The Flash: Armageddon review Part 5, S8 E5

December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 Jeffrey Lyles 0 Comments Brandon McKnight, Candice Patton, Danielle Nicolet, Danielle Panabaker, Grant Gustin, Kayla Compton, The Flash, Tony Curran

Last week I wondered if Armageddon really needed a fifth chapter after a very strong fourth installment.

Armageddon Part 5 didn’t necessarily feel all that essential and worked more as an extended epilogue.

While it wasn’t as good as last week — a tall order — this was enjoyable enough to put a nice bow on the 2021 installment of The Flash.

Barry tells Joe about the Reverse Flashpoint incident. Damien Darhk is still here for some reason. He asks Barry for the Time Stone — just so long as he doesn’t already the mind, power and soul stones already.

Then we get a full Team Flash reunion. That’s short lived since Thawne made good on his promise last episode to still be a nuisance.

Before Flash arrives (how is that possible? Did Barry stop for carry-out?), Green Arrow Mia arrives. This fight doesn’t end well for her as Thawne is about to give her the hand through chest fatality.

Barry finished his shawarma in time to make the save. Thawne wants Barry’s help as he’s in danger of fading out of oblivion just like Barry. Oh karma, you devilish minx.

Mia’s been searching is looking for William. Maybe he’s with Painkiller in the land of pilots that didn’t get picked up. Still, it’s been two years. You’d think Felicity could have found him in 20 seconds with her hacker cheat code. Mia explains to Iris that Felicity wouldn’t understand what she’s become — an archer assassin? That’s true, not like Felicity could ever love someone like that.

Thawne needs Team Flash’s help to stay alive, but he can’t help being a prick and keeps taunting the same folk that hold his life in their hands. And not so surprisingly, Caitlin, Iris and Barry don’t want to help him. For what it’s worth, Despero is also in the let him die camp too. Chester and Allegra think that’s not exactly heroic, but that doesn’t steer the argument in favor of saving Thawne until Joe gives Barry and Iris a chew out pep talk.

I’ve missed these Joe pep talks and this one was very different from the norm as he called them out for being selective about who they will save.

Barry figures he can use the same Injustice strategy Black Lightning used on him to permanently take away Thawne’s powers. And then Despero won’t feel the need to let Thawne die. It’s a decent plan if only they’d accounted for Despero corrupting the most dangerous ally at STAR Labs — Mia Queen.

Seriously, what is the deal with these immensely superpowered villains always corrupting the archer? Iris talks the mind-swayed Mia into helping Team Flash instead of fighting them.

Free of that distraction, Barry is able to stop Despero using special power-up boots from Chester — gold boots(!) to cut off the access to his home world’s flame. It’s a whole deal that made little sense, but whatever. I’ll take it to get Flash rocking gold boots. With Despero back at his rightful planet, Barry blasts Thawne and takes away his speed — for good? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

That’s future Team Flash’s problem. For now, current Team Flash is partying at the club they rented out. I need to set aside professionalism for two seconds to say Iris and Cecile brought it all the way for club night.

Damien Darhk crashes the party to say he’s still here… and to blow off Mia threatening to get payback for Laurel. That was years ago, Mia. Are we still keeping score on who’s killed who? Did you learn nothing from this episode?

While he questioned why he was still around, Damien did have time to give Joe the Time Stone before vanishing to a shared temporal space for a brief reunion with Nora. Nora then blinked out and arrived at the club with Team Flash. It’s too bad the writers couldn’t have worked it out to have Ray Palmer take part in the celebration so he could reunite with Nora too.

And it would have been fun to just have Iris ask Barry about this new Batwoman as she had a feeling they would hit it off well together. Isis did suggest that Mia return to their time period more often to hang out. I thought we’d established time travel wasn’t easy if you weren’t a speedster now?

In the epilogue, a photo from 2014 in the CCPD station changes to show Nora and Bart Allen as part of the department. Oh joy. Nora and Bart are best in extremely small doses so this tease does little for me.

If nothing else Armageddon was a terrific start for this season. Hopefully, the 2022 slate of this season doesn’t prove disappointing.