The Flash - season 4 (The CW) (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Well...I like the silly sideshow aspects: the Cloning Cecile, and Dumb Harry and even B-Team Council of Harry's. They're at least silly and amusing. Because in contrast the main storyline is dragging. I think the loss of Digby took a lot out of the show. Now it's just mopey Barry repeating his error of trying to protect his team from themselves while fighting an uninteresting villain.

 

[Garysb]

Spoiler: Ralph Digby

Ralph is in the finale. Whether it is really Ralph alive or Ralph just seen in Devoe's mind is still to be determined. In the finale Barry puts on Devoe's thinker cap and enters Devoe's mind where he see images including a fat Ralph from before he gets his powers and Ralph as The Elongated Man. Ether way it will be good to see Ralph again.

 

[DavidJ]

Someone, please convince me that wasn't a stupid finale.

 

[DaveHof3]

I wish I could - but that was dreadful.

 

[RJ992]

That's it. I'm done with this show. Hung in there for longer than I should have but this was just...too much to take.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Well, that was a tad bit anti-climactic. Not very impressed with the conclusion. The "family" scenes were much better. Glad about Ralph.

 

[NeilO]

I was glad that Ralph made it out. Overall, I was much more pleased about the finale than I was about other aspects of this season.

Of course, all the business with the satellites makes next to no sense, but is better than Gravity (low bar).

 

[Sam Favate]

It was a bit anti-climatic, and the stuff inside DaVoe's mind was a bit too trippy. Nevertheless, the show has an excellent cast and they work well together, so they managed to pull it off.

As I have said, I am very tired of these season-long arcs. They move so slow, nothing much ever seems to happen, and none of the episodes really stand alone. You can't tell your friend "Oh, you gotta see the one with Captain Boomerang" (or whomever). You either watch the 23 episodes or you don't.

I hope next season is lighter. They tried that this season, but went too far in the other direction with character deaths, mind wipes, etc.

All that said, I am glad it is coming back.

 

[Garysb]

I agree that it was a less then great season finale.

I am not sure I agree with the central premise of the episode that intelligence and emotions are almost mutually exclusive. That the more intelligent the less you want or need emotions. That seems to be what defeated Devoe and made Harry a happier and better man. Devoe had no need for emotions and wanted to eliminate them from the world. He was defeated by the emotional bonds of team Flash. Harry became happier and more in touch with his feelings when he lost his intelligence.

I liked parts of the episode. Whether you call her Nora or Dawn the mystery girl was no mystery to fans who guessed at the wedding that she the daughter of Barry and Iris. I liked the return of Ralph. Devoe’s big plan took 22 episodes to build up and 3/4 of an episode to fizzle with no consequences. I wish he had succeeded 10 episodes ago and the remaining episodes were about Team Flash trying to reverse the enlightenment. Last season Legends did it better where the Legion of Doom succeeded in rewriting history for an episode. Flash could have expanded on this and had a few episodes trying to save the world.

My guess for next season is Ralph rejoins the CCPD and probably ends up as Joe's partner. As they usual time jump ahead so that it is October when the series resumes, this would already had happened by the 1st episode next season along with Barry also back at work. Maybe Iris will be back at Picture News or a full time blogger. Would be odd if when next season begins if Nora is living with her parents as a happy family. Team Flash will already know what her mistake was. Still don't know why Nora avoided Iris until her big reveal. Does she hate her mother? Are we to assume Wally will be back on the Flash full time. From the conversation with Joe, Wally said he was over feeling like he was in Barry's shadow, which is the reason he gave for leaving. I think the character worked better on Legends except that they always had to put him out of action as with his powers he could easily defeat whatever the Legends faced.

This is the first episode of The Flash where both Wally and Ralph appeared. Extra money in the budget for the finale?

 

[NeilO]

As I have said, I am very tired of these season-long arcs. They move so slow, nothing much ever seems to happen, and none of the episodes really stand alone. You can't tell your friend "Oh, you gotta see the one with Captain Boomerang" (or whomever). You either watch the 23 episodes or you don't.

I hope next season is lighter. They tried that this season, but went too far in the other direction with character deaths, mind wipes, etc.

All that said, I am glad it is coming back.

I really hope they have at least two arcs. Season-long villains are getting very tiring and lead to bad writing.

 

[Garysb]

One youtuber mentions that the Nora from the finale has shorter hair than she did in her previous appearances during the season. Is this a sign that this Nora is older than when we saw her before? Perhaps this Nora is trying to correct what her younger self did? I can understand why the characters would be unaware of a change in timeline but why wouldn't we, the audience be aware? Unless when season 5 starts we notice things are different. Barry was certainly aware things were different after Flashpoint.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Overall, I was much more pleased about the finale than I was about other aspects of this season.

I agree with this. It was one of the weaker finales, but still quite a bit stronger than the season as a whole.

As I have said, I am very tired of these season-long arcs. They move so slow, nothing much ever seems to happen, and none of the episodes really stand alone. You can't tell your friend "Oh, you gotta see the one with Captain Boomerang" (or whomever). You either watch the 23 episodes or you don't.

It would be fine if they made better use of the "filler" episodes. The big problem this season was that they had Team Flash go up against the Big Bad again and again and again. And of course the Big Bad's going to keep winning until he's defeated in the finale. If they kept the Big Bad in the background for the majority of the season, and got back to interesting metavillains of the week, it wouldn't feel quite so bloated.

I liked parts of the episode. Whether you call her Nora or Dawn the mystery girl was no mystery to fans who guessed at the wedding that she the daughter of Barry and Iris.

I would have been disappointed if she hadn't been. She's a mixed race actress with a plausible resemblance to both Grant Gustin and Candice Patton:

...and her lighting streaks were a mix of Barry's gold and Iris's purple.

I liked the return of Ralph.

I just hope he doesn't stick around full time next season. He's such a big personality that he sucks up all of the oxygen.

Still don't know why Nora avoided Iris until her big reveal. Does she hate her mother?

It was interesting that even in that final scene where she laid her cards on the table, she was a bit cold toward Iris. I'm guessing there's some bad blood between mother and daughter in the future.

Are we to assume Wally will be back on the Flash full time. From the conversation with Joe, Wally said he was over feeling like he was in Barry's shadow, which is the reason he gave for leaving. I think the character worked better on Legends except that they always had to put him out of action as with his powers he could easily defeat whatever the Legends faced.

I was wondering about this too. He wasn't in any of the promotional artwork for next season, even though both Maisie Richardson-Sellars and Matt Ryan were. I guess will find out in September/October.

This is the first episode of The Flash where both Wally and Ralph appeared. Extra money in the budget for the finale?

I would bet all of the series regular contracts for the Arrowverse shows build in a certain number of appearances on the other shows.

One youtuber mentions that the Nora from the finale has shorter hair than she did in her previous appearances during the season. Is this a sign that this Nora is older than when we saw her before? Perhaps this Nora is trying to correct what her younger self did? I can understand why the characters would be unaware of a change in timeline but why wouldn't we, the audience be aware? Unless when season 5 starts we notice things are different. Barry was certainly aware things were different after Flashpoint.

It's possible that the events she changed are in her past but our characters' future. So the changes to the timeline haven't happened yet. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Todd Helbing mentioned that the four times she came back in time were chosen very specifically by Nora, and that we'll find out more next season.

Also, the tease of next's season villain got cut for time.

 

[TonyD]

“One youtuber mentions that the Nora from the finale has shorter hair than she did in her previous appearances during the season. Is this a sign that this Nora is older than when we saw her before?”

She got a haircut?

This whole season was a bore it has to be better next year.

I’m still not sure what Davoe was doing.
Eliminating tech and emotion by using extremely expensive tech?

 

[Garysb]

“One youtuber mentions that the Nora from the finale has shorter hair than she did in her previous appearances during the season. Is this a sign that this Nora is older than when we saw her before?”

She got a haircut?

/QUOTE]

Yep She had a braid earlier.

The best episode of this season on each of the shows was the cross-over. In a year when I think all the shows except Legends had lackluster seasons, they managed to produce the best cross-over episodes.

 

[TJPC]

I am usually very loyal and watch an entire run of a show. It has become a real chore to watch “Flash”, “Super Girl”, “Legends of Tomorrow” and bore of bores “Arrow”. I can’t watch most of these anymore without surfing the net with my phone. With so many wonderful discs and shows, it’s time I forgot about these and used my time for other things. (I am beginning to feel the same way about “The Walking Dead”, “Fear T W D”, and “Agents of Shield”)

 

[Garysb]

It's possible that the events she changed are in her past but our characters' future. So the changes to the timeline haven't happened yet. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Todd Helbing mentioned that the four times she came back in time were chosen very specifically by Nora, and that we'll find out more next season.

.

Possibly, but the producer also said that when she appeared during the season, she did it for specific reasons. I would think at least in one of the times she did something to change the past.

 

[Garysb]

I still think this was the funniest scene of the season and it was cut.

 

[Garysb]

In the beginning for Ralph. I am surprised I didn't remember this scene.

 

[Garysb]

I watch a video on youtube which I think gave a pretty good explanation of what Nora Allen's big mistake was not.
They said that her earlier appearances such as at Barry and Iris's wedding changed the timeline which resulted in events happening that resulted in the satellite crashing to Earth. So the big change wasn't her helping Barry destroy the satellite, it was her prior change(s) that caused the satellite to fall and Barry would have been killed if she hadn't helped him. If her helping Barry was the big change, then Barry would have been meant to die destroying the satellite. This doesn't make sense since that would mean Nora would never be born since Iris is not pregnant yet and that headline from 2024 about The Flash missing in a Crisis would never happen. It makes sense to me that her changing the timeline caused the satellite situation. Ah time travel. Thoughts?

 

[DaveF]

I watched the finale a week or three ago, whenever it was on. The Flash seemed to take the two sci-fi tropes of "overcome the villain who knows everything" and "love conquers all" and find the least interesting climax possible.

But hey, there was a recurring character in the background who used the same Speed Force writing that emergent Barry did, giving lots of foreboding and foreshadowing the entire season...who was a complete throwaway character with no story relevance this season.

So...well done...in story telling?