The Flash – Wednesday Ever After review S9 E1

February 9, 2023February 9, 2023 Jeffrey Lyles 0 Comments Brandon McKnight, Candice Patton, Danielle Nicolet, Grant Gustin, Jesse L. Martin, Kayla Compton, The Flash

Last season was kind of a mess and it feels like this is the right time to end The Flash. The real question is if this season will conclude the once stellar show on a high note or whimper like so many of the Arrowverse shows.

We’ve been down this road where a promising season gets derailed midway through, but Wednesday Ever After had a classic Flash vibe that had the right mix of pathos, humor and fun comic book action. Things might get haywire later on of course but I’m all for taking the win of this season premiere.

Barry’s having nightmares of not being able to keep Iris alive. Clearly he’s no Jedi… This was a decent excuse to throw in the Rogue Tarpit though it was kinda unfair having all 27 members of Team Flash fight him even in a dream.

Iris wearing a bonnet to keep her hair from getting messed up feels like a landmark victory for black women hair care accurately portrayed on TV.

Cecile is busy fine tuning her telekinetics. I need to reiterate how lame it is to make every supporting character on these shows super powered. It’s not like Cecile somehow lacked value as the lawyer for metas.

Allegra’s got big news for Iris — Cat Grant wants to buy Central City Citizen Media. Barry knew all about it as he’s been working on a future cheat sheet so he can stay ahead of their various life calamities. Control freak much?

Barry also knows Capt. Kramer wants to make him the new head of the department’s CSI division. Did anyone else already just assume Barry was in charge of that department? Not like he’s talked to anyone in the department since the fallout with Malfoy.

And the series really dropped the ball by not just simply recasting Hartley Sawyer so they could keep Ralph in the mix.

Anyway, Flash has to deal with a new Rogue — Owen Mercer aka the new Captain Boomerang (Richard Harmon). The costume checks out and Harmon gives Mercer a fitting brash personality. But will he super speed though?

Shockingly, Barry isn’t rattled that he wasn’t able to stop Capt. Boomerang. He’s more concerned about bigger priorities namely sharing with Iris the Map Book.

Essentially a cheat sheet/life spoiler, Barry’s used historical data to piece together the dates of the most important moments in his and Iris’ lives. All the better to avoid getting trapped in mirror universes, lost in a flashpoint or time sicknesses.

Not surprisingly to everyone except Barry — Iris doesn’t want every step of her life pre-ordained. They kinda sleep on it but they’ve looped back into the same day. Don’t eat the cupcake!

While there’s some slight alterations — Allegra asks if Kara told Iris about Cat’s offer in a nice nod to Arrowverse continuity. The Flash is still holding it down after all these years. Once they both realize something’s up Iris asking Barry what he did this time felt very fitting and funny line.

Turns out Iris wasn’t entirely wrong. Barry’s encounter with Captain Boomerang leaked some quantum material (but is it Quantumania?) that created a time loop for Barry and Iris.

With that mystery solved, we get a fun montage of Barry and Iris reliving the same day over and over. See, getting Bill Murray to cameo here instead of Quantumania really would have made more sense.

Iris isn’t following the script sparking a fight with Barry, who explains to Joe snd Cecile he just wants to keep Iris safe. As usual. Joe (and Cecile) come through with the killer life re-affirming advice.

Barry assured Iris he doesn’t need the Map Book so long as he’s got her and zaps it. But if they repeat the day won’t it just be back? I get it, this was just a grand gesture.

Instead of doing their Groundhog Day on their own, Iris and Barry switch it up and join each other’s activities. Iris won’t take Cat’s buyout and instead get a loan from Sue to set up her own fledgling empire. And with Iris’ help, Flash takes out Capt. Boomerang. This time he leaves behind a nuclear device set to explode.

Flash uses super speed powers to diffuse the nuke’s harmful effects to the Central City citizens. In the chaos, Allegra and Chester finally kiss. Maybe that was the secret?

The days actually advance again and Team Flash gets to celebrate their victory. It felt like Grant Gustin and Candice Patton had more fun in their scenes this episode. It sure beat the doom and gloomy storylines they’ve had the last few seasons.

Joe wants to leave Central City. Hard to blame him especially since the cost of baby sitters has to be astronomical. Seriously do we ever see Joe and Cecile’s kid anymore?

Mercer has a partner but who? In the epilogue we meet him and it’s absolutely positively not Reverse Flash, possibly.

Barry also has a rendezvous and it’s with a familiar face, but it’s not Caitlin or Frost — it’s someone else. Oh great, now there’s three of them?!?

This season can go all kinds of haywire but this was a very fun start that hopefully will be the norm for the rest of the year.