Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Flash! Well, here we are! The last episode of the season is here and although we might have a little bit of mixed feelings because of the shortening of the season, overall I was very pleased with it as a regular episode, but was “Success is Assured” a satisfactory season finale? Well, you will have to read my thoughts, let’s dive right in!
1. A mother knows best
Weirdly enough, one of this episode’s theme was maternity, a little apt considering we just celebrated Mother’s Day last Sunday. First, we have Mirror-Singh’s relationship with his “mother”, Eva McCulloch, which is a very simple character, there’s not much more to say other than his obsession and willingness to die for his mother is obviously not healthy.
The second, and most important subplot is the one related to Frost/Caitlin and her mother, Carla Tannhauser, who visits her to make some studies at home and then go to the Artic to investigate her condition, as you remember from last episode, Frost is nervous to meet her mother because she’s afraid of her rejection, and indeed Dr. Tannhauser begins the meeting calling her “Killer Frost” a name she left behind a while ago, then she wishes for a scientist to help her, forgetting that Frost also has the knowledge Caitlin has, it is a bumpy ride but I’m sure everything will be all right!
Also, as you might know, this storyline was developed so that Danielle Panabaker could enjoy her maternity leave, so, we might not see her early on the beginning of season seven but I do wish her the best, it’s a hard time to be a mother because of the pandemic, so, I’m sure she will appreciate your words of encouragement in her Instagram account!
2. A treasure inside a diamond
While the team is trying to find where would Eva attack Black Hole and her husband Carver, Ralph conveniently shows them the gigantic diamond Sue gave him back in episode 616, Allegra shoots some light trough it and it shines the logo of Black Hole, and it reveals where the main hideout of the organization is, when they go in, Ralph discovers a box with all the information Carver was using to blackmail the Dearborns, but Mirror Singh arrived early and he burns the place to the ground, effectively erasing every bit of blackmailing material Carver had, I mean, dude, you should always have a backup on the Cloud!
With this, we see Barry at his worst, barely capable of speeding, he fails at every attempt to stop the villains and that is affecting him, as we’ll see next:
3. Protecting Joseph Carver
One of the hardest choices Barry had to do this season must have been the choice of protecting Carver, he is a capitalist villain, who is happy blackmailing every person he can, threatening the captain of police and overall enjoys being the bad guy. He has put Iris and Joe’s lives at risk, but there’s a reason Barry is a hero, he will protect the lives of everyone he can.
Carver rejected the offer at first, but then his bodyguards are kidnapped by Eva and he has no choice but to take Barry’s offer, but then Singh appears and he offers Barry the liberation of Iris in exchange for Caver, Nash Wells notices that Barry is being tempted and uses a very cool smoke bomb to disappear. Then he confronts Barry despite what Harry Wells (back again in his mind) tells him; even if Barry doesn’t have the power of the Speed Force, he should keep being a good person, Nash asks Barry what would Iris think of him if she realized that “You traded another person’s life to save her”, and it hits hard on Barry, is he willing to give up everything he believes in for the promise of getting his wife back? Or is he going to keep fighting for what is right?
4. Three light-based villains
The climax of this episode comes when the team is in McCulloch industries trying to protect Carver, when Sunshine, Dr. Light and Ultraviolet appear, they are with Eva now and they are going to kill their former boss.
Continued belowThis fight scene was one of the best I have seen in the show, the use of split screens and high action was very dynamic, and we had great moments of character development within the scene, like Allegra and Nash restoring their relationship and Sue stepping in to try help save the day, this is was a great scene worthy of a season finale!
But the mission failed, Eva killed her husband despite Barry’s best efforts, she literally pierces across Barry with a shard of mirror. She lets Team Flash live, because, as she says, she is not their enemy, she had a mission and no one, not even the Flash was going to stop her.
5. Sue is free! Wait, no she’s not ☹
When the blackmailing stuff is burnt, Ralph decides to tell the news to the Dearborns, her daughter might come back very soon, but he is surprised by Sue, which tells a lie that she was meditating. Outside of his office, Sue tells Ralph that Carver changed his heart and now they are free, but Ralph can smell something is wrong.
Later, he discovers that Sue is working in Black Hole, she accepted the offer of Carver to work for him, but she is planning to kill Carver, so she can be finally free, Ralph confronts her and tells her that killing a man would do everything except setting her free. Then, when Carver dies, she believes that, finally, the Dearborns are free, but Eva frames her for the murder of Carver: she is not free and is not going to be anytime soon.
As you know, the story arc between Sue and Ralph has been my favorite thing of the season, their chemistry is comparable to the chemistry between Carlos Valdes and Hartley Sawyer, and I am eager to discover what happens next.
6. Closing the season
You know, I have been criticizing the structure of the season since it started, I felt that chopping the season in two and having the biggest crossover between them was a bad idea, I argued it would be hard to have consistency, the first half of the season was particularly bumpy for me but I do have to to say, showrunner Eric Wallace and the whole creative team did a great job this season.
The way I see it, they made a soft reboot of the series, the focus shifted from Barry/Flash to the whole team, they had two villains and neither of them were killed, instead, this season was practically a series of setups that are going to pay off the next couple of seasons: When will Sue be free? Is Frost going to recover? How are they going to get Iris, Kamilla and Singh from the Mirrorverse? What is Ramsey/Bloodwork planning? Who is behind all the Godspeed’s and what is their intention? Are they going to capture Eva? What’s her plan now that she is back at her company? And finally, the most intriguing of all, are they going to succeed creating an artificial Speed Force?
Clearly, Wallace’s plan all along was to shoot for the long run, not just preparing the team for the Crisis, not even for the season, but for at least a couple of seasons more. If you think this season was bad or bumpy, I can promise you, next season is going to be one of the best seasons of the show.
And that’s it for the season, overall, I ended up liking it a whole lot more than what I was expecting, it had its flaws, we could argue that the team was a little bit apart the whole year, and they still haven’t created a recurring character from the LGBTQ+ community. But to be honest, I loved this season, and I am anxious to see what comes next.
What did you think of this episode, did it fulfill your expectations? And what do you think of Season Six overall? Leave your comments below and I hope we see each other again in October for Season Seven of our favorite Arrowverse show, The Flash.
Ps. This episode is the number 619, booyaka! (I waited the whole year to say it).
