The Flash Review: Success is Assured (Season 6 Episode 19)
The Flash Season 6 Episode 19, “Success is Assured,” wasn’t originally intended to serve as the season finale, but thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that shut down production on virtually every Arrowverse show, it’s being forced to serve as a makeshift ending for what has been a remarkably strong season.
Happily, it does a pretty great job of it.
“Success is Assured” ends on a pretty wild cliffhanger, leaves a ton of loose ends for Season 7 to clean up, and introduces Eva McCulloch’s Mirror Master — complete with an iconic costume — to the real world.
Eva is an utterly fabulous The Flash villain and if the one thing that comes out of this early shut down is that this character sticks around for more than three more episodes she was originally supposed to, then that’s going to be really great.
From her gorgeous costume to her complex motivations and not entirely unsympathetic goals, Eva’s probably the most interesting, layered villain the show has had since Season 1.
She doesn’t want to rule the world or take over a city. She doesn’t actually seem to want to hurt anyone. Well, except the dirtbag husband who left her in the mirror world and stole everything that mattered to her. Who you could argue on some level deserves it.
(It’s unfortunate that Barry has to give up so much to protect this loser, is what I’m saying.)
It’s honestly very easy to like Eva — she’s a compelling character in her own right, and could be built into an entirely new kind of villain for the show, one who had a legitimate role to play in the real world, as a businesswoman and as a philanthropist, but who also has powers and may be working toward some nefarious goals on the side.
But how does her decision to frame Sue for Carver’s death fit into this? How does Eva even know who Sue is?
More questions for next season, I guess.
The other big dangling plot thread is of course that Iris doesn’t get out of the mirror this week, and will spend the entirety of the series’ hiatus languishing in the mirror realm and possibly going crazy. (She has been pretty consistently demonstrating many of the same traits Eva did — headaches, arm scratching, etc.)
The Flash sort of hints in this episode that Iris is taking on many of the abilities that Eva had — she can control various instruments in the mirror world, sort out where Singh is being held, and vanishes in a mirror-esque shower of sparkles at the end of the episode.
Could that mean that she’s becoming a Mirror Master herself? (And how cool would that be?)
Of course, it’s unfortunate that Barry doesn’t get his wife back to close the season, as we likely all expected him too. It’s clear he’s spiraling without her, and I sort of wish this episode had spent a bit more time on Barry’s decision to protect Carver, and how hard that choice was for him.
(Especially when the ending was the same in either scenario. Does Barry regret what he did in light of that fact?)
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- I love Eva’s villain girl squad so much. That fight scene between Allegra, Ralph, Sue and the meta girl gang was fantastic. Thanks to Barry’s powers, this isn’t a show that does a lot of hand to hand combat, so it was a refreshing change, and the way that the entire sequenced was presented in panels as if it were a real comic was really cool.
- The paranoia aspect of Eva’s powers — like she could literally come through anything at any moment — is terrifying, and something I hope the show leans into in future. Nowhere is safe!
- Nash’s obsession with Allegra is creepy and I honestly I don’t have any idea what the point of this story is at all.
- I wish Barry had just asked Eva to let Iris out of the mirror. I sincerely think she might have said yes if he had.
- Are we supposed to assume the Wells that appeared to tell Nash that Barry would never trade another life for Iris’s was Thawne?
- The Barry and Caitlin heart to heart was lovely, and long overdue.
What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.