While it initially was not meant to be a season finale, The Flash Season 6 Episode 19 had the makings of one, especially with that cliffhanger.
There is still a long way to go in taking down one of the two villains from the second half of The Flash Season 6, but the other one has been dealt with, for better or for worse.
If anything, this hour has set up an entire season’s worth of stories quite nicely, even though that might mean that Iris, Kamilla, and presumably Singh will be trapped in the Mirrorverse for much longer than expected.
Barry was stuck in the middle of the feud between Carver and Eva as the latter made her reappearance in the real world since she escaped the Mirrorverse.
Eva was determined to kill Carver, and since she had been planning his demise for almost six years now, success was pretty much assured for her.
Carver: You’re not my wife. My wife died in the particle accelerator explosion.
Eva: Well, I’ve never felt more alive.
Carver: You’re not even human.
Barry tried to save Carver even though Carver has proven to be a terrible man. However, Barry’s diminishing speed, combined with Eva’s planning and power, Eva made killing Carver look easy.
Few villains can succeed as much as Eva has this season, and her number of wins has definitely knocked Barry and the rest of Team Flash down a few pegs.
But with the return of Joe and with Caitlin’s motivational speech to Barry, hope remains.
One of the best parts of Barry’s character is that he has an infinite amount of hope and love. He is the Paragon of Love, after all.
It was the main reason why he was the first superhero chosen to get a spin-off from Arrow. While Oliver Queen was dark and broody, Barry Allen is a ray of sunshine and optimism who just wants to help everyone.
Maybe instead of focusing on what you’ve lost, you should try remembering what you’ll never lose. The reason you beat Zoom, Godspeed, Thawne is because speed isn’t what drives you. It’s love. That’s your true force, and there is nothing artificial about that. So as long as you stay true to yourself, you will always find a way to beat the bad guys. And gals.
Caitlin
Barry does have his faults, of course, but you can’t help but admire him at the end of the day because he embodies what The Flash is about. And that was made more evident than ever during this hour.
Near the beginning of this episode, and others before it, we questioned whether or not Eva was indeed a villain since her only goal was to take down an evil man.
Barry reminded us that no one should get to choose who lives or dies, no matter what the circumstances are. He even forgets that sometimes, as seen when Mirror Singh tried to make him an offer, but he always tries to do what is right in the end.
As implied, and maybe subtly foreshadowed, by Ralph during his conversation with Sue, killing someone stays with a person and haunts them.
Eva killing Carver could do just that. However, there were also hints of Eva not even being human anymore since she spent so long in the Mirrorverse. Her neural dissonance was bound to be off the charts.
Eva: Flash. Barry. You and I are not enemies. We never have been.
Barry: You just killed him in cold blood.
Eva: Your wife set out to catch a bad man. She couldn’t. But together, we could. We’re on the same side.
Barry: No.
Eva: Just remember that.
There is a chance that Eva is so far gone that she feels nothing when she thinks about how she killed Carver — if anything, she feels happy. If that plus her crazy cool powers don’t make her a villain, I don’t know what does.
Eva’s success and the development of her character make her quite an intriguing villain, especially because she is one that Barry has not really faced before. She wants nothing to do with him now that Carver is dead.
Plus, Eva is a powerful woman now that she is back to being CEO of McCulloch Technologies, making her even tougher to take down. It may not have been the plan, but I could see them spending a lot of time focusing on Eva on The Flash Season 7.
If still being trapped in the Mirrorverse after nine episodes was terrible, Iris seemingly disappearing altogether from it made it ten times worse.
Iris most likely is not gone forever, given the fact that Eva survived in there for six years, but what happened to her is up for debate.
She was suffering from neural dissonance pretty badly in the scenes she was featured in, something that is still affected Eva even now that she is out of the Mirrorverse — did anyone else catch that arm scratch?
Will Iris turn into whatever Eva is? Carver made a lot of comments regarding the lack of humanity in his wife. Or maybe it was something as simple as teleporting to Singh? The longer she stays in there, the more mirror powers she might gain.
Whatever it is and wherever Iris disappeared to, the fan theories are about to go wild until the next season premieres.
Ralph and Sue’s story just got more complicated.
Sue’s time working undercover at Black Hole was short-lived when Eva killed Carver, something she was trying to do herself. The reason why Carver would hire Sue when she so obviously wants to take revenge on him escapes me, but oh well.
Now that Carver is dead and no longer blackmailing Sue’s parents, they should have had their happy ending. But Eva decided to complicate things and frame Sue for her husband’s murder.
Sue: Why do you care?
Ralph: Because I believe in you! And I know there’s still good in you. I can see it.
Sue wanting to kill Carver makes her the perfect person to blackmail, and then Eva can go on her merry way, knowing that she got away with it. If Eva has proven in anything, it is how smart she is.
Thankfully, Ralph is not about to let Sue go down for a murder that she did not commit. Trying to clear her name is bound to bring the two of them closer, and we might just see a comic book romance on our screens on the next season.
What did you think of the season finale The Flash Fanatics?
Was it a satisfying end getting Carver’s demise and Eva’s rise? Where do you think Iris went?
And how much did you miss Cisco while he is off in Atlantis?
Let me know in the comments, and do not forget that you can watch The Flash online right here via TV Fanatic!
The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
Sarah Little is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.