The Flash Season 8 Episode 19 Review: Negative Part One

As The Flash thrusts itself into the final two episodes of the season, the writers try to recapture the overarching theme of the series. Unfortunately, the morals get buried under a convoluted plot. 

The Flash Season 8 Episode 19, “Negative Part One,” is a rather exciting episode compared to the last several since Frost’s death. Iris finally returns to the central storyline that she literally vanished from. I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt her absence was more than a little awkward.

Barry continues to train the new speedster, Meena, even though she doubts herself now more than ever. She pushes herself too hard and some Star labs equipment pays the price for her miscalculations. As she runs off pouting, Barry tracks her down.

This is where Barry again reveals his secret identity this season. Honestly, this is starting to get old.

At this point, he should pull a “Tony Stark” moment and tell all of Central City the truth. That would probably only take five seconds because I’m sure there are most likely only two people left in town who don’t already know. 

Barry reveals himself to Meena to get a central point across — ordinary people have the power to do something extraordinary. This is one hundred percent true. Every person that has ever done something great started as a regular Joe Schmoe. 

The thing is that this regular Joe Schmoe faced a challenge head-on, overcame it, and lived to tell. Throughout the series, Barry Allen has been the central Joe Schmoe who used an act of happenstance to better the lives of those around him. 

The greatest part of Barry’s leap into the extraordinary is that it has inspired others to do the same. Team Flash wouldn’t exist without all his efforts and that reaches all the way down to Meena, whose new superhero name is Fast Track.

Barry: You’d be surprised at people’s capcity to rise up and help others during a crisis.

All of this is spelled out within the first ten minutes of the episode when Barry gives Meena a well-meaning pep talk. While I’m never too happy with morals being completely spelled out for me on a live-action television show, I’m excited to see where the theme will take us.

Sadly, it doesn’t take us too far.

With Meena feeling better about herself, things appear fine until everything gets sidetracked with The Negative Forces arriving. After watching the entire episode, I’m still lost. Are The Negative Forces alternate versions of Deon and the others, or are they just the ‘normal’ forces infected with negative tachyons? 

This isn’t the only moment of major confusion throughout the episode. Can somebody please explain what is going on with both Eobard Thawnes? 

It isn’t long before the writing becomes too convoluted, and I refuse to make sense of what is going on. After all, this is The Flash, not everything has to make sense. Ultimately, we are dealing with science fiction, not science fact.

Instead of trying to dissect all that is going on, I choose to focus on the well-choreographed action scenes. 

The scenes are top-notch as Team Flash takes on The Negative Forces in order to buy Barry and Meena more time. Honestly, their plan to give Thawne speed seems flawed from the get-go, but it is hard to fault Barry for always looking for the best in people. 

Now a fixture of Team Flash, it is about damn time we get to Cecile completely powered up. Her fight with “Negative” Deon is intense. We all know she isn’t powerful enough to take down someone with the powers of a god, but she definitely holds her own. 

Even seeing Chester put some effort forward on the battleground makes me like the character a tad more. Not in any measurable way, of course, but it’s something.

Throughout the episode, a few reiterations of ordinary becoming extraordinary rear their head, but it is never driven home in a very meaningful way. Television is always best when we are given tangible examples of how to put themes into practice. Instead, we get too many things trying to get locked into place at once. 

It feels like the writers had no clue where they were headed and decided to just throw it all together at the last minute. If we got more threads tied together over the last several filler episodes, maybe this all would have felt more fulfilling. Nonetheless, we are left with a few interesting segments that I’m looking forward to seeing conclude.

With everything said, none of this takes away from the wtf moments that happen at the closing of the episode. A supposed death of a major character and a villain’s rise to greatness spell out one hell of a cliffhanger if I do say so myself. 

The question remains — does the ending make up for an overly-complicated plot? This time around I’m not sure it does. 

While I’m excited to see what happens next, I have no interest in rewatching this episode to make more sense of the storyline. Things happened, heroes and villains fought, and things took a sideways turn. That’s all anyone needs to know. 

Barry is now once again outnumbered by his villains, and who knows if his children are still alive to lend a helping hand. The next episode should be interesting to watch, but that doesn’t mean it will necessarily be a good one. 

What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Will the remaining members of Team Flash be enough to save the day? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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