The Flash: Armageddon Part 4 review, S8 E4
Maybe it was just the freshness of the character interaction and the logical progression of the story, but this was one of my favorite episodes of The Flash in a long, long time.
Armageddon Part 4 kicks off with an alternate look at last week’s cliffhanger with a glimpse of the all-new, all-different Team Flash.
Ryan is married to Sophie (!) in this timeline and she’s BFFs with Iris. That was a nice development. Iris really has zero friends that she doesn’t work with and while the writers have expanded her professional career, some personal expansion of her circle would be great as well.
Chester and Allegra are still acting awkward around each other. That’s a decade of sexual tension on the loose. It’s gotten so bad Chester’s grown his hair out. On the plus side, he can always go as Static Shock for Halloween parties.
Thawne’s heartwarming toast to Iris is crashed by The Reverse Flash…no, Barry Allen, wait Barry Allen in the Reverse Flash suit. Oooh, Thawne is a sneaky devil!
Barry knocks Thawne out for a bit, but he’s no match against the awesome might of the live-action embodiment of JL’s Hawkgirl’s mace — Alex Danvers. Adding Batwoman into the mix feels like piling on, but they’re getting payback for Ray, Nate, Sarah and Cisco.
Zooming away (heh), Barry and Thawne have another confrontation where Eobard realized he couldn’t outrun Flash so he created a Reverse Flashpoint. One where he killed Joe, wooed Iris and made Barry the awful murderous villain. And worse, Barry only has until midnight or else Thawne’s heroic timeline becomes the new reality. That’s…actually an impressive plan and is completely on brand for the Silver Age Reverse Flash. Kudos Flash writers.
With Team Flash thinking he’s gone Dark Side, Barry naturally turns to the most sensible ally — Thawne’s ally, Damian Darhk. Together those two killed Cisco and the Legends. Darhk is such a good character. It’s a good thing the Arrowverse figured out how to use him after one of the crummiest seasons of Arrow. Neil McDonough always seems to have a full blast playing him too.
Barry manages to convince Damian to nab a device from Team Flash, the Particle Eradicator Distributor, which can restore the numerous changes Thawne wrecked on the timeline in one shot. Darhk goes complete Darth Darhk with his Force Chokes until Cecile stops him with a boost from Psycho Pirate’s Medusa Mask.
Darhk finally sees through Barry’s lies, but the truth — that in Barry’s timeline his precious Nora doll is alive — is enough to convince him to help Barry restore the broken past. The Arrowverse writers really needed to come up with some other names. Three Noras on The Flash actually gets a little confusing. And of course we’ve got two Ryans in this episode too. Weird.
Ryan Choi is funny in the snarky, love hater mode. He doesn’t have his wife and child in this timeline. Alex is all onto figuring out what happened with Chester and Allegra, eventually getting Allegra to confess she ended things because she was afraid of getting abandoned again. Their timing got messed up due to the Legion of Doom in a nice nod to Darhk and Thawne’s original team up on Legends.
Barry finally figures out to fix the timeline, he’s going to have to risk destroying this world…just like Despero predicted. It’s all coming full circle. Before he destroys another world, Barry tries to talk to Iris. She’s been drawing some puzzling blanks trying to remember her original feelings for Thawne and Barry’s declaration of love further complicates things.
Thawne pushes one good time too many and Iris zaps him with the speed debilitating device. The Flash has often tries to convey the power of Barry and Iris’ love and lightning rod connection, but this was one of the best examples. Even in a significantly altered world, their love for each other still shines through.
MORE:
- Leaked lineup of GI Joe Classified figures for 2022?
- Pre-order Star Wars Black Series Book of Boba Fett, Fennec Shand
- DC Comics reviews 12/7/21 – Batman #118, Dark Knights of Steel #2
- Twas the Night review
While Barry begins drawing the speed to set the timeline right, Darhk has to tangle with Killer Frost and Chillbaine. Again, Darhk is such a cool villain and like too many great characters, Legends killed him off too quick. Darhk can take them out, but Ryan’s arriving as the Atom — in a regular non-Iron Man starter kit suit — and Alex turn the tide. If only they realized they were helping the bad guy by taking out the bad guy. Yeah, I could see how that would get confusing for them.
As Barry runs and tries to focus on Iris, she remembers and tells Barry she loves him providing all the jolt he needs to restore the proper timeline.
Back in Central City 2021, Despero is tormenting Cecile after killing the rest of Team Flash. This doesn’t hold as Barry’s return also fixes Despero’s latest murderous hero for good intentions shtick. Despero sees the timeline has changed, but wants to take a closer look in 2031. Barry doesn’t wait for him and returns to Team Flash, thrilled at being able to call Joe. Looks like everything’s actually working out for Barry this time.
Or not. Reverse Flash pops in to Gideon’s chamber and promises he’s going to meddle with time again. I’m almost worried that Armageddon doesn’t need a fifth chapter as this was a pretty great conclusion. I’m also convinced The Flash can just do these mini-arcs every other month or so and the series could go on for much longer.
This felt like a throwback to the greatness of the first season. It’s been a long time, but this was an epic Flash episode and hopefully just the beginning for this season.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW
Check out more of Zoom’s schemes in The Return of Barry Allen on Amazon.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases