The Central City Citizen won’t lose her founder just yet as Candice Patton, who portrays Iris West-Allen on The Flash, has just inked a new deal that will keep her on board for The Flash 9th season.
The Flash season 8 ended on a high positive note after Team Flash defeated the Negative Forces and its’ avatar the Negative Reverse Flash.
With the Negative Forces that have plagued Team Flash infusing Eobard Thawn, the Reverse Flash, Barry had a hard time winning versus his archnemesis and it wasn’t until Cecile’s newfound powers that she has accumulated over the course of season 8 that infused Barry with the Positive Forces and made him Positive Flash and he made light work of Eobard Thawn’s new powers.
The Secret Cameo
Iris West-Allen has been missing for quite a lot of episodes and in the finale it looked like she was going to be absent as well until I remembered reading that the showrunners had a surprise cameo with Iris West-Allen and teased us with that for three months.
The secret cameo turned out to be none other than Damien Darhk. The once villain that plagued the Arrowverse in various TV series. He offered Iris insight on how she survived all the deathly situations she has been in and came to the conclusion that there was only one way to survive all of that: Iris is a survivor. And I am sure that this is going to be part of the character arc of at least season 9 and possibly beyond.
Cecile’s powers were reset at the end of the episode but she played a pivotal role in the way that Barry got his powers infused by her. This also means that after some struggles after the Elongated Man was fired, the series picked itself up and filled that void with Cecile.
Allegra’s coming into her own
Allegra is another who has undergone several big character changes in season 8. Having gone from someone who had trouble with her power to being someone who can control her power and is mature enough to know when to use her powers and when not to. Fans and pundits speculate that Allegra will suit up for season 9. And I can only encourage that because the world needs an Allegra.
Danielle Panabaker was absent as well from the final episodes but that is with good reason: she is expecting her second child and thus is on maternity leave. Her story arc was the biggest one in The Flash this season.
First, she reunited with her passed-away husband Firestorm returns and tries to reunite with Caitlyn. The reunion is short because Firestorm was possessed by an entity that caused death and decay and turned into Deathstorm. Then clone Killer Frost and Deathstorm got in a fight and while Deathstorm was defeated it was not without a high price: Killer Frost died and with that Caitlyn Frost has had the biggest character changes of the series this season.
Unable to cope with the death of Killer Frost, Caitlyn crafted a machine that would revive her clone sister but Barry interfered and destroyed the machine. And that was the last time we saw Killer Frost until last night when her companion created another machine and turned it on; we didn’t see who came out of the tube but the sound of the voice was Caitlyn’s. We can only speculate who it is who came out of it. If you have any ideas then let us know in the comments.
The Blue Crystal tease
And for the final tease at the end of the episode, we are left with a blue crystal that started to glow:
Cobalt Blue is Barry’s evil twin who was stolen at birth and grew up to be the anti-Flash stealing other people’s speedforce and managed to defeat and kill The Flash. After doing so, he ravaged and destroyed everything Barry stood for.
If it is him then I can only imagine that Rick Cosnett who played Eddie Thawne is suitable for the role. But the DC show has always been surprising with casting so I am confident that if it isn’t Rick Cosnett then it’s going to be someone else awesome.
The Flash: present and future
The Flash aired the season finale on June 29th, 2022 and showrunner Eric Wallace already told in an interview why he gave Diggle’s Green Lantern storyline that has been around since the finale of Arrow, closure.
Basically, they rounded off the Green Lantern because Wallace wasn’t sure at the time if there was going to be a season 9 at all.
“We were thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, we have to do this because maybe no one will get a chance to!’” Wallace told in an interview. “I talked to David [Ramsey] myself, and told him, ‘I’d like to give this some closure,’ and he was all in favor of it. And when I told him what we had planned, he thought it sounded fantastic.”
The Green Lantern arc on the Arrowverse was meant to be connected to something bigger. It was supposed to turn into the Blackest Night storyline, which is a major storyline in DC Comics.
Deathstorm, played by Robbie Amell, was supposed to be a foreboding storyline. However, showrunner Eric Wallace doesn’t know if that storyline will ever come to fruition. Of course, we haven’t forgotten about Crisis on Infinite Earths at all!
But I do wonder that if you did Blackest Night then what shows would you have done it with? Since Arrow aired its’ season finale a couple of years ago. Supergirl wrapped up in 2021. DC Legends was canceled recently and Batwoman hung up the cowl. That would only leave Superman and Lois but that show has not yet had a crossover with The Flash or other shows that were airing before cancellation. Nor are there any story arcs that are shared, unlike the old Arrowverse shows where they would share story arcs.
Crisis on Infinite Earths worked because you could connect Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman. Blackest Night, I think, would fall short with only two shows that can support such an ambitious storyline. Of course, you could always have cameos but you wouldn’t be able to flesh out the main characters. Or develop the cameo characters but for what purpose? Their shows have ended so there would be no follow-up.
When I started to watch season 8, I kind of hoped that it would be the last season. The Arrowverse shows spanned over a decade and with the cancellations recently because of big merger, I figure that season 8 should be its’ last.
The Flash has undergone so many changes, has defeated so many enemies, has lost loved ones, met his children from the future, was NOT the fastest man alive for a couple of seasons, has had his marriage rocked in several instances. Lost his father, relived the childhood trauma of seeing his mother get killed by the Reverse Flash and I can name so many more things that have happened to Barry Allen that I find it hard to believe that season 9 will offer something new and original.
In fact, the show has been rehashing storylines in seasons 4 to 6 until Eric Wallace took over. And he did so with grace. He turned the story arcs into something original again and managed to deal with the big exits of Cisco and Harrison Wells by introducing us to new characters that brought new dynamics to Team Flash.
And now Jesse L. Martin has exited the show as well so who will be Barry’s new moral center next season? I am sure Eric Wallace can do no wrong but do make season 9 the last one and go out with the bang that was the final fight of season 8. A tenth season would be so redundant.
Candice Patton signs season 9 deal
It was unclear for a long time on whether or not Candice Patton would continue on the show. In an Instagram AMA she didn’t respond immediately when asked if she would be back in the future.
“Not quite sure. TBD,” she told one inquiring fan during an early-April Instagram AMA. “One day at a time.” Then, on the evening of April 27, Patton shared a short video of her removing her makeup in her trailer, with the caption, “THAT’S A WRAP ON IRIS WEST-ALLEN”. At the time it was unclear to the fans on whether that meant just for the season OR forever.
The Flash show has seen an exodus of original cast members with Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh and soon Jesse L. Martin will also step down. Martin will perform on a new NBC TV Show. While Carlos Valdes recently starred on Gaslit, a political thriller about the Watergate political scandal from the mid-1970s.
However new characters were added over the years to fill up the void that was left by the aforementioned characters: Danielle Nicolet as Cecile, Brandon McKnight as Chester and Kayla Compton as Allegra.
