S08.E18: The Man in the Yellow Tie

[Trini]

With a new speedster in town, The Flash gets much more than he bargained for, meanwhile Cecile's powers experience a growth spurt allowing her to aid Team Flash on an entirely different level.

Marcus Stokes directed the episode written by Sam Chalsen.

Airdate: 6/15/2022

[scarynikki12]

On the one hand it really makes no sense for Diggle to abandon Lyla, JJ, and Sara for two years while trying to reopen the box. On the other, his refusal to become a Lantern led WellsThawne to give a glorious tantrum. 

I did enjoy seeing OriginalThawne and the flashback to ZombieFlash catching up to him on LOT. He was always great on that show and damn Whatever Decision Maker cancelled it. Even though I liked seeing him again that flashback showing his relationship with Meena and foundation for her going evil was over the top schmaltzy. I think it was the music that pushed it there.

Of course a speech saves the day. Sigh. I liked the first plan of having Meena lose her speed due to chasing Barry so of course they went with a speech. 

Glad Ray learned that the Legends weren't ignoring him. Good to see you Haircut. More flashbacks to Thawne's last visit to LOT and I damn Whatever Decision Maker all over again.

I don't care about whatever new resurrection plan ChillDude and Caitlin have. Leave the show. 

[cambridgeguy]

Again with the power of love, huh?  Damn the person who saw Barry as the avatar of love meant having love being the solution to so many plot lines.  It'll probably end up being the solution to Iris's problem too - nice to know that even though he seems utterly unconcerned with her current status Barry still acknowledges that she's important to him.

So, now that Cecile has leveled up (sigh) she's just going to drive around Central City and use her powers on various baddies?  With no particular inclination to wear a mask?  Giving her powers and continuously ramping them up is, to me, also a pretty dubious decision, but they do seem to have trouble coming up with stuff for the non-powered/not super smart characters to do.

Speaking of her nocturnal activities, was that supposed to be Killer Frost watching in the alley?  Yes, I know she's not technically supposed to be back yet but the hair looked like hers. 

[Frozendiva]

So Meena didn't see that Barry Allen looked like and sounded like The Flash? The red suit and mask is just like Superman and Clark Kent and his glasses?

Nice to see Diggle again. I can't believe he'd be so obsessed with that magic rock to go all the way to China or wherever to see Thawne/Wells.

I was hoping that the yellow tie would have something more to do with the negative/reverse flash and he was really playing everyone.

Cecile is becoming some empathic vigilante? That'll work well.

We don't need Frost again.

[Trini]

Yeeaaahhh... I still don't trust (Original Face) Eobard.

The plotting this season has been so crazy weird. Why are they cramming all this stuff into the last 3 episodes? There were like 5 subplots(/cameos), one from a completely different show!  Most of them not involving Barry; none of them related to getting his wife back. They're just focusing on the wrong things. It saddens me that Barry/Flash has become such a passive/reactive character for most of this season. He didn't even 'save the day' here.

yay - Cecile getting new powers for no reason because that's the only thing the writers find interesting about her. Please let Singh adopt Jenna.

The stuff with Meena and (Original Face) Eobard was interesting; they should have cut three of the other subplots and focused on that. Don't think I'm buying Eobard as a 'good guy', though. We've been down this road before.

[bettername2come]

I liked the main stuff with Meena and Amnesia Thawne. I think it was fair to give him a fresh start with amnesia after his service to the timeline and death on Legends. Like, sure, let's give you a blank slate and see if you can not be evil, without all the timey-wimey weirdness of his enemyship with Flash. 

So, Dig's just not gonna answer the call? So he's wasted 2 years traveling the Arrowverse for nothing. Although, the whole "asking me to be something I'm not" point was literally true as it was treating him like John Stewart. 

Okay, I know Eobard is evil, but can someone at ARGUS please get him a clean prison uniform? That thing looked gross. 

Oh, my beautiful Ray of sunshine! I'm glad he went out for retirement drinks with Nate. Their friendship is awesome. 

So was that a very old Cecile watching her at the end, judging the path she's going down? I'm going with that. 

[shantown]

I just.... ugh. The Arrowverse has always had a problem with not letting a character move on when their story is done. I get that they usually like the actor and it's hard to say goodbye, but sometimes the story is telling you to say goodbye! They've had no idea what to do with Caitlin for a long time, and there was a natural end point with Killer Frost dying. Instead they're dragging her along trying to make her interesting when she should have left with her mom and the show been done with the character. They had a perfect ending for Tom Cavanagh to fade out of existence and they wasted it, and now they're dragging him back out to be the villain again. 

The one interesting new thing they set up for a character was Diggle with the Green Lantern ring. There were countless teases over the past two years, multiple crossover episodes on other shows, and then... nothing. Saying "No thanks, I'm gonna go home to my family" makes sense for the character, but then did we really need to spend time on that on The Flash? They drop storylines left and right never to be heard about again, but this one was the one they made sure to devote time to wrap up, with the conclusion pretty much being "Nevermind"??? They couldn't have used that 7 minutes for some small update about Iris? 

Why do I continue torturing myself by watching this show?!

[tennisgurl]

I cant believe that we wasted two whole years, in-universe and in the real world, on teasing John as the Green Lantern only for them to decide that the box isn't actually the Green Lantern ring, but some random multiverse generator that John throws away when he finally realizes that ditching his family for two years to investigate a glowing box was probably not a great idea. I guess they decided that they didn't want to do a Green Lantern story, but what a waste of time and a cool concept. 

I actually liked the plot with Meena and Amnesia Thawne, I am guessing that he was given a fresh start after giving his life to protect the time line, and that it was possibly also a test to see if a version of him with a clean slate might finally not become evil, so I guess he passed. I'm still not totally sure I trust him, but I thought it was at least a different way to use Thawne. Of course it all ends with a big power of love speech that saves the day, because that's how every freaking problem in this show gets solved. 

The pacing of the this season has been so weird, why are they cramming all of this into the last few episodes of the season? Cecile has become a leather clad vigilante? A new speedster and Thawne has amnesia? And now Caitlin and Mark are trying to subject us to Frost again? After we wasted a whole episode watching everyone pull out their hair in grief over her passing? And Iris is still gone due to time sickness? Why did we have so much padding if they wanted to add in so many new elements? 

Oh sweet Ray, I have missed you so much! I am so happy that he and Nate have since hung out, their friendship is one of the best things in the Arrowverse, and I am relived that he is back in touch with the Legends. RIP Legends.

[thuganomics85]

Great seeing Diggle again, but his entire plot just felt like a case of them suddenly deciding that he can't be a Green Lantern anymore (still think that was clearly what was being setup in the Arrow finale), so they had to find a flimsy way to walk that all back.  Instead, the mysterious box was some kind of multiverse generator he was deemed "worthy" to have and lead, but he throws it all away for, cue Vin Diesel, family!  Yep, that was all a waste.  At least David Ramsey was his normal awesome self and mainly was able to sell it.

So, Meena's partner was none other than Eobard Thawne!  Nope, not that one: the one who is rocking Matt Letscher's look and has amnesia and is now a good guy (and possibly the one from Legends of Tomorrow who was protecting the timeline?  Who got killed but I guess they felt he was worthy of a second chance?)  A lot of it was all over the place and of course resolution involves a pep talk and the power of love, but I won't complain too much since I'm glad to see Letscher again, since, again, I think he's proven himself to be the superior Thawne now.  Certainly helps that he isn't phoning it in like Tom Cavanagh has the past few seasons (although, I really don't blame him at this point.)

Cecile's powers level up (sorry!) to where she can now transfer emotions amongst people, which gives her the ability to do things like take fear emotions from potential victims and put them into the perpetrators instead.  Useful!  But that mysterious woman watching her from afar will clearly come into play.

Ray!  Great to see him again and I'm glad he's still in contact with Nate.  But I would still give anything for someone in Warner Brothers/DC to at least give Legends of Tomorrow a final film.  Sniff, I miss it so much!

Normal Evil Eobard might be teaming up with Newly Evil Deon now because why not, I guess.

Oh, goodie!  Chilllame has found another way to resurrect Killer Frost, so that's a thing again.  Yawn!  

[Primal Slayer]

The Diggle of it all was funny, lame, ridiculous, overall bad. There was zero reason to bring him back just to give us "I choose family over this mysterious box that I've been dealing with 2.5 years" I cringed throughout all of it. 

Nice seeing Ray but also didnt get why we needed to see him and just regress him to a joke. 

Cecil leveling up also NOT needed. Why do we need her to join the battle after all these years? But I guess its a step up from "I FEEL THEIR FEAR!" that we get everytime she is around? 

[scarynikki12]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

And now Caitlin and Mark are trying to subject us to Frost again? After we wasted a whole episode watching everyone pull out their hair in grief over her passing?

Frost dying is The Flash version of Laurel's death but they decided to level up (drink!) and make sure to have both doppelgängers on at the same time. We got lucky with the way Arrow did it. Imagine what horrors we'd have been subjected to if Black Siren had been brought on before Laurel was killed.

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

(and possibly the one from Legends of Tomorrow who was protecting the timeline?  Who got killed but I guess they felt he was worthy of a second chance?) 

I like to think that his exposure to the Legends made him a better person. He'll probably still go bad but that I'll blame on being around speedsters again.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

Great seeing Diggle again, but his entire plot just felt like a case of them suddenly deciding that he can't be a Green Lantern anymore (still think that was clearly what was being setup in the Arrow finale), so they had to find a flimsy way to walk that all back. ...

I just don't think this was "sudden", though. I'm truly sorry these showrunners got people invested in this potential story that DC clearly never gave them approval for. Yeah, there was no reason to keep teasing Green Lantern every time Diggle appeared. And that subplot was just a waste of time for me and other fans who watch this show for The Flash.

[rmontro]

I went from being very excited to see Diggle again, to being very disappointed that they weren't going to do any sort of Green Lantern story with him.  What a waste of changing his name to John Stewart.  

[Featherhat]

The Flash's handling of Arrow's characters post ending has been incredibly weird. Did we really need to have William still kidnapped after 2 years with no resolution? Did we really need to see Mia almost at pre Crisis levels of angst over her parents? Especially when we'll never see any of it resolved. We definitely didn't need a Diggle tour of the Arrowverse that ends with him realising that it's all been a mistake and going home. 

I wondered if this was all set up for a theoretical Justice U where Diggle has to rethink his life, but it's very unlikely that show is even happening at this point. 

Ray makes a little more sense but not much.

[Cthulhudrew]

They should have named this episode "Game of Thawnes."

And is Cecile turning into a new Rainbow Raider?

Edited June 17, 2022 by Cthulhudrew

[Trini]

6 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

And is Cecile turning into a new Rainbow Raider?

Ha! I knew this subplot was giving me villain origin story vibes!

[Lantern7]

Two more episodes to go? *sigh* I'll say this much . . . as much as the past few years have dragged on, I don't think the series is going to be anywhere near the shitshow as the movie. Forget about Grant replacing Ezra. They got Michael Keaton . . . why not have an "old guys roadtrip" movie was his Batman and John Wesley Shipp's Flash?

Question I had during the opening scene . . . is it possible to have a scene in a bank without a robbery taking place? And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. CecileVision does make me wonder if we're getting set up for a loose adaptation on Blackest Night. Seeing colors surround people when their emotions flare is Black Lantern stuff.  Right now, Cecile is Trusting Leveling Up!

Watching Barry hassle Eobard was painful. Yeah, I kept expecting the other shoe to drop, but it didn't. And thanks to Ray's exposition dump at the end, we now know that Eobard can really be a good guy. That was basically the icing on the cake that was him helping to save Mina. BTW, it's depressing the Legends is over and we still have mediocre Flash. Worse, whatever was happening with Ray was probably way more fun than this season has been.

Blaine has a way to bring back Frost? Yaaaaaay!!! Dunno how he got so damn smart to understand Caitlin's tech, but whatever. And Deon is back to help EoWells? Double Yaaaaaayyy!!! Ugh, make the season end already. I'd take Jonathan Kent's bullshit over half the arcs on this show.

Oh, yeah. Diggle. Two years after COIE, having David Ramsey crisscross the Arrowverse . . . and Diggle rejects the ring? EoWelles' frustration is easy to understand. I think that the only bigger disappointing would be . . . oh, I dunno . . . . following a Clark Kent on his Hero's Journey for ten rapidly deteriorating seasons, watching him finally done the cape . . . and then find out he had rejected his powers. Yeah, I'm still a bit upset about that.

PS: Given that the MCU was labeled "Earth-616" in the latest Doctor Strange movie, the same designation given to the Marvel Universe itself . . . fuck it, we can have a JWS Flash that didn't sacrifice his life during Crisis.

[Trini]

I'm just disappointed because this season could have been so much better with better plotting and different priorities. Reverse Flash/Eobard is Barry's archnemesis; they should have been building up his return after Armageddon instead of having so many "interludes" that didn't contribute to that plot. There was a lot of telling and non-explanations when they could have been showing us things unfolding with Meena and Eobard (who has been in Central City for a year??) instead of waiting until the last few episodes. And they never should have done the time sickness story which has gone nowhere, just to have Iris absent for... reasons??

And it just baffles me that this could have been the final season, and the writers room was more concerned with cameos and side plots for side characters than a strong closing arc for the leads of the show.