Jessie Robertson reviews The Flash season 4 finale…
We are a long way from the season one finale that moved us, broke us, and wowed us. Having the Thinker and the Enlightenment has brought us here; to a puzzle box that seemed there were 1,000 solutions to but which one would they use to get Team Flash out of this mess and would it make sense. DeVoe had thought of everything, all season long. But, Team Flash did have Marlize; surely she was the secret weapon that would finally defeat him?
Where we ended up here was way too easy to have been worth all this trouble. The writers did plan out a lot of this season very well; Cecile’s mind powers manifesting during her pregnancy were a big annoyance to most fans ( I thought she had her best moments reading her family’s minds) but they were for a purpose. Our struggle with DeVoe ends with Barry (or at last Barry’s consciousness) entering DeVoe’s mind to find the “good” in him; what he finds is Ralph, or at least ,the consciousness of Ralph? I’m still not sure. But, they find the good of DeVoe long dead; so Barry gets a lightbulb above his head and says Ralph is the only good left in DeVoe so he must be the key; they fight off a million DeVoes in the worst Matrix rip off fight scene ever and escape, where Ralph literally takes over DeVoe’s body. Did I miss anything? Did that really happen? This right as we go past the half hour mark. Wrapped up in a very convenient bow when nothing else about this journey throughout the season was.
DeVoe does have one more backup plan, to present his digital self to the team but Marlize quickly dispatches that and our season ending problem becomes DeVoe’s scrap metal satellites about to hit an “extinction” level event on the Earth (how do I know this? Star Labs computer monitor literally said “extinction”.) This being tacked on feels so nukes hitting a city on Arrow’s finale some 2-3 years ago, I had severe flashbacks (followed by a Central City-sized migraine even a latte from Jitters couldn’t cure.) How did we end up here? Cecile delivers, with no issues. Ralph is back alive, in DeVoe’s body, sure, but he’s here. Harry regains his intelligence, most of it, then promptly leaves and we wrap with the reveal of the mystery girl bumping into Team Flash all year: Nora Allen, Barry and Iris’ daughter. Yep, the purple lightning when she runs kinda gave that away after Iris had imbued the Speed Force. Where does this leave us? With a mostly disappointing season.
The Iris- Marlize wife entanglement I thought worked wonderfully during the season; those 2 went through a lot. The 12 Bus metas was a long slough for little payoff and while the actor playing DeVoe did have some wonderful moments, overall, he was a stinker of a villain. I only leave season 4 of The Flash looking towards the future: Killer Frost’s story developments are very interesting for next season, having Nora Allen around looks to be a fun wrinkle and a new Wells perhaps? I hope you’ve enjoyed this season of The Flash as I go into season 5 on shaky ground with the show and I think they desperately need to rediscover what made this show fantastic from the get go: heart, humor and amazing Flash effects. Even the CG Models we saw tonight of Flash running through Central City looked like they just filmed the effects guy’s computer with the CG model on it. To wrap it up, it’s been a wild year on The Flash and the CW in general but I’ve enjoyed myself and I hope anyone reading this has too.
Rating: 6.5/10
Jessie Robertson
