The Flash 9x8 : Partners in Time review

 

             Be warned there will be SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it.

This season of The Flash has not been at all what I expected to be honest. Not only has it been such a missed opportunity to celebrate the legacy of this show but the overall writing and character development has been so lackluster and quite frankly boring. The Flash as a character deserves better and so does this show as a whole. This weeks episode begins in the year 2123 exactly 100 years from now. Someone in a cloak and hood breaks into the Flash Museum and heads straight for the weapons vault. They end up tripping the alarms however and seemingly escape into the night. This will all make sense at the end of the episode. Back in present day and we see parents to be Barry and Iris. Barry showcases his eagerness to be a father in a really positive light but perhaps he's thinking just a little too far ahead as he has already made a cot for little baby Nora. Iris on the other hand has developed quite the eating habit devouring almost anything put in front of her from ice cream to Cecil's casserole dish. It's a different contrast for these characters which I do appreciate but the appreciation soon comes to an end unfortunately as the root and cause of this episode comes to light. 

Star Labs. It's been the home of Team Flash for 9 years and in that 9 years the facility hasn't been tested, inspected or just looked after in a meaningful way. This leads to Barry ordering a mould inspection which triggers a whole other heap of inspections on top of it. 4 different inspectors show up each testing and inspecting something different. Barry immediately goes into panic mode a little bit as while everything that's got to do with Team Flash has been put away out of sight surely it won't be long before these inspectors come across something. This in turn leads to Iris showing up offering Barry a hand in dealing with the situation and quite the situation they are in as once they all leave the Speed Lab they end up right back there again in what is surely another time loop right? well yes and no. Firstly we see a clock has now appeared in the room with no reason as to why. Barry ends up running to the future to see the cause of things but it doesn't go well at all. Infact it goes horribly as a wave of energy soon passes over the entire room changing everyone's clothes inside including Iris and even Barry who returns only to almost immediately reveal himself as The Flash to everyone in a move that he really needs to stop doing. The situation didn't even call for anything that extreme yet. 

The episode draws to a close as Barry and Iris find out the reasoning for all of this happening. Turns out 100 years from now there is a weapons vault in the Speed Lab and it houses a powerful time weapon named the Time Magnet. Once paired with a stabilizer everything is fine but it's not and someone has stolen the Time Magnet hence the hooded person at the beginning of the episode. Fingers are soon pointed at everyone as things begin to spiral out of control and inspectors begin to be lost to time. The Time Thief as they're being called turns out to actually be the electrician inspector in disguise. Her true form is actually the villain Lady Chronos complete with a very comic accurate look I must admit. She stole the Time Magnet which has caused objects to be attracted to one another through time which explains the clock among other things. She is unwilling to give up the Time Magnet stating that it's her way out of a life of crime and into retirement. She ultimately is forced to give it up to restore time as she does so by returning to her own time putting the Time Magnet back and being brought to prison for her crime. Time does then restore itself as another wave of energy engulfs the Speed Lab restoring clothes, getting rid of objects that don't belong there and ultimately bringing back all the inspectors who were scattered throughout time. Everything is back to normal again as the episode ends with Barry and Iris eating ice cream together at home thinking about parenthood which is fast coming down the road. And yeah that was the episode. There was some other stuff with Chester, Alegra and Cecil but I just found it so boring and pointless I don't even want to discuss it to be honest. This episode however was pretty meh. Another time loop?? really?? counting the premiere episode and last weeks trip into the dreamscape this makes 3 separate occasions where time loops have played a role this season. This show really needs to get more original. It also just wasn't funny in anyway and lowered down both Barry and Iris in such a way that just made them almost unlikable. The Flash is better than this, his legacy shouldn't be tarnished like this. I expected more but unfortunately I'm just not getting anything right now. This show now goes on a hiatus until April 26th where the final stretch of episode begins with the Oliver Queen returning story arc that also involves Diggle, Bloodwork and even Kid Flash. At least that should be good (hopefully) 

★★