The Flash (7×17) Heart of the Matter (Part 1) Review

For our review of the last episode of The Flash, click here.

Synopsis: Barry and Iris greet their future children, XS and Bart, only for a shocking secret to threaten their new familial harmony; the Godspeed war intensifies and threatens to destroy Central City. (IMDb)

We’ve finally arrived at the season 7 penultimate episode of The Flash, and consequently, it also marked the show’s 150th episode. One would think that there would be so much to celebrate so the creative team would want to make this a very memorable episode, right? Apart from a couple of things, there was nothing to be excited about, ladies and gentlemen.

The biggest issue with the episode were all the Godspeed clones. This is just a question but did the CW not allocate any budget for The Flash? It seems like they gave all the money to Superman & Lois which is a million times better in every way, especially visual effects. Godspeed has been utterly ruined by the CW series thanks to those tacky voiceover and those atrocious costumes. It looks like something from Party City! He’s a villain that should be feared, and instead it’s all just a giant mess.

The first part of the two-part season 7 finale kicks off in 2049 with Nora Allen/XS and Impulse/Bart Allen fighting Godspeed/August Heart. Apparently, Godspeed is Impulse’s Thawne, so there is some serious villain rivalry going on here. Impulse thinks he’s taken down Godspeed, but Godspeed escapes on the Cosmic Treadmill and heads to the Flash Museum which prompts XS and Impulse to follow him. In the present day, Bart and Nora are brought up to speed (hehe) on August’s situation, mainly that he doesn’t remember who he is or the hundreds of clones out there.

Nora is reluctant to stick around in her and Bart’s past especially because it’s against the family rules of messing with the timeline. But since the Godspeeds are in the Speed Force, they have no choice but to wait it out. Chester has a plan to stop the Godspeeds with a machine that his father had been working on, aka the Solar Encryption Engine, but he’ll need Allegra’s help to charge it up. A bit later, Barry learns the hard way that the Godspeeds are after his son, Bart, much like Thawne was once after him. He’s able to come to a decision thanks to Iris’ return courtesy of Deon who helped her get back while he works on fixing things.

We catch up with Jay Garrick in Keystone City who has gotten his speed back thanks to the Speed Force being restored. He intends on helping Barry out but is stopped by the Godspeeds before he can leave. Even though Bart and Nora are from the future, Barry and Iris tell Bart that he can’t help out with the Godspeed dilemma. They know the situation is very serious, but Bart wants nothing more than to be out in the trenches with them. We later learn that Godspeed killed Uncle Jay in front of him and that Bart and Jay are very close in the future. Of course, they can’t divulge this information to Barry and Iris because of the repercussions, but it has Bart feeling a certain way.

Meanwhile, Chester finds Allegra moping around and learns that Esperanza is dead. It’s why Allegra has been out of sorts and why she can’t help charge the device, because her emotions are connected to her powers. So when she’s down, they’re down. When Barry and Nora try to fight off the clones later with the device, it backfires when instead of stopping them, Barry’s energy actually gives them even more energy. And all the while, Bart refuses to listen to his parents and eventually gets caught by the Godspeed clones as they try to take his powers.

Barry manages to save him but a whole squad of Godspeed clones shows up, but luckily Cisco, yes Cisco!, shows up to save the day. I know he just left, but it was so nice to see him come back. Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Bart struggles to stay alive because his speed healing isn’t working as effectively as it should. Barry comes up with the idea to go into August’s mind to see what he can learn, but when he gets inside, it appears August has been waiting for him all this time.

What does that mean? How will it play into next week’s conclusion of the season 7 finale? Tune in to find out!

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