‘The Flash’ Season 9 Episode 13 Series Finale: Recap & Ending Explained
The last episode of ‘The Flash‘ series is upon us, and it was quite interesting. In the previous episode, we saw Barry sent to the future, Eddie Thawne becoming Cobalt Blue, and Negative Speed Force attacking Team Flash.
In the series finale, we see the epic showdown of evil speedsters and Team Flash, Barry fighting Cobalt Blue, and some familiar faces returning to Central City. This is the last episode of The Flash ever, and if you’re interested in how the showrunners closed out the Arrowverse show, stay with us until the end. Beware of spoilers.
Eddie Thawne brings back Evil Speedsters while Iris is in labor
The final episode of ‘The Flash’ starts with Team Flash learning Eddie Thawne is the Avatar of Negative Speed Force and that the Negative Speed Force traveled across the timeline to recharge itself and prepare for the final attack. While Cecile explains what is happening, Barry contacts the Team to tell them he is back in the present and rushing to the hospital, where Iris is in labor.
In the Negative Zone (West household manifested by Negative Speed Force), Godspeed and Zoom are pulled from their timelines and whereabouts after their deaths in the previous seasons. Of course, the evil speedsters are at each other necks, but they have no idea why they are there. Then Eobard Thawne, with Harrison Wells’ face, arrives and mocks Godspeed and Zoom, with Savitar joining the fray just before Eddie Thawne arrives at the house.
It is revealed that evil speedsters are currently in the Negative Speed Force, while Reverse Flash mocks Eddie and his life when he was a detective of CCPD. However, Eddie shuts them up when he shows them the reason why he brought them from the dead.
Eddie continues to say that they individually couldn’t defeat the Flash, and if they combine their powers, they will become more powerful than Barry. The evil speedsters are convinced, especially after Eddie turns into Cobalt Blue.
Now Cobalt Blue gives the evil speedsters Negative Speed Force, and they go on to face Barry and the rest of the Team Flash. Barry returns to the hospital to see Iris, and while they have a heartfelt moment, Cobalt Blue appears with blue flowers and tells Barry he will kill him and finally leave his perfect life as he always wanted to. Iris doesn’t believe Eddie is actually thinking that and tells Cobalt Blue that Eddie is a hero and better than this.
Barry and Iris also believe that Negative Speed Force only uses Eddie for its own agenda. Iris tells Barry to run, and the Flash fights the evil avatar of Negative Speed Force.
The fight between the Flash and Cobalt Blue across Central City is in full force, but the evil speedster gets the upper hand and almost kills the Flash. However, Nora West Allen appears out of nowhere and saves her father.
The rest of the Team Flash appears to fight Cobalt Blue, but he brings his own team with Godspeed, Reverse-Flash, Savitar, and Zoom coming out of the Negative Speed Force.
Each member of Team Flash takes over their evil speedster and fights them individually.
Team Flash defeats Evil Speedsters, and Khione encourages Barry
We first see Nora and Savitar fighting, and the evil speedster seemingly kills Nora. However, the young speedster gets the upper hand and stabs Savitar herself, and ultimately kills him.
Virtue (Cecile) faces off against Godspeed and defeats him quite quickly. She gets in the evil speedster’s head and overpowers him. At STAR Labs, Chester observes fights from a distance, but Eobard Thawne appears behind him and seemingly kills him.
Allegra appears in the lab and is devastated seeing her boyfriend dead, but Reverse-Flash doesn’t stop there – he goads Allegra about Nash, which prompts the Accelerator to defeat the evil speedster.
Chester is actually alive, wakes up, and the pair kiss. On the other side of the Central City, Khione and Chillblaine confront Zoom in the tunnel with the whole CCPD force. Zoom goads Khione and attacks her with his lightning. However, Khione’s powers absorb the attack and send it back to Zoom, who’s defeated on the spot.
At Jitters, Eddie tries to take the hostages, but Jay Garrick stops him at the last moment by taking his Speed Force away. The Speedster also references his doppelganger from Earth-90, from whom he borrowed that trick. Eddie is desperate and takes the Negative Speed Force from fallen evil speedsters to recharge himself.
Cobalt Blue escapes the Jitters, and Jay Garrick tells Barry that Eddie will try to recharge himself at the source of the speed force, which will lead to the overload and his ultimate death.
Barry decides he needs to help Eddie because he is his friend and the hero who sacrificed himself to save the timeline. He wants to save both timelines and Eddie, but that seems like an impossible mission. Khione steps in and tells Barry she can send him with her powers to Negative Speed Force, but Barry still insists on convincing Eddie to stop. Khione tells Barry that nature is all about perspective, and when he doesn’t believe her, she tells him that he needs to believe in the impossible.
The Flash goes to Negative Speed Force to confront Eddie, but Thawne is the only one fighting. Barry refuses to attack Eddie, which frustrates the evil speedsters. However, Eddie starts becoming a Reverse-Flash due to the anger and influence of the Negative Speed Force, and Barry tries to convince Eddie to fight the hate and must work together to create a better world.
Barry’s speech works, and Eddie removes the blue crystal and smashes it into the ground. Eddie says farewell to Barry, telling him they might not agree on many things, but he wishes him the best with Iris and their family.
Barry and Team Flash save the timeline, and Iris gives birth to Nora
Barry returns to the hospital just in time for little Nora’s birth. Team Flash reveals the timeline is stable, and there are no sights of Negative Speed Force. Mark tells Chester that he survived the Reverse-Flash attack because he has Hawking radiation in his cells – this is the callback to the previous season of ‘Flash’ when Chester was merged with Black Hole at one point.
He is now the CHUNK, as his counterpart in the DC comics. Team Flash relocates to the hospital, waiting for the happy news, and even Nora from the future arrives to see her birth. She questions the team about her appearance and if that will disturb the timeline. While Team Flash discusses the rules of the timeline, Harrison Wells (Timeless Wells) arrives at the hospital and talks with Khione.
Wells tells Khione to ascend and become the protector of all things. She is sad about leaving behind her family in Team Flash, but Wells encourages her by telling her that she will carry pieces of them in herself whenever she goes.
Iris gives birth to Nora West Allen, and Joe West has a heartfelt moment with his granddaughter.
Caitlin returns, and the West Allen family lives happily ever after
Khione and the rest of the Team Flash go to STAR Labs to say goodbye to their dear friend – Khione decides to leave. She sends her body to ascend in the form of the storm of elements, which is where we see Caitlin Snow, well and alive. Team Flash is shocked but happy to see their old friend. The explanation about her appearance is that Khione used Caitlin’s body, and when her mortality left, it restored Caitlin’s life.
One week later, West Allen’s family and friends gather to celebrate Nora’s birth. Adult Nora is also there, with Caitlin and Timeless Wells joining the celebration. Adult Nora reveals to her parents that before Bart’s birth, more crazy events occur, which Iris and Barry already dread, and Barry apologizes to Caitlin, who returns her sentiments.
Joe toasts Iris’ achievements, and Cecile’s as well, leading him to finally propose to her. Of course, she says yes, and the celebrations continue at the West Allen home.
Later, Barry calms fussy Nora, gives a heartfelt speech about how she needs to believe in the impossible, and tells her the story about their family. He continues to say that they were lucky and that Nora needs to share her gifts with others.
We then see the Flash cast his lightning, which chooses three people: Avery Ho, Max Mercury, and Jess Chambers. Barry ends his speech by saying they can create a better world where everyone coexists, and nothing is impossible if we believe.
And that’s the end of the series final of The Flash. Let’s discuss the episode more in the next section.
The Flash episode 13, season 9 ending explained and short review
The ‘A New World, Part Four’ is the last episode of ‘The Flash’ series, and I need to be brutally sincere – it was really disappointing. First of all, the episode was clearly too short, and the whole structure of the plot was rushed.
The epic showdown between evil speedsters and Team Flash was laughable, and it lasted a few minutes – Virtue, Khione, and Accelerator one-shot their enemies, with whom Flash struggled immensely in the previous seasons. I understand that they might not be as strong as before they died, but still, the series finale insists on the epic final battle that was lackluster at best.
Barry and Eddie’s scenes were really good because the actors gave their A-game, but the epic showdown that ended in Barry using his heroic speech to defeat the “scary” Negative Speed Force avatar does not do justice to Flash’s character.
In comparison to ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ was always milder in action scenes and more strong in acting performances, humor, and storylines than other Arrowverse shows, which propelled the series over other projects, but for the series finale, a twenty-minutes to be dedicated to big bads of the ‘Flash’ is laughable.
Other thirty minutes were spent for feel-good post-fight family time, which I didn’t hate, but there needed to be a longer episode than 40 minutes. We got an hour-long episode before in season nine, so it’s baffling to me why CW didn’t dedicate more time for the last episode of one of their most popular shows.
We saw Team Flash in action, and frankly, this episode only cemented my feelings about them – they are not interesting. To be fair, I like Cecile, but that doesn’t erase the fact that this version of Team Flash lacks something. Allegra and Chester had the “will they, won’t they” storyline, which wasn’t anything special, and Khione was a confusing part of Team Flash for me.
Danielle Panabaker deserved better writing for her character, and it seems that her status as the original Team Flash member kept her in the last season of the show as another version of her character. I wasn’t happy with how they introduced her, and I’m even less satisfied with how Caitlin returned to life. The whole storyline was confusing, but I respect the actress and her performances over the last season of The Flash.
Barry and Iris are the best part of the show, and that’s not even the discussion; this finale only cemented their status. I must give kudos to the actors and their performances during the final episode, especially Grant Gustin and Rick Cosnett, who brought their A-game. They were emotional, believable, and, most importantly, interesting.
I’m not going to spend time on confusing plot directions for this finale since there has to be a whole new article for that, but I’ll just say that Eric Wallace and his colleagues should’ve given better material to their actors, and, most importantly to fans, who stuck with the show for nine seasons – and that wasn’t easy.
One reviewer described Wallace as a showrunner in three words – rock and diamonds. Since he took over the show in season four, there have been really good episodes, but there have been a lot of lackluster ones that made some fans give up on the show.
Nevertheless, I think most of The Flash fans agree this show deserved a better finale, but despite the negatives, there have been positives, and that mostly revolves around Barry and Iris. Also, Eddie Thawne survived in the end as Cobalt Blue, which was a clear reference to his character in the DC comics.
Finally, the ending suggests that there has to be a spin-off of ‘The Flash’ since the speed force chooses three different characters. Eric Wallace mentioned that this is the end of the Flash journey in Arrowverse but not of the universe itself, confirming that more content might be released.
Still, ‘The Flash’ series finale marks the ending of an era, which started brightly and strong and ended somewhat disappointing, but as a former avid fan of Arrowverse, I still respect what those shows were – they brought us DC superheroes on our screens.
And this is it for our ‘Flash’ series recap. Did you like the episode, and what are your thoughts about the series ending? Let us know in the comment section.
