The Flash S8 Ep. 4 Highlights & Easter Eggs

 "Armageddon, Part 4"

This week’s episode of The Flash continuing on the Armageddon event is by far my favorite of the season so far in regards to its several storytelling twists cleverly riding alongside various Arrowverse references. It’s rare that I get to really praise the writing on this show considering that, more often than not, I’m usually picking it apart. So, without further ado, here are my personal highlights from the episode.

1. Season 3 of The Flash Continues To Haunt Barry

-First off, I love the fact that Thawne created his own flashpoint and tells Barry that he didn’t do anything that he himself hasn’t done already in the past. This ties up well with the fact that Barry had Thawne locked up in a cell during his flashpoint creation (Season 3). So in a sense, Barry’s selfish actions back then didn’t just create Savitar and the Dominators invasion crossover event, but also inspired the events of the Armageddon storyline. I’m not sure if this was the intent but I think it’s brilliant how they’re able to bring that back in full circle with Thawne mirroring him here. It’s like Season 3’s flashpoint story continues to haunt Barry to this day which is genius. 

2. Changes of the Reverse Flashpoint

With Thawne creating his own flashpoint paradox, we can expect to see some new alterations made to the timeline. I think the episode did a fantastic job at not only showcasing the major story affecting twists but also some interesting new side plots and ideas to make this world feel more lived in and historically enriched.

-Starting off with the small stuff, we learn that Ryan Wilder and Sophie are adopting a baby together (not sure if this is a reference to anything happening in Season 3 since I’m not caught up yet). Later on in the episode, Ryan mentions that Batwing contacted her from Gotham City regarding a Two-Face incident which shows that Luke is still active as a new vigilante here and apparently Two-Face exists as a current threat. As a comic book fan, it’s great to finally hear that name mentioned in the Arrowverse. She also gives Iris a zero velocity gun that Batwing designed that was apparently used to stop “a certain lady in red”. This line definitely triggered my curiosity as to what Gotham City villain would need to be slowed down to such a drastic level. Hmmm. Maybe it's time that I do give Batwoman Season 3 a shot.

-As for the Allegra stuff, we learn that she’s getting a job offer in Gotham City and that her and Chester apparently had an awkward romantic thing going on at one point. That’s…that’s about it I guess. I've said this several times before, but I still feel like this character struggles to make a solidifying and impactful stamp on this show’s main ensemble. That being said, I'll just patiently wait to see what the writers do with her down the road. If the show does decide to go the route of a romance between her and Chester, let's not do the absolute wrong thing here and make it a show distracting subplot. We've already had that issue with Frost and Chillblaine.

-Star Labs has a key on the wall which I’m not entirely sure is a new thing or not (gonna have to keep my eyes open next time). I’m assuming this is a "key to the city" award which, if this is completely new to the setting, would perfectly line up with Thawne’s big ego. Speaking of ego, there’s also a funny looking cardboard cut out of Thawne’s version of the Flash having his own latte at CC Jitters. I tend to forget that this show has had a long running gag of heroes and villains having their own themed coffee at CC Jitters.

-Chester mentions that his and Allegra’s potentially romantic life was interrupted by a chaotic Legion of Doom attack. Now although this is a throwaway line, there is a very exciting bit of speculation to be had here regarding who this timeline’s version of the Legion of Doom consists of. Also, the fact that they attack everyone during the team’s current roster era is kinda peculiar since their full on timeline assault back in Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 was much earlier on. Is the Legion's roster the same but with Eobard disguising himself as Barry through the whole thing? Were there other members involved? Did Thawne create a time remnant to be in both places at once during the battle against the Legion? So many ideas to bounce around with such a major throwaway line.

-Barry attacking Thawne during this pre-wedding gathering is essentially the Reverse Flashpoint version of Crisis on Earth-X’s wedding battle. The big difference here being that this fight scene ended up being pretty unremarkable while the Earth-X fight was renowned as one of the Arrowverse's best action scenes. The only standout moments here centered around Ryan Choi’s Atom tech being teased and Alex creating an anti-speedster weapon thanks to her Martian tech. Sadly, like I said, the actual fight choreography is pretty weak with Batwoman and Alex fighting Barry proving once again that this show (alongside Supergirl during its run) desperately needed the fight coordinators from Arrow.

-Ryan Choi makes his return to the Arrowverse after Crisis and is shown here to be the new Atom superhero following Ray Palmer's legacy. His tech is shown to be more projection-based than self altering as he uses it to supportingly shrink down Thawne during battle as well as altering the molecules on Damien Darhk’s sword to weigh it down. Chester is revealed to be the one who designs his superhero suit and…well…it’s not very good. Now yes, it definitely takes from the comics which is great, but the actual presentation of it here looked like something out of a 2000's era superhero show versus something now. Hopefully this isn’t what the Arrowverse is building up to with him visually speaking.

-Another character that gets to show off something new is Cecile who apparently uses the Psycho Pirate mask as a power enhancer. I actually think this is a great tie-in with Episode 13 of Season 7 which introduced the mask as some psychic parasite feeding off of Cecile. One can assume that, in this new timeline, Cecile somehow mastered control over her powers and the mask itself? If that's the case, then the Flash series just subtly introduced a new costumed hero into its universe. Actually, on that note, is it safe to say that Thawne’s iteration of Team Flash is possibly more proficient than Barry’s? Just a thought.

-Alright, now for the major changes to the timeline. After Thawne yanks Barry away from Iris, this is where we start get our cataclysmic revelations regarding just how strategically detailed and evil his plan actually was. If you read my Flash episode reviews in the past, you’ve probably figured out by know that the Reverse Flash has been my anchor of interest to the series up until Season 7’s finale made him look both weak and pathetic. That being said, I think this episode sort of helped iron out my mixed feelings on the character now with him deciding that, since he wasn't able to beat Barry in a fight, he decided to become him.

There’s just something both intriguing and twisted about Thawne killing Barry by changing reality  to swap places with him in order to essentially take his life and destroy him in the process. I think this perfectly lines up with how obsessive over the Flash’s life Thawne has always been in previous seasons. Only now, he's taking things to a whole new multilayered level of villainy making Barry the time anomaly that is in danger of being erased as opposed to him. So with that surprisingly impactful approach, I do have to say that the writers at least reminded me why Thawne is the show's greatest threat to due to the calculative way in which he hurts our hero.

-Thawne reveals to have been the one responsible for killing Joe (yikes!!) and demolishing Star Labs. The episode sort of glosses over this due to it being just a confirmation of what we’ve already surmised, but I do think that it’s a much bigger deal than they give credit for. Thawne is now responsible for killing Barry’s mother, sending his father to prison for several years, killing his daughter in an alternate timeline (erasing her), and now killing his eventual adopted father years after. That’s…that's pretty damn heavy. Also, cool little detail here, we get to see that Thawne is the one who pushed Joe on the train tracks, but due to his super speed, the security camera footage wasn’t able to catch it (was he messed with the footage to glitch him out?).

-Thawne finally fulfilled his lifelong promise made years ago that he’d kill the Flash which he did by running back in time and killing him as a child. This was a massive revelation to soak in as it dramatically ties in with the Season 1 flashbacks where Barry as a child was saved by his future self as well as my favorite scene from Season 6 where Thawne terrifyingly threatens to kill Barry. At some point in this timeline, Thawne runs to 2013 making sure that he was the one struck by lightning instead of Barry becoming the Speed Force’s champion and hero as well as ensuring that Iris chose him to be her husband. This is absolutely insane and genius at the same time which is why I have to give major props to the writers again for reminding us on why this villain is worth celebrating impact-wise.

Just to make sure that I’m understanding this correctly tho, Thawne was able to kill Barry as a child this time without being stopped by the Flash’s future self because of…what exactly? Was it because he chose a different date to do it that was more secured? Was it that he ran back to 2013 to become the new Flash first and then went back in time to kill Barry so there wouldn’t be any future Flash to stop him? I’m not sure how it all adds up time logic-wise but I’m gonna assume that it makes sense. Actually, wait a second, Iris was romantically involved with Eddie originally at the time which means that Thawne took Iris away from his own ancestor? That’s pretty messed up. Also, if Thawne became the Flash and then kill Barry, wouldn't the speed force have went against such a selfish evil intent? Again, maybe I'm thinking too much into it and could easily just write this off as "Thawne's smart".

-Thawne made Barry out to be a villain (the new Reverse Flash of this timeline) by wearing his face and going on a murderous rampage which ties into the news footage shown in the previous episode. Also, while using his "Barry Allen guise", he apparently kills Cisco (who is the director of Argus?), Nate, Ray, and Sara. It’s told via a news segment that, in this timeline, Damien Darhk is the one who issues these killings with Barry being his accomplice. The idea of Thawne having Barry’s Reverse Flash be a partner in crime to Damien ties into Season 2 of Legends with the Legion of Doom roster. Cisco's death by Thawne's hands (no pun intended) is a reference to Season 1 of The Flash’s alternate timeline. We saw a more bloodthirsty Thawne threatening Barry in the more recent seasons, so it's nice to see the show make well on that promise with such a vengeful driven body count. My only nitpick is that I wish we had flashbacks to showcase all of this.

3. Barry & Damien Darhk’s Alliance

One of the more delightful surprises of this crossover pairs our heroic Barry Allen with the ever so happy to be villainous, Damien Darhk. During a news segment, Damein is told to have been freed from prison due to a technicality which Barry takes advantage of to partner up with him. This made for some entertaining and brilliant interaction scenes with Barry acting like a criminal partner to Damien in order to get help against Thawne. This is where Part 4 of Armageddon begins to double down on the Legends of Tomorrow tie-in references making this almost feel like it would've been the traditional "Legends episode of the crossover" segment.

-When Barry explains Thawne's reverse flashpoint to Damien, Damien refers to as “an anachronism” which is how the Legends phrases changes to the timeline. Damien says “nobody gets to rig time except for me” which connects to his time on Legends as a villain bouncing around different eras to counteract his Arrow Season 4 death. He mentions that the only way to fix Thawne's time anachronisms is by fixing them all at once using a special device that Barry apparently ripped out of Ray Palmer’s dying hands. This is yet another nod to Legends Season 2 where Thawne killed a version of Ray by ripping out his heart and taking the Chalice of Dionysus from him.

-There's a great moment where Barry, still under his criminal partner act, teams up with Damien to steal a device from Star Labs but struggles to keep the facade once he witnesses Damien's brutal intent on his team. This hesitance or decision to not kill them in that moment is how Damien realizes that Barry isn’t "his Reverse Flash" immediately attacking him afterwards. The irony here is that, back on Legends, Damien complained to Thawne about wasting time playing with the heroes' lives when dealing with killing the Legends. So apparently Barry is known to be more brutal and quick with killing his enemies instead of just monologuing like Thawne did. Another layer to see here is that Thawne, in this timeline, is basically making up for said over monologuing in the past by killing the Legends right away during the Legion era story.

When Damien forces Barry to tell the truth regarding his identity, we get what is by far one of the most hilarious moments with Darhk in this franchise. Once he hears what Thawne's mastermind plan was, he immediately admires it calling it a "work of evil art". Just the way that Neal McDonough comedically plays this scene yelling out "Mehn, he's good!" made me realize how much I've really missed him in the Arrowverse. It's awesome to see the Armageddon crossover not only bring Ray Palmer back into the fold, but Damien Darhk treating us with two recently taken away and highly beloved characters from Legends.

-Barry appeases to Damien as a father since, in the reverse flashpoint timeline, Nora is apparently dead whereas she’s of course alive in our timeline. This nicely links up with Armageddon’s first parter introducing Ray as a guest star briefly mentioning his wife. Interestingly enough, it's the throwaway lines that's sticking out quite a bit with this crossover with larger implications taking root or story affecting seeds being planted. Barry talks about the demon that possessed Nora (Mallus) that Damien sacrificed himself to help defeat which ties in another Legends reference. He uses the time stone to see Barry’s timeline allowing us to get some Legends Season 3 flashbacks resulting in him deciding to partner up with Barry. Damien showing his humanity as a father figure has always been one of my favorite aspects of the character, so this alliance twist was definitely a highlight for me.

Once the two start trying to map out how exactly Barry can open up a temporal vortex to change the timeline back to normal, we get this awesome twist that it's actually this very attempt that causes the planet's destruction. It’s a clever story element to highlight Despero’s foretold future and Barry’s conflict to save the world by potentially destroying it. What's interesting here is that Thawne never looks into Barry's warning about Despero's future perspective showing that even he can be ignorant to the consequences of his time altering actions. Barry realizes that he has the to hit Mach 20 in under 2 minutes which is scientifically impossible and its that failure that would cause the end of the world. Again, it's a great turnaround to have the hero's attempt to save everyone be the actual device that destroys everyone.

However, Damien tells him that "love will guide him through". This line could’ve easily been cringe worthy and cheesy, but the fact that Damien mentions that Barry is literally the paragon of love made it all work for me. Also, Damien’s heartfelt scene when he admits that he doesn’t want to die but would easily sacrifice himself to save his daughter was fantastic. The “who do you think I built this empire for?” line perfectly conveys his twisted version of love for his daughter. Something that was also a highlight during his time on Legends of Tomorrow. The fact that he genuinely wants Barry to succeed so that Nora can live and for Thawne's  control over the world cease is such a great anti-hero angle for the character. I think it’s intriguing that it ends up being one of the Arrowverse’s most evil villains that motivates Barry to use his love for his family to succeed in defeating another threat. 

4. The Final Countdown To Armageddon

-During Barry's attempt to make the long run, he stops by to briefly speak to Iris which Thawne intervenes. However, Iris decides to shoot Thawne with the zero velocity gun instead of Barry which was…interesting. What was her motivation outside of Barry (who is perfectly known as a villain in this timeline) just telling her that he loves her? It’s the equivalent of Thawne doing the same in our timeline. It would simply just be weird, right? There’s no cosmic force linking the two since the Speed Force chose Thawne here so I’m not sure what to think. I suppose Barry’s connection to his transfers to her some how? But then what does Thawne's new timeline version of the speedforce do with this particular incident? Wouldn't this be breaking the rules somehow?

Anyway, with all of that speculation out of the way…actually…I got a few more questions. Did Thawne’s flashpoint have him fighting as the paragon of love during Crisis? Also, how did Thawne's Flash story go in comparison to Barry's. Did Thawne have his own Savitar? Alright, no more questions.

-Barry running around the globe causing cataclysmic destruction happened a whole lot faster than I thought it would but I did like the imagery behind it. We see news segments about natural disasters happening around the world rather swiftly while getting a few visually spectacular glimpses of Barry destroying the ground around him. Again it feels a bit rushed and you can tell that that the CW had to find a cheap way to convey this apocalyptic event, but it did show just how powerful a speedster villain can truly be if fully let loose. I only wish we saw more quick scenes of Barry and Thawne running pass locations setting them on fire or having them extended a little longer. It would've made for an even more epic feel in scope for this episode's big final act.

-Damien fighting Frost and Chillblaine was unexpected but I did like the Constantine reference where the two revealed to be under his protection spell to Darhk's frustration. I supposed this would make our final Legends reference as Season 5 of that series briefly had the two square off in their sorcery (a battle that we unfortunately never got to fully see realized and would've been awesome if expanded on here). What I am happy to see, although I have a few nitpicks regarding how long it dragged out, is that Damien is shown to be a proficient enough fighter against Frost or Chill-lame without his powers. It’s nice to see the writers remember that Darhk is League of Assassins trained and was a prized horseman for the Ra’s Al Ghul of his time. Sadly the fight is cut short before Damien can wipe these two terribly cheesy characters out of the way thanks to Ryan Choi and Alex.

5. Armageddon Has Been Cancelled

-After Barry manages to hit Mach 20 due to the power of love, or to make it sound less lame, his cosmic powers as a paragon and Iris somehow reconnecting him to the speed force, he's able to outrun Thawne and repair the timeline. Honestly, it was nice seeing him emotionally react to his team being back to normal showing just how mentally straining this whole arc has been on him. I love how Iris is able to tell that something happened via Barry’s expression (great way to convey their bond and history) and the mention of Joe being alive immediately having him act like a child excited to hear his father's voice.

-However, despite our big happy ending with Barry, we can't just ignore the fact that Despero apparently killed Team Flash before this happened which is pretty messed up, but with everything being fixed now, I almost felt that his character got quickly rushed off. It's like a quick bandaid being put on his story ending everything as opposed to something more in-depth. Maybe show him return to the future and have his own emotional reaction to the world not being destroyed. Unless there's more to his character to come, I don't feel this ending was as dramatically strong as it should've been considering the build up surrounding his motivation. Still, at the very least, I suppose they do explain why we can look to his story as having a fulfilling ending (no reason to kill the Flash anymore and a rescued planet to behold).

With everything seemingly wrapped up with a nice bow, Thawne shows up at the end with a weirdly fitted new suit threatening to mess with the timeline again. This definitely bring up an interesting question. What will the rest of this season be? Is Thawne the Season 8 villain now? Will he change the timeline yet again bringing Despero back or some other new villains like...I don't know...maybe the Red Death? Can I please get Matt Letscher back and with a better suit design? So many important questions. Now, going into this episode, my biggest thing was whether or not Season 8 would redeem Thawne for me. Just looking at this episode from a writing perspective, I can happy say that they highly succeeded. From a presentation standpoint however (the lackluster fight scenes and awkward looking new costumes), I'd have to sadly say that they still have some work to do.

Episode Rating: 9/10