Warning! The following contains spoilers for The Flash episode "Central City Strong." Read at your own risk!
Season 7 of The Flash has only aired four episodes, and it already feels like it's done a season's worth of plot development. For those not keeping tabs at home, the show has killed Nash Wells, created and destroyed an artificial Speed Force, brought back the original but now time-traveling Wells, fixed the Speed Force with love, brought back Iris, defeated Mirror Monarch, attempted to explain Ralph Dibny's absence, and shot colorful lightning in the sky. After all that story, I expected "Central City Strong" to be a relatively light affair, but boy was I wrong.
Let's just skip to the most astonishing part of the episode, which occurred in an ending scene mostly off-camera. Caitlin asked for Cisco's assistance, and after he turned to face his friend, he realized she had multiplied by two. With no prior warning, sub-plot, or explanation, Caitlin and Killer Frost are now entirely separate people. I would speculate further on that mind-boggling moment, but unfortunately, I'm still reeling from the other insane reveal that only happened minutes before.
No, I'm not referring to Iris promoting Allegra to a staff writer when she's the only other writer on staff at her paper, though we should all acknowledge that's weird. I'm referring instead to the hulking behemoth who looked like Goro from the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie that arrived in the pivotal victory scene right after Barry and Kadabra came to an understanding. The abomination of CGI killed Kadabra in one punch, and then bear-hugged Barry into unconsciousness.
Then as suddenly as the new bad guy appeared, it left. Team Flash took a moment to mourn the loss of Kadabra, wonder what that was all about, and then ultimately moved on with their lives. I'm sure this super-strong villain will be revisited at a later date, but I just wanted to know where it came from. Is this villain tied to the Strength Force, and if so, why didn't we get some clue in the episode for that? Why didn't we get an explanation?
Now, I understand that The Flash just technically wrapped Season 6 (which was halted due to COVID) and transitioned into Season 7, all in the course of an episode. In a regular season, there'd be about a year of separation between all this action, but The CW series was burdened with wrapping its prior storyline and starting a new one within a week's time.
With that said, when it comes to COVID production complications, The Flash hasn't faced an issue that other CW series or other shows in general haven't faced. These past two episodes have, for me, felt really sloppy and like information overload. It feels like The Flash is throwing a lot at the wall, and worrying about the details or explanation behind it all at a later date. It's not enough to make me stop watching, but it is enough for me to wonder if the show's best days have passed.
Love it or hate it, The Flash is serving up all sorts of surprises Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW. I'm definitely still invested in seeing where Season 7 is headed, especially with the tease that John Diggle will make his way back before the season's end.
