The final season of The Flash had its issues, but the four-part series finale gave it a decent ending. It gave us a lot of cool stuff and old faces, but there were certainly some issues with the series finale.
SPOILERS
The concept of bringing back old speedsters for Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) to face off with one last time was fantastic. Other than The Thinker, the speedster villains were arguably the best of the series. It led to an epic battle between Team Flash and these old foes, but some cheap CGI was involved. That was a letdown, but with a new owner of The CW, maybe not surprising.
A bigger issue was how powerful some of Team Flash got with no explanation. Khione (Danielle Panabaker), they at least explained she kept getting more powers, but Allegra (Kayla Compton) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) leveled up (as The Flash would say) with no explanation. Maybe it would have made more sense if the season didn’t have so many filler episodes and instead had stories that led to their powers growing stronger. It did have Cecile practicing, so you could assume that’s how her powers grew, but there could have been more development.
It would have been nice to see Cisco one last time, but scheduling conflicts prevented that. The Flash did give a call back to a Reverse Flash and Cisco scene in the lab, where in an alternate timeline Cisco died at the hands of the Reverse Flash. This time it was with Chester (Brandon McKnight). It was touch and go, but ultimately I didn’t think it would kill off Chester. There was also a call back to how Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) was supposed to die with Salvtar, but Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) outsmarted him.
The sweetest part of the finale was Barry’s determination to save Eddie (Rick Cosnett) because all he ever wanted to do was save the people he lost. So this gave him a second chance at saving someone. That was a beautiful way to end the series.
Nora being born was also a great way to end the story. Of course, it broke all kinds of time travel rules by letting Nora meet little Nora. But the series has gotten more relaxed on those rules over the years, and of course, with Barry’s secret too.
We also got two more appearances. We got a Wells (which, as long as Tom Cavanagh was on set to play the Reverse Flash, it made sense to have a Wells return). And we got Caitlin back when we said goodbye to Khione. While I would have loved more time with Caitlin, we still had Danielle. And actors like to get to play different parts when on a long-running series. For example, as much as fans hated when Dean became Michael, Jensen Ackles loved getting to play something different on Supernatural.
And Barry creating a better world for his daughter was beautiful. Barry and The Flash have always been striving for a better world. While Arrow was darkness with some hope, The Flash was full of hope and light. It’s the happy ending The Flash was always meant to have.
