The Flash season 7, episode 1 review: All’s Well That Ends Wells

“You only have one percent of your speed left.” “Then I better get moving.” Spoilers for The Flash season 7, episode 1 follow.

Still on the hunt for where Mirror Mistress is hiding Iris, The Flash must also contend with the ever-present thoughts of using the last of his speed.

Meanwhile, as Barry is trying to get his speed back, Iris is still trying to escape from the Mirror Mistress’ clutches.

The hunt for Mirror Mistress in The Flash season 7

Continuing on from where the Arrowverse show’s shortened sixth season left off, The Flash season 7’s premiere episode brings every plot thread that was present at the end of season 6 to the forefront here. Iris is still trapped, Mirror Mistress is still the main villain, and The Flash is still losing his speed. Realistically speaking, as much as this episode is acting as the seventh season premiere, this is episode 20 of last season. However, unlike the finale of Titans season 1 and the premiere of Titans season 2, this feeling makes sense. The season had to end early for reasons not in control of the production team, so starting immediately where last season ended is the smartest play possible.

However, while it seems like most of the headway plot-wise in this episode is going to focus on Barry hunting Mirror Mistress, it turns out that it comes from Cecile and The Top’s interactions. The Top gets captured after Mirror Mistress kills Mirror Master, but that’s the least interesting part for them in this episode. Mirror Master is killed so quickly that it’s like he’s not even in the episode. However, once we get to see Top and Cecile interact, that’s when things get interesting.

We get to see Top at a much higher power level than what we’ve seen from her previously which definitely sets up the possibility of Cecile building her power as the season goes on.

Nash Wells must die

While searching for a way to get Barry’s speed back though, Nash comes to a realization thanks to the voices in his head: He needs to die in order to provide the power that would bring Barry his speed back. This is a classic superhero storyline in the best way possible. It’s a great dilemma for a character to find themselves in and enjoyable to experience no matter how many times it’s used. It’s a character-driven storyline that is focused on trying to find another way possible so that no one gets hurt.

As interesting as it is though, it felt that the resolution to the problem was going to be too easy. Nash figures out a way to transfer his multiverse particles to the device easily using Allegra and it seems like it’s not going work and, well, it doesn’t. All of the multiverse versions of Wells get transferred into Barry’s consciousness.

With these new personalities, there are some fun scenes with Grant Gustin acting as different versions of Harrison Wells, but that fun quickly becomes a tragedy as Barry falls into a coma with the possibility of instantly dying once his speed runs out. Nash’s fear of death comes full circle though as he must come face-to-face with his own mortality in order to save Barry – which he ends up doing in an incredibly emotional way.

This episode is yet another great showing from Tom Cavanagh but is should also be said that Grant Gustin emulates Cavanagh’s Harry mannerisms incredibly well.

Trapped and no way home

As for Iris, she’s still very much trapped inside the mirror dimension and well, her mind has finally snapped. She begins seeing versions of herself throughout the mirror dimension and it threatens to drive her mad with fear. However, not everything is as it seems as Iris finally breaks through and confronts Eva. Candace Patton delivers a great monologue here as well – which is no surprise by this point of the series.

The real problems with this episode stem from the pacing. There’s a lot that the episode is juggling but it feels like it’s rushing through both the Iris and Cecile plots and, even though it’s given more screen time, the Barry/Nash storyline also feels rushed. So really, this episode felt like it was juggling too much and didn’t give any of it enough time to breathe.

The Flash season 7 premiere is an enjoyable episode that suffers on occasion from feeling like its story is being rushed.