The Flash is a superhero series based on the DC Universe character, The Flash, a crime-fighting superhuman who can move at an unimaginable speed. The show first got premiered in 2014 October and recently released its ninth season in February. The Flash is a spin-off of another show called Arrow, and both exist in the universe called the Arrowverse.
The story is about how a crime investigator gets some superhuman powers and uses them to fight off crime and other people who have gained superhuman abilities but are using them for the wrong reasons. The main lead of the show is named Barry Allen, played by actor Grant Gustin.
Candice Patton plays Iris West, a journalist and wife of Barry Allen. Danielle Panabaker plays a bioengineering expert and also a superhuman, Caitlin Snow or Killer Frost. Carlos Valdes plays a character named Vibe, a former superhuman. The show has an ensemble of actors as a part of this universe.
The show launched its ninth season on February 8th, 2023, and has announced it to be the last season. All seasons of the show, The Flash is available on Prime Videos for streaming purposes.
The Flash Season 9 Episode 4 Storyline
In the first season of the show, Barry Allen is shown caught up in a lab explosion which causes him to gain the ability to move at a superhuman speed. Already a crime investigator, Barry Allen chooses to use his powers to help him solve and fight crime whenever he can. He becomes the masked hero of the town with an alias, The Flash.
Since he was not the only one affected by that lab explosion and there are others who end up gaining all sorts of abilities, we see Flash fighting all of them off over the span of the nine seasons. He also finds himself supported by loads of other people who want to do good with their abilities, superhuman or not. They call themselves Team Flash.
Every season brings a new villain along, and for the ninth season, we have a speedster called Red Death. She has apparently managed to get himself a few lackeys and is now working together to get revenge on Barry. The show has introduced another version of Ryan Wilder, claiming it to be from a parallel timeline, instead of Bruce Wayne as fans had expected.
Episode four of the ninth season of the show, titled “The Mask of The Red Death, Part 1”, starts off with Red Death and Mark Blaine, a former member of Team Flash, working to construct the Cosmic Treadmill, that would require a huge amount of electric power to work.
Barry and Iris still seem to have no idea about the purpose of that Cosmic Treadmill and both try to figure out Red Deaths’ motive. Barry receives signals from Red Death herself, asking to meet her. Red Death, with the help of her minions, manages to kidnap Barry. We find that The Flash is supposed to be the power source for the Cosmic Treadmill, and Red Death’s identity is finally revealed.
Ryan Wilder visits Iris, who has suspicions about Ryan from the start. More secrets about the Red Death are revealed. Ryan, who is with Iris, tells Iris about her universe and that she is in fact Ryan Wayne, adopted by the Wayne family, a sort of superwoman in her own parallel universe. When Irise refuses to believe Ryan’s story, she ends up getting kidnapped too.
With Iris kidnapped, Barry agrees to help run the Cosmic Treadmill in return for her safety. Team Flash manages to find Flash’s location, and Chillblaine ends up knocking Red Death unconscious. Chaos ensues as Team Flash manages to escape leaving behind Chillblaine to die, even though Flash wanted to save him. Red Death failed to get Flash to start the Cosmic Treadmill, and the episode ends with her vowing to take over and destroy his universe.
The Flash Season 9 Episode 4 Review
The character Barry appeared in the show Arrow, twice, and it impressed The CW executive so much they wanted to make a different show out of his character, and that is how the show, The Flash came to be. The show received positive right off the bat with the premiere of its first episode in 2014.
The Flsh, since the launch of the first season, has received great reviews. We finally have a DC Universe-based show that is not all intense and humorless. Grant Gustin has been appreciated a lot for his performance as Barry Allen. The show has shown great potential in terms of exploring the villains from different parallel universes.
The recent episode of the show finally picked up some momentum, and the story brought us face-to-face with the villain of this season. The show took its sweet time to do so, but the first meeting between The Flash and Red Death felt gratifying enough. Fans of the show and the DC Universe would know that Red Death is not just one character from the comics. It has multiple faces over multiple universes and timelines and each with a different storyline.
The show has full creative liberty to build the character of Red Death and introduce her as a villain of the show. Considering that Red Death lacks a set storyline, a lot can be done and explored in terms of defining her motives to be the bad guy. It is only the fourth episode, so the makers have enough time to build her character arc and turn her into an iconic villain.
The episode felt a bit incomplete and ended with the Red Death looking absolutely pathetic as she lost the first round of the battle. Though, this was part one, so the expectations are still high. Episode eight revolved mainly around the conversation between Barry Allen and Red Death, and Iris and Ryan Wayne, also Red Death.
These two conversations that were taking parallelly were probably the most interesting part of this episode. We got an insight into Red Death’s character and her background story. It is a known fact that Grant Gustin as Flash was the best decision ever. Since season one, the actor has given his all to the show, but Javicia Leslie as the Red Death is a dream to watch.
The writing of the show is not the best thing about it, with generic dialogues sprinkled every now and then, but Javicia Leslie manages to save them gracefully still. The episode also incorporated certain references to the DC comics and also casually namedropped references to Batman, which is always exciting for the fans to witness.
The episode also continued to drag forward the story about Joe, father to Iris and Cecile, a metahuman who is dating Joe, and Joe’s daughter wants to Cecile use her superhuman powers. With an extremely intriguing story arc developing with Red Death and The Flash and Iris, their story just seems bland and boring. It feels almost useless to drag their storyline till the last season of the show.
Another similar thing happens with the story development for Allegra Garcia, played by Kayla Compton, and Chester, played by Brandon McKnight. Both are metahumans and have on-again, off-again relationship problems going on, which, honestly nobody wants to keep track of. It is exhausting and boring.
An important conversation that takes place in this episode is between Barry Allen and Mark, also known as Chillblaine. The Flash sticks to his characteristic traits dearly, thoroughly believing that everyone deserves a second chance which includes Mark, too. And while Red Death is gone to meet Iris, Mark confesses to Barry that he knows that betraying Team Flash was not the right way to go and that fear and desperation got the best of him.
Our Verdict
The Flash, since its start, has received heavy praise and a lot of accolades. Grant Gustin has done a phenomenal job keeping up with his character. The show has managed to bring iconic villains onto our television screens, and the fans could not be more excited about it. The show definitely seems to be struggling with keeping the dialogue writing and story development up to the mark, but it is barely managing it.
The main character, Iris, feels annoying a lot of the time throughout the seasons, and the show has really not used the legendary villains to their full potential, which is disappointing. Having said that, introducing Red Death as a female evil character and the tension between The Flash and Red Death, along with the revenge that Red Death plans on taking in the upcoming episodes of the season, is something fans all over the world are looking forward to.
Our Rating: ⭐ (3.2/5).
