Earlier this week, the season seven premiere of The Flash premiered and a lot happened that could change where the show goes from here. In short, they successfully build the artificial speed force (A.S.F.), an important character dies, and Cecile discovers something new with her powers. With that, let’s get on to the episode.
Full Recap
Last season, the show wasn’t able to finish up in the way the writers probably wanted to (due to Covid-19 lockdowns) so the Flash team’s still up against Eva McCulloch. It also means that Iris is still stuck in the mirror realm. All that happens with her this episode is Eva trying to trick her. But Iris, being the queen she is, doesn’t fall for it. As for the rest of Team Flash, they’re trying to build and sustain the artificial speed force.
Nash, whose alt-reality personalities keep talking to him, find a solution to their problems. However, it’d mean that Nash (as well as all the Harrison Ford personalities) would have to sacrifice himself. With Nash being the most selfish one, he doesn’t want to die. But instead of just telling the rest of the team what happened, he comes up with his own idea. Which backfires, resulting in Barry housing all the alternate Harrison Wells in his head. Having them all in Barry’s head is more than just confusing, however, it’s also killing him. In the end, Nash comes to his senses and sacrifices himself so that Barry can, once again, be the Flash.
Cecile Versus Top
Meanwhile, Joe and Cecile work on trying to get Eva McCulloch behind bars. But everyone else thinks Sue and Ralph killed her husband, Joseph Carver. So Sue and Ralph are on the run. Eventually, they all find out Eva’s meeting with Mirror Master (Sam Scudder) and Top (Rosalind Dillon). Unfortunately, by the time they find them, Scudder’s already dead thanks to Eva. And Top’s left devastated. Or so we all think. Cecile, who’s Dillon’s defense attorney and an empath, tries to help her. But she can see right through her. Kind of.
Cecile, while talking to Dillon, can tell she’s lying and putting up a false emotion. Turns out Top can do more than just give people vertigo. She can also manipulate someone’s emotions. Plus, she’s working with Eva. So, Dillon uses her powers to make Cecile feel terribly empty inside. But Dillon makes one major mistake: she tells Cecile that she started off as an empath. More than that, she tells Cecile that she’s capable of so much more power. So when she comes back later, Cecile does the same to Dillon to figure out more about Eva’s plan.
More About Eva
Part of her plan consists of obtaining a bunch of Black Hole tech (I’m not completely sure what this means either but maybe they’ll explain more later?) and dropping a bomb over the city. But Barry gets his speed back in the nick of time (of course) and stops the bomb. And when the plane lands (with the Black Hole tech), A.R.G.U.S is there to confiscate it.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the episode comes at the end when Eva finally clicks play on a video she’s been glancing at. Turns out it’s a security cam video from the night of the particle acceleration explosion (i.e. when she got trapped in the mirror). But the video makes a startling discovery: Carver (her husband) was right all along. Eva died that night and this Eva’s actually just a mirror duplicate.
The New Team Flash
Overall, it was a pretty good season premiere. However, it also showed how much the show’s changed just in the last few seasons. For starters, Team Flash isn’t the same anymore. Once Caitlin, Cisco, Kamilla, and Iris come back, it will, undoubtedly, be too big of a team. Previously, we hadn’t seen all that much of Chester or Allegra and I feel like this episode let them shine a little more. In the future, I’d like to know more about Chester and pull Kamilla, Allegra, and Iris back. Not to say that I don’t want to see them at all, but I’d like to see them focus more on working on The Citizen.
Furthermore, Tom Cavanaugh (who plays all the different Harrison Wells) will no longer be in the show anymore, which I have mixed feelings about. To start, I’ve loved Cavanaugh over the years, especially as Thawne and Harry. But the schtick of there being a bunch of Harrison Wells definitely started to feel like an overplayed joke. So as much as I’ll miss Cavanaugh, I won’t miss the multiple Harrison Wells joke.
The Iris of It All
Additionally, Iris didn’t seem to do all that much this episode. At first, the fact that there was another version of Iris that’s broken was interesting. Mostly because it brought up a good point: The Flash has really put Iris through the ringer over the years. But when it turned out to just be one of Eva’s failed tricks, it felt like a wasted story.
As much as I love the fact that Iris didn’t fall for her trick, I wanted to see Iris break down a little. I wanted to see her slowly go insane in that mirror because Eva always said it would happen. Granted, she just tried to trick her the whole time to get out, but still. Her first scene in this premiere episode at least hinted at her mental state. She had an imaginary dinner with Barry and it didn’t last long but I want to see her struggle internally a little more.
Eva and the Mirrorverse
Lastly, the episode’s ending was probably my favorite part. Eva kept glancing at a video for the entire episode and when she finally pressed play, it paid off. I always assumed that mirror versions of people knew they weren’t the real person. Clearly, the mirror version of Iris, Kamilla, and Chief Singh that we met last season knew they were Mirrorverse versions. So, I assumed all mirror versions of people would know. But looking back on it now, it makes sense.
When looking back at last season, Carver was always adamant that his wife died that night the particle accelerator exploded. And at the end of last season, he not only says that again but he even says that she isn’t human (which you can watch above). We just didn’t fully understand what he meant before. We assumed he meant the mirror changed her after all those years. But Carver knew she wasn’t really Eva. He just never told anyone that she was really the mirror version of Eva. How Eva will continue now that she knows she’s not the real Eva will be interesting to see.
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