Barry looks ahead to a billion post-Crisis futures in the latest Flash

Barry got a rude awakening in last week’s season premiere when he learned the Crisis on Infinite Earths is coming this fall, so this week he decides to take a peek at what that future looks like. It, umm, does not go well.

Spoilers ahead for “A Flash of the Lightning,” the latest episode of The CW’s Flash, which aired Tuesday, October 15, 2019.

The push toward Crisis is in full swing, and it seems there’s a mysterious field walling off the future within the Speed Force that makes it impossible for Barry to just zip ahead a few months and get a peek. So, he teams up with Jay Garrick to send his consciousness to the future, and finds a whole lot more than he bargained for. This was a clever way to give Barry (and viewers, of course) a fleeting peek at the chaos to come, while also setting the stakes that this is nothing like the big bads or crossovers we’ve seen before.

Barry has looked at the future before to see the fallout of his battles, but this one is different. The future is so wildly changed and in flux that Barry glimpses a billion possible futures, with the team and billions of others dying in literally all of them except for one — the one where Barry literally runs himself into oblivion to sacrifice himself to stop it. Jay also helps put some context into the Crisis, planting more seeds that it will affect every world in the multiverse. It’s also nice to see the heroes of the multiverse starting to put this crossover on their calendars, because Team Flash/Arrow/Supergirl/Legends/Batwoman are going to need every bit of help they can get when the end of the world rolls around.

Also, having Jay’s new wife be a doppelgänger for Barry’s mother was a beautiful moment to bring those emotions back around. It gave Barry a peek at an alternate version of Nora, living her best life (with a doppelgänger of Barry’s father no less), and it was such a nice surprise to see a version of that character pop up unexpectedly. 

This week also gave us a look at how Killer Frost is adjusting to being in the drivers seat, while Caitlin slides to the background to let Frost live her own life for a while. The character has worked well in small doses, dropping a few snarky one-liners and blasting some ice around, but here we’re seeing what happens when she actually sticks around. Understandably, it’s a bit grating. She mocks Camilla’s art, but learns a lesson when she tries to actually sketch something herself, and realizes that being a jerk might not be the best default personality setting. If they play it right, it could be fun to see Frost find her way as a person. Or, it could get old fast. Jury’s still out on that one.

New big bad Bloodwork is also still creeping around the fringes, and it didn’t take him long to unlock his new powers, after accidentally giving himself meta human abilities last week. He’s attempting to track down some black market tech, but when the deal goes south his powers kick in and seemingly kill his seller. But, after doing an autopsy on the body, the man wakes up and clocks Ramsey Rosso before making a break for it. The peek at next week makes it clear this reanimated/infected dude is going to be a legit threat. It also looks t boring Ramsey right onto Team Flash’s radar in the process.

We also get a big change for Cecile this week, who helps a meta human and realizes she’s no longer cut out for the DA’s office. Instead of putting meta humans behind bars, Cecile wants to use her powers to work as a defense attorney for meta humans. It’s a fascinating story and a great direction to take her character at this point in the series. It’s a new avenue to bring meta human storylines to the forefront, and it’ll play into Cecil’s strengths. Excited to see where this story goes next.

Next week: It looks like Barry is telling Team Flash about the Crisis, here’s hoping Cisco has a McGuffin up his sleeve to save the multiverse.