The Flash prepares for his final run as Cobalt Blue joins forces with Barry's greatest enemies from across time under the Negative Speed Force's orders to wage one last grand speedster war against the Flash and his legacy.
Tropes
- Age Lift: Max Mercury does not appear to be in his seventies, nor is there any reason to believe he's really much older than that.
- Agony Beam: Instead of using his signature vibrating hand trick, Eobard opts to try and kill Chester in this manner in a long, drawn out way to maximize his suffering. Chester is badly injured but ultimately survives and fully recovers, thanks to his latent metahuman traits that he received from the black hole incident in season 6.
- And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with Nora having been born, Joe and Cecile engaged, Caitlin alive, Chuck discovering he's a meta, and Barry deciding to empower others with his lightning, all while planning to create a new world.
- Arc Words:
- Iris says, "Run, Barry, run" when Eddie shows up in her hospital room after he threatens Barry.
- "Believe In The Impossible" is spoken by Khione when convincing Barry to end Eddie's threat non-violently and by Barry himself when telling a story to baby Nora.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Just like she said, Khione leaves to find her destiny, shedding her mortal coil (and allowing Caitlin to return) in the process.
- Back from the Dead: A version of Eobard Thawne appears and Hunter Zolomon is back from being the Black Flash (or, rather, has not yet become the Black Flash).
- Back for the Finale:
- Tom Cavanagh reprises his role as Wells-Disguised Eobard Thawne, last seen in "Negative, Part 2". He also appears as Timeless Wells, last seen in "Timeless".
- Teddy Sears reprises his role as Hunter Zolomon/Zoom for the first time since the 100th episode, but chronologically since "The Race of His Life", as he did not actually play Hunter as The Black Flash in Legends of Tomorrow.
- Tobin Bell reprises his role as Savitar, last seen in "Finish Line".
- Karan Oberoi comes back as August Heart/Godspeed, last seen in "Heart of The Matter, Part 2".
- Big Damn Heroes: First when Team Flash arrives to assist Barry against Cobalt Blue. Later when Jay arrives and steals the supervillain's speed.
- Bookends: Barry's opening lines — the "Believe in the Impossible" speech — of the series finale are the same as his very first lines from the Pilot. The cloud cover and push in on Central City also mirrors the opening shot of the show.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Jay and Joan Garrick, Zoom and Savitar make appearances. Avery Ho also appears for the first time since "Impulsive Excessive Disorder".
- After being gone for the whole season, Caitlin makes her return after Khione leaves to find her destiny.
- The original Harrison Wells takes a break from his infinite time loop to celebrate the birth of Nora with Team Flash.
- Call-Back:
- The opening line about "Believing in the Impossible" is taken straight from the Pilot.
- Zoom tells Khione and Mark that they "can't lock up the darkness".
- While beating Barry down, Eddie tells him that he "always wins", similar to how Eobard did 8 years ago.
- Barry recounts how Oliver told him that the lightning chose him.
- Catch and Return: What Khione does to the lightning bolt Zoom throws at her.
- Clean, Pretty Childbirth: Nora's birth.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Reverse Flash, Zoom, Savitar and Godspeed are easily defeated compared to the threat they usually pose individually.
- Continuity Nod: Apparently Jay Garrick learned how to take another speedster's speed from his Earth-90 counterpart.
- End of an Era: This episode not only serves as the end of The Flash, but also the end of adventures on Earth-Prime, as the only Arrowverse series left in production as of this episode, Superman & Lois, is set on another Earth.
- Energy Absorption:
- Jay absorbs Eddie's speed.
- In turn, Eddie absorbs the speed of all the defeated evil speedsters.
- Fun with Acronyms: After learning that he has powers, Chester finally adopts his comic-book nickname of "Chunk", here presented as an acronym for Consciousness-Honed Universally Neutralized Kerr anomaly.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: When Eddie breaks the Cobalt-97 crystal, the N.S.F. turns from red to blue to signify its avatar letting go of his hatred.
- Grand Finale: The Flash reaches the finish line with nine seasons and 184 episodes, becoming DC's second-longest running live action series, behind Smallville.
- Grand Theft Me: What Khione did to Caitlin, though in this case it was evidently consensual.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Barry points out to Eddie how he became just like Eobard, the man he sacrificed his life to stop for.
- Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Eddie takes up the name and suit of Cobalt Blue.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Savitar attempts to succeed with Nora where he failed with her mother. However, Nora vibrates her midsection, allowing the blade to pass right through. She then snaps off the blade and uses it to give Savitar a taste of his own medicine.
- Internal Reveal: Iris learns about Eddie being back and being the Negative Speed Force's new avatar.
- Karmic Death: When Savitar tries to stab Nora the same way he attempted to kill her mother, she phases right through it, breaks off his blade and in turn stabs him in the back with it.
- Kick the Dog: Eobard Thawne is just as much of a petty jerkass as he's always been, once again rubbing it in his ancestor's face that he's an embarrassment to his bloodline (despite the fact that Eobard now only exists once more because of his ancestor's actions and because the Negative Speed Force finds him worthy), and then later tells Allegra he will kill Chester and her while wearing the face of her old mentor, Nash.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Eobard points out how Hunter copied his "pretend to be a member of Team Flash" shtick from him.
- When Joe proposes to Cecile, her reaction — after accepting — is to declare, "FINALLY!" to the rest of their gathered loved ones; Joe and Cecile have been together since the third season, and had a child together in the fourth.
- Last Episode, New Character: Barry empowers Avery Ho, Max Mercury and Jess Chambers over a montage as he tells the story to baby Nora. In the comics, Max was mentor to Barry and Wally; while Jess in the comics is the hero Kid Quick from the genderbent Earth 11.
- Legion of Doom: Eddie uses the Negative Speed Force to bring the show's main four Evil Speedsters Back from the Dead to help him defeat Team Flash, Mark calls them the "Legion of Zoom".
- Mythology Gag:
- Eobard calls his evil speedster team a "legion" and Team Flash later refer to them as the Legion of Zoom; the name of a team Eobard formed in the comics, and named in imitation of the Legion of Doom.
- The source of Chester's black-hole powers acronyms as C.H.U.N.K. Chunk was his nickname/super identity in the comics.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Downplayed. Cecile is now shown to be able to fly. Given that she's telekinetic, it's not all that surprising; however, this trope is still accurate in that she's never been seen as having had any practice in even hovering, and is suddenly flying through the air like a pro.
- No Body Left Behind: When Eddie takes back his speed from his erstwhile allies, their bodies all disappear.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Eddie gives Barry one, who refuses to fight back.
- Noodle Incident: According to Future Nora, the circumstances of her baby brother Bart's birth were (or rather will be) even more insane than the 24 hours leading up to of her own birth.
- Nothing Personal: What Eddie tells Barry and Iris, saying that he just wants his life back.
- Paradox Person: Frankly, even with Eobard coming back, Savitar previously couldn't exist if Iris didn't die on May 24, 2017.
- Pretender Diss: Thawne mocks Zoom for relying on Velocity drugs to match Barry's speed.
- Race Lift: In the comics Max Mercury is a Caucasian, although he got his powers from Native American magic. Here, he's played by First Nations actor Trevor Carroll.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Savitar's armor now sports the red light Barry had for his brief time using it.
- Relationship Upgrade: Joe and Cecile finally get engaged as Barry and Iris welcome baby Nora home.
- The Reveal: The entire season, Team Flash was led to believe that Caitlin died as a result of her attempts to bring Frost back, with Khione being a separate entity from both, born of those attempts that happened to carry Caitlin's face. Turns out Khione is a deity summoned due to said attempts that possessed Caitlin's body, her having survived, and upon departing to assert herself as the goddess of nature, returned Caitlin's body to her.
- Shout-Out:
- Eobard blasting Chester with red lightning while he recoils in pain over the console of the room is an obvious allusion to Emperor Palpatine doing the same thing to Luke in Return of the Jedi. For bonus points, the series finale aired the night before the 40th anniversary of Jedi.
- The fact that the series finale has The Hero / The Chosen One trying to build an army of similar heroes to himself by Super-Empowering others brings to mind the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy and Willow did the same thing to empower a large number of Potential Slayers to fight alongside Buffy as fellow Slayers. Bonus points for the Big Bad in both instances being a literal essence of evil who can't actually be killed, only de-fanged instead. The icing of the cake is that this episode aired the same week as the 20th anniversary of "Chosen".
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Thawne mocks Allegra for his attack on Chester (and the fact that he resembles her former mentor Nash Wells), Allegra responds, "Stop talking" and hits him with a blast of ultraviolet rays.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: When Cecille uses her mind-reading to reveal Godspeed's insecurities (such as fearing he's losing a piece of his soul with every person he kills), August lashes out with his duplicates.Godspeed: You want a piece of my soul? How about a few dozen?!
- Spoiler Opening: Averted. When the various evil speedsters meet up inside the Negative Speed Force and Thawne insists he is the fastest man alive, August Heart/Godspeed claims he is the true god of speed. Cue the previous claimant to that title returning — and then the credits announce that Tobin Bell plays the voice of Savitar.
- Super-Empowering: Barry decides to share his powers at the end, empowering Avery Ho, Max Mercury and Jess Chambers.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Barry eventually manages to talk Eddie down, convincing him that they can end the cycle of violence together. Eddie, notably, tells Barry that that they are still on opposing sides and they might not always be eye-to-eye in the future.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Eobard plans on usurping the act of taking Barry's life from Eddie. He never gets this far due to Allegra knocking him out and then him disappearing entirely once Eddie absorbs his speed.
- Three-Month-Old Newborn: Baby Nora came out already having hair.
- Time Crash: Thanks to the actions of the Negative Speed Force, the timeline is at risk of breaking apart.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Nora West-Allen is played by Jessica Parker Kennedy as an adult and various babies as a newborn.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: While waiting for the birth to complete, Nora briefly worries that her being so close to her younger self might risk damaging the timeline. Thankfully, no damage is caused, not even when Nora holds her own infant self.
- To Win Without Fighting: Barry convinces Eddie to stop his revenge by offering co-existence between the positive and negative Forces.
- Trash the Set: Thawne wrecks up STAR Labs’ cortex in his fight with Chester and Allegra.
- Underestimating Badassery: The returning evil speedsters all underestimate their foes, and are quickly defeated for it.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The four former Big Bad Speedster Villains are dealt with fairly quickly.
- Villain Team-Up: Eddie makes common cause with Thawne, Savitar, Zoom and Godspeed.
- Voice of the Legion: How Eddie speaks as the Avatar.
- A Wizard Did It: The best way to explain Savitar's return despite the issues it presents to the current timeline of the Arrowverse.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Eddie chooses to absorb the evil speedsters, enhancing his own speed immensely.
"Maybe if we share a piece of ourselves, we can break out of our old cycles of violence and pain. Create a new world for you, Nora. A better one. One where we can coexist. All of us, together. A world where nothing has to be impossible, as long as we believe in it."
— Barry's last monologue
