S09.E10: A New World, Part 1: Reunions

[Trini]

As Iris receives word of a career milestone, Barry is suddenly nowhere to be found. In trying to get back home, Barry runs across many familiar faces. Khione  continues to figure out her powers and Chester works on a suit for Allegra.

Eric Wallace directed the episode written by Eric Wallace & Thomas Pound.

Airdate: 5/3/2023

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Trini
Added subhead to title aired with the episode

[scarynikki12]

🎶A whole new world! A dazzling place I never knew! 🎶

Sorry, wrong show.

I love those blue roses.

Aw Eddie. Either this is a flashback or someone's wearing his face.

Cisco would NEVER have allowed that monstrosity to be created in the first place much less show it to Allegra to try on.

Given how powerful Cecile is I'm surprised she can't teleport.

So Blue Streaks can become liquid nitrogen and travel from place to place without opening doors? 

Barry went back in time surrounded by the same liquid nitrogen Blue Streaks was using so I think she's somehow the Big Bad of this set. That or Chilldude is back and doing...something.

Ok I did laugh at Barry running headfirst into the back of the dry cleaning van.

Singh has Evil Twin facial hair. I hope he twirls the beard at some point.

Barry not giving Joe a name seems suspicious so just tell him your name is Patrick.

I know I'm a broken record but yet another situation where we could use the Legends. Barry shows his powers on tv, Gideon gets tipped off about him messing with history, they show up to see what drugs he's on and end up helping him hopefully lock up Blue Streaks for fucking with the timeline. Everyone wins!

Joe finds a blue crystal and is now possessed. I don't care how this gets resolved I'm blaming Blue Streaks.

Original Face Thawne! I know it seems backwards Barry but OF Thawne has protected the timeline before so he's your best bet to undo whatever Blue Streaks did. Do one of your pep talks and maybe you'll convince him.

Since the dawn of time? Dammit Blue Streaks did you bring back the Anti-Monitor?

Given all the yelling OF Thawne's been doing just now I'm surprised the people in the neighborhood aren't coming outside to see who the crazy man is.

Eddie's in a lab coat? and seeing red skies. Intriguing. And seems to now be another Flash? He got struck by lighting in a similar way Barry did at least. I am so confused.

So Eddie's not Eddie? Okay...

 

[bettername2come]

It's gotta be said that Michelle Harrison, John Wesley Shipp and Jesse L. Martin have all aged great and look very believable as their past ages. Glad for the Professor Stein vocal cameo. Nora's "He looks just like my father" hit hard. Grant's acting when seeing his parents again was wonderful. Who will take his crown as best male crier on the CW when the series ends?

Barry actually went into a bar with Eobard. 

Classic little Barry! Your memory lives on. I forgot that this would be the pre-Harrison Wells version of the character. I love that he yelled after hearing that Barry will always be grateful. I'm sure it was about is plan being foiled but it certainly sounded like he was mad Barry wasn't mad. 

"Who the hell is Eddie Thawne?" Okay, you got me hooked. Wait, is this in a distant future where the blue rose has been created? Was that a young Eobard?

Edited May 4, 2023 by bettername2come

[baldryanr]

Chester must be the only person who's a fan of the Sixth Doctor's outfit if he thought that monstrosity was something Allegra would like.  Plus it has apparently been months since last week's episode and that was the best he could come up with? 

Looks like anyone who thought they'd never show Iris visibly pregnant was wrong, which means Nora being born in the finale is virtually guaranteed now.

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm only seven minutes in and I am not sure I can keep watching. The camera work is too cutesy by half. Weird framing that really emphasizes the height difference between Joe and Cecile (half the time I wasn't even sure the two actors were in the same studio when they filmed it). The strange narrative screenwork of Kione writing to her dead "sisters" and the fourth wall breaking. The camera following Eddie around "cleverly" hiding his identity for a surprise shot.

I like experimental film and camera shots (FX's Legion is still one of my favorite shows). It just feels so off-putting in this show, and so awkwardly done.

Plus we had some more cringey Chuck/Allegra scenes. 🤮

[Trini]

Holy time jump, Batman! The pacing of this season has been awful. 

I have a few notes, but this was actually a good episode with a good concept -- and that just makes me think WHY were we wasting time before with those other pointless plots. Why did they would they wait until the end of the last season to center the story on Barry and have him be proactive in an A-plot? Why didn't they build toward this story earlier this season?

Well, I appreciate that there was a cute WestAllen scene... before they separated them yet again.

I guess it wouldn't be The Flash if we didn't see Nora Allen die one more time!  But it made sense here since they were bringing things full circle; I did like that. Grant does some of his best work across from Martin, Shipp, and Harrison, so that was nice. Again, why didn't we have more of that the rest of this season??

Original Face Eobard Thawne! I've missed you!

I don't know what to think of the parts with Not-Eddie-Thawne yet; but it's intriguing! (Bracing myself for disappointment, though.)

If the show really was trying to cut the budget this season, they could have just had more of the cast (the supporting characters) in less episodes. Did we really need that Chester/Allegra scene in this episode?

[ETA:] Thought it was annoying that several people kept referring to Barry as a "boy", even though he's a grown man in his thirties who's a lot less babyfaced nowadays. I get it; he's interacting with his parental figures, but he's not *that* young.

Edited May 4, 2023 by Trini

[Cthulhudrew]

I enjoyed seeing Matt Letscher again as Thawne, but didn't we already get the story behind the second Flash in the past before? I'm pretty sure they did the "let Thawne kill Barry's mom so that history gets closure" was done back in S2 or S3. Not treading any new ground here. Or maybe I imagined all of that. I just can't tell any more.

[cdnalor]

10 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

I enjoyed seeing Matt Letscher again as Thawne, but didn't we already get the story behind the second Flash in the past before? I'm pretty sure they did the "let Thawne kill Barry's mom so that history gets closure" was done back in S2 or S3. Not treading any new ground here. Or maybe I imagined all of that. I just can't tell any more.

Yeah, should'nt we have double the amount of Flashes and Thawnes zipping around Nora now?  Maybe this is now a new timeline replacing the original one but repeating the events of the first.

[thuganomics85]

Okay, I know The CW has never fared well in the wig department, but who in the hell did Patrick Sabongui piss off to get that particular monstrosity dumped on top of Singh's head?!

Nice try, Eric Wallace, but all of that fancy camerawork at the beginning just felt cheap and self-indulgent, and didn't feel like it actually brought anything unique to the proceedings.

So, Barry gets zapped back to 2000, where he discovers that good old Eobard got zapped back as well and it just happens to be on the day Nora dies.  And it sounded like basically what Eobard wanted to do was use her death (at his hands in the current timeline) as a way for him to sneak in and kill child Barry as well, so that he could be rid of The Flash for good.  But Barry stops that by... simply saving kid Barry on his own.  Yeah, not exactly a surprise there.  But as much as I'm over Reverse Flash/Eobard in general, it was great seeing Matt Letscher again, because I always preferred his take over Tom's (with respect to him.) 

Henry and Nora were pretty much walking, talking saints here, but John Wesley Shipp and Michelle Harrison delivered on it and made me roll with how overtly wholesome they are.  Those two and Grant Gustin had a great rapport.

Easy night for the rest of the main cast, but even the one Chester/Allegra scene was one scene too many.

Eddie returns!  Well, kind of.  It is Rick Cosnett, but it sounds like he isn't actually Eddie, judging from that final scene.  And he has speed powers now?!

[tennisgurl]

This was a good episode for the most part, in that everything with Barry was good and the rest was useless. The pacing this season has been so weird, it was filler episode after filler episode until the last episode where they are trying to do tons of stuff all at once, like the writers just now realized this is the shows last season, and we still don't have a final boss or conclusion we're building to. I guess the babies being born is the climax? I would think they would like to end with more of a bang.

I'm glad that we got to see Henry and Nora again before they show ended and that Barry got some closure with them. Especially Nora, I would hate for the last time Barry saw his mothers face was when the speedforce was using her face to be evil and then confusing. Its hard to watch Henry and Nora being all happy together considering we know how awful things are going to go for them, and Grant continues to be one of TV's best criers, you could really feel every single one of Barry's many feels. 

Love that Barry's first thought when he went back in time was "What did I do?" because Barry knows how he is about time travel. Not really his fault this time though, just more shenanigans with his arch nemesis/stalker Eobard. I am long since over the many Eobard's at this point, but its always good to see Matt Letscher hamming it and and considering what a big part of the show he's been, it would be weird to not have him show up to mess with Barry one last time. Of course the worst thing that Barry could do to him was to thank him for giving him this time, taking his latest sadistic mindscrew and making it a good thing. Eobard is like a deranged little boy pulling Barry's pigtails on the playground to get his attention, Barry not giving him that sweet angst and taking the high road is the last thing Eobard wants. 

Some very strange camera movements, which I think were supposed to add more gravitas to all of this, but it mostly felt random. Almost as random as the quick bits with the rest of the cast, besides the cute Iris/Barry moment, which is always appreciated. Chester and Allegra were pointless and Cisco would set Star Labs on fire if he saw the outfit Chester made, Cecile and Joe's living situation continues to be weird, and I have no idea what was up with Bluestreaks and her Jane Austin letters to her "sisters" and then starring at the camera to dream about Mark, the sleazebag who tried to wipe her from existence. Oh yeah, if there is any character that I really want to see before we finish, its Chilllame. 

[shantown]

Maybe I am confused, but didn't we already do a story where Barry went back and time and saved himself? That's why Child!Barry saw red and yellow lightning that night? Did I miss what was different by going back again?

[Trini]

On 5/5/2023 at 8:24 PM, shantown said:

Maybe I am confused, but didn't we already do a story where Barry went back and time and saved himself? That's why Child!Barry saw red and yellow lightning that night? Did I miss what was different by going back again?

They've definitely revisited That Night multiple times in the past 9 seasons. But the only time they've shown him go back and change events (before this episode) was Flashpoint -- the end of Season 2/ start of Season 3 when he saved his mother. (And of course he did go back in the Season 1 finale, but didn't change events.)

Before now it wasn't clear exactly which version of the Flash was fighting Reverse Flash That Night; now we know it's a time displaced 2023 Barry.