S08.E01: Armageddon, Part 1

[Trini]

PART ONE OF THE ARMAGEDDON FIVE EPISODE EVENT - When a powerful alien threat arrives on Earth under mysterious circumstances, Barry, Iris and the rest of Team Flash are pushed to their limits in a desperate battle to save the world. But with time running out and the fate of humanity at stake, Flash and his companions will also need to enlist the help of some old friends if the forces of good are to prevail. Brandon Routh guest stars.

Eric Dean Seaton directed the episode written by Eric Wallace.

Airdate: 11/16/2021

 

 

[scarynikki12]

2031 Central City. It's Markus from the Underworld series.

Frost won't be appearing apparently. No loss. Also, Frost? The heart wants what the heart wants? That's a bullshit sentiment that you should never say again. Caitlin is...really blonde now. It's distracting.

Iris' hair is so pretty. Love the auburn. It's been six months and CCC Media has more employees, a cool office space, and a new blog. Well done, ma'am.

The old guy who was a war correspondent in Beirut is hot. I hope we see more of him.

RAY! I missed you, Haircut but your timing isn't great. He's usually not this clueless, though. Optimistic for days but not clueless.

The Royal Flush Gang have arrived. 

No worries, Haircut, the Legends are stuck in the past but they'll figure it out eventually. 

I'm surprised Barry hasn't told her he's The Flash. He usually blurts it out to every random who crosses his path.

Did Iris forget to tell everyone else that Allegra is now in charge? Next time just yell at them to shut up and assert your authority.

I feel bad for everyone who showed up to pitch ideas to Ray but Chester should have cleared that with him first. And holy fuck, Chester, he just didn't want a surprise pitch meeting and you're acting like Ray murdered a bunch of puppies while laughing like the Joker. 

Is every character going to say "leveled up" in this episode? 

Markus is from World of Warcraft?

Oh, Haircut, you'll always be a Legend.

Hee, changing Barry's size makes him nauseated like when he speeds Diggle around places. 

Ok, Markus is trying to prevent Armageddon rather than bring it. And Barry's the cause? 

Caitlin's calling Alex for help. I hope Alex behaves better than she did in the Supergirl finale, cause, yeesh. 

Ray also could have pointed out that he traveled to the future with the Legends multiple times and there was never a Barry caused apocalypse.

Markus, Barry's often both stupid and brave. How else do you explain Thawne's continued existence?

Oh, good, I was afraid the episode would end without Barry telling someone his real identity. 

[bettername2come]

4 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

Iris' hair is so pretty. Love the auburn.

It's a great color for her. And even as someone who doesn't generally read comics, I'm like, "Oh, yay, Iris gets her red hair!" Give her a year and she'll be giving Cat Grant a run for her money. 

I liked it. Chester hugging our wonderful wholesome Ray of sunshine made me very happy. Brandon Routh just presents such warmth and kindness there. And I'm glad Chester's dad's getting a foundation in his name. A lot of good can come from those two working together. 

I got a little thrown off every time Ray said "Nora," but I absolutely loved how he threw out that she would be capable of handling any supernatural threats that arrived. Yes, your wife is a badass! Be proud of her!

[cambridgeguy]

So are they trying to imply that Joe is dead even though he's in the opening credits and there's no way they would kill him offscreen during a time jump between seasons?  There was that weird moment where Chester said he was dead to Ray and Cecile looked stricken.  I honestly don't remember if she had lingering issues about dead folks from last season.

The CGI on Despero wasn't exactly seamless, so I'd expect to see a lot more of Tony Curran version and less big alien. Of course, if you take a shot every time someone says level up then you'll be too drunk to care.

It's nice to see that Iris has (finally) expanded the Citizen and hired a bunch of people, although she's still continuing the fine Arrowverse tradition of promoting inexperienced people into high level positions.  She must have gotten tips from Cat Grant.

It's also good to see Barry wipe the floor with the Royal Flush Gang - it doesn't matter if you can read someone's mind when they can move faster than you can react.

Edited November 17, 2021 by cambridgeguy

[Primal Slayer]

Overall it was better than what majority of S7 gave us though they still pep talk us to death. 

Despero....is a good guy from the future who wants to kill Flash before he can go evil. Idk but for some reason I feel like we've been here before? Desperos real look isnt far off from the actors so I really dont know why they didnt just do prosthetics and do camera angles mixed with CGI to make him larger than Barry instead of a full CGI route...but regardless I am happy that his alien form was on display for a good chunk of time even if it makes no sense that he'd change to look more human when he's "playing nice"  

Royal Flush gang were a step up from what Arrow gave us back in the day even if the acting was very corny. Do wish they were a bit more formidable to Flash since  if he's this fast then I dont really know how they can give him any villains otuside of speed and aliens that can do anything. 

I dont know why the Arrowverse cant properly do careers. Either they are largely MIA (like Barrys/Starlabs) or they press FF and to the extreme. S&L already made me laugh with having the CCC be like the #2 news organization and now The Flash has followed it up with having Iris have 2 people on her team working out of a small office to having a full blown reporting business with multiple annoying up and comers. 

Seeing Ray again is nice as him getting kicked off of Legends still makes zero sense but he's been better utilized here then he was there for the past several years as a complete goofball. 

[Lantern7]

Looks like we're back . . . and maybe this season will be more firm without a pandemic butting into the work schedule.

Bringing in a classic Justice League villain (he was in the group's first issue way back in the day) is a good start. The whole "vaguely Scotsman" thing is a bit of a throw-off, but then you got your classic monstrous-looking alien with the sweet fin and the third eye.

Ray's back! And Ray's unintentionally baby-blocking! Nice that he and Nate occasionally meet up for drinks (when Nate's not stranded in the past, of course). The stuff with Chester was a bit cringe, what with Chester playing awestruck fanboy a little too well.  Nice that things worked out . . . you know, before the shit starts hitting the fan.

Despero: Flash! You're going to destroy the world!

Barry: That really doesn't- . . . wait! Are you color-blind?

Despero: (annoyed and perplexed) Eh?

Barry: See, there's this other guy with powers like mine, but he has a yellow outfit. Calls himself "Reverse Flash." I think Cisco would've come up with that after suffering a massive conc-

Despero: No, I am sure it is you!

Barry: That sounds like Tharwne to me. He is really, really, REALLY hard to kill for good. I still fear he'll come back and make my life hell again.

Ray: Is it weird that any time I answer a door, I expect Nora's dad to smirk and break my neck? I mean, he gave his blessing for me to marry Nora, but-

Despero: ENOUGH!!

Barry: OH! Was it a weird Decepticon-looking asshole running around? Because that WAS me. Does he call himself "Savitar"? That future's not happening. Right, Ray?

Ray: I dunno, man. I've been trying to contact the Waverider, but I keep getting the "Your call cannot be completed as dialed" message. I hope they're okay.

Despero: For God-

Barry: Cicadas! Does the guy destroying the future sound like cicadas? (to Ray) That was one of our Big Bads. Like the universe decided to stop throwing villainous speedsters at us.

Ray: I know from weird. Us Legends had to face an eldritch terror, and it took over Nora. That's when we combined totems and conjured the giant Beebo. Also, I went back to 2000 to get John Noble to-

Despero: (steam rising from his mild mohawk)

Well, with Supergirl gone and Lois Lane now writing for a newspaper in Smallville, it's up to Iris to pick up the media slack for the Arrowverse. And she assigns Allegra to nervously handle the reporters. Given that Kara Danvers basically started at CatCo with zero experience and wound up winning a Pulitzer (when I type it out, it sounds so dumb), there's nowhere to go but up. Kudos to Allegra for detailing what the CCC is all about.

Wait, wasn't the Royal Flush Gang a bunch of a-holes in painted hockey gear that gave Oliver Queen grief in his first year as a vigilante? Great to see a more comics-accurate RFG . . . though I kept looking for an Ace.

ETA: I forgot to ask . . . will there be any Flash after the "Armageddon" event?

Edited November 17, 2021 by Lantern7

[Primal Slayer]

13 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

 

ETA: I forgot to ask . . . will there be any Flash after the "Armageddon" event?

It goes on hiatus and returns in.....February? on Wednesday nights.

[Trini]

More comments later; but WOW - a whole lot of telling rather than showing in this premiere.

[Diapason Untuned]

6 hours ago, Trini said:

More comments later; but WOW - a whole lot of telling rather than showing in this premiere.

They're probably trying to get folks who watch the other shows up to scratch.

[dmeets]

Has anyone leveled up since last year? I wish they'd have mentioned if anyone leveled up, because it's important to know who's leveled up.

[Proteus]

What was with that comment Punk made to Cecile? I'm worried about Joe.

[BeautifulFlower]

While I would've liked to see journalism stories in the past few seasons, it's not unrealistic that the Citizen is a media empire now. When she was just blogging about The Flash, it was very popular. That is how she got the job at CCPN. Her stories has insight because she knows The Flash. The show told us she made money once it turned into a newspaper. Again, it is very popular. More readers = more money (if she got ads). Of course, it grew to get more employees. Let's hope none of the new employees are like Allegra in 6x03 expecting Iris to share every little one of her secrets.

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by BeautifulFlower
Fixed typos

[Primal Slayer]

Just now, BeautifulFlower said:

While I would've liked to see journalism stories in the past few seasons, it's not unrealistic that the Citizen is a media empire now. When she was just blogging about The Flash, it was very popular. That is how she got the job at CCPN. Her stories has insight because she knows The Flash. The show told us she made money once it turned into a newspaper. Again, it is very popular. More readers = more money (if she got ads). Of course, it grew to get more employees. Let's none of the new employees are liked Allegra in 6x03 expecting Iris to shar every little one of her secrets.

 

The Flash can't keep CCC solely on top and what were the other news outlets doing in Central City? The Daily Planet/Lois aren't as successful just because of Superman.

[BeautifulFlower]

23 minutes ago, Primal Slayer said:

The Flash can't keep CCC solely on top and what were the other news outlets doing in Central City? The Daily Planet/Lois aren't as successful just because of Superman.

I don't think that is a fair comparison. Both comics, movies, and tv shows have established that the Daily Planet was big before Superman. It got bigger because of the Superman stories.

The citizen is different. Central City was an ordinary city before metas came about. Iris was the one who introduced metas to the city by her blog. It got popular which landed her the job at CCPN. Remember her stories have more insight because she knows the Flash. It is obvious they hired her to increase their own popularity. The stories about the metas are most likely what causes most people to read the newspaper in Central City. While the other news outlets write about the same thing, Iris stories have more stuff in it. I never said The Flash stories would solely keep it on top. I'm saying that her Flash stories is what helped it become a success. Iris built up her reputation over the years. She got her readers, so why wouldn't they be interested in reading more from her paper?

[tennisgurl]

Did enough people level up? They mentioned it so few times, its been left very unclear. I am really hoping that the show itself has leveled up after the absolute clusterfuck that was last season, this episode was a bit of a mixed bag. It had a lot that I liked and a lot that was really annoying, which is certainly better then last season when it was mostly all annoying. 

Ray, I missed you so much! Legends just isn't the same without our sweet ray of sunshine, it was great getting to see him again. I like that they focused more on him being a scientist and on some of his long established self esteem issues, both of which were pretty much shoved into the background as the show got more wacky. I am glad that at least he gets to see Nate still and it sounds like he and Nora are still going strong, but its sad that he still seems to miss the Legends and seems rather out of sorts, although he seemed to get his groove back again by the end. I think the writers mostly handled him pretty well, sometimes the Flash can be a bit weird about writing characters from other shows, except for the beginning. Ray is eternally sweet and cheerful, but he can usually read a room. I also get why Iris was frustrated (those babies wont make themselves!) with him showing up, but I don't know why the writers always want to write Iris as perpetually annoyed by guest stars, even when its out of character. At least its not a fundamental force of the universe that looks like your dead mother in law in the guest room this time Iris...

*Chester miserly flops into the room sighing." 

Cecile: "I am sensing your sad." 

Thanks for that, Counselor Troi, no one could have been able to tell that without you! I can totally see Chester being a big fan of Ray (as everyone should be) but I thought it was insufferable for most of the episode. He sprung all of those tech kids on Ray without even asking him if he was interested in starting a new start up, which is a really big ask especially for someone he doesn't even really know, and then acted all pissy like Ray had just strangled his cat just because he didn't want to change his whole life plan on the whims of some guy he just met. He even ditched his volunteer job to sulk around even after Ray was nothing but polite to him about not being interested in a tech start up, which is a perfectly legit thing for him to want. Lets not forget, Ray was a bit of a dick when he was running his tech company so I can imagine he's worried about losing himself in tech and his business after he has grown so much. Then of course Chester is right all along and Ray just goes along with it, and while I am glad that he has found purpose again, I wish it didn't feel like they were trying to act like Chester wasn't acting like an immature jackass. Naming the foundation after Chesters dad was a sweet gesture, Ray's just the best guy.

Also, what was that about Cecile looking stricken about saying "death"? Did Joe die offscreen or something? We also don't have to put up with Frost for awhile because she's mouning her lame "romance" with Chillblaine, and I think the most I have liked Caitlin in ages was when she made fun of his stupid name. 

Fun seeing the Royal Flush gang again and that they have continued to really commit to their playing card bit. Although with that makeup, it makes it look like Barry is fighting the Insane Clown Posse. Quick, get some magnets, they'll be completely confused!

Of course when everything seems to be going super well, Barry has to fight an alien from the future where he is supposedly evil. Even with timey-wimey stuff, I would think that Barry's kids from the future or their time traveler buddy who just stopped by could have told Barry that he was going to be a supervillain in ten years. Seems sketchy, Despero. Plus, didn't we already do this whole "future Barry becomes evil" story with Savitar? And if Barry was going to become a villain, I would think he would have done it already considering the ridiculous amount of traumas he has dealt with.

Glad to see the Citizen and Iris thriving and that the Arrowverse tradition of people promoting underqualified people to important positions because they're main characters is alive and well. At least its not as ridiculous as Ryan being made CEO of Wayne Enterprises over in Gotham. 

[AD35]

16 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Despero: Flash! You're going to destroy the world!

Barry: That really doesn't- . . . wait!

I recall this storyline playing out in the first season of Superman & Lois with a would-be-enemy coming from a future/alternate timeline to stop the present-day hero from causing a future world-ending event.  Let's see if this show can pull it off as well but I have my doubts.

It was great seeing Ray again as well as getting an update of his life. And Chester was way out of line springing that surprise on him without warning, even if Chester was a bit star struck.

[Quark]

Nice introduction to the season and the crossover. I already prefer it to Crisis, as the scenes are allowed to "breathe" more.

[Terrafamilia]

A week to prove he won't go bad in ten years. How exactly is that supposed to work, anyway? He'd have to travel to the future to find out what really happened so that's not what he's going to do.

[Trini]

4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Glad to see the Citizen and Iris thriving and that the Arrowverse tradition of people promoting underqualified people to important positions because they're main characters is alive and well. At least its not as ridiculous as Ryan being made CEO of Wayne Enterprises over in Gotham. 

It's the same level of ridiculous to me. They still could have Leveled Up™ Allegra to something that made sense. And the thing is, I doubt this job change is actually going to affect her stories much, so it's going to be extra dumb.

[thuganomics85]

Not the best start so far, but compared to the majority of last season, the show at least seems to have thankfully.... LEVELED UP! (hold for applause.  And boos.  Mainly boos.)

Fun seeing the Royal Flash Gang here and actually have powers this time, compared the original gang way back in season one of Arrow.  The actors made the most of their screen time with all of the puns and campy acting.  Also liked how Barry defeated them.  One of the few times I felt like the show took full advantage with showing how Barry's speedster powers can be massively OP.

Ray Palmer is back!  Always great to see him, although I am still bummed that he isn't on the Waverider anymore.  But he will always be a Legend, dammit!  Brandon Routh was a delight as always and it was great watching Ray team-up with Barry.  Too bad they also saddled him with Chester for most of his scenes, who was getting on the last of my nerves.  But, of course, they had to make him be in the right and Ray "see the error of his ways."  Whatever.

Just when I think Supergirl ending means less eye-rolling about journalism, The Flash is here to annoy me with CCC drama.  Of course, Allegra would be given a leadership role despite a lack of experience, and overcome the odds against the established group of one-note antagonists.  I'm clearly suppose to be all "Hell yeah, Allegra!  Show them how it's done!", but I ain't biting.  I wonder if the rest of the reporters will continue to factor in: especially the one played by Lindy Booth, because I can't see them using her for such a minor role.

What was going on with that exchange between Cecile and Chester?  They weren't talking about Joe, where they?  I don't see them killing him off screen like that: plus Jesse L. Martin is still a regular.

Hey, Kramer is sticking around, I guess.

I'm sure there is going to be a whole lot more to Despero's story and claims that The Flash will become a villain in 2031, but maybe they'll surprise me there.  Either way, at least they wisely got somone like Tony Curran to play him, because the guy always delivers.

So, it looks like the Armageddon arc isn't going to be a full-fledge team-up (for now?), and will just bring another Arrowverse character into each episode going forward.  We'll see how this plays out! 

[appositival]

I forgot I watched this (this concludes the review part of my post).

Perhaps The Flash Vanished in the future (which is now a discarded past, I think), so that he wouldn't become evil in the future (which will probably now be avoided).

Perhaps I forgot in self defense.

[Trini]

Overall a promising start for this crossover arc.

The Bad / Meh: The exposition dumps in the beginning were super-cringe. And the long-ish Barry/Caitlin scene was kinda weird since we almost never see them hang out outside of STAR Labs. So Caitlin and Frost's arcs this season will be ... dating? (LOL at them erasing Julian from Caitlin's dating history!) It's really clear that Caitlin and Cecile were only here to justify the actresses paychecks since they didn't have anything to do. It was especially odd that Cecile would just be in scenes with no explanation (Why is she hanging out at STAR Labs??). I know she has powers but it's still dumb to me how much the writers push her as a part of Team Flash when she supposed to have a whole career and family. I'd rather see Joe than Kramer; where was he? Allegra getting that promotion was dumb.

The Good: So nice to get some domestic and comedic WestAllen scenes! Also nice to Ray Palmer again. The subplot with Chester was okay but Chester was overreacting (well, it wouldn't be CW if he didn't...). I thought the Royal Flush Gang was just the right amount of cheesy fun for a one-episode villain. Okay, I was impressed by the visuals for Despero (within the CW budget). The callbacks in the background to the various tech companies that have been on the show before at the tech conference was cool. It was good to see the expansion of CC Citizen -- would have been better if this had been spread out throughout the previous seasons.

At this point, I'm pretty sure Barry isn't actually the villain Despero thinks he is; but I'm sure the next episodes will add shades of gray.

[quarks]

Popping back into this show after a long absence just for the crossover, so, hi, marketing works!

Good stuff:

1. Yay, Iris has finally grown into the full reporter/management role. Also she looked great.

2. Yay, this show was sorta going back to what I always hoped it could be - Team Flash trying to solve mysteries.

3. Yay, Ray is back.

4. Yay, Barry still prioritizes his powers for the greater good - getting excellent pizzas. I approve.

Questionable stuff:

1. The main reason I know the Arrowverse is an alternative universe and not our world is that they continue to put barely experienced people in charge of major corporate things or give them a huge promotion to a new corporate position, usually because of superhero stuff in every. single. show. I realize that quite a lot of this is to prevent character overload. And I sorta tolerated it on Arrow because the script called this out directly and it frequently didn't work; and sorta on Legends because, hey, Ava is a clone presumably specifically genetically designed/programmed for this. 

But this was the least believable plot/character bit in an episode filled with questionable plot/character bits. It's not that I don't buy that the reporters would not be interested in following a younger, less experienced person. But since they know their boss put Allegra into this position, I don't buy that they would have defied her so openly right off the bat.

And, also, although I thought Iris was dead on with pointing out that journalism needs the point of view of ordinary locals, not just elites, and I see Iris' point about trying to provide what their readers want - I was actually on the side of the professional reporters here. Though I did question why they hadn't tried to read their own publication first before writing articles not tailored for it, or at least suggesting a potential new direction for the zine.

2. Killer Frost is gone for now because....she's getting over a breakup? And eight years on, Caitlin is ready to date? What was she doing back in earlier seasons? Was all of that going out with people - mostly bad guys, granted - not dating?

3. The multiple problems with the pitch sessions aside, why were they getting held in a coffee shop and not at the convention center? I know the answer is, as so often on this show, the sets, but auugh.

Bad stuff:

1. Evil guy, I thought you were here to kill Flash, not monologue at Flash.

2. How many times can people level up in one episode?

3. A season away from this show dulled my memory of just how terrible the set design often is, but....geeesh.