The Flash Season 7 Episode 1 Recap and Review: “All’s Wells that Ends Wells”

The Flash Season 7 Episode 1
Tom Cavanagh as Nash Wells in ‘The Flash’ season 7 episode 1 (Photo: Katie Yu © 2021 The CW Network, LLC)

The CW’s top-rated superhero series, The Flash, kicked off its seventh season on March 2, 2021 with most of the original Team Flash still missing and the exit of a major character…make that characters.

The episode begins with Chester (Brandon McKnight) waking Barry (Grant Gustin) out of a cryopod. (Barry’s now using it to rest and keep from losing his speed since the Speed Force is gone.) Chester explains Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor) is using her Mirror Master powers to quickly travel across skyscrapers to a warehouse. Barry speeds over to find her but discovers the hard way that when he tries to put his hands on Eva, her powers allow her to move at the speed of light. She knocks him down with her mirror gun and reminds him they’re on the same side.

Eva kills Sam Scudder – the original Mirror Master – and exits leaving behind Scudder’s partner-in-crime, Top (Ashley Rickards).

Over in the mirror dimension, Iris (Candice Patton) is still trapped and losing her grip on what’s real and what’s not. She thinks she’s enjoying date night with Barry but then remembers she never escaped.

At CCPD, Joe (Jesse L. Martin), Cecile (Danielle Nicolet), and Barry go over Eva’s attacks on Black Hole warehouses to try to figure out her plan. Cecile heads off to talk to Top since she’s her defense attorney.

Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh), Chester, and Barry gather at S.T.A.R. Labs to finalize the Artificial Speed Force to give Barry his speed back. After a test run fails, Nash is paid a visit by some of the other Wells in his mind, with Harry Wells revealing that for The Flash to run at top speed again Nash must die. It seems that if the multiversal particles of all the different Wells were transported into a fusion sphere, it would be enough to permanently power the ASF. The catch, however, is that the particles will need a living organ…Nash…to function.

Back at CCPD, Cecile talks to Top and via her telepathic powers and discovers she betrayed Scudder and let Eva kill him because she has joined forces with her and is one of her followers. Top uses her telepathic powers to frighten and weird out Cecile who leaves shocked and afraid.

Meanwhile, Nash is trying to come up with another way to power the Speed Force and thinks if Allegra (Kayla Compton) uses her powers to force the Wells’s particles into the fusion sphere, it might work. She tries but it backfires and the particles almost hit Allegra. Fortunately, Barry pushes her out of the way but gets hit with the particles himself. When he wakes Barry now has all the other Wells in him, first talking as Sherloque and then as H.R.

Finally, Barry passes out and Chester thinks they should get Gideon to figure out what to do. Gideon informs the group that Barry’s mind can’t handle all the other personas but his speed healing is keeping him alive.

Nash admits he lied and that it’s all his fault. He tells Allegra and Chester in order for it to work he would have to die. Chester knows Barry wouldn’t want anyone to die to get his speed back and believes they will find another way.

Over in the mirror dimension, Iris is being haunted/taunted by different versions of herself calling her sad, irrelevant, and weak.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Harry Wells – using Barry’s body – tells Nash that he’s just like all the Wells when they met Team Flash. They were all broken and Team Flash helped make them better and fulfilled men. He tells Nash he knows there’s a good man in him and he just has to find him.

Cecile returns to talk to Top and this time she uses her telepathic powers to scare Top so badly she’s forced to reveal Eva’s next move, which is to have a supersonic jet explode above Central City. Cecile tells Joe who reminds Cecile that The Flash isn’t fast enough to stop it.

Once more to the mirror dimension we go and find Iris realizing Eva is using the different forms of Iris to distract her so she can’t escape. She stands up to the copies and tells them off which causes them to vanish.

The Flash Season 7 Episode 1
Brandon McKnight as Chester P. Runk and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen in ‘The Flash’ season 7 episode 1 (Photo: Katie Yu © 2021 The CW Network, LLC)

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Chester has built a device so that when Allegra uses her powers to get the Wells out of Barry, she’ll be able to direct them back into Nash. They try it and it works; Barry is back to normal. That’s when the alert sounds and Chester gets a message about the supersonic plane. Realizing they’ve run out of options Nash sacrifices himself and becomes the living organ for the fusion sphere to power the ASF.

In a very touching scene, multiple versions of Wells – including H.R., Sherloque, Nash, and Harry – say a final goodbye to Barry as he pleads for them not to do this. “How can I be The Flash without a Wells on this team?” asks a distraught Barry.

“You’ve always been The Flash, you always will be…with or without me,” replies Nash who’s then taken over by Harry. Harry says, “Allen, when I came to your stupid Earth, I was a broken man, angry blah blah blah and you showed me how to be a better person and I’ll always be grateful for our friendship. Now run Barry…run!”

A teary-eyed Barry runs off and as all the Wells get energized into the fusion sphere, the ASF is powered up and Barry is re-energized with Speed Force. The Flash speeds off and reaches the supersonic plane in time to toss the explosive high in the air where it explodes without harming anyone.

Later at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry, Allegra, and Chester mourn losing Nash and all the other Wells. Barry explains he needs to call Caitlin and Cisco to tell them and is worried about how they’ll take it. He tells Chester and Allegra they’re also heroes because of their work on the Speed Force. Chester asks what’s next and Barry assures them they’ll get Iris and everyone else back.

The episode’s final scene shows Eva opening a computer file her husband left for her. The file contains a video of when she was hit by the dark matter when the particle accelerator exploded. She realizes the real Eva McCulloch died from being slammed into the wall mirror and that she’s a mirror duplicate.

The Flash Season 7 Episode 1 Review

Uneven, humorous, and surprising, the season seven premiere showcased the comedic talents of Grant Gustin and Tom Cavanagh while delivering the emotional exit of a character who’s been part of Team Flash since the show began.

The true highlight of the episode is Grant’s performance as all the different versions of Wells after the personalities end up inside him. Grant Gustin, the heart and soul of the series, usually has to play serious and at times heartwrenching scenes but here he’s given the opportunity to show off his comedic talents while impersonating the personalities of Wells created by the very talented Tom Cavanagh, and Gustin does it wonderfully.

The true surprise – in fact, shocker – of episode one is what seems to be the permanent end of Tom Cavanagh performing all the Wells characters. Since the show began back seven seasons ago there’s always been a version of Wells with Team Flash. This was the perfect way to keep Cavanagh as a permanent member of the cast. Now with the death of all the Wells, Cavanagh only has the role of Eobard Thawne in Wells disguise to keep him connected to the series.

With Eva now knowing the truth of who she is, will it affect her plans for Central City? When will Iris finally be free of the mirror dimension? Season seven’s off to a great start but, hopefully, all of Team Flash will be back together soon.

GRADE: B