They are interrupted by an alert that Novikov is at CCPD. And she picks Joe as her next victim. Barry, Wally and Caitlin hear Novikov threaten Joe if she doesn’t get the last informant. Caitlin mentions that Cisco is working on a way to stop her, but he’s not at the lab.
Cisco goes to Nash’s office to apologize for blowing him off. He’s ready to help find Nash’s ghosts. Nash shuts the door and Cisco realizes…that’s not Nash. It’s Thawne. Thawne attacks Cisco and prepares to kill him, but he’s in Nash’s body. He has no power. Cisco fights back in one of the best fights of the season! Go Cisco Go! Thawne bests Cisco and tries to kill him again, but Cecile stops him with a taser gun. She felt his hatred and came running in.
Caitlin finishes Cisco reverse Velocity-X serum. Wally is worried about using their speed to save Joe. Barry looks up the fastest route and tells Wally to phase as he runs. The speedsters run, phasing through buildings and get to the CCPD in time to save Joe.
Novikov turns her attention to the speedsters, throwing multiple green bubbles at them. Kid Flash gets caught inside of a bubble. Flash tries to talk Novikov out of hurting Kid Flash, offering to help her. While they talk, Joe injects Novikov with the serum, speeding up her kinetic energy and making her powerless.
Later, Barry tells Iris about the Speed Force dying. He wonders what he’s supposed to do without his speed. Iris says it may be for the best. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to be the Flash for ever. He deserves a real life. He deserves to be happy like everyone else. Barry seems like he’s in disbelief about what she’s saying, but they are interrupted by Cisco. Man! All of these interruptions!
Cisco shows Barry that they have Nash/Thawne in custody in the pipeline. Thawne says he’s going to get out of the pipeline and he will kill them all. Barry says he will stop Thawne, but Thawne knows about the speed force. He knows that Barry will lose his powers soon. That’s what he gets for trusting a punny force. That’s why Thawne built his own speed force. They close the door on Thawne and Cisco questions the speed force being dead.
Wally decides to leave for the next peace corp project. He’s going to walk there to take time to think. Now that his powers are fading he has to find new ways to help people. Before Wally leaves, he asks Joe to keep an eye on Iris because there’s something different about her. At least Wally noticed!
Barry tells Cisco and Caitlin about the death of the speed force. Of course they see an opportunity for a new project, learning about the Spectre energy. Barry has another idea. He wants to create his own speed force.
At the end, Kamilla is putting away her new camera and realizes she didn’t delete the photo from earlier. When she looks at it again, Iris isn’t Iris. She’s some kind of mirror image. Fake Iris shows up and shoots Kamilla with the mirror gun. Kamilla disappears into thin air.
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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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