The FLASH TV SERIES

[Jim Kelly]

FLASH MISSING
VANISHES IN CRISIS

by Iris West-Allen
Thursday, April 25, 2024

After an extreme street battle with the Reverse-Flash, our city's very own Scarlet Speedster disappeared in an explosion of light. The cause of the fight is currently unknown. According to witnesses, The Flash, with help from Starling City's Green Arrow, The Atom, and Hawkgirl, began fighting the Reverse-Flash around midnight last night. The sky took on a deep crimson color as the ensuing battle created the most destruction this city has seen since The Flash first arrived in Central City.

Several trucks were caught in the fray, spilling their contents into the street. Power outages swept nearly twenty city block, between 16th street and Adams Avenue. Five of those blocks still remain without power. All of the buildings in the area were evacuated by the CCPD, with help from The Atom.

According to reports, as The Flash and Reverse-Flash battled with each other between two overturned tanker trucks, the lightning emanating from the speedsters threatened to ignite spilled oil leaking from one of the trucks.

The smoke from the truck's engine made it difficult to see, but it appeared at one point they were having a very heated conversation before continuing the fight. Then, suddenly, The Flash sped after Reverse-Flash and the two vanished leaving The Atom, Green Arrow and Hawkgirl behind.

An eyewitness who watched the battle from her apartment building before being evacuated said, "It was hard to see, but The Flash and Reverse-Flash were zipping up and down M-- Avenue and then there was a whole bunch of lightning, and then nothing. It was weird."

Other witnesses describe a similar phenomenon: a blinding light followed by darkness as the sky returned to black. And as the --- reverted, it took only a moment to realize The Flash and the Reverse-Flash were gone without a trace.

Central City Police Chief, Joe West gave a press conference in the wee hours of the morning stating, "We don't have many details now. What we do know tonight is Central City's greatest protector vanished in a flash. I only hope he returns just as quickly." A sentiment shared by all who call this great city home.

Is it possible we might see a flash forward of this scene this season?

[Elegant Dreamer]

So let's see if I grabbed the references/Easter Eggs.

spoilers:

1. The mention of Lightning Lad seems purposeful. Supergirl's show similarly referenced him if I'm remembering right. So this XS is connected to the Legion as well. 2. If the above is true they may be adapting the idea that Dawn and Don in the comics actually migrated to the Reboot Legion's Universe's reality which was touched on in Legion of Three Worlds. Strengthened by the idea Nora here is fully aware of who Supergirl is. 3. Ryan Choi/ The Atom helped create the Flash ring shrinking/fitting tech. 4. They seemed to reference with Ralph the fact his name was mentioned as one of the dead in Season 2 implying Flashpoint canonically brought him back to life but no one on the team is aware because they don't remember his name from then. 5. The schway line which was popularized on Batman Beyond...so some version of Neo Gotham exists in the future possibly? 6. Villain...Kobra? Certainly seemed snake themed.

end of spoilers

There's also Cameron Mahkent (Icicle), the fake ME who signed Caitlin's father's death certificate.

[Jim Kelly]

Myles runs the Flash Museum in the future. In the comics, Dexter Myles is the curator of the Flash Museum.

Also Ralph asked why Eddie Thawne didn't just get a vasectomy.

[AJBopp]

They had me right up to the last 30 seconds.Then there's a killer with a stylized flash emblemfor a weapon. And I'm like "Crap. Another season-long big bad."

[Ilan Preskovsky]

They had me right up to the last 30 seconds.Then there's a killer with a stylized flash emblemfor a weapon. And I'm like "Crap. Another season-long big bad."

I don't know where I read it but apparently this year, they're going to do a number of smaller arcs throughout the season. I hope that's true. It would make sense that XS's mission is the season-long arc but hopefully they won't just have them going up against Cicada over and over again until they finally beat him 22 episodes from now.

Otherwise, I loved this episode pretty much from beginning to end. Nora is a great addition to the cast, especially. The emotional stuff actually worked this time, the humour was on point, Ralph was used wonderfully here and the looming threat of the Crisis could actually be a solid, season-long arc.

I've been burned enough by this show not to get my hopes up but I can't deny it: this was a very fine start to the season.

[Malvolio]

I liked it, too, and hope we don't have a season long big bad villain. Are they afraid we'll switch over to Gifted if they don't have constant cliffhangers? I would much rather see several two and three episode arcs than one long arc where they fail time after time, until they don't.

[The Cool Thatguy]

They had me right up to the last 30 seconds.Then there's a killer with a stylized flash emblemfor a weapon. And I'm like "Crap. Another season-long big bad."

I don't mind an arc villain, if they don't require hero stupidity

[Jim Kelly]

I guess not everyone saw all the trailers and spoilers before the show aired, but Cicada was announced a long time ago (as far back as the season 4 finale). So I always knew he was going to show up and I was expecting it the whole episode--so it made sense that he shows up in the end credit scene. They didn't show the clip from the trailer-which was supposed to be the end credit scene last season--but maybe there will be a flashback in a future episode. Seems strange otherwise to show that in the trailers but not use it in the show.

It will probably become underwhelming if Nora is just hanging around in the lounge every episode for the sake of spending time with Dad and she leaves for her home time at the end of the season, with no consequence. So I'm expecting there will be some monumental event soon that changes the timeline in a significant way from what Nora knows (such as a character death), which will give the team a whole 'nother thing to do with Nora and elevate her reasons for being there.

Cicada will probably figure into that, but I don't think he's the thing that holds the season together. It's the mounting tension over Nora's place in the timeline that should probably become the focus for the season. And with the hunt for father Frost as the B sub-plot.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

I don't mind an arc villain, if they don't require hero stupidity

Except it's hard to avoid that particular trap. There's only so much a villain can escape the heroes over 22 episodes without it eventually looking like they're just super ineffectual.

I guess not everyone saw all the trailers and spoilers before the show aired, but Cicada was announced a long time ago (as far back as the season 4 finale). So I always knew he was going to show up and I was expecting it the whole episode--so it made sense that he shows up in the end credit scene. They didn't show the clip from the trailer-which was supposed to be the end credit scene last season--but maybe there will be a flashback in a future episode. Seems strange otherwise to show that in the trailers but not use it in the show.

It will probably become underwhelming if Nora is just hanging around in the lounge every episode for the sake of spending time with Dad and she leaves for her home time at the end of the season, with no consequence. So I'm expecting there will be some monumental event soon that changes the timeline in a significant way from what Nora knows (such as a character death), which will give the team a whole 'nother thing to do with Nora and elevate her reasons for being there.

Cicada will probably figure into that, but I don't think he's the thing that holds the season together. It's the mounting tension over Nora's place in the timeline that should probably become the focus for the season. And with the hunt for father Frost as the B sub-plot.

Sorry, I'm confused: didn't she say at the end there that the real reason for her being there is to become good enough a speedster that she can save her father from disappearing in the Crisis? She's definitely not going to be just sitting around.

Incidentally, one thing I do like about having Nora around is that it gives Iris an emotional arc this season and may give her something to do other than be the defacto Flash-team leader for some reason.

[AnakinFlair]

Interesting conundrum that Flash touched upon- what are all the hackers going to do now that the STAR Labs satellite is gone?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Except it's hard to avoid that particular trap. There's only so much a villain can escape the heroes over 22 episodes without it eventually looking like they're just super ineffectual.

Hard but not impossible. Assuming they throw some other villains in the way

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Hard but not impossible. Assuming they throw some other villains in the way

Sure, not impossible. But the Flash writers clearly struggle with it so they should cut themselves some slack and stop trying to do something they clearly aren't any good at.

[Frontier]

Hard but not impossible. Assuming they throw some other villains in the way

Well, we're supposed to get younger version of The Rogues this season so maybe we'll finally have a fully-fledged Rogues group for Barry to contend with.

[Bossace]

So did Wally not teach Nora anything in the future? She made it sound like she learned everything on her own, you’d think uncle Wally would not only take on the mantle of the flash but also help train his niece like how to phase.

Barry’s new cowl/ whole head part of his suit looks insanely odd to me not sure why it just bugged me the whole episode.

Fun episode though, clearly we have some mother daughter drama in the future that I hope they don’t wait too long to explain

[Jim Kelly]

Yeah, I know I'm supposed to like the new suit better because it's more like the comics version, but the other is the one I would want to wear in reality.

The new suit is the one I would want to wear in reality. It looks way more comfortable and easy to wear. Imagine having to wear that red leather all day on set, under hot lights. This one seems to be made of a different kind of fabric and probably cooler. And lots more room in the neck to move his head. And it's a brilliant red--like a real Flash costume should be.

From the side the jaw line looks odd--but probably because I'm so used to the old profile and I think I will get used to it in time. Full on, it looks perfectly okay and allows more expression on the actor's face.

They can always introduce another one in the future. I would guess that either Nora takes it back to the future with her, or it breaks from entropy, given the bootstrap paradox. At some point in the future Barry has to get this ring and costume from Ryan Choi, so there has to be a reason for the Atom to invent a costume and ring for the Flash.