The Flash 8x05 Review: "Armageddon, Part 5" (The Thawne Problem) [Contributor: Deborah M]

“Armageddon, Part 5”

Original Airdate: December 14, 2021

This week on The Flash, Joe is alive again thanks to time travel shenanigans! Since he was only dead due to much more evil time travel shenanigans, this will not cause any unfortunate timeline consequences. Not that the time travel shenanigans in this show ever actually make any sense in terms of consequences or continuity.

THAWNE IS THE WORST

Still in the middle of the conversation to Joe that Barry started last episode, we see Joe’s side of the phone call just before Barry zips in and gives him a hug, then explains the whole ordeal with Thawne. But also alive, as it turns out, is Damien Darhk, who shows up at Joe’s place just when Barry announces how he feels like he can relax again. Darhk blames his resurrection (or not-dying?) on his connection to the Time Stone that Barry was wearing when he went Mach 20 and opened the space-time continuum or whatever. He got dragged along with Barry and he seems pretty sure the whole “die and allow his daughter to live” plan is still on target, just a little delayed for reasons unknown.

Later, as Barry and Team Flash are chatting about everything Barry went through over the past few days that they no longer remember, Iris gets an alert that the CCPD is under attack by Thawne. Thawne is indeed at the CCPD, lightning-striking a bunch of officers and bellowing about how he’s trying to lure Barry to him. Barry isn’t the one that shows up, though — instead, Mia Queen is there as the Green Arrow, asking about the location of her brother William. Mia recognizes Thawne is suffering from temporal displacement and notes that he’s not long for this world. 

Before Thawne can speed-phase his hand through Mia and kill her for wasting his time, Barry finally shows and gets Thawne to admit why he lured Barry to the CCPD to be in front of witnesses: he wants Barry to save him. I vote “no” on that, mostly because saving the guy who has no qualms about murdering everyone and potentially destroying the world just to get first place in a foot race is an obnoxiously stupid thing to do. But, I already know going into this that Team Flash will be doing the obnoxiously stupid thing here and the show will try to frame it as a sign of his true “goodness” even though I suspect it’s actually because the writers can’t bear not having Thawne dangling over the show like the low-hanging fruit this hollow and pointless character has become.

And Mia Queen has instantly become my ally, because she also thinks Team Flash is stupid for even entertaining the idea of saving Thawne. Unfortunately, Mia also has a real case of YA Novel Protagonist Syndrome, which is to say she’s overly surly and kind of bratty, so I’ve gotta weigh the good with the bad here. Anyway, Mia tells Iris she’s in 2021 looking for her brother, who’s been missing for two years.

Look, it’s not even that Barry et al. have to actually murder Thawne. The timeline is handling that for them — all they would have to do is just not save him, which shouldn’t be such a moral quandary. If Thawne had a terminal disease unrelated to fiddling with timelines, would Team Flash be obligated to cure him? If he swallowed poison of his own volition, would they be morally required to find and administer the antidote? That last question is actually mose fitting in this case because Thawne is disappearing from the timeline because he messed with it — furthermore, he’s disappearing because the timeline has objectively decided that he does not belong in it.

Oh, hey, I’ve got Caitlin on my side too! She determines that Thawne has about two hours left and implies that she could totally let Thawne die. Because he’s a moron, Thawne mocks the person holding his life in her hands and then Caitlin shoots back at him a speech that is honestly the best thing Caitlin has done or said on this show in years. It boils down to her knowing, as a doctor, that death is a part of life and she’s always accepted that — and also, she really hates Thawne. I can’t do it justice in a recap.

Barry visits Thawne and asks him why he’s so obsessed with destroying his life, to which Thawne replies that “Destroying [Barry] is [Thawne’s] life.” Again, not a great thing to say to someone you’re trying to convince to save you, my guy. Thawne’s actual story isn’t much better. Almost 200 years in the future, Barry meets Thawne for the first time while Thawne was about to show off his speed or something and it is legitimately such a bad villain origin story I don’t even care about the details. Barry agrees, calling Thawne a sociopath for having such an extreme reaction to something inconsequential. Barry then asks Thawne what he plans on doing once he’s saved, and Thawne tells him he’s gonna keep on tryin’ to murder him. Wow. This guy is really bad at negotiating for his life.

Despero pops up as Barry is leaving Thawne, like an annoying Shakespeare reject jack-in-the-box, and tells Barry Thawne’s gotta die. We know, dude! We all know! Barry tells Despero to kill him himself but Despero says he might come back if he does that. Uh... how? What? Why? If the timeline is erasing him, what does it matter if he dies before it happens? The timeline will still “solidify” or whatever we’re calling it now, so he’ll be erased regardless of whether he’s actually alive at the time or not. But, fine. Add more unnecessary drama.

Speaking of unnecessary drama: Allegra and Chester are against letting Thawne die, because they gotta speak for the stupid side of this argument for some reason. Caitlin, who’s on Team Kill Thawne with Barry and Iris, brings up the same thing I did and mentions that Thawne did this to himself and he’s getting killed by a timeline correcting his mistakes, but Allegra and Chester still think Team Flash has some moral obligation to save a murderer who 1) made his own bed and has to lie in it, and 2) fully admitted that once he’s in the clear he’s going to keep trying to kill Barry for basically no reason.

Frustratingly, Joe is also on the side of saving Thawne and comes equipped with Dad Voice, which is devastating to Iris and Barry’s willpower.

Barry admits that he could save Thawne by taking away his speed, which doesn’t make sense to me because Thawne’s dying as a time anomaly, not because of his speed. But, fine. Before anyone can implement any plan, Despero reappears to make vague threats again and declares that he’ll take matters into his own hands, and Barry calls him out for being a villain and not the hero he claims to be. Since Despero has also mind-controlled Mia into killing Team Flash for not killing Thawne, Barry has a point.

Thus proceeds a fairly annoying parallel fight sequence between Mia and Team Flash and Despero and Barry, in which a character I don’t know (Mia) has to be pep-talked into breaking Despero’s connection to her and a character I don’t like (Despero) does a lot of blabbering. Despero plans on wiping out the city to kill Thawne, Thawne’s time is running out in minutes, and Barry gets some new shoes to help him disconnect Despero from the Flame of Py’tar, which he does — and, of course, Despero vows revenge. Barry then solves the problem of Thawne by taking away his speed.

Ironically for an episode all about doing “the right thing” and being heroes, Barry saving Thawne’s life but taking away his speed seems to have been the cruelest solution in Thawne’s mind. Hm. Funny how stuff ain’t so black and white, huh?

At the celebratory party post-everything, Darhk shows up and is sad he’s not dead yet. Barry tells Darhk he’s really sorry he’s not dead yet, too, and Darhk appreciates the sentiment. Later, Joe chats with Darhk about parenthood and Darhk hands over the Time Stone before being pulled elsewhere. In a bright world of desaturation, he’s reunited with Nora briefly before disappearing and Nora is deposited in his place at the Team Flash party. Joe comforts the distraught Nora Darhk, and Barry makes a nice speech about destiny to everyone else.

Everything seems like it’s over, but then we cut to CCPD and a photograph of officers on the wall, dated 2014. Some little lightning buzzes fade in and out to reveal Bart and Nora West-Allen in the photograph with CCPD officers.

Other Things:

• Joe: “Barry, why is there a super villain standing in my living room?” Darhk: “Thank you.” I feel like if Damien Darhk were Barry’s arch-nemesis instead of Speedster Obsessed with Speed (Original Flavor) I’d have a lot more fun with this show.
• This story arc was mentally exhausting. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.

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Grey’s Anatomy 18x07 Recap: “Today Was a Fairytale” (Confessions) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Today Was a Fairytale”

Original Airdate: December 9, 2021

After a few weeks off, Grey’s Anatomy came roaring back with a big reveal. While some fans may have seen it coming, it’s a pretty large surprise that will surely add some juicy drama down the line. We also get to spend more time in Minnesota than ever, which leads to some good payoffs as well. 

THE BLUES

The episode begins at Jo’s loft, where Link is moping while looking at pictures of him and Amelia. Jo’s trying to get ready for a day out with Link and the kids. Link complains that Amelia keeps saying that nothing has changed for her, and Jo doesn’t want to hear about it anymore. As he keeps scrolling, Link happens across a photo of him and Jo working at a restaurant together before they both became doctors. While it seems like a fun moment for the friends, that picture sets up an episode full of past and present reveals. Over at Grey Sloan Memorial, Maggie surprises Winston at a coffee cart and he is beyond happy to see her. She came back a day early because she didn’t want to be away from him any longer. It’s a sweet reunion, and Winston decides to bail on his plans to spend the day with his wife.

In Minnesota, Meredith and Nick arrive at the hospital together. Mer is upset that she had to stay an extra day for an emergency meeting that Hamilton called. Mer gets a call from Bailey, who is very unhappy that Grey Sloan Memorial’s booth at a medical student convention got moved to a lesser spot. Bailey gets even madder when she finds out Mer won’t be attending the convention, and Mer realizes she forgot to hit “send” on a text to her the night before. Mer tells Bailey she will make it up to her before hanging up, which she will do by the end of the episode. Bailey is joined by Dr. Lin, but neither knows where Winston is. Winston is too busy sleeping with Maggie in an on-call room at the hospital and decides not to answer Bailey’s text.

Mer finds Amelia and Kai in the lab and asks if they know why Hamilton called a meeting. Hamilton walks in and announces to the group that he fell and sprained his wrist because his foot gave out. His Parkinson’s is getting worse, and he wants to know why they aren’t moving faster to find a cure. He wants the experimental surgery now, but the other doctors insist they aren’t ready yet. Hamilton goes on a small tirade and tells Mer that he hired her to get things done. Mer reminds him that the team is working around the clock and that groundbreaking medicine doesn’t happen overnight. Hamilton snaps back that everyone knows if Mer wants something, she finds a way. He also says that he will fire Mer if she doesn’t make the surgery happen ASAP. Mer is steamed from her confrontation with Hamilton, so she complains to Amelia afterwards that Hamilton is like her mother, Ellis. Mer is also mad that she had to stay an extra day and be away from her kids just to get yelled at. Amelia tries to help by saying that the team is making progress on the injections for the surgery. She suggests that Mer takes the day off while the rest of the team continues to solve the rest of the issues.

Back in Seattle, Link and Jo take the kids to the park to see a play. They continue to talk about working at the restaurant together as they walk. Link is still in a pessimistic mood and even quips that he hates that Jo talks so much to Luna. They sit down to watch a small production of Rapunzel. It’s the first time that Jo is seeing the tale, which confounds Link. She doesn’t like the story either. When an actor tries to climb Rapunzel’s hair, he falls off the tower. Jo and Link run up to the stage to help.

The actor, Jeremy, has a thready, irregular pulse and is in a lot of pain. He has an open femoral fracture, which Link has to reduce and splint immediately because the injury is cutting off blood flow to his leg. Jeremy screams when Link sets the leg before immediately crashing. A female actor tells the docs that Jeremy has a heart condition and wears a medical bracelet while Jo starts CPR. Link sends the friend to get a defibrillator from the park.

THE CHANGING TIMES

It’s never stated where the medical student convention is located, but given that a bunch of Grey Sloan Memorial’s top surgeons were supposed to attend, it’s more than likely somewhere near, or in, Seattle. Bailey pitches a student on Grey Sloan Memorial’s residency program, but the student leaves without leaving her info when another student says a Chicago hospital is giving out deep dish pizza. Bailey sees another hospital giving students massages, while the hospital has nothing flashy. Lin says they should have done a dog and pony show too. Bailey replies that they were supposed to have Mer, Owen, and Winston to pitch students, but they all cancelled. Both doctors agree that they need an idea to get students’ attention quickly.

Over in Minnesota, Mer goes to find Nick after he sends her a text. She gripes that she may quit after the way Hamilton treated her. Nick hands her a tablet to look at scans of a patient’s adrenal gland tumor. Nick explains the patient was a living kidney transplant donor and he had worked on the case. He wants Mer to operate and partially resect the kidney to save his own butt. Mer agrees to help, but the way Nick presents the case is a little off.

In the lab, Amelia and Kai are working hard on cell cultures. They talk about research and why Kai got into that field. Kai has been working on the project for two years, and Amelia cheekily says she doesn’t have that kind of patience. Kai explains how they didn’t want to be an MD and found the science aspect more interesting. They ask Amelia why she went into neuro, and Amelia supposes she picked that specialty to be like her brother. Kai asks who her brother is, and Amelia tells them they are now her favorite person. The pair’s latest cell culture winds up not working, and Kai gets very mad and storms off.

At the park, Jeremy’s leg is bleeding profusely, making Link worry that an artery was torn. He improvises by packing the wound with diapers to help stop the bleeding, and then uses one of the actor’s belts as a tourniquet. Jeremy’s friend comes back with the defibrillator, and Jo instructs her to put the pads on Jeremy’s chest. Link and Jo keep shocking Jeremy, but they can’t get a normal heart rhythm because his medical condition makes his heart beat irregularly. The ambulance they called still hasn’t arrived, and they need epinephrine to revive Jeremy. Link runs to the audience to see if any parents have EpiPens, and he manages to get a few. He injects the first EpiPen into Jeremy’s leg, but realizes it will take too long since you have to hold the pen for a few seconds to fully release the medicine. Jo asks the friend to take over CPR so she can help Link administer the EpiPens. After the third one, Jeremy’s heart restarts and the ambulance arrives at the same time. Link tells Jo that he will ride in the ambulance and to meet him at the hospital with the kids.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Mer examines her new patient with Nick and his favorite resident, Dr. Jordan Wright, who will be assisting in the OR. Mer explains to the patient that he has a rare kidney tumor, but she thinks she will be able to remove all of it. The patient asks if Nick can be in the room, which everyone agrees on. Amelia goes to check on Kai, who is pacing outside. Kai wants to know if Mer walks, will Amelia leave too. Amelia doesn’t really say what she will do and tries to sidestep the question. She thinks walking will help boost their creativity, so the two doctors take a stroll. After a few minutes, Kai is done with the break and is ready to get back to work.

We then get to see a sweet moment at Grey Sloan Memorial between Winston and Maggie. Winston asks how her dad is, and Maggie is happy to report that he is doing better. She doesn’t think her dad wanted her to leave and tried to prolong her visit. Maggie enjoyed spending time with her dad, but she also hated being away from Winston. In one of the best lines of the season, Winston tells Maggie, “You are my dream come true.” His phone goes off with a cardio page, but he doesn’t answer since he wants more quality time with Maggie.

The hospital's table at the medical student convention has a big crowd to hear about the Webber Method from the participants themselves. Richard, Schmitt, and another resident have shown up to help pitch Grey Sloan Memorial to the students. Schmitt and the other resident talk to the students about how the Webber Method gives them more autonomy, bigger caseloads, and lots of solo surgeries. The students seem very interested, until they get notifications that their personalized tote bags are ready to be picked up at another hospital’s booth.

BREAKTHROUGH

Jo finally makes it to the hospital with two strollers in tow and barely gets down the hall before she is stopped by Jeremy’s friend. The friend would like an update and can’t get any information because she’s not family. Jo obviously just walked through the door and doesn’t know anything. The friend explains how Jeremy is her best friend and that they are family from how closely they have worked together for many years. She needs to know that he’s going to be okay, so Jo asks her to watch the kids so she can check on him herself.

Back in the lab, Kai and Amelia try another cell culture. They go back to their previous conversation, and Kai describes how they like research because finding the unthinkable is an amazing feeling. Well, that feeling will have to wait because the latest culture is unsuccessful. After some problem solving thinking, Amelia realizes that the issue is temperature-related and that they need to find a way to keep the cells cold in the needle for them to work. The pair excitedly tries to figure out a way to make that happen.

In the OR, Mer and Wright work on resecting the tumor while Nick supervises and attempts to micromanage Mer. The patient’s blood pressure starts to elevate, which causes Nick to get anxious. Mer asks if he needs to step out because he is too invested, and Nick says he is fine. Mer then asks if he doesn’t trust her, which prompts Nick to finally reveal the truth. The patient is actually Nick’s long time best friend, who also happened to be Nick’s kidney donor. Mer immediately kicks Nick out of the OR and isn’t happy that she didn’t know that info in advance.

In the hospital OR, Link begins to operate on Jeremy’s leg, and Teddy scrubs in to help with the cardio side of things. Jeremy starts crashing again, so Teddy takes over and says they need a temporary pacing kit. Link starts CPR so Teddy can place the pacing wire. The scene changes back to the Minnesota OR, where Mer and Wright have gotten their surgical field back under control. Mer tells Wright that she sees why he is Nick’s favorite resident, as he has been a star in the OR. Wright is impressed that Mer trained under Bailey and starts singing Bailey’s praises. He also says working with Mer is the highlight of his career. Mer asks why he didn’t do his residency at the hospital if he wanted to learn from Bailey, so Wright explains he didn’t match at Grey Sloan Memorial, which broke his heart.

Back in Washington, Maggie shows up at the hospital convention booth and says hi to Bailey. She apologizes that she and Winston are late and says that he is parking the car. Bailey is pissed and wants Maggie to fix the day’s problems because everything is not okay. She explains that they shouldn’t have to throw gifts at students to attract them and doesn’t want to beg for students’ attention. Maggie suggests she takes a break, so Bailey storms off.

Over in the lab, Hamilton watches Amelia and Kai try cooler needles that were chilled in a freezer. They think the key is injecting the cells before they have a chance to warm back up. Amelia tells Hamilton his constant questions aren’t helping, but quickly changes her tune when the test works. The new culture hits a 92% success rate, which meets the FDA’s 90% viability standard. Hamilton is elated and hopes he didn’t run off Mer. Amelia is stunned that they may have found a cure for Parkinson’s.

After surgery, Teddy and Link tell Jeremy’s friend that he’s going to be fine. He needs a permanent pacemaker and will make a full recovery. Teddy takes the friend to visit Jeremy, and Link stays behind to talk to Jo. She thinks that the friend is in love with Jeremy. Link believes they can be best friends and also be in love. He then casually drops a massive bomb by telling Jo that he had a huge crush on her when they were younger. Link only worked at the restaurant to be near her. He wound up changing his tune to be her best friend because he saw that that’s what she needed. Jo clearly had no idea and is absolutely shocked. With a smile, Link says he doesn’t know what he would do without her. He starts walking away to go get changed and says they should grab dinner on their way home, leaving a stunned Jo in the hallway. It’s funny that Link doesn’t realize that he dropped a bomb on Jo and that Jo doesn’t know how to react.

Mer goes to find Nick after surgery and tells him that his friend is going to be okay. She was able to remove the full tumor without any damage to the kidney. Nick thanks her and talks about playing Little League with his friend, who also sat through all of dialysis with Nick. He didn’t want to put that burden on Mer and make her personally involved, which is why he didn’t say anything in advanced. Mer replies that she’s always personally invested, whether she knows the person she’s operating on or not. She tells him that there’s no such thing as a body on a table for her and that she even makes up little stories about her patients if she doesn’t know their stories. Mer says she can handle the burden, which is her way of saying, “Don’t do that again.” Nick asks Mer if she made up a story when she operated on him. Mer didn’t have to because he told her everything in advance. A relieved Nick tells Mer that he owes her one before she walks away.

We then see Jo and Link eating Chinese food at home. Jo announces that she Googled Rapunzel to find out how the story ends and recites the parts they didn’t see. She hopes they will both still get their happy ending and that maybe this bad patch they have been going through is the middle part to finding their happily ever after. Jo poses a very good question: “When two people have been there for each other, don’t they deserve to be happy?” Link latches onto that idea, but not in the way Jo was hoping. Link realizes he has been holding onto a fairytale and that his relationship with Amelia doesn’t have to be like that. He can wait and doesn’t need to marry her now. He loves her and thinks that can be enough. Link decides he will go pick up Amelia from the airport and leaves. Jo looks kind of devastated, which makes it clear that she was talking about her and Link being happy together. This is quite an interesting pickle that was presented in this episode. It should be very interesting to see how it all plays out in the second half of the season.

Speaking of Amelia, we see her and Kai leaving the hospital for the night. Kai says they are lucky to have Amelia as the lead neurosurgeon on the Parkinson’s project because she saved the study. Kai thinks Amelia became a neurosurgeon because she is driven by process and outcome. They are both glad that they will continue to work together since Hamilton is keeping the band together. Kai asks Amelia if she would like to go out to dinner, but Amelia has to decline since she has to catch a plane. She is happy that she will see Kai next week, and I can’t wait to see Amelia’s reaction to whatever craziness Link tells her when she gets back to Seattle. 

The episode ends at the hospital when Mer shows up at Bailey’s office to talk. Bailey is still mad at Mer. She’s also upset that she recruits the best students and teaches them everything she knows only for them to all leave and make groundbreaking contributions to medicine elsewhere while she spends the whole day trying to convince new students that she is worth their time. Bailey is not wrong and her frustration is warranted. Mer has someone that she wants Bailey to meet, and Wright walks through the door. He wants to transfer to Grey Sloan Memorial, and Mer praises his talents to Bailey. Wright tells Bailey that he wants to learn from her. Mer smiles and leaves as Bailey says she’s listening. Wright sits down to pitch Bailey on why he wants to transfer. This is truly a great ending to the episode because Bailey finally gets the love, respect, and win that she is looking for.

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The Flash 8x04 Review: "Armageddon, Part 4" (Love and Paradoxes) [Contributor: Deborah M]

“Armageddon, Part 4”

Original Airdate: December 7, 2021

We’re still Armageddon-ing out here in The Flash as the five-part crossover event continues. This week, the show attempts to make sense of time travel shenanigans and fails to do anything other than confuse and anger me.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS

Previously on The Flash, Barry went ten years into the future to find Eobard Thawne getting engaged to Iris. Currently on The Flash, Barry tries to talk to the angry people surrounding him at that engagement party. To prove he’s not evil, he attempts to change into his Flash costume but ends up in the yellow Reverse-Flash costume. Thawne is the one with the red costume and the Flash moniker now. This, by the way, completely goes against my understanding of fictional time travel, which generally treats the possessions of the time traveler as part of the traveler themselves — i.e., if Barry remembers being the Flash and wearing his red suit when he traveled through time, the suit should remain red within his ring because the suit and his memories fall along the same timeline. One changing without the other is a paradox. But, whatever. The people in charge wanted the wacky suit-switch to happen so here we are.

A fight breaks out, since everyone at this party is a superhero and they think Barry is a villain. While fighting, Barry does the thing I absolutely loathe every time characters find themselves in alternate realities or timelines: he begs them to see sense and asks them why they’re acting weird. Because this isn’t your freaking reality, Barry! You knew that stepping into this scenario, why are you shocked? Barry gets beat up but takes a moment to zip over, swipes Iris, and tries to talk to her back at what is now the West-Thawne loft.

Before he can get far, Thawne swipes Barry and deposits him in an alley. It’s a proper villain gloatin’ alley. Thawne says he created a Reverse-Flashpoint, which is different from a Flashpoint because it has the word “reverse” in front of it, and orchestrated everything to steal Barry’s life from him. Thawne made sure he was struck by lightning in 2013, that Iris wrote about him as the horribly-named The Streak, and he led Team Flash and got Iris to fall in love with him. Doesn’t this imply that Iris only fell in love with Barry because he was the Flash? I always got the impression that Barry and Iris had mutual childhood crushes on each other, but Thawne implies being the Flash is the way to Iris’s heart and that… is not a good implication for your leading lady, The Flash.

Thawne keeps talking, saying that he actually went back in time and successfully killed Barry as a child. This means Barry is Back to the Future-ing out of existence and, when Thawne’s new timeline solidifies at midnight, he will cease to exist. But… how is this timeline’s Barry the Reverse-Flash? How did the yellow suit get into Barry’s suit ring? Why do timelines solidify at midnight instead of instantly? We’re so early in the episode and I already have many questions.

Barry can’t even turn to the Speed Force because Thawne says that in his new timeline the Speed Force chose him instead of Barry. He shoots Barry with speed-lightning and declares his victory, shouting, “Who’s the fastest now?!” I always forget this rivalry is about being fast. I always forget that, because it’s the stupidest possible thing to base an epic timeline-and-universe-spanning rivalry on. Fastness. Good heavens, man, get a hobby.

Barry overhears that Damien Darhk was Reverse-Flash’s partner in crime and recently got released from Iron Heights on a technicality after being imprisoned for killing the alternate timeline versions of Cisco, all of the Legends, and Ray Palmer. Barry pays Darhk a visit to get his help, pretending to be the actual Reverse-Flash and spinning a story about how Thawne-Flash went back in time to orchestrate a new timeline. Darhk repeatedly and incorrectly calls fiddling with time “creating an anachronism” when I’m pretty sure he (and the writers) means “paradox.” Anachronisms are like, seeing an iPhone in Renaissance Italy, bro, not creating a whole new timeline. 

Darhk explains how they’ll need the “Particle Eradication Distributor” or “PED” in order to “correct” the timeline. Instead of just playing off his ignorance of this PED MacGuffin as a side effect of time travel hijinks, Barry tries to act all villainous and does not do a great job of it. This is going to go well! Remarkably, Darhk seems to believe Barry and they hatch a plan to retrieve the PED from STAR Labs.

Meanwhile, at STAR Labs, Thawne is still playing the role of heroic team leader. So did this guy really like, save people and stuff for years? Pretended to be friends with and care about all his team members? Or did he just blip back onto the scene as a hero after his timeline-altering and he’s only been pretending for a few days now? So. Many. Questions. And the show will answer none of them!

Barry and Darhk infiltrate STAR Labs for the PED, with Darhk making the attacks and Barry quickly locating the PED. Darhk wants to go all-in by killing Team Flash on this, the day before Thawne-Flash’s wedding, but Barry stops him and zips them back to Darhk’s place. Darhk is suspicious, leading to Barry telling him the truth about Thawne being the real Reverse-Flash planning to erase Barry at midnight. Allying with Darhk was really a best case scenario, because he’s both amused enough by Thawne’s evil to stop trying to kill Barry and susceptible to Barry appealing to him as a father. Darhk agrees to help Barry restore the timeline.

As a hint toward true love surpassing the power of time travel shenanigans, Iris confesses to Batwoman/Ryan Wilder that she’s struggling with her wedding vows because she can’t stop thinking about her brief conversation with Barry. Ryan tells Iris to listen to her heart and everything will work out.

After running some calculations, Barry realizes that he’ll need to hit Mach 20 to time travel and needs a runway of about 40,000 miles. Darhk suggests running around the world, which would have a cataclysmic effect on the planet and cause the Armageddon that Despero warned them all about. Darhk tells Barry he needs to try it anyway, because otherwise he’s leaving the whole planet in Thawne’s hands, but Barry’s still worried about his ability to reach the right speed at the right time. Hilariously, when Barry asks what else besides speed could help him, Darhk yells, “Love, you idiot!” and brings up the fact that Barry restarted the whole universe with love.

Darhk has to pep talk Barry into believing in the power of love, which is pretty strange coming from a villain. Still, it’s what Barry needs for inspiration and he goes to visit Iris again before trying their time travel plan. Iris pulls a gun on Barry but just as he’s about to get all emotional, Thawne shows up and tells her to shoot him. Instead, Iris shoots Thawne and tells Barry to leave before she changes her mind. Barry goes back to Darhk, ready to do his little run around the globe and open a temporal portal.

In a matter of seconds after Barry starts running, the Armageddon stuff starts happening and alt-Team Flash goes after Darhk while Thawne goes after Barry. Darhk tries to keep Barry on task from afar via magic, but ends up felled by Ryan Choi, Alex, Frost, and Chillblaine. It’s up to Barry to use his love for Iris to fuel that extra burst of speed that generates the temporal portal, which Barry dives through.

Back in 2021, Despero has killed all of Team Flash while interrogating them on Barry’s location, with Cecile being the last one left alive. Just as he’s about to kill Cecile as well, a wave sweeps through the room as the timeline is reset. So we don’t have to wait until midnight for that timeline to solidify, then? Okay. Barry gives Despero a recap on everything that has happened since he left for 2031, so Despero goes to 2031 to confirm it.

Barry reunites with a much happier Team Flash and finds out that Joe is still alive. Yay! But then we see that Thawne is hatching another plot against Barry. Boo!

Other Things:

• Most of the alternate-reality stuff involved characters I don’t really know, but one The Flash-related plot was Allegra and Chester becoming a thing.
• Damien Darhk calls Chillblaine “Chill-lame” and while that’s not the best bon mot I’ve ever heard, I am so on his side. I have to assume the writers know what an awful tool Chillblaine is, right? Dude wears a furry jacket and no shirt as his superhero costume.

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The Flash 8x03 Review: "Armageddon, Part 3" (Three Down, Two to Go) [Contributor: Deborah M]

“Armageddon, Part 3”

Original Airdate: November 30, 2021

We’re on the third part of Barry’s five-part spiral into madness and DCTV crossovers! Will Barry end the world? Will Despero continue to speak like a Shakespeare Company reject? Will more DCTV characters show up in a very limited capacity that stretches the definition of “crossover event”? Only time will tell! But my personal predictions are no, yes, and yes, respectively.

PATHS DIVERGE

You know things got real last episode because the music at the start of this episode is immediately dramatic and we’ve switched to a hand-held camera to properly convey Barry’s panic. We start off in the Hall of Justice, where Barry is trying to get Black Lightning/Jefferson Pierce to help him. Apparently the “injustice” Barry spoke of last week was a code for the contingency plan all the superheroes came up with: the Injustice Protocols, for when one of them goes rogue. Barry tells Jefferson he needs to take away his powers. Poor Jefferson’s got a vibe like, “I don’t know this man well enough to be talking him off this ledge,” but he’s trying his best and that’s all anyone can ask for.

Barry explains how he’s gone off the rails, ending with the fact that he’d forgotten Joe’s death, and implores Jefferson to take away his powers. Jefferson promises he will, but they have to be absolutely certain because the method they use makes power removal permanent. So... use a different method? You can’t adjust metahuman cuffs to Barry’s powers?

At Chester’s house, which is perhaps the most “normal suburban” house I have ever seen on a TV show that wasn’t a sitcom about a working class family, the rest of the team worries over Barry’s fate. Cecile says their goal is to take care of Barry during his mental health crisis the same way Barry took care of her. Iris interrupts any further discussion by raising the possibility that Barry is actually the sanest of all of them. After all, Despero showed up, told Barry he would suffer a crisis that would break him, and that exact thing happened in a big way. Chester says what I was thinking, which is that Despero traveling from the future would make his ability to predict what would happen to Barry fairly precise.

Cecile asks about Barry forgetting Joe’s death, and it turns out Iris has footage of what would have been Joe’s accidental death by train... if not for the fact that Joe completely disappears from the path of the train in said footage. Cecile insists they all saw them bury Joe. You guys had an open casket funeral for a guy who got hit by a high speed train? Cecile tells Iris to stop living in a fantasy world so they can all deal with Barry.

I think Cecile is being bizarrely over the top in her refusal to listen to Iris, especially since the video footage Iris shows her is obviously weird. Joe disappears from the path of the train in a way that’s actually detectable to the human eye, without much slow motion. Iris has a lot of good points and isn’t coming at the death of her father from a neutral angle, but Cecile acts as if Iris is a stranger wanting to dredge up Joe’s death for the heck of it. But, I suppose there has to be some element of personal drama in this part of the story and the best the writers could do was make Cecile the primary opposition.

The team splits up, with Iris and Allegra going off and Caitlin and Chester sticking with Cecile. Makes sense, since Team Cecile is focusing on finding Barry and the science-minded members of Team Flash could come in handy there, while Iris and Allegra are both investigative journalists who could find what happened to Joe.

TEAM IRIS

At the train station, Iris spots something funny about the track Joe “died” on but Allegra doesn’t catch anything and Iris seems to blink it away. Allegra blames Iris’s time sickness, then suggests they look at the security cameras to check if anything could have been doctored in the footage of Joe. After checking with the sympathetic security guard, he blames the station sharing a power grid with Shark Stadium for the glitched footage and shows them the locally-stored copy of Joe’s death where Joe does not disappear before the train hits.

Discouraged by the new footage, Iris wants to give up but Allegra doesn’t. She shows Iris a folder of inconsistencies in the train’s safety inspection and schedule, hinting that things lined up too perfectly to be natural. Allegra gives her a pep talk to keep on hoping, but it’s probably seeing the same sparkly magic dust from the train tracks on the evidence folder that makes Iris want to start investigating again.

Iris has Deon the Still Force meet her at the train station, where she explains the glitter dust and her suspicions about Joe’s death. She thinks someone’s altering reality but Deon insists no one’s messed with the timeline. Iris asks Deon to undo the treatments she’d undergone for time sickness, so that she can better see what someone might be trying to hide. Deon warns her it could mean blipping in and out of timelines again, “or worse,” but Iris insists. With a snap of his fingers, Deon undoes whatever he did to stabilize Iris and suddenly Iris can see what Deon calls “temporal isotopes.” He confirms that Joe wasn’t supposed to die, but someone tapped into the “Negative Still Force” to change the timeline.

TEAM CECILE

Since Despero gets a boost to his power from the “Flame of Py’tar,” Cecile figures she could get a boost to her own powers, and since she knows Barry far better than Despero does, she should be able to find him before he does. Chester is excited by the challenge to build a “Cerebro” out of whatever he has lying around but Cecile still doesn’t have the brain power Despero does. Good thing she knows who to call!

It’s Rosa Dillon, AKA “Top” — a character I barely remember. Not the biggest of reveals, there. Anyway, Top connects her brainwaves to Cecile’s to help find Barry and, in exchange, she gets reduced parole or something criminal-y. The two of them working together with some amplifier science gizmo Chester came up with yields a quick glimpse of Barry before Chester’s gizmo explodes. Cecile orders Chester to fix the amplifier while Despero spies on them with his forehead eyeball, like a creep.

Cecile talks to Caitlin about how hard it is being an empath surrounded by people grieving the same person she’s grieving and Caitlin reminds Cecile that she can’t bury her emotions. Their talk is interrupted by Chester getting an alert saying someone’s turned on the particle accelerator back at the currently-closed STAR Labs. Turns out it was Despero, who mind-whammies all the government officials keeping an eye on STAR Labs so that he can shove his hand into some wires and power himself up. This gives Team Cecile a ticking clock to find Barry before Despero catches up to them. They try the amplifier again and get more of Barry’s location, including a shot of Jefferson, but Despero interrupts before they can get any further. 

Despero puts Top in a coma trying to pry Barry’s location from her mind, then turns on Cecile to get the rest of it. Cecile zaps him away with her mind powers (and the power of love, thanks to her embracing her emotions as Caitlin suggested) and Chester finally pinpoints Barry’s location.

BACK TO BARRY

Jefferson is trying to zap the Speed Force out of Barry, which is evidently their best method for removing his powers. Barry lets it slip that he’s hiding from a dude named Despero, then he has to explain everything else. Jefferson is mad because Barry seems like he’s taking the easy way out by getting rid of his powers when there’s a chance they could fight Despero instead. A hero-on-hero fight ensues, with Barry trying to goad Jefferson into blasting his powers away. There is much destruction, including Barry destroying the Green Arrow costume shrine, which inspires Jefferson to give Barry a pep talk about not quitting.

Unfortunately, the pep talk is punctuated by Despero showing up and trying to murder Barry. Iris and Deon stop him, explain about someone fiddling with the timeline, but Despero doesn’t buy it. Jefferson lightning-lassos Despero long enough for Deon to load Barry up with Still Force, which should pull Barry into the future and toward any “weird temporal activity.” Barry heads to the future. Despero dramatically declares that they’ve killed the world and also teleports out of there.

In the future, Barry finds a sign that reads “West Party” and walks in to find Eobard Thawne getting engaged to Iris. When the gathered party sees Barry, they all look at him with disgust.

Other Things:

• I’m obligated to mention, once again, that it’s weird Eobard Thawne has just like, adopted Harrison Wells’s face forever now.

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The Flash 8x02 Review: "Armageddon, Part 2" (Mind Games) [Contributor: Deborah M.]

“Armageddon, Part 2”

Original Airdate: November 23, 2021

Who’s ready for part two of the end of the world, as caused by Barry Allen? Well, let’s be real and accept that there’s no way Barry is actually going to go crazy and destroy the world, but presumably figuring out why he gets the blame for that in ten years’ time should be fun. In order for that truth to roll out, though, we need to get through five parts of this big event and I need to be further confused by the characters and stories of a DCTV universe about which I know increasingly little.

ALL IN THE HEAD

“Armageddon, Part 2” starts where “Armageddon, Part 1” left off: Barry, unmasked, facing Despero after Despero has called a truce between them. Once the show is finished with some comically edited fast cuts between close-ups of Barry and Despero (complete with “THUNK!” noises on the soundtrack), Despero yells and slams Barry on the ground. Understandably, Barry is very confused by this and Despero explains that he was testing out a theory on Barry super-healing, which segues into a speech about pain, and I suspect I’m going to get really sick of Despero’s melodramatic way of talking really fast. Three more episodes of this guy!

Despero says Barry will go evil due to “madness” and then basically calls Barry an emo little wuss because of all the times Barry has let his own pain and suffering almost crush him. Harsh. Despero further monologues about how Barry’s recent influx of power means he’s even more susceptible to falling into madness, which is definitely a new one. So, super speed gives a person super healing, super metabolism, time travel powers, the ability to throw lightning, the ability to phase through walls, speed-thinking, self-replication, and a propensity for going bananas. Cool. Good to know this show is every kid I played superheroes with on the playground when I was little, making powers and weaknesses up as it goes along.

Later, Barry is called in by CCPD to the scene of, as the debriefing officer puts it, “your typical makes-no-sense bank robbery in Central City,” where the on-duty security guard was hospitalized for a supposed mental breakdown. The guard fired his gun in the air, clearing the bank, and when people returned the vault was empty and the guard was “stark-raving mad.” Before Barry can get to CSI-ing, though, Captain Kramer stops him, informs him that he’s been suspended, and tells him that he’s under investigation for federal crimes. Barry tries to get Kramer to let him stick around and investigate, but she decides against it, only promising to make sure the investigation is thorough.

After all that, Barry has told Cecile about his suspension and Cecile is furious. She basically promises to tear CCPD to the ground with a wrongful termination lawsuit, which Barry thinks is a bit extreme and asks if she’s feeling alright. Cecile admits that things have been hard “lately” and that Barry “[knows] why” but before Barry’s obvious confusion over that statement can be assuaged, Cecile gets some kind of psychic feedback from something else in the room with them.

It turns out to be Despero, appearing only to Barry in order to “assess [Barry’s] mental stability.” Hey, Despero, you know what doesn’t help with mental stability? Forcing visual and auditory hallucinations on a person! Anyway, Despero confirms that Barry is not yet crazy enough to destroy the world and disappears. Even Cecile wonders if maybe Despero is what drives Barry insane. But Barry mentions the whole security-guard-losing-his-mind situation and Cecile agrees that Barry’s impending insanity and that guy going cuckoo on the job can’t be a coincidence.

Good thing Barry’s ability to phase through walls means hospital visiting hours are 24/7, baby! Barry goes to the security guard’s hospital room to investigate. As Barry’s reading Security Guy’s medical chart, the dude starts muttering “Xotar” and abruptly jackknifes off the bed. Barry’s phone rings and he starts telling Caitlin about Xotar being their first lead, but he’s interrupted by the news that STAR Labs is getting shut down. The hits just keep on comin’ for Barry Allen today, huh?

Apparently STAR Labs hasn’t had updated radiation scanners in over a week and the city is shutting them down because they’re leaking radiation and are headed for a meltdown. Chester confirms that some of the equipment necessary for proper safety measures has corroded and they are, indeed, in dangerous levels of science stuff I don’t (and will not attempt to) understand. Not only does this mean evacuating STAR Labs and sealing it up, but the end plan is to completely demolish the building. To add an extra level of uh-oh to the situation, STAR Labs is littered with things that would ping it as HQ for the Flash, so Barry orders everyone to clear as much super secret stuff out as they can and skedaddle. This also means getting Gideon to self-destruct after hiding secret sections from the investigators with holograms.

Everyone gathers at the West-Allen loft, where Barry finally tells them about the security guard going crazy and Xotar. At the Citizen headquarters, Barry puts investigative reporter Iris in charge of figuring out who or what Xotar is (or, at least he lets her delegate to her team of reporters) while he talks to his wife about his worries. Iris comforts Barry with the fact that, last time his speed got into his brain with that speed-thinking situation, it had been the prospect of hurting his loved ones that snapped him out of it. Whatever might drive Barry to madness, Iris is certain nothing would push him so far as to hurt the people he cares about.

Iris’s underlings sure work fast. A minute into their conversation, Iris gets a text saying that Xotar is a meta who uses psychic abilities to get into the minds of her victims and make them go crazy. Barry quickly finds Xotar stealing diamonds, attacks, and suddenly finds himself in a semi-destroyed West-Allen loft with Allegra, Caitlin, and Chester all on defense against him. Barry has faced how many psychic-based metas at this point? And he went after Xotar — someone he thinks interacting with will eventually lead to the end of the world — with absolutely zero psychic defenses? Either he’s suddenly very dumb, the writers are very dumb, or absolutely nothing we think is happening is actually happening as we think it’s happening.

After cooling off and double-checking that Barry’s back in his right mind, everyone makes plans to capture Xotar and set up various STAR Labs alternatives. Barry zips around the city looking for Xotar, but is interrupted by the reappearance of Despero, who finally gives his tragic backstory: the planet he’s from was under the rule of a despot, he was a rebel staging a coup, his side won but Despero chose to spare the overthrown leader and the evil leader regained power and unleashed worse horrors. Despero lived but was banished, so he adopted Earth as his new home. Will we get an explanation for why Despero chose to meddle in the timeline of Earth instead of just going back and killing that evil leader on his home planet? Only time will tell.

In Chester’s garage and after he’s just finished telling Allegra a dramatic story about how he’s a pacifist but Frost wants him to build a weapon against Despero, some alarms go off and Chester gets in contact with Barry. Xotar is doing an art heist mid-transport. Barry runs to stop her, but it turns out Xotar also has telekinesis on top of psychic powers and she tries to bend Barry into a pretzel as she holds him fifty feet up in the air.

Barry wins against Xotar by blasting her with lightning (and damaging everything around him as well, but whatever). She gets cuffed, all her victims are returned to their non-crazy state, and it’s smiles all around until Barry mentions getting Joe to whip them up some lunch. Caitlin, Allegra, and Chester are all confused and the cinematography starts to go all floaty as each of them inform Barry that Joe West died six months ago.

Alas, it’s not increased super speed powers that will lead Barry to madness but tragedy, and it seems to have hit him well before Xotar entered the picture. Barry has completely forgotten the death of his father-in-law despite giving the eulogy at his funeral. When Barry zips over to the West household and starts babbling to Iris about investigating what really happened to Joe, Cecile interrupts and begs him to stop and just let everyone move on. The “ominous music” (as described by my closed captioning) ramps up until Iris gets an alert that the Flash is all over the news, having gone on some lightning-throwing rampage through the city.

Now with proof that Barry’s gone crazy, Despero shows up to kill him with his creepy third forehead eye. Cecile gets knocked out when she stands up to him and the next attempt gets stopped by one of Chester’s gadgets when he and Allegra suddenly appear. Despero is confused by why everyone wants to protect Barry when it’s clear he’s going to destroy the world, then promises that he won’t spare anyone who gets in his way next time.

Other Things:

• There is just something really funny about Barry looking into a crowd of normal looky-loos at the bank robbery crime scene and seeing Despero staring back at him, wearing that ridiculous space-age Ren Faire costume he’s got on.
• Very limited crossover stuff this episode: just Alex from Supergirl on a monitor and an ending scene at the Hall of Justice in which Black Lightning shows up to frown as Barry dramatically says he needs his help with “injustice.”

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The Flash 8x01 Review: "Armageddon, Part 1" (Geddon With It) [Contributor: Deborah M.]

“Armageddon, Part 1”

Original Airdate: November 16, 2021

After ending season seven of The Flash with a happy wrap-up and some romantic renewed vows, the show is back for its eighth season with a five-part crossover special entitled “Armageddon.” So... with that title, I’m guessing those warm-fuzzies of last season aren’t going to be making a reappearance for a while. This epic event is unique in Arrowverse history, as it’s the first crossover in which all the episodes happen within a single show (evidently a COVID precaution, although I’m not entirely sure how — limited traffic on sets, maybe?) and it’s the first in which the Arrowverse’s titular Arrow will not be appearing.

Writing the reviews for these episodes is going to be really fun for me because I haven’t watched any Arrowverse show outside of The Flash for years and I probably won’t know who anyone else is. I hope they’re wearing name tags.

LEVELS. SO MANY LEVELS.

The episode starts with a text setting us in Central City, in the year 2031. Our villain, whose name we won’t know until the end of the episode but for the sake of easy writing I’m just gonna tell you it’s Despero, recites a monologue about having “the strength to do what must be done” while people run around in terror. 

Next, in the present day, we see Barry and Caitlin walking to get coffee. Their whole conversation is a cheerful, low-key infodump for the viewers: summer and fall have passed in-universe since the end of last season, Frost is heartbroken over (uhg, I forgot how much I hate this guy’s name) Mark “Chillblaine” Blaine, and Caitlin thinks she wants to try dating again. The friend-date over coffee is interrupted by news of an impending train collision, so Barry zips out to ensure it doesn't end in loss of life. He comes back after getting everyone on the trains to safety in twelve seconds and he’s all cool about it, indicating that Barry is a lot more sure of himself in season 8. Caitlin says that Barry has “leveled up,” which is a running thing this episode.

Speaking of leveling up: Iris’s “Citizen” paper has apparently evolved into a multimedia empire since last season, since she’s now doing podcasts and has multiple reporters on staff and the whole thing is being run out of a swanky new office building owned by Sue Dearbon. The Iris subplot of the episode is more of an Allegra subplot, while Iris fills the role of a mentor to Allegra and kind of guides Allegra through her first hurdles in a management position at the Citizen. Iris is still clearly a great journalist and everything, but the focus for “Armageddon, Part 1” is on how she excels at making those around her “level up,” as this episode would put it.

Later, at the West-Allen loft, a romantic candlelit dinner with pizza Barry zoomed in from Milan is interrupted by the arrival of Ray Palmer. Ray is cashing in on an offer Barry and Iris made promising him a place to stay in town, since Ray has arrived for CCTC, a tech convention being held in Central City.

And speaking of tech, we get the introduction to our villains of the week: four card-themed metas, one with apparent psychic/telepathic abilities (and all with absolutely ridiculous white face makeup) incapacitate some guards and steal a computer chip. I’m pretty sure every other line from these guys is poker themed and I’m genuinely shocked the writers could cram so many into a single episode.

But Team Flash will deal with those guys later. Meanwhile, Barry and Iris remain awkward with their new house guest. Ray reveals (to me, anyway) that he’s no longer with the Legends, isn’t really the Atom anymore, is trying to be more “balanced” in his life, and is married to a woman named Nora. Yes, yet another Nora in the DCTV universe. Anyway, Ray’s cheerful assessment of his life is interrupted by a knock at the door, revealing Chester in full Ray Palmer fanboy mode as he volunteers himself to be Ray’s CCTC liaison. Because everything is still awkward, Barry and Iris find excuses to skedaddle.

Barry’s excuse is the site of the computer chip theft. We learn that our card-faced villains are the “Royal Flush Gang” and they were the first meta-based criminals to strike Central City, even predating Barry waking up from his coma. When she shows up for info about the crime, Barry nervously asks Captain Kramer about how her powers work, no doubt worried she might pick up some sudden super speed while in his vicinity. Kramer asks whether Barry is uncomfortable about her being a meta, but Barry smoothly jokes his way out of potentially insulting his boss. Haven’t months passed since Kramer’s meta nature was figured out? Why would Barry still be wondering how her powers work?

Later, after contemplating why the Royal Flush Gang’s MO has changed from stealing cash to stealing technology, Barry has circled back to the train crash at the beginning of the episode and discovered identical heat signatures for both crimes. Cecile, who is helping Barry spitball his ideas, asks what they could’ve wanted from the train crash and Barry tells her it was a “bleeding-edge” power source — another piece of tech the Gang has apparently changed their MO to get.

The brainstorming is interrupted by a SWAT team announcing that every cell in Iron Heights was unlocked and opened, allowing the inmates free roam of the facility. Barry speeds over to Iron Heights and contains everyone again, but discovers another strike from the Royal Flush Gang was what opened the cells in the first place. We get another mention of some “leveling up,” which Barry says in regard to the Gang kidnapping a prisoner.

Team Flash convenes in STAR Labs to go over what they know, which is basically just that the Royal Flush Gang has been stealing tech and people. No one knows what their ultimate goal could be, since even Chester can’t pinpoint what they’d use the items for. Chester, by the way, has resigned as Ray’s CCTC liaison after getting a little over-enthusiastic and organizing a pitch meeting with a bunch of tech geeks that Ray had no real interest in talking to. Side note: Chester mentions that he’s “dead to [Ray]” and Cecile has a weird reaction that causes Chester to apologize to her. Uh... what’s that about?

Chester mentioning that the convention is paying in cryptocurrency strikes a eureka moment in Barry, who figures out that the Royal Flush Gang hasn’t changed their MO much at all. They’re still stealing money, they’re just using a supercharged computer to swipe money out of the digital coffers of casinos. All the items stolen (including the prisoner, who’s a hacker) were needed to build the computer necessary for the heist. Cecile asserts that the Gang didn’t change their MO, but just “leveled up.” I am begging you to stop leveling. There are too many levels.

Defeating the Royal Flush Gang takes a matter of minutes for Barry, since they’re technically season 1 villains facing season 8 Barry Allen. When he runs in to save the hacker they’re about to kill off, they attempt to execute a “full house maneuver,” but Barry just zips around and stops them before they can even start. The villains of the week are defeated and cuffed with fifteen minutes left in the episode. Whatever could happen next?

After Barry does some cute nerding out at the tech convention, the fun of being post-villain defeat is interrupted by the arrival of Despero, who appears just as Iris is finishing up her interview with Ray Palmer on the convention floor. Despero tells all the con-goers to run and calls for the Flash to show himself, which Barry does. Apparently Despero hates Barry, as villains are wont to do. He has decided that Barry must die, as villains are also wont to do. I think all villains in this universe are given roughly the same playbook and then “make it their own” with details — like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, but with declarations of murder. Despero presses a button on his belt buckle and transforms into a huge red monster, then he and Barry fight.

Ray puts the Atom suit on, presumably for the first time in a while, and allies with Barry against Despero, but they’re really no match for a ten-foot-tall monster with super strength, apparent psychic ability, and a serious vendetta against Barry. Before Despero can kill Barry, Barry asks him to reveal what will happen in the future and we get the scenes from 2031 we saw at the beginning of the episode. Despero says that Barry will create an “Armageddon” in ten years’ time that will destroy the planet. In order to save the world, Despero has to kill Barry — but not yet, as Ray shrinks down to short out the belt device and send Despero to some random location in space and time.

Amazingly, the episode is still not over. Despero is too big a deal to leave up to chance, so Barry devises a plan to lure him back to STAR Labs, where they can face each other and get to the bottom of this whole Armageddon situation. Barry wants to convince Despero he’s not a threat by inviting him to look into his mind with his freaky third eye and scan for any deception, and when that doesn’t convince him, Barry unmasks and reveals his secret identity. All this gets Barry is a “stay of execution” that’ll last seven days, and then Despero will kill him.

Other Things:

• Iris, about the massive amounts of luggage Ray left in their living room: “I thought he could shrink things?”
• Iris, hilariously faking checking her watch for the time while trying to flee from Ray: “Dah! That’s a bracelet!”
• Barry, after getting shrunk down by Ray: “Ooh, now I know how Diggle feels.” Hee.

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Grey’s Anatomy 18x06 Recap: “Every Day is a Holiday (With You)” (Thanksgiving Blues) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Every Day is a Holiday (With You)”

Original Airdate: November 18, 2021

It’s not surprising that a holiday doesn’t go quite as planned on the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Without that classic trope, would it even be worth doing a Thanksgiving episode? The typical Grey’s drama fuels a day of disaster for some and hope for others. No matter how crazy the holiday gets, everyone is still thankful for what they have at the end of the day.

NOT THE THANKSGIVING I HAD PLANNED

The show jumps ahead a few weeks to Thanksgiving, where we get to see how each member of the main cast spends the holiday. Amelia is back in Seattle and is starting to get prepared to make dinner early in the morning at Meredith’s house. She gets a text from Kai with good news about their Parkinson’s project, which segues into Nick dropping Mer off at the airport in Minnesota, where it is snowing hard. Nick is heading to his remote cabin for the next two days after he drops Mer off and almost makes it sound like he wants Mer to go with him. She’s tempted by his cabin, but she knows she needs to get home to her kids. As soon as she gets out of Nick’s Jeep and he pulls away, Mer gets a text from the airline saying that her flight has been postponed. 

Nico finds Schmitt in Grey Sloan Memorial’s cafeteria and wants to hang out after work. Schmitt tells his boyfriend that he’s happy that Richard assigned him to work on Thanksgiving because it might be a sign that he will be the next chief resident given that his solo surgeries are also going well. The conversation is interrupted when Schmitt’s mom shows up in the cafeteria with a full Thanksgiving dinner for Schmitt and Nico. Schmitt naturally protests a little, but his mom plans to have it all set up and waiting for him, that way he can eat whenever he is hungry and has time.  

Richard runs into Bailey in the hallway and is surprised to see her working on a holiday, especially when he knew she had plans with her family. Bailey recaps the events of the Station 19 episode for the viewers who didn’t tune into the previous hour as the explanation for why she came into work. For those readers who missed Station 19, there was a big dinner at the firehouse that Bailey attended with Ben and baby Pruitt. The day was abruptly ruined by Dean’s father showing up to take Pru, alluding to an upcoming custody battle. Bailey was upset over the ordeal, so she thought the best way to get her mind off it would be to work. Unlike Bailey, Richard is excited to work, as he enjoys his tradition of having a good bloody surgery every Thanksgiving.

Teddy walks into the hospital and runs into Owen, whom she is not happy to see. Owen, who just got off a shift, was supposed to go right home to help his mom make Thanksgiving dinner and watch the kids. Teddy was going to stay with Farouk and Megan until Owen brought food for his sister and nephew. They walk into Farouk’s hospital room together, and Megan immediately tells Owen that their mother is going to kill him. Teddy and Owen are glad to learn that Farouk is doing better and that his lungs are healing after an infection. Farouk is eager to get home after spending three weeks in the hospital, but Hayes informs him that he will have to stay for a few more days. With the family bickering over the holiday plans, Hayes jumps in to say that his boys are visiting their aunt in San Diego, so he will hang out with Farouk and play board games. Owen turns on the Thanksgiving Day Parade and promptly gets kicked out by Teddy.

In the ER, Schmitt and Richard are disappointed that they currently have one patient to treat. Schmitt thinks that it is still a little early and that they need to give people a little more time before they start fighting and things go wrong. Out of the blue, a car comes screeching into the ambulance bay, and Richard shouts, “Mine!” before Schmitt can even process what’s going on. They both run outside and find a pregnant woman getting out of her car. She promptly vomits and asks the doctors for help, that way she can be home in an hour to finish the rest of dinner. She hands them a pie, as she doesn’t go anywhere empty-handed, and Richard’s stunned face is truly funny. Schmitt asks Richard if he can scrub in if the case becomes surgical.

Back in Minnesota, Mer FaceTimes Amelia when she gets back to her hotel room. Mer is pissed that she’s missing the holiday because she doesn’t want to be like her mother, who missed most holidays. Amelia is fine with cooking for the kids. Zola pops into the video call to tell Mer that it’s okay she is stuck and that they know she tried to make it home. After they hang up, Link arrives at the house with Scout in tow. Amelia tells him that Mer is stuck in Minnesota, Maggie and Winston are stuck in Boston, and she’s now stuck making Thanksgiving dinner and watching four kids. Link decides to stay and help out, as he was going to be home alone anyways. Amelia is surprised Link didn’t have plans, but he explains that Jo is working and Scout was going to be with Amelia anyways. Link doesn’t want Scout to be shuffled between him and Amelia on the holidays like he was as a kid. Amelia agrees that they can figure out how to do holidays now. To lighten the moment, Amelia is terrified of messing up dinner and says that she followed all the steps and still thinks she got it wrong so far.

IMPROVISING

Jo shows up in the ER to help Richard and Schmitt with their pregnant patient, Ashley, who announces that she is 31 weeks pregnant and hasn’t been feeling well for over a week. She hasn’t had time to see her OB since she has four other kids to watch all day. Between the pain in her abdomen and the fever she is running, Jo decides to order an MRI to see what’s going on. Ashley asks the doctors to not call her family because she doesn’t want to interrupt Thanksgiving dinner. This never comes up, but someone must notice Ashley isn’t there, right?

Mer gets a call from Nick, and she shares her bad news with him. He asks why she didn’t call, and she says she did right away, but it went straight to voicemail. He explains that service can be a bit spotty on the mountainous roads. Mer tells him that the kids are taking the news better than her, so Nick suggests that they stay on the phone and talk for the final two hours of his road trip. Mer agrees and a quick awkward silence ensues. Nick asks if anything is off limits, and Mer replies that toes are the only thing she doesn’t want to talk about. He launches into a story from his first Thanksgiving as a resident. A younger brother tried to grab a knife from his older brother, and the older brother wound up slicing his whole finger off. They couldn’t find the finger, so Nick had to sew up the older brother’s hand. A few hours later, the younger brother returns to the hospital with the finger, which was found when their grandpa ladled it onto his turkey from the gravy bowl. The story makes Mer laugh, and they two presumably keep trading stories for the next two hours.

On his way out of the hospital, Owen sees Noah going into the hospital. Noah collapsed while at work bagging groceries at a grocery store and is having trouble breathing. Bailey meets Noah to help, and Owen decides to tag in too. Noah begs Owen for help, which is truly depressing. A chest X-ray reveals that Noah’s lung collapsed. He’s going to need a chest tube and more tests to rule out infection. Noah’s wife and son, Danny, show up and are rightfully worried. Noah asks Owen to take Danny elsewhere for a bit to take his mind off of what’s happening and to salvage part of the boy’s Thanksgiving, and Owen agrees to help.

Elsewhere, we see Farouk, Teddy, Megan, and Hayes playing Monopoly together. The three adults freak out a little bit when Farouk coughs, but the teen insists he is fine. Hayes talks some smack since he is crushing everyone, and Megan winds up making fun of Hayes for saying “games night” instead of “game night.” It’s another nice family moment that just screams “things are about to go wrong.”

We then see Ashley getting an MRI, with Jo, Richard, and Schmitt waiting for the scans to come up. Ashley can’t remember the last time it was this quiet and is almost enjoying the moment when she starts having horrible pain. The scans pop up on the computer in a moment of perfect timing to reveal free fluid in her abdomen, a possible abscess, and a potentially ruptured appendix. The doctors tell Ashely that she is going to need emergency surgery and that they will call her husband while she is being prepped.

Back at the Grey/Shepherd household, Link and Amelia are working well as a team to cook dinner. The timer goes off to remind them to baste the turkey, but when Link goes over to the oven to check on the bird, the oven isn’t on. By the looks of the turkey, he thinks the oven was on at some point and then was turned off. Amelia can’t believe that she screwed up so badly and doesn’t know what to do. It’s now the middle of the afternoon, so the turkey won’t cook in time for dinner. Link suggests they order Chinese food, but Amelia feels the kids need a proper Thanksgiving dinner since Mer isn’t there. To stop the sky from falling, Link opens the freezer and pulls out macaroni and cheese and bagel bites to make instead. He says they will have the turkey for dessert, which satisfies Amelia. 

The scene then changes to Mer and Nick’s on-going conversation, which has turned to sad family tales. Nick discusses how he had a Thanksgiving intervention for his sister some years ago and that his daughter, Charlotte, prefers Friendsgiving to spending time with him. Since he doesn’t do a family Thanksgiving, he spends the holiday at his cabin, which he then goes into great detail to describe to Mer. Right as he finishes his cabin talk, someone knocks on Mer’s door. She tells Nick that it must be room service and not to move while she puts her phone down to answer the door. Mer opens the door and finds Nick standing there. She is so shocked that she immediately closes the door in his face before opening it back up a few seconds later. Nick explains that he turned around as soon as he found out that she wasn’t going to Seattle, and Mer invites him in. It’s worth noting that Mer is wearing a fluffy white robe and was not prepared from an impromptu Thanksgiving date.

Back at Grey Sloan Memorial, Ashley’s husband has arrived right before her surgery. Jo explains that they will need to do an open procedure and that she will be in the OR the whole time in case the baby gets distressed and they need to do an emergency C-section. Ashley’s husband assures her that she will be okay, but Ashley doesn’t like that she has to sign a form allowing the doctors to perform a hysterectomy if necessary. They explain that that is a last resort if there is too much bleeding leading to them needing to do whatever is necessary to save her life. Ashley asks Jo if the baby needs to be delivered and they don’t have to remove her uterus whether they can tie her tubes. She can’t imagine having any more kids and needs to stay alive for her family. Her husband is shocked, and Jo agrees to Ashley’s request.

Owen and Danny are walking around the hospital when Owen gets a call from Teddy. She hears the hospital intercom in the background of the call and realizes that Owen is still in the building. Owen quickly explains that Noah is in the hospital and things are bad. Danny hears, so Owen tells Teddy they will talk later and hangs up. Owen brings Danny to a nearby room that is outfitted with a big TV and video games, which they get very into playing.

In Minnesota, Mer, now dressed in a pair of pajamas, and Nick sit at a little table in her hotel room and enjoy some room service and wine. Mer tells Nick about what the holiday would look like if she was at home and how she would be cooking. Nick says he likes to cook and thinks cooking is like surgery due having to be in the moment. Mer says that she is getting better about being in the moment again after so many months of being a patient in the hospital. Nick understands how tough that is and suggests they say what they are thankful for. He says he was grateful for Charlotte and still being able to do surgery. Mer is grateful Nick is there with her and for the wine too. Why did Nick say he was grateful instead of he is grateful? Mer picked up on that too, but it won’t come up for a little bit.

Thanksgiving dinner finally gets underway at the Grey-Shepherd house. Link and Amelia serve the kids bagel bites first, prompting the kids to ask where the turkey is. Link quips that he pardoned it and little Bailey asks what that means, leading to a cute moment between Bailey and Ellis when they understand the definition. Zola is reading a medical book or journal at the table and asks Amelia what avascular necrosis is. It’s nice to see that Zola is practically a young doctor in training already. As if the day wasn’t already crazy enough for the former couple, out of nowhere, Bailey asks what sex is, and Amelia and Link stare at each other like deer caught in headlights. The hilarious moment ends there, and we don’t get to see what happens next.

HOLIDAY BLUES

In the OR, Schmitt asks Richard if he can take the lead on Ashley’s surgery, but Richard insists on being the lead since it’s his tradition to do a surgery on Thanksgiving. Richard asks Jo about her holiday traditions, and Jo replies that she has none since she didn’t have a home or a family. In the middle of the surgery, Ashley’s baby starts to get distressed, so they quickly prep for an emergency C-section. Jo successfully delivers the baby, but she isn’t sure that they can stop the immense amount of bleeding that Ashley has.

Over in Farouk’s room, Megan and Teddy are hanging out while Farouk sleeps. They are both hoping that Owen will show up with some food soon. Megan tells Teddy that she doesn’t care about Thanksgiving, but Farouk has always loved the food. Teddy tells her sister-in-law that she volunteered to spend the day with her because she is avoiding Mrs. Hunt. Teddy doesn’t want to deal with her potential judgement of Leo wearing a dress and being himself. Megan tells Teddy that she needs to fight for her son at all costs, or she could just make Owen stand up to their mom. With that, Farouk starts crashing out of nowhere. Teddy quickly calls for a code and asks the nurses to page Hayes. She starts CPR while Megan freaks out.

We then see Teddy shocking Farouk as Hayes shows up to take over. Teddy tells Hayes that they won’t stop until they get him back, but Hayes doesn’t think that they will be able to revive Farouk, as his heart is too damaged. Hayes says that they have been running the code for 30 minutes, which made me immediately wonder what took him so long to show up. Hayes intervenes as Farouk’s doctor since Megan and Teddy are family and says they need to put him on ECMO. Megan agrees to his last resort plan since it is the only way Farouk may survive.

In the cafeteria, Nico sits down with Mrs. Schmitt since Levi is still in surgery. Mrs. Schmitt goes on a rant telling Nico that she thinks he and Levi will get married one day. She wants to know if they will raise their children Jewish and starts rattling off baby names based on family names. It’s pretty funny since Nico has no idea how to react or what to say, probably because he’s not looking to get that serious yet. Mrs. Schmitt then asks Nico if he has any genetic markers that they need to know about and goes on to say that Levi’s great-grandfather died of colon cancer.

To keep the lighthearted, comedic side of the episode going, we get to see a small glimpse of a classic Grey’s Anatomy dance party. Link is dancing with Mer’s kids in the living room while Amelia watches from the kitchen as she cleans up from dinner. Even Scout tries to dance by bouncing up and down while sitting. It’s a very cute moment of bliss, and a much needed sigh of relief within the episode. The kids theme continues back at the hospital, where Owen and Danny take a break from their video games to eat some burgers. Danny thinks it’s a little weird that they are eating burgers on Thanksgiving, but Owen doesn’t think it’s weird since they are enjoying it. Sadly, Danny asks Owen if there is any medicine that will help his dad because he knows Noah is always in a lot of pain. He has noticed that Noah can’t play baseball with him or cut the grass anymore and breathes funny most of the time. Danny also says that he hears his mom crying loudly in the closet sometimes. Owen tells Danny the truth by saying that his dad is really sick, which makes it tough. Danny asks if Noah is going to die, and Owen assures him that he won’t die today. Danny replies that he doesn’t want Noah to hurt anymore.

Bailey finds Noah’s wife in a hallway taking a moment to herself. She’s having a very hard time, and Bailey tells her that they got the chest tube in and could set up a home service to help them out. Noah’s wife knows that her husband is dying and is mad at herself for letting him take a job when he was in no physical shape to work. He insisted on getting a job because the bills were stacking up. Bailey takes her to an empty room and tells her to break down because it will help. Bailey knows it is unfair and tells Noah’s wife that she deserves to feel that. She wants her to take her turn to fall apart before going back to Noah’s room. Bailey closes the door and leaves Noah’s wife to cry. 

ENDING THE HOLIDAY RIGHT

At the end of the night in Minnesota, a room service attendant takes Mer and Nick’s dishes away. Once the door closes, Mer gets really close to Nick and asks why he said earlier that Charlotte and surgery were his priorities. Nick replies that priorities can change and kisses Mer. Their make-out session heads to the bedroom for a wonderfully steamy scene. They finally sleep together and it’s absolutely perfect.

At Grey Sloan Memorial, Owen goes to Noah’s room and tells Noah and his wife that a nurse brought Danny to the cafeteria to get some ice cream and he will be back soon. Owen explains that he is taking over for Roy and will take care of all the veterans in the area. He is planning to go to Washington D.C. in Roy’s place too. Noah asks Owen how much longer he has because he can’t live with the pain anymore or put his family through it anymore. He doesn’t want to keep ruining holidays, which is so sad. Owen tells Noah that it will be over soon, so Noah announces that he would like to go home. The doctors discharge Noah, and Owen watches the family somberly leave together.

In a recovery room, Ashley survived her surgery and is resting. Her husband sits next to her, and Jo tells him that their baby boy is doing great and will stay in the NICU for the night for monitoring, though they can visit him. Jo explains that they had to perform a hysterectomy, but Ashely will make a full recovery. The husband wants to know why she didn’t tell him that she didn’t want to have more kids. He’s only ever wanted to take care of her and feels like he failed. Jo says that society doesn’t always give women a lot of permission to say what they need or ask for help. She suggests preemptively helping out in the future instead of waiting for Ashley to ask for help.

Schmitt goes to the cafeteria and sees Nico and his mom laughing. They saved a plate of food for them, and Mrs. Schmitt leaves the couple to themselves. Before she leaves, Mrs. Schmitt tells Nico that he is always more than welcome at her home, even if Levi doesn’t come with him. We then see Bailey crying in her office. Richard walks by and sees her, so he pokes his head in to see what the problem is. Bailey is crying over Pru, and Richard says that it’s hard to lose a parent at any age. Bailey just wants to hold the little girl and tell her everything will be alright, but she isn’t sure that she will get the chance. She knows it’s selfish, which is why she is crying at work. Richard convinces Bailey to come with him by showing her a delicious looking pecan pie. Owen goes to Farouk’s room and finds Teddy outside the room. She catches her husband up on the day’s events and reveals that she got Farouk on the transplant list. Owen goes into the room to comfort Megan. 

Back at the Grey/Shepherd house, Amelia has gotten the kids to sleep, and Link carved the turkey and put it in the fridge for them. Amelia tells Link that he is nothing like his parents, which prompts him to kiss her. Amelia doesn’t stop him, and they share a long kiss. After a few kisses, Amelia pulls away to say that nothing has changed for her. Link shows a little disappointment before deciding that he doesn’t care. They kiss again and sleep together on the couch.

Back in Minnesota, Nick tells Mer that he’s sorry that she didn’t make it to Seattle. Mer’s sorry Nick didn’t make it to his cabin, so he suggests that they could go when the snow clears in the morning and Mer says yes. The episode ends at Grey Sloan Memorial, where Richard and Bailey find Schmitt, Nico, and Jo in the cafeteria. They all sit together to enjoy the pie and spend the end of the holiday together. Richard tells the group that even if they are working or not in the mood to celebrate or aren’t about traditions, it is still important that they are spending time together. The doctors decided to write what they are thankful for on slips of paper and read them aloud, which is the perfect ending to the Thanksgiving episode.

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