The Flash: It’s a full blown invasion with Speed Force twists, Wells(?!) and the Mirrorverse finale

Well, the end of last season finally arrives — and with it comes a surprising end to the long-gestating Mirroverse storyline, a few big twists, and a fresh slate for the rest of the season.

Spoilers ahead for “Mother,” the latest episode of The CW’s Flash, which aired Tuesday, March 16, 2021.

This Mirrorverse storyline has been a palate cleanser from the typical big bads Team Flash has faced in the past, with Eva seemingly thinking she’s able to use her powers and knowledge to help the world instead of rule it. Her methods were just a bit on the ruthless side, but hey, she did do some good along the way. All that changed this week, though, as Eva leveraged her pod person mirror-clone abilities to literally turn most of Central City into pod people — seeding the real world with her Mirror-people and sending the real people to the Mirrorverse.

As for the Flash, he’s decidedly average speed when the invasion kicks off, after knocking the Artificial Speed Force offline last week when his super-thinking abilities turned her into a borderline Vulcan, emotionless and calculating, and abandoning the heart and love that made him such a great hero in the first place. Barry is back to normal, and he’s pulled a comatose Iris from the Mirrorverse, but he’s still reeling with no solutions for how to stop Eva.

Thankfully the universe has a way of stepping in when you need it. Just as all hope seems lost, a Wells manifests right in front of Barry’s eyes — the same one we glimpsed in the stinger to last week’s episode. Now we know who he is: As suspected, he is the OG Harrison Wells, the one Reverse-Flash killed before the pilot of The Flash. He’s the original Wells we never actually met. Harrison tells Barry he believes the universe righted itself by leaving one Wells in the world, after all of them were absorbed into the Artificial Speed Force following Nash’s sacrifice.

Basically, Crisis is still setting this new reality right, and it decided there needed to be a Wells in it — and this new version even has superpowers. This Wells can time travel at the blink of an eye throughout his own life, and has some of the absorbed, shared knowledge from all the Wells that came before. Yes it’s convenient, but it saves a lot of time when the new Wells knows everything we do. Hand-wavey, sure, but probably a good move. Harrison reminds Barry his superpower has always been his heart — he is the Paragon of Love, after all — so he heads to Iris and realizes there’s a spark of Speed Force when he touches her hand.

So… it turns out there’s still a bit of Speed Force present in Iris, who wakes up to help kickstart the Speed Force seemingly back into existence and give Barry his powers back. It’s all honestly a bit confusing and convenient, but clunky thought it may be, it still plays into the heart (sorry) of what makes the Flash a great hero. The dude cares.

With Barry locked and loaded with super speed, and Frost and Cisco suited up for action, we get the obligatory season finale-esque battle with Eva (this episode was, of course, originally scheduled as last season’s finale) as they take on dozens and dozens of her mirror clones.

But the fight comes to a surprise end when Iris shows up to try and talk some sense into Eva (and uses some new Mirrorverse powers of her own in the process), shining a mirror (sorry) into what she’s become. She wanted to save the world, and instead she’s enslaving it with brute force. The appeal works, Iris saves the day, and she and Barry share their power with Eva for a super-blast of Mirror powers to take out the clones and restore the trapped Central City citizens stuck in the Mirrorverse.

The episode ends with the team back together, the city saved, and Eva walking off into the sunset back to the Mirrorverse to try and build a better world there.

The CW

Other Flash-y things of note

Ralph Dibny has returned! Just not Hartley Sawyer, the actor who portrayed him and was fired after some racist and misogynist tweets he’d sent in the past were resurfaced. We get Sue showing up with an injured Ralph, who was melted while recovering evidence that clears Sue’s name (so that lingering plot point is resolved!). With the Elongated Man’s face melted to goo, the team puts him in a  Daft Punk-style mask to restore him, which also has the effect of (ahem) changing his voice, too. It was silly and obvious, but hey, it definitely beats just writing him off off-screen.

Their arc ends with Ralph and Sue heading off to try and shut down other shady, nefarious organizations across the globe — so they’re off the board and off on a new adventure, at least for now. And when or if they do return, they’ll have an easy reason to explain why Sawyer is no longer the face of the Elongated Man (getting melted will do that, after all). 

Wait, Iris has Mirrorverse powers?! Apparently! She uses them to counter Eva’a attack, though she mentions once Eva returns to the Mirrorverse that she apparently took her powers (or her connection to the Mirrorverse) with her when she left. So sadly, it seems no more Mirrorverse mojo for Iris.

The new (old?) Harrison Wells ends the episode heading back into the past of his own life, to relive the four years he had with his late wife. It’s a sweet moment, but seemingly writes Wells out of the story, at least for now. Of course, it stands to reason he’ll be back, since Tom Cavanagh remains in the cast and Wells can time travel at will.

Next week: Kadabra returns! The post-Mirrorverse era kicks off the return of old baddie Abra Kadabra, who seemingly has some new tricks and is threatening to take out Central City. Oh, Kadabra. He’ll never learn.