The fastest man alive and his team had their final showdown with Eva, the Mirror Master, on The CW’s The Flash season seven episode three, “Mother.” What was clearly meant to be season six’s finale turned out to be episode three in season seven due to the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown and interruption of the series.
The episode begins right where episode two left off with Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Frost (Danielle Panabaker), and Allegra (Kayla Compton) waking up in S.T.A.R. Labs and finding a very upset Barry (Grant Gustin) kneeling over a convulsing Iris (Candice Patton). Quickly determining Barry’s back to his old self after shutting down the ASF, they rush Iris to the medical lab. Barry apologizes to everyone, confessing he remembers attacking them and pulling Iris out. They interrupt him saying he wasn’t himself and immediately forgive him.
Cisco thinks they can fix the ASF but Barry refuses to try it again.
A short while later Caitlin tells Barry that when he pulled Iris out of the mirrorverse she resisted and her brain got re-mapped; she needs rest in order to recover. Barry and the team leave Iris in the med bay as they try to figure out their next step to stop Eva.
The CCPD’s getting overwhelmed by calls from people saying their family members and friends are being pulled into mirrors and coming back different. It seems Eva and her mirror minions are doing an Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing to the people of Central City. Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) sneaks into the CCPD wearing a disguise to warn Joe (Jesse L. Martin) about what’s happening. She also informs him Ralph may have found evidence clearing her of the murder of Mr. McCulloch.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Team Flash gets word about what’s happening. Cisco suggests they have Joe reach out to the mayor and order a city-wide blackout to get rid of reflections from mirrors and glass to slow Eva and her minions’ attack. Cisco then closes the shutters and blacks out S.T.A.R. Labs to protect them from Eva, however, Barry gets pulled into the mirrorverse by Eva (Efrat Dor) while looking at his reflection.
In the mirrorverse, Eva confronts Barry and warns him he can’t win this fight, especially without his speed. She declares she’ll be the mother of the new world with her new and improved children. “I’m not human, I’m something better,” says Eva.
Eva suggests Barry help her create it by leading his team and the rest of Central City into the mirrorverse to be reborn.
Barry steps out of the mirrorverse and back into S.T.A.R. Labs. A very worried Cisco and Caitlin ask how he managed to get away and he admits she let him go. Barry tells everyone that she’s right – they can’t win.
Barry goes off to sulk privately and Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) materializes before him. Barry’s shocked and reminds Wells they all saw him die, but the original Harrison Wells from Earth-1 explains that when Nash sacrificed himself and the other Wells to power the ASF, the universe took 0.01 percent of Wells and gave rebirth to the original Wells because there has to be balance.
Barry admits that out of the Wells, he was the one he always wanted to meet. As he starts to introduce himself, original Wells says he knows who he is because the other Wells left an imprint and he offers to help Barry. He believes Barry is the Paragon of Love, a title he received during “Crisis,” and that he needs to run toward his love.
As they’re chatting, the rest of Team Flash arrives and encounters the original Wells.
Barry checks up on Iris in the med lab and while telling her she’s the love of his life, he touches her hand and experiences a lightning spark between them. He realizes there’s still some of the Speed Force inside her.
Barry shares the news with the team and Wells theorizes the Speed Force is part of the universe, meaning it never really disappeared. Cisco realizes they can repurpose the ASF to tap into an organic source instead of an artificial one. When Iris touches it, the remaining Speed Force power in her should be enough in combination with the fusion sphere to bring it back.
Meanwhile, Joe and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) are being hunted at the deserted CCPD by some of Eva’s mirror thugs. Joe tries to sneak Cecile out via an old ventilating shaft but it’s not long before a mirror copy appears to him saying the only way to be with her is to join her in the mirrorverse.
Once more to S.T.A.R. Labs we go and Team Flash is preparing to try to bring back the Speed Force. Iris walks over to the fusion sphere and says, “We need you,” touching it and feeding the ASF the power of the Speed Force still inside her.
Barry begins running and power quickly surges as the ASF receives pure power from the Speed Force. As Barry runs a montage of clips show some of Team Flash’s happier and more loving moments. The ASF lights up with electricity which runs all over S.T.A.R. Labs and goes up through the roof. Barry’s hit by the electricity and once again has his incredible speed. He speeds in front of his team in his Flash suit, now ready to take on Eva.
In a truly epic superhero scene, The Flash, Frost, and Cisco – armed with his sonic blasters – confront Eva and her mirror army and begin to do battle. The Flash uses his speed and lightning to take down many of Eva’s mirror copies as Frost blasts more of them with her icy frost. Unfortunately, the mirror copies keep coming.
Iris realizes Barry will need more than speed to defeat Eva and uses a portal to confront her. Iris talks to Eva about what she said about bringing peace to the world and explains all her mirror copies are bringing is chaos, fear, and disaster. Iris is able to reach the human part of mirror Eva and she looks around in horror at what she’s done. She hears people screaming for their lives, sees cars on fire, and watches as her minions drag pleading people into the mirrorverse. Eva tries to stop her creations but admits they’ve grown too strong.
The Flash and Iris join forces with Eva and together they’re able to use their powers to get the mirror copies to stand down and retreat into the mirrorverse. Frost asks about everyone they lost and Eva frees all humans from the mirrorverse. Kamilla (Victoria Park) calls Cisco to tell him she’s back and all right. The real Cecile shows up at CCPD and hugs Joe who was just about to go into the mirrorverse. Barry and Iris hug and Eva reveals she’ll rebuild in her world – the mirrorverse. Barry wishes her luck.
The following day Allegra and Cisco say goodbye to original Wells who’s decided to leave and go time-traveling to the past. He wants to spend his days repeating the happiest time of his life, his four years with his wife, Tess, before they were murdered by Thawne.
In the cortex, Caitlin invites Sue to join Team Flash but she declines. Sue’s decided she and Ralph are going to travel the world and take down evil organizations that are just as bad as Black Hole was. As they leave, Iris says, “They make quite the team.” “So do we,” replies Barry as he looks at Iris, Caitlin, and the rest of Team Flash.
The final scene of the episode is a flashback to 18 hours prior. The ASF is again shown giving rebirth to the Speed Force and lightning striking Barry. A stream of lightning goes through the roof and hits the atmosphere sending red, blue, green, and yellow energy and lightning all over the sky.
The Flash Season 7 Episode 3 Review:
Overly sentimental and painfully sweet, season seven episode three suffers from too many subplots needing to be explained and wrapped up in a single episode and an uneven and at times slow pace. Instead of a riveting and exciting end to the mirrorverse storyline, the writers and showrunner have delivered a bland and even occasionally boring close with too much heart and too little action.
Since the series premiered back in 2014, every season finale of The Flash has always had the perfect mixture of heroics, humor, and heart along with spectacular special effects, moving performances, and exhilarating action. The second half of season six and the first few episodes of season seven focused far too much on just heart and feelings and not enough on the action and humor.
Here’s hoping the rest of season seven gets back on track with the right mixture the fans love and look forward to.
GRADE: B-
- The Flash Season 6 Episode 19 Recap and Review: “Success is Assured” Finale
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 1 “All’s Wells That Ends Wells” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 2 “The Speed of Thought” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 4 “Central City Strong” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 5 “Fear Me” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 6 “The One With the Nineties” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 7 “Growing Pains” Recap
- The Flash Season 7 Episode 8 “The People V. Killer Frost” Recap
