‘The Flash’ Season 9 Episode 11: Recap & Ending Explained

The second part of The Flash series finale is on the way, and it reveals the mystery around Malcolm Gilmore. The previous episode was the first part of the series finale, which featured some familiar faces, at least in looks, in Eddie Thawne, while Cobalt Blue has been revealed as a Negative Speed Force hunting Barry and his family for the last time.

Episode eleven, titled “A New World, Part Two,” sees Malcolm Gilmore spooking Eddie Thawne’s former colleagues in CCPD, Iris struggling with Barry’s disappearance, and Negative Speed Force attacking everyone from Team Flash. Beware of spoilers for the new episode, and if you are interested, stay with us until the end.

Malcolm Gilmore arrives at CCPD and shocks everyone

The episode starts with Eddie Thawne’s lookalike, Malcolm Gilmore, whom we met in the previous episode, arriving at Central City Police Department. Of course, the man wants to know about the confidential file that landed in his laboratory of deceased CCPD detective Eddie Thawne, who looks exactly like him.

Eddie Thawne’s colleagues are understandably scared since their supposed dead colleague just walked in alive. Captain Corber sees Gilmore and tells him they need to talk. This puts Malcolm Gilmore in the future timeline since we see Officer Corber as Captain of CCPD, which isn’t what is happening today.

At STAR Labs, we see Iris discussing Team Flash Barry’s disappearance, which occurred six hours prior, to which Chester adds that he found traces of radioactive isotope cobalt. Of course, this leads to the team concluding that Barry didn’t disappear out of the “blue” (pun definitely intended), and suddenly Mark Blain returns to help Team Flash find Barry.

He talks about how Barry offered him a second chance, and he wants to return the favor. Khione is happy to see Mark, who missed him, while Cecile confirms she called Mark for help.

In her work office, Iris finds an old draft of a newspaper headline from when Barry disappeared in Crisis and ponders with Allegra about the potential future of her daughter Nora without her father. Allegra assures her Barry will return home and leaves to make Iris tea but is attacked by a mysterious force.

Meanwhile, something triggers pipes in the office, which leaks a poisonous gas that affects her colleagues, but Khione and Mark come to the rescue. While Iris is secured to the safety of her office, Khione uses her powers to implement plant cells inside of the victims and saves their life. She temporarily turns them green, and the saved journalist freaks out, seeing their skin color and Khione.

Iris discovers Allegra is down in the hallway and proceeds to take her to STAR Labs. Allegra is attacked by cobalt radiation that puts her in a coma. In the future, we see Captain Corber talking with Malcolm Gilmore, who is confused by the strange sounds only he can hear and the constant change of his name on his driver’s license.

Gilmore explains that there was an accident in Mercury Labs, where suddenly Eddie Thawne’s confidential file appeared. Corber is skeptical, which only agitates Gilmore more, who leaves CCPD to discover more about Eddie Thawne.

Mark is possessed by blue gem, while Iris struggles with Barry’s disappearance

At present-day STAR Labs, Mark and Khione talk, which escalates into Chillblaine accusing Khione of being a monster, and an abomination, which makes Khione leave. Mark’s eyes glow blue, indicating that the negative force speedster possessed the man.

In the Time Vault, Cecile and Iris have a heartfelt talk, where Cecile encourages the woman not to give up and says that Barry will return.

Meanwhile, Mark arrives at Chester’s lab and manipulates the man to see his girlfriend while he takes over the surveillance and searches for cobalt isotopes. Of course, naive Chester falls for the fake concern of Cobalt Mark, who uses the distracted man to turn off the satellites and scanners in STAR Labs.

While she leaves the Vault, Cecile is attacked by Cobalt Blue, leaving her unconscious. Iris immediately realizes she is looking at a negative speedster, who tells her he will kill her and her baby daughter. Just as he attacks Iris, Speed Force Nora Allen arrives and saves the woman from the possessed Mark.

Nora Allen is visibly drained, which she explains is due to her being attacked by negative speed force in Cosmic Plane and not having much time to help the Team Flash. Iris adds that Barry is probably held captive as well.

In the future timeline, Malcolm Gilmore strolls around the city disoriented when he starts getting images of Iris West. He realizes he must find this Iris West to see what happened to Eddie Thawne.

Iris sends strength to Barry in another timeline, and Nora Allen asks Khione for help

At the STAR Labs, or better yet, Time Vault, Iris records a message to Barry, where she also reminds herself of their memories together and hopes that this recording will bring hope to Barry. In the year 2000, we see Barry fighting possessed Joe West and sees the memories of him and Iris, which helps him defeat the negative speed force – a cool callback to the previous episode.

Back at STAR Labs, Speed Force Nora summons Khione and tells the woman she is all the hope they have in stopping this foe. Khione is skeptical since she is inhuman, but Nora encourages her by saying that she needs to embrace herself and her powers, which align with every natural force.

Khione has heard enough and goes to Caitlin Snow’s department to deal with possessed Mark Blaine.

Khione shows off her powers, and Flash returns just in time

Khione gives the negative speedster the last chance to leave Mark’s body, which is in grave danger – if Khione hurts the negative speed force, she will hurt Mark and potentially kill him. Of course, this leads to the enemy badgering Khione, who simply uses her powers to turn the possessed Mark into ashes, which leads to the cobalt crystal being extracted from the man’s body.

Khione then uses her powers to put Mark’s body together, ultimately saving his life. The crystal vanishes, and Mark is in awe of Khione and her powers. In the Time Vault, Iris realizes she is going into labor and is panicked but happy because her daughter is finally coming.

Just as she was about to be taken to the hospital, Barry arrived, presumably from the year 2000, and the scene with Eobard Thawne from the last episode. The pair hug and Iris tearfully tells Barry that little Nora is coming.

Iris is in labor, and Cobalt Blue reveals its identity

At the hospital, Barry tells Iris he finally found peace and closure with his parents and his whole journey before he came home. While Iris is in labor, Team Flash discusses what happened in the last few hours, possible dangers, and threats the blue crystal is causing.

Mark rushes to recover the crystal to prevent anyone from getting hurt, while Khione tells Mark she is essentially the goddess and she feels that her purpose will lead her to other places. As they talk, Barry disappears once again in blue energy.

In the future, Malcolm Gilmore digs up Eddie Thawne’s grave. He frantically digs until Captain Corber arrives at the scene, trying to put some sense into the man. Gilmore is visibly losing his mind, and when he disregards orders from the captain, he opens a coffin and finds nothing.

The empty coffin triggers the waves of Eddie Thawne’s memories when he realizes he killed himself to save the world from Eobard Thawne but doesn’t know he was “sucked” into the wormhole that brought him to this timeline. He opens up his jacket and sees that he still has a wound in his chest, prompting him to pull out the bullet from his wound – confirming Eddie Thawne is alive.

The Flash season 9 Episode 11 ending explained and a short review

One of the biggest takeaways from this episode is the truth behind Eddie Thawne’s death. Now we know what happened to Eddie when he shot himself in season one to save his friends from Eobard Thawne, but it seems that Eddie might be the final villain of the series.

The mystery of Cobalt Blue is still lingering, even though Eddie Thawne from The Flash and Cobalt Blue’s story from the DC comics have a lot in common and will probably lead to Eddie being the last big bad of the series finale.

Yes, we speculated that might happen, but after more thinking, I’m saddened to see Eddie going from hero to zero in the show. Of course, it is symbolic seeing Eddie Thawne closing out the series as the villain after beginning the show as a hero, but still, that’s just my observation.

This episode followed the official synopsis since we barely saw Barry, but it made sense if we connected it to the happenings of the previous episode – Barry was stuck in the past and had to fight to go home.

After the amazing last episode, part two of the series finale wasn’t as good. Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I never bought the current Team Flash. They aren’t flashed out as characters; frankly, they’re suffering from being extremely uninteresting, which relegates the episode’s excitement. I believe that Iris and Barry are the hearts of the show, especially in the last few seasons, and seeing them being less on our screens kind of “bores” down the episode.

Khione’s storyline was lackluster, in my opinion, more so that she was severely underused in season nine, but at least we saw her save the day with possessed Mark Blaine.

Chester and Allegra are still uninteresting to me, and it saddens me that showrunners didn’t write more about their characters. Cecile is my favorite Team Flash member, but she is just there without Joe and her family.

Nevertheless, it was cool to see Iris recording that message to Barry, which did reach Barry in another timeline during his fight with possessed Joe West, and we got the confirmation that Eddie Thawne is indeed alive and well.

The next episode is coming next Wednesday, and we will make sure to bring you another recap and review of the episode.