‘The Flash’ Season 9, Episode 8 Offers Hope Amidst The Ongoing Struggle

So far this season, The Flash has struggled a bit. The Red Death episodes were entertaining, but the rest felt a bit misguided and all over the place. For lack of a better word, they just didn’t feel fun. This episode gave some hope that there was magic still left in The Flash tank. It created a fun scenario with the show’s two main characters, but the episode needed to fill more time and have subplots. This is where the story dovetailed into familiar CW territory. It’s emblematic of, ultimately, why some of these shows fail and why the Arrowverse is about to be over.

Iris (Candice Patton) in the midst of her pregnancy. She is hungry all the time and forgetful, which isn’t great when she and Barry (Grant Gustin) get stuck in an odd time loop during an inspection of S.T.A.R. Labs. As it turns out, a time thief from the future was posing as one of the inspectors and stole something that triggered the loop. The Flash was able to figure out the issue while also convincing his wife that her pregnancy issues were normal. This all happened as Chunk (Brandon McKnight) and Allegra (Kayla Compton) confess their love for each other.

The time loop part of the story was fun and kooky, which is perfect for the tone of The Flash. Even without a big bad villain, the show can still create an entertaining superhero story in an isolated way. But this plot line was broken up between Iris dealing with her pregnancy and the other love story, which fell hard into romantic drama. These shows can obviously have romance from time to time — it’s inevitable — but after nine seasons, the show has forgotten what its strengths are. So while half of the episode was great, the other portion is a good example of how it’s lost its fan base and why it’s ultimately coming to an end.

The Flash airs Wednesdays on The CW.