The Flash season 9, episode 12 review: A New World, Part Three

“I know you’ll choose the right thing.” Spoilers for The Flash season 9, episode 12 follow.

The Flash is immediately taken back into the timestream, to the future this time though, and Team Flash scrambles to find him.

In the future, Eddie comes to grips with being alive again.

Here is everything that happened in The Flash season 9, episode 12, “A New World, Part Three”.

The Flash season 9 episode 12 review

A new chance

Welp, Eddie is alive and the first scene of the episode is an extremely annoying argument between him and Korber in which they argue about the exact same thing they argued about in the previous episode, which is about him finding out who he is. That is until Korber is suddenly pulled into a portal and killed.

The most important thing is that it turns out Eddie wasn’t in the present though, he was in 2049. This wasn’t clear up to this point because the editing between the episodes was utterly terrible at conveying that. There’s no clear sense on when anything is. It’s not confusion for the sake of mystery, it’s confusion masquerading as a mystery.

Eddie’s realization that his actions in the past (sacrificing himself to erase Eobard Thawne from existence) meant nothing is actually a compelling villain motivation and it leads to the best part of the episode, which is whenever Barry and Eddie together. Is the mystery dumb? Absolutely. Does it make no sense as to why the Negative Speed Force can’t just imbue Eddie with its power, just like it does with the crystal? Yep. Sure, they say it can only take/ over people temporarily, but what we’ve been shown is it willingly leaving or being forced out. But Grant Gustin and Rick Cosnett try their best to make it compelling.

There is a story here that could’ve been developed from the beginning, but it’s like the creative team just didn’t want to build up to the compelling moments and instead just threw them in. Actually giving Eddie the powers, him working with Barry, while coming to terms with being alive again, and being haunted by the Negative Speed Force, which eventually pushes him over the edge, would’ve been so much more compelling. Unoriginal? Maybe, but less frustrating than what actually happened.

If anything is indicative of the quality of this show for the entire season though, it’s having the final scene of the episode have Eddie become Cobalt Blue with sad pop music playing.

To the future

The previous episode was so unmemorable that this writer forgot that Barry was taken away again at the end of that episode. But why doesn’t Barry appear in this episode until halfway through and is then immediately taken out of commission by the Negative Speed Force? Because the writers seemingly don’t know what to do with Barry, that’s why.

The real question about the future though is, WHY DOES EVERYONE LOOK THE SAME 26 YEARS IN THE FUTURE?! Sure, there’s a joke about that, but it still feels very lazy from a production standpoint.

At least Nora is great as always, even if she’s possessed by the Negative Speed Force in order to manipulate Eddie. It’s actually a very smart use of Nora for this episode. Disappointing to see her possessed for most of the time in probably her last appearance, but still smart. However, when Cecile beats her in two seconds though, why is the Negative Speed Force supposed to be scary if it’s influence can be pulled from someone immediately? Short answer, it isn’t.

Bad choices all around

There’s just so much wrong with this episode though. The Negative Speed Force is such a non-compelling villain with the way it’s been portrayed so far. The needless character drama that is just taking up screentime for the sake of it. And just the general lack of purpose from Team Flash. This has been a problem all season and has come to a head here.

The Flash’s penultimate episode is indicative of it’s entire season. Poor choices after poor choices that lead to nowhere for the most part.

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