‘The Flash’ Season 9 Episode 10: Recap & Ending Explained

With every new Flash episode, we are closer to the end of the longest Arrowverse series. The previous episode, titled “It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want,” saw Barry “dying,” Oliver Queen returning to help the heroes and save the Multiverse, and Kid Flash finally dealing with his childhood trauma.

Episode ten, titled “A New World, Part One,” deals with Barry’s disappearance to the past, his dealing with his past, and meeting his parents for the last time. Beware of spoilers for the newest Flash episode, and stay with us for our recap and short review.

Eddie Thawne is back – or is he?

The episode opens with a mysterious figure preparing for work at Mercury Labs. The whole sequence follows the man until it is revealed it is Malcolm Gilmore, a doctor with the same appearance as the deceased Eddie Thawne, CCPD detective, and a former boyfriend of Iris who sacrificed himself at the end of season one.

At STAR Labs, Chester helps Allegra with her new superhero suit, which looks ridiculous, and it seems they will need more time for the suit to be perfect. Then the scene takes us out of town, where the West family spends their precious time together.

At Frost’s and Caitlin’s apartment, we see Khione writing a journal, documenting her growing powers and wishing she could see Mark (Chillblain) once again.

Finally, we see Barry and Iris enjoying their time together at their apartment. Iris is in advanced pregnancy, and Barry spends time safely proofing the whole house for little Nora not cause chaos with her powers. Iris gets great news when she finds out that her Red Death article has been nominated for a Pulitzer award, and just as she shares great news with her husband, the blue-colored energy surrounds Barry, who disappears.

The blue force drops Barry in Central City but in the year 2000.

Barry disappears and is brought back to the year 2000

Barry is in the year 2000, and he is understandably confused since he doesn’t know what he did do now to cause this. Barry goes to CCPD, where he meets the younger version of Joe West, who is just an officer at the department. They talk; Joe is clearly confused but decides to help the unknown man because he seems good.

Barry asks for help to reach Dr. Tina Mcgee, a scientist at Mercury Labs, who will understand what is going on with him. However, before Barry finally says his name, he sees the date – March 18th. This is the day his mother was killed by Reverse Flash. Barry immediately flees while Joe looks on, confused.

Barry remembers Professor Martin Stein and calls him for help; the esteemed scientist thinks that someone is pulling a prank on him. However, when Stein hangs up the phone, Barry sees his parents, Nora and Henry, walking across the streets, alive and well. Just before he talks with them, a red speed force energy hits Barry, who falls unconscious in the heavy traffic.

Henry and Nora save Barry’s life and take him to the hospital to treat him. Barry wakes up in the hospital and is treated by his father. He introduces himself as Bart, and Allens promise to help the unknown man by feeding him “because he must be hungry.” Barry is overwhelmed by his parent’s attention, and everyone goes to the pizza place, where Barry hangs out with his parents.

Meanwhile, Joe is investigating the hit and run that occurred with “Bart.” However, he is distracted by someone calling his name and finds a strange blue crystal on the floor that he picks up and makes his eyes blue. At the pizza place, Nora tells Barry that fate put them together at this moment in time, and when Allens offers him shelter, Barry refuses and flees the place, leaving his parents confused.

Barry stumbles upon Eobard Thawne, and Barry has a dillema

However, Barry’s problems don’t stop there because he meets Eobard Thawne, Reverse Flash. Barry instinctively tries to kill him but, in the end, gives up. Thawne provokes Barry, who asks the evil speedster why he brought him here. Eobard Thawne says this isn’t his fault and takes Barry to O’Shaughnessy’s bar.

Thawne continues with his goading of Barry and confessing that he came here to kill young Barry Allen to stop Flash from existing. Reverse Flash continues by telling Barry this is the perfect time to do it since Barry either arrests or kills him, and he won’t do anything.

Thawne pushes Barry to admit he won, and Barry does it. This situation is getting even more complicated, pushing Barry to return to the hospital, where he overhears his parents talking about them protecting this unknown man.

Barry confesses to his unassuming parents that he always wondered what he would say to them if he had one more with them, and when Nora encourages him, he says what’s on his mind.

Nora and Henry hug Barry, showing him love and support, but he hears a strange voice calling his name when he leaves. Barry stumbles upon Joe West, and when he tries to tell him what is going on, Barry realizes something is wrong with his future father-in-law.

New speedster attacks Barry

Joe’s eyes glow blue, and it is revealed that a Negative Speed Force possessed Joe and that it wants to kill Barry for everything he did. Of course, Barry tries to attack the speedster, but he cannot since Joe is still there, and there is a risk of killing the officer. Barry avoids striking Joe directly, while the speedster is relentless and wants to “shoot to kill” Barry.

Barry does bring Negative Speed Force Joe down, but the villain uses the moment to kill Barry, who thinks about Iris and little Nora and manages to use the burst of speed to defeat the speedster. The blue crystal is out of Joe; it disappears while Barry takes Joe West to the safety of his police cruiser.

Barry runs across Central City and stumbles across Reverse Flash, who is on his way to kill little Barry. Barry tells Thawne he wants to save the evil speedster and that he’s sorry for ruining his life, but the man doesn’t believe him and runs off to Allen’s house.

Barry’s origin story goes full circle, and Eddie Thawne becomes a speedster

They race against each other into the house, and we get one of the best scenes of season nine – the infamous scene where Reverse Flash kills Nora Allen and plays out how it’s supposed to. We even get the scene of Flash telling past Flash to stop and not interfere with the scene, and he is the one who takes little Barry out of the house while Reverse Flash kills Nora Allen.

Reverse Flash kills Nora and flees the house intending to leave the timeline. However, he realizes that the whole event was a fixed point and was always supposed to happen. Barry confesses that this night doesn’t hunt him anymore and that he finally found peace because he spent precious time with his parents for the last time and realized their love transcends everything.

At that moment, the blue energy returns, and Flash is taken to an unknown location while Eobard Thawne curses The Flash, who once again outsmarted him. The show takes us to Mercury Labs, where Malcolm Gilmore is working in his lab when suddenly, a strange storm hits Central City.

Dr. Gilmore is struck by lightning (like Barry was in the pilot episode), specifically, speed force or negative speed force. When he wakes up, the doctor sees the strange energy surging from his body and classified files that include the death of Eddie Thawne, who looks exactly like him.

The Flash season nine episode ten ending explained and short review

This episode might be the best episode of season nine of The Flash. Yes, we saw the same old story of Barry going back in time and some old characters from season one of the series. However, this perspective of Barry Allen’s origin story was executed really well.

We saw Rick Cosnett returning to The Flash series, this time portraying Malcolm Gilmore, who is known in the comics as Cobalt Blue, one of the long-lost twins of Barry Allen, who was stolen by Dr. Gilmore and raised by the Thawnes.

This might be the last big villain of The Flash series, and knowing that this episode is the first part of a four-part series finale, makes us really excited. Also, Rick Cosnett playing Malcolm Gilmore, takes The Flash series full circle since his other character Eddie Thawne was instrumental in season one.

Eddie Thawne sacrificed himself to erase Reverse-Flash’s existence since he was Eobard Thawne’s ancestor. Absolutely amazing callback to the best storylines of The Flash series.

Of course, this whole episode was incredibly emotional since we saw Barry hanging out with his parents for the last time. Moreover, the infamous scene of Nora Allen’s murder, where we see the season one version of Barry just at the brink of saving Nora Allen’s life and causing the Flashpoint and “our” Barry stopping it, was really cool to see.

That scene finally came full circle in The Flash series, and it was great seeing Barry coming to peace with the worst night of his life and meeting his parents for the last time. Great episode, a cool introduction of Cobalt Blue as the new villain, and something to look forward to in the next episode, which will air next week.