The Flash – Partners in Time review S9 E8

It’s time I stop hoping this season of The Flash can redeem itself. Save for the first episode it’s been one questionable decision and baffling choice after another that’s been the season’s true big bad.

The one positive about Partners in Time is it focused on Barry and Iris so there’s that at least.

After nine seasons the writers decide this was an ideal time for city code inspectors to make sure STAR Labs is up to code. They are literally nine seasons too late. This place would have been shut down the moment the particle accelerator exploded.

The code inspectors are weird caricatures because the writers don’t know how to write regular people anymore.

Barry’s immediate reaction to thinking they’re in a time loop? Going ahead in time to discover how they got out of it. Not only is that incredibly lazy and reducing Barry’s deductive skills to two, it also flies in the face of every lesson Barry learned about time travel — don’t do it.

I suppose the redeeming aspect of this is Joe isn’t the only one written ridiculously out of character this season. Can you imagine Barry triggering another Flashpoint because he zoomed in time for a mid-level threat of this nature?

Somehow the inspectors realize the fastest man alive is missing as he goes on his time trip. Just because doing this is more enjoyable than watching this episode, the writers do realize Barry’s super speed operates in a manner where he would move faster than anyone could realize he’s gone, yes?

For some inexplicable reason, a wave of blue energy changes Iris and Barry’s outfits prompting the head inspector to get upset that they’re mocking sci-fi like Star Wars.

The Flash writers have also been consistent in referencing everything popular like Marvel Comics and Star Wars while never mentioning any cool Warner Bros. property. Maybe that’s the real reason it’s ending?

Once the inspectors also find their outfits changed, Barry reveals he’s The Flash. Congratulations Team Flash writers now y’all have made it so everyone in Central City knows Flash’s identity.

The dumbest part? Ok there’s several options here, but the fact that the inspectors have to help science explain this time loop for Barry, who is smart enough to make sense of all this himself. And if we need wacky science explanations the show already has a character for that and he’s chilling this episode with little to do.

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Allegra asks Chester if he remembers when she went to the bar with Cecile and Becky and he responds “of course, you were so bada$$’” confirming that this is the season’s catchphrase. Was Allegra hitting two losers with her light blasts really all that “bada$$?” Seems like just another Wednesday.

Save this kind of eye-rolling propping up for Supergirl where it belongs. At least it makes a little sense seeing as how Chester is trying or actively hooking up with Allegra unlike everyone hyping up Kara.

Social media is buzzing over a new light meta, which is INSANE as the episode clip shows there’s literally no one in the bar when Allegra used her powers. Do the writers remember what they do from episode to episode? And much like their confusion with blackjack, casinos and the news cycle where Iris gets a Pulitzer for an article she wrote three weeks ago, that’s not how social media works.

Are we assuming the goons posted on social media about the new light meta? Allegra actually helped her co-workers out last season. That would have been the time to out her as a meta if the writers wanted to take that oath. Instead they decide this is the key storyline for Allegra with five episodes left in the series? I won’t ask anyone to make it make sense because it can’t and with this series definitely won’t.

Chester blurts out that he loves Allegra, which completely spazzes get out.

Cecile comes back home in the middle of the day, which is odd since you know Cecile let her husband and daughter move to another city because she had to stay in Central City for her job. The one the writers remember she has every other eight episodes.

Allegra won’t say she loves him because she’s terrified of losing people she loves. We get helpful flashbacks of the two people she’s lost in the course of her run in the series. It’s a sign of bad writing when they need flashbacks to remind us of these “pivotal” losses in Allegra’s past.

Cecile at least comes through with the quality Joe West advice prompting Allegra to tell Chester she loves him.

Iris deduces one of them is a time thief. Maybe the electrician inspector who doesn’t know what a breaker box is possibly? Jane the inspector breaks down how it’s possible to determine someone is from a different time.

How would a city inspector know this better than The Flash??? You win Flash writers, y’all have broken me. Can we just make these last five episodes good so y’all can stop this season long prank? Pretty please?

And Jane just so happens to have a radiation detecting device. Barry figures out the identity of the time thief.

Tao, the electrical inspector is actually Lady Chronos (insert eye roll emoji of your choice here…) — the greatest thief time has ever known. See, if that were true she wouldn’t be stuck in 2023 or not know what a breaker box was, which we get a flashback from the same episode to remind us what we might have missed.

I hate when the writers try to throw out a bunch of random science jargon in hopes of just confusing viewers into somehow thinking it makes sense. There’s even more than normal this episode.

Lady Chronos does something and everything reverts to the way it was with the inspectors not remembering anything that happened. Ah so there’s still four Central City citizens who don’t know Barry is The Flash.

Kihone arrives and tells Barry and Iris she knew the didn’t have mold for…reasons. The writers have no clue what they’re doing with this character and it’s so painfully obvious they made the worst possible call with this iteration of Caitlin. I preferred when every season had some Wells variant.

Kihone met Caitlin’s mom and said as someone who’s only eight weeks old — unless the writers need  to make her know things like Iris is pregnant before Iris… — she really could use a strong, female mentor. Just when it seems like this show can’t find a new level of cringe…here we go.

There’s only five more episodes left. At this point now I’m terrified the writers are gonna manage to find a way to botch the Green Arrow cameo episode on April 26. But if this series has just one good episode left hopefully it’s that one as this season has been a disaster.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW