The Flash Season 9 Review

Brief Overview

The Flash is at the end and this will be the final season. We all expected everything as it doesn’t just come down to The Flash ending, it comes down to the fact the Arrowverse will also fully end along with it. We knew by the trailers our first villain was going to be Red Death portrayed by Javicia Leslie, reprising her role as Ryan Wilder.

We also knew the series would contain 13 episodes instead of its usual 20+, similar to the way Arrow did so in its final season. Ultimately in the end though, we all had very high expectations for the final season but did it pay off? I don’t think so. Not in a general consensus. We’ll discuss Eric Wallace a fair amount during this review because he has single handily ruined what was once a great show.

Story – 7/10

The first half of this season’s story was fantastic. I was invested in pretty much every episode that Red Death was in. It was great, it had decent pacing and arguably a really good start to the season. The story was interesting, it did stuff to completely keep me tuned in.

The second half, however, was a complete letdown. The story played out very slowly with Cobalt Blue. He was only in like 4 episodes of the season. Don’t get me wrong, when he was involved it was a decent story, although hindered because of the focus on side characters. The second half of the season also lost my interest and I’m guessing other people’s interest as well when they delivered a handful of episodes with their main character of the show.

Action – 4.5/10

This final season I went into thinking it would be action-packed, none stop speedster battles, and ultimately just a fantastic season for action… oh boy was I wrong. While we did get some speedster battles, we went over them quickly, a couple of minutes here and there.

The final episode brought back some major villains from previous seasons, you think “Right, this is it, this insane fight scene will happen”, no. Not at all. The fight was over within 5 minutes. It was completely wrong that these villains who ultimately had great fight scenes were taken down by side characters.

Characters – 5.5/10

Honestly, was an issue with this season. The final season it should be about the main character, maybe 1 or 2 side characters that are truly important. Throughout this final season, much of the season was focused on Cecile, Allegra, Chester, Khione, and Mark.

We had literally 3 whole episodes focused purely on Cecile, Allegra, and Chester. It honestly ruined the entire season. I’ll start with Khione and Mark because they are interlocked as characters. I have made comments that I think Danielle Panabaker should have stuck being Caitlin.

We did not take multiple scenes focusing on Mark being in love with Caitlin, being weird with Khione, and just simply Khione being this magical character that was ultimately a goddess. It was dumb writing, it was weird and took away from the season.

Cecile on the other hand, this character was so bad this season. For a few seasons, Cecile has had powers that allowed her to focus on people’s emotions and feelings and that was fine, but this season ultimately went off the rails with her.

We had her flying, stealing other meta powers, using her mind to knock enemies down, and multiple other things. The powers were not only the wrong thing about Cecile. Her other story of her being a bad mother which we had multiple scenes for.

Chester and Allegra were in a similar boat to Cecile, just not as much and not as bad. While Allegra and Chester did have episodes that felt like we focused on them too much, they didn’t get written as being overpowered as Cecile did.

We did have some good characters throughout the season, Barry, Iris, Nora, Jay, etc. They were all written really well. They were written to where we never got any new powers, or any new upgrades to them but with Cecile, Allegra, Chester, and somewhat Khione, we were getting new powers and stories that will obviously go nowhere.

For more information on the full cast list, you can visit IMDb by clicking here.

Entertainment – 6/10

Honestly, I was entertained a lot throughout this final season but there were multiple scenes and even entire episodes where I was literally searching and thinking about episodes to find something mildly interesting when in reality I couldn’t. Especially when you had episodes that focused purely on Cecile and Allegra and Becky. The showrunner and writers of this season failed at their jobs.

Episodes – 5/10

This season donned 13 episodes, which in fairness is the perfect amount. When The CW shows had 20+ episodes, it always felt too much as you had filler episodes way too often. The issue lies here is they just didn’t utilize those 13 episodes well, especially in a final season. You have to create a lasting impact but this just didn’t do that at all. There were episodes Barry barely featured. It needed so much more and I find 5/10 to be fair.

Antagonist – 8/10

I will admit, both of the antagonists throughout this season were very interesting, were they written the best? No, but that goes along with the rest of the writing. Should both of these villains have had an entire season to themselves? Yes, it would have made both of the villains that much better.

Red Death played by Javicia Leslie was very interesting. She came into this season with a twist on the Red Death storyline which was unique in parts and arguably gave us most of the action of the season. She was a decent threat to Team Flash.

Cobalt Blue played by the returning Rick Cosnett was absolutely fantastic. Rick played this role so incredibly well that I immediately loved seeing him on screen and the those final few episodes, he was the only interesting thing about the show.

Quality – 2/10

A score of 2 out of 10 is generous. It is. This season was perhaps the worst when it comes to quality, it was just so bad. The CGI was like being done by a 7-year-old in an IT class. It looked awful in pretty much every scene that required it. People complain about Marvel’s recent CGI mishaps but this was on a whole other level.

Then there’s the acting. The lines, the dialogue. I can’t fathom how many times I cringed throughout. There were moments where it felt worse than the original Power Rangers episodes where it’s just so catered for children that I can’t help but cringe, more so when I’m trying to take this show seriously.

Can we also please discuss the episode set 25 years or so in the future? That was laughable. Cecile didn’t age, Chester didn’t age nor did his hairstyle change, and Allegra didn’t change either. It’s so pathetically poor that they didn’t even seem to make it realistic. Ridiculous and as I mentioned, 2 is very, very generous.

Favorite Episode

Episode 9 tops it. This was the episode in which Oliver Queen returned. This entire episode was emotional and everything Arrowverse fans deserved as one final send-off for Oliver. Arrow brought back characters in its final season, I wish The Flash followed a similar formula to that.

Worst Episode

Despite episode 2 receiving only a 2/10 score, the finale for me is the worst. Why? Because it’s supposed to be the final episode. It did not give me that final episode feeling at all. They brought back villains who took an entire season to defeat, only to be beaten in seconds. Nora was able to beat Savitar in seconds which is ridiculous more so considering Savitar IS Barry. Horrendous final episode and deserves to be rewritten.

Episodes & Their Ratings

Episode 1: Wednesday Ever After – 8.1/10
Episode 2: Hear No Evil – 8.4/10
Episode 3: Rogues of War – 9.1/10
Episode 4: The Mask of the Red Death, Part One – 8.6/10
Episode 5: The Mask of the Red Death, Part Two – 10/10
Episode 6: The Good, the Bad and the Lucky – 4.8/10
Episode 7: Wildest Dreams – 4.3/10
Episode 8: Partners In Time – 7.7/10
Episode 9: It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To – 10/10
Episode 10: A New World Part One – 10/10
Episode: 11: A New World Part Two – 7.8/10
Episode: 12: A New World Part Three – 2/10
Episode: 13: A New World Part Four – 5.8/10

Average rating – 7.4/10

Our Overall Rating 5.4/10

5.4 is generous. The issue is, this season was supposed to be the biggest and best season of The Flash. It wasn’t. 7.4 on an average scale is about right, there were some big episodes especially the episode in which Oliver Queen returned. The simple fact is, we all deserved so much more as long-time fans of the show.

Does It Deserve Another Season?

I would say yes if Eric Wallace was nowhere near this series. Ultimately though, The Flash has hit the end. This isn’t just the end of the series but the Arrowverse in its entirety.

Availability

The show is available exclusively on The CW. For those in the UK, the show will be available on Sky Max although it will be behind in terms of live episodes. This has been a running theme for a number of years now and remains the same.

Season Trailer