The Flash season 9, episode 11 review: A New World, Part Two

“This is gonna hurt.” Spoilers for The Flash season 9, episode 11 follow.

Team Flash rushes to find out where Barry was suddenly dragged to, but they can’t find him anywhere.

Meanwhile, this mysterious Eddie Thawne doppelganger begins to search for more information.

Here’s what went down in The Flash season 9 episode 11, “A New World, Part Two”.

The Flash season 9 episode 11 review

Mystery man

In what’s definitely the most interesting part of this episode, we see more of this Eddie Thawne that isn’t Eddie – except, he actually is. As he begins to try and figure out why he looks like the picture in the file that he found at the end of the last episode, this Eddie is haunted by the Negative Speed Force causing him to see visions of Eddie’s life, and his death.

This all then leads to him literally digging up his own grave to see his dead body, just for the assurance that he’s not Eddie. In the least shocking twist of all-time, there’s no body in the coffin. And why would there be? We literally see the flashback in this episode, but his body was dragged into the vortex that ended the first season. Why would there be a body in that coffin, let alone a coffin in the first place? Nevertheless though, this ends in the reveal that Eddie has indeed come back to life, and this revelation has driven him insane, thus more than likely making him into the final Reverse-Flash of the series.

The search for Barry

The real meat of this episode though is Team Flash, and mainly Iris’, worry about Barry’s disappearance. They really don’t feel like they’re trying to get him back however, just sitting brooding, but that’s still the meat of the episode. The only scene that has really any impact at all for this though is when Iris is talking to Allegra about how scared she is of living without Barry, and while the scene is acted very well by Candice Patton, it feels like a rehash as we’ve heard this thing time and time again on this show.

Then, once Allegra leaves Iris’ office, she gets ambushed by Chillblaine and thus causing an evacuation of the Central City Citizen because she hits an, exposed pipe? Utterly stupid. Why the hell is a toxic gas in a place that can so easily be ruptured. Let alone how this pipe can affect another, also exposed, pipe in a different room. Or how a rupture can cause the pressure on these pipes to go up instead of down. This is nitpicking at this point, but when nothing of actual note happens in the episode, it becomes easier to nitpick.

Oh, and apparently Khione can turn animal cells into plant cells now. And these various new alchemic powers are what the Speed Force needs because she’s dying. Why? Who cares. She just is. Deal with it. That’s good writing right? Spoiler alert: it isn’t. And it’s also not touched on again after it’s brought up.

End of the day though, there was a way to have four episodes that focused almost entirely on Barry traveling through various times and universes, finally getting closure on everything he needs to get closure on. But no, the third to last episode of a show called The Flash doesn’t have The Flash in it until the last ten minutes where he suddenly appears, so the entire point of Team Flash’s search was meaningless. Also, it happened to just be perfect timing as it’s right when Iris goes in labor.

Chillblaine returns

Chillblaine also returns and his first appearance immediately drains any energy out of the scene and slows down the urgency that Team Flash should have in this episode.

And then we get to the Chillblaine/Khione drama again. Why, why, why is any of this Chillblaine and Khione drama happening? It doesn’t matter, it’s boring, and we’re in the final three episodes so why are we focusing on this at all. Is it the Negative Speed Force, or is it just Chillblaine being annoying? Who cares, every bit of this plot is terrible. Do they fight at the end with Khione killing Negative Force Chillblaine? Yeah, but there is literally no emotional impact to this scene at all.

The biggest question though was, how did Khione get this powerful? We never saw her developing her powers, she just always had new ones. It’s legitimately uninteresting to watch because of that.

But this then leads to the one good thing could’ve happened in this episode, with the aforementioned death of Chillblaine. But, we couldn’t even get that because apparently Khione is a god now and resurrect people from literal ash. Utterly baffling.

After two good episodes, The Flash season 9 seemed on an upward trajectory. That all came tumbling down with the third to last episode of the series though.

If you’re a fan of The Flash season 9, listen to The CW Spiral Podcast for more news and updates about the final season and the future of the Arrowverse. Subscribe to their YouTube channel here.

What did you think of The Flash season 9 episode 11?