THE FLASH 7.11

 

RECAP - THE FLASH  7.11:  "Family Matters Part 2"  

Well...with any luck, we will have resolution to THIS little story arc before we move on to much bigger things for Team Flash (Godspeed, finally?).  Barry and Iris have managed to wrangle two of their "children" together-  The Strength & Sage Force - to take on their OTHER two "children":  The Still Force and Nora - the now-renegade Speed Force, who feels abandoned by Barry, and feels it is her duty to kill all the other forces.  With the Sill Force under her control, she has taken out Alexa, Bashir, and Iris.  Now, it's Barry against Nora and Deon to finally put this matter to bed.  Plus...what will happen to the CCPD now that Joe quit?  And for Cisco and Kamilla....they finally going to announce to the team that they're bailing on them for greener pastures?  Let's see how THIS little tale finishes up. 

The focus of this entire arc was based on family....as well as what happens when certain members of it are a tad out of control.  Nora....our Speed Force...has been on a rampage looking for the other 3 Forces, fearing that they will kill her, so she must therefore destroy them first before thean can get to her.  She assumed that Barry would help her in this cause, but it turns out--as Barry AND Iris discover--that these other forces are much like their offspring....they granted these 3 individuals powers, and they have caused some damage with them.  Nora has upped the ante, as she's threatening to destroy the city if Flash doesn't bring her the other Forces.  She has already felt betrayed by Barry....abandonded...which isn't the case, but she feels rejected by him, and must protect herself...even if it means laying waste to everything else...including Central City.  

Barry is in ONE mode:  stop Nora and save everyone at all costs.  But the problem with Barry as of late has been his complete lack of common sense.  Another thing is that it's a drawback with Flash, when he becomes SO focused on stopping the bad guys, he tends to have his judgement clouded.  He gets too mch tunnel vision.  For Barry, it's like he LIVES for the burden, the weight, and the drama that goes with it.  He's pressed his friends, and the other forces to be ready for Nora.  The team has wracked their brains, but they just can't come up with a solution.  Barry and Iris thought that hiding Bashir and Alexa in a neutral zone out of Nora's reach and off the radar would be helpful.  But as they and Iris are there, while Barry is trying to reason with Deon, but Deon just won't go along with the plan.  Barry is also running out of ideas.  Meanwhile, Bashir and Alexa feel that the only way to stop Nora is to go after her.  So, they trick Iris, and escape the zone.  Iris follows, and gets back to STAR Labs.  

Nora had given Barry only a few hours to bring the Forces to her, or she'd wreak havoc on the city.  Flash feels that he has to go it alone, but Iris won't let him do it alone.  So, they both work together to try and get through to Nora and stop her.  Nora is just in a state of anger, and then the ground shakes, and the storm gets bigger...these are Forces of Nature, and they're spiraling out of control.  They are just as much the cause of what's happening as Nora is.  The other Forces arrive and they decide to help Flash take her Nora down.  Flash takes off to chase the storm and try to stop it, while the Forces try to deal with Nora.  At one point, Bashir uses his power, agumented by Alexa and Deon, to show Nora her worst fear:  a world with no people....and empty city, and no one answering her call.  Nora starts begging them not to leave her alone, not to abandon her.  Alexa offers her hand, and says that Nora doesn't have to be alone...she can make the choice to be better.  They then join forces to do what they were destined to do:  help Flash.  With their combined powers, they augment the Scarlet Speedster's powers for him ot be able to destroy the storm.  

With the city saved once again, we head back into the neutral zone, where the four Forces will now reside....allowing them to make THAT world a better place.  All of them feel a sense of purpose....of family...now that they are intertwined.  Nora apologizes to Barry, and thanks him for saving her.  Barry and Iris leave the Forces to shape the world into something better.  Later on, we have Barry and Iris at home, feeling sad that they had to let the Forces go out into the world, and do their own thing.  They liken it to having their children leave for college...for when they actually HAVE children.  It seems that Iris agrees....and she gets up off the couch...and says to Barry she's tired of waiting....she's ready to start a family...and Barry LOVES her impulse (insert Bart Allen reference here). 

This episode, we also saw Cecile get struck by lighting due to the storm, and he felt utterly helpless to help her, plus he's no longer a cop, so he can't be at Iron Heights, trying to stop all the criminals from escaping.  Cecile tries to comfort him, but that's when she got nailed.  Joe is upset that Barry hasn't resolved the problem, and just begins to sulk.  Allega stops by and calls him out on it.  And he can step up and do what he does best, but he says he's gotta be by Cecile.  And as he had worried about the breakout at Iron Heights, his thoughts went to Frost....would she escape and skip town?  Turns out, Frost had OTHER ideas, as she DID escape...but for the sole purpose of hunting down some of the metahuman convicts, and bring them back to prison.  This included her encounter with Chillblaine, who still tried using his char on her to get her to let him go.  He was even willing to forgive her to stab him.  Frost seems a tad distracted, because she can't help but think of him.  They do fight, and Frost DOES beat him.  Towards the end of the episode, Catilin gets a knock on her door, and it's her sister, who apparently got time off for good behavior for having brought dangerous metahuman criminals back to Iron Heights.  Plus a good word from the Flash.  So, with the Snow sisters reunited, we get one more member of Team Flash back.  One of the other little tidbits they threw at us, was Cisco and Kamilla hanging out  with Chunk and Allegra.  Cisco ignored a text from his phone about a job offer, and them needing an answer quickly.  Chunk and Allega looked like they had an awkward glance

The show centered primarily on Barry, Iris, and their "children", and how they had to cope with them being...well...belligerent.  In the end, we got Nora...who had been the Speed Force...die, and then be reanimated...have a sense of loneliness and abandonment.  She did NOT want the other Forces taking that from her.  This is why she went rogue.  Bashir was abandoned, and felt betrayed by those whom he thought were friends.  Alexa felt alone because she made a mistake, and her family left her out in the cold.  Deon suffered a career-ending injury, and didn't get to play sports, hence HIS issues with his life and identity.  It was only when ALL of them....along with Barry and Iris...to see that they are better together than apart.  But it FINALLY put Barry and Iris on the track that we'd been waiting a couple of seasons for---and it's about time.  So, we'll see whether or not Iris gets pregnant in the next few episodes, and wonder how things will go with this next arc...which SHOULD be Godspeed, to finish out the run of the 18 slated episodes for this season.  This arc seemed like filler, and while I got the concept of the Speed Force split into different Forces of Nature, it also came off a tad flat.  Now that they've all agreed to build a new world forthemelves....how does this effect Barry?  And will we see them anytime again?  And it STILL bugs me that Wally was NOT involved in this storyline, because as Kid Flash...he DESERVED to be a part of this...and have HIS speed restored.  Him being left out takes away from the story.  I get they wanted to keep the focus on Barry and Iris...but this was about FAMILY...and that also meant Wally.  

Well, we get one more adventure coming up with Cisco and Kamilla, before they depart Central City for good.  And what is this tiny tease with Chunk and Allegra?  At least she dropped hints at needed a super suit and a cool name if she's going out in to the field to help the Flash.  Stay tuned for that.  

The episode was okay---average.  It wrapped up the storyline, and got Barry and Iris to the babymaking finish line.  I'm more looking forward to how the last 7 episodes transpire and play out.  What about you guys?  What did you feel about this last arc?  Subscribe and leave me a comment below.

Until next time...Keep on running!