The Flash S06E14 Review: Speed Ghosts

The Flash, Season 6, Episode 14: Death of the Speed Force

Well, this one is an interesting episode. I mean, with a title like "Death of the Speed Force" and the return of Wally West, it's kind of bound to be interesting and lore-heavy, right? Not that The Flash was ever that interested in deeply exploring the lore of the Speed Force or anything, because it has been wildly inconsistent, just like CW's own take on time-travel. Extremely inconsistent and it really depends on the season's storyline whether it really makes sense at all. And "Death of the Speed Force" basically has the Speed Force, well, die. The thing is, everything is sort of abruptly shoved to us within this episode, and I really would've liked it that in the past couple of episodes if we actually saw the Flash's powers sort of get a bit fucked up post-Crisis, but we really don't, other than a blink-and-miss-it moment that this episode showed us. Hell, until they brought up the Spectre, I genuinely thought that this was going to be a follow up to Flash lending his powers mentally to Gorilla Grodd, because the death of the Speed Force... really didn't feel as huge or momentous or plot-relevant as it should've been. It's sudden, and, hell, Barry and Oliver doing their bizarre power-team-up during Crisis was honestly such a handwave-y moment that the huge revelation that, hey, Oliver's Spectre powers is fucking up the Speed Force felt very random.

Wally West is always a welcome addition to the show, as terribly as both The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow have treated him. None of the shows really know what to do with Wally West, and neither does this return, not really. Seeing him back is awesome, that scene in the beginning with speed clones disassembling a helicopter is an awesome scene, and Wally West spouting zen phrases is great. But ultimately, when Wally goes into a rant about how Barry should've looked for the help of other speedsters, it sort of felt hollow considering that Wally's completely absent and ignored by the show during both Crisis on Infinite Earths and the whole "Barry's gonna die" moment earlier this season.

And, sure, both Grant Gustin and Keiynan Lonsdale are amazing in their interactions, and Jesse L. Martin is, as always, a great dad, and the scripting wasn't terrible, but as I watch the episode it all felt a little hollow, like that moment in Supergirl's third season where they clearly ended up with hasty rewrites to shove in New Argo and all that stuff within the final three episodes of the season. Like, okay, the concept of Barry working with a finite amount of Speed Force left, meaning he can't use super-speed all the time, is an interesting one. The concept of Wally telling Barry what an irresponsible tit he is with the quasi-mystical personification of a god-like force is also great story material. Hell, there's even good story material in Barry's plan at the end of the episode to construct their own artificial Speed Force. The execution and the sheer lack of build-up, though, makes me feel like the episode is pretty hollow.

Cisco Ramon has apparently returned from all over Earth-Prime with a new villain-dex, and he names our new villain-of-the-week... Frida Novikov, a.k.a. Turtle II. I actually low-key really love that scene where Cisco names the villain. Turtle II is a pretty decent villain, all things considered, with a fun power and leading to a pretty cool showdown with Flash and Kid Flash. But she's kind of flat, ultimately, and I completely forgot she was part of the episode when I sat down to write this review. There's a bit of a minor sub-plot of Cisco re-learning to ask help from Caitlin or whatever, but it felt so shoehorned in and honestly kind of just there.

The season-long plotlines are still going on, with Cisco and Nash talking about the 'ghosts' from other Earths. Cisco handwaves the fact that any non-Earth-Prime residents would be killed via cellular degeneration (oh dear, Beth Kane) but in Nash's case, apparently he gets fused with the 'ghost' of Eobard Thawne, because, uh, even though he's not actually a Harrison Wells? Somehow that works? I've given up trying to figure out how plot and timelines work with Thawne, and sure, why the fuck not, I guess, if we're going to have the Speed Force's death happen randomly, I suppose the ghost of Thawne (which Thawne, and at which point of his life, and do the writers even care) being stuck in the most uninteresting Harrison Wells we've had all series long is a way to make me actually give a shit about Nash.

The Mirror stuff is, against all odds, the most consistently solid storyline, even if it's stagnating a lot. Iris and Eva are just sort of buddying it up in mirror-land, which honestly feels like a repeat of last episode, but sirI is really starting to slip up in regards to what she's doing. Wally feels that something's "off" about her, but because of status quo, no one in the cast thinks to really do anything about it. Except for Kamilla, who discovers sirI's true identity when she accidentally takes a snapshot of her with a camera. And turns out that sirI develops like some sort of hideous mirror ghost creature on film, and to get rid of any sort of suspicions, the episode ends with sirI shooting Kamilla with a mirror gun, maybe killing her for drama, but this is The Flash, so I guess sirI's going to create allimaK the mirror-Kamilla. The Mirror Master plot thickens, although judging by episode titles, next episode's really not going to follow up on this particular plot thread.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• In episode 14, Cisco notes how all the doppelgangers from the old universe who stuck around in Earth-Prime would be dead because of cellular degeneration thanks to the way that Earth-Prime works. While the alternate-universe versions of Brainiac-5 were able to hang around in Supergirl, presumably that's because they didn't stick around long enough. Batwoman's two Beth Kanes, on the other hand, aren't so fortunate. 
• Santa Prisca, a.k.a. the fictional country that Bane originated from in the comics, is mentioned by the couple on the helicopter. It was previously seen in Cisco's updated Earth-Prime map. 
• Cisco mentions that he's been to Atlantis, which was previously mentioned several times as existing in Earth-2. Turns out that just like Gorilla City, Atlantis has also been transported into Earth-Prime. 
• The original Turtle in The Flash was a villain that starred in a single season two episode, "Potential Energy". The Velocity serum, meanwhile, is a recurring speed-generating drug that was featured most prominently in various episodes of season two.