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"A New World" is the final four episodes of the American television series The Flash, based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash. A costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds, Barry is a crime-scene investigator who gains superhuman speed which he uses to fight criminals, including others who also have superhuman abilities. The series is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the universe, and is a spin-off of Arrow. The storyline began on May 3, 2023, and concluded on May 25.

Plot

Part One / Reunions

Chester gives Allegra her first suit and Iris receives a Pulitzer nomination. Barry gets transported to the day Nora Allen dies. He goes to Joe for help and later sees his parents, but is knocked unconscious by Eobard Thawne. While investigating, Joe finds a blue crystal and becomes possessed. After being hospitalized and having lunch with his parents, Barry is approached by Thawne, who gloats about him being unable to stop his plan to kill Barry's younger self. Barry returns to the hospital and says goodbye to his parents. The possessed Joe then attacks him, stating that he is not the new Negative Speed Force avatar but still wants to correct the imbalance Barry's legacy leaves on the timeline. Barry frees Joe and returns him to his car, but the crystal disappears. Barry then participates in the fight in which Thawne kills Nora, warning his earlier self not to interfere. Afterwards, Barry tells Thawne that he has made peace with Nora's death before he is transported away again and Thawne loses his powers. Elsewhere, a man resembling Eddie Thawne is struck by lightning at Mercury Labs, finds a file about Eddie's death, and wonders who he is.

Part Two / The Blues

Chester finds traces of cobalt where Barry was taken. Mark returns, but he attacks members of Team Flash and is later shown to be possessed by the crystal. After he gasses CCC Media, Khione rescues Taylor and Aariz by growing plant cells in their bodies, but their skin turns green. They flee in horror, and Mark calls Khione an abomination. The Speed Force defends Iris from Mark and explains that he became a vessel for the Negative Speed Force. After the Speed Force convinces her to embrace her power, Khione frees Mark by disintegrating and reassembling his body, but the crystal disappears. Barry returns as Iris goes into labor and Khione makes plans to leave Central City, but is pulled away again. Elsewhere, Malcolm Gilmore— Eddie's facsimile— goes to Captain Daisy Korber at the CCPD to learn about Eddie. After hearing a voice telling him to find Iris and seeing Eddie's memories, he breaks into CCC Media and digs up Eddie's grave, only to find it empty. He realizes that he is Eddie and pulls out the bullet he shot himself with.

Part Three / Changes

The Speed Force warns Team Flash that Barry and the crystal are in 2049 before vanishing. Eddie watches Korber get pulled into a singularity that opens over his grave. At the Flash Museum, he sees a girl resembling Nora West-Allen claiming to be his daughter, but the real Nora stops him. Team Flash 2049 finds that Eddie is subconsciously opening the singularities. Nora becomes possessed by the crystal and tries to tempt Eddie into accepting its power, but Barry appears and escapes with him. Eddie is angered by how his sacrifice didn't erase the Reverse-Flash and how he was forgotten while Barry lived and married Iris. In 2023, Cecile projects her consciousness into her 2049 self, but returns when she learns that she rarely visits Joe due to work. After Chester (at Khione's urging) consoles her, she returns and frees Nora from the crystal's influence. Eddie asks 2049 Iris to be with him again, but she rejects him. As the Negative Speed Force begins to fracture the timeline, 2049 Iris talks with Barry before he is pulled away again. Now in possession of the crystal, Eddie accepts its power and opens a portal.

Part Four

TBD

Production

Development and Filming

The four parter was confirmed to serve as the series finale.

Writing

The episodes were written by seven different writers paring up into teams of two per episode. Eric Wallace wrote parts 1 and four along with Thomas Pound and Sam Chalsen respectively. Part two was written by Kristen Kim and Lauren Fields. Part three was written by Johnathan Butler and Sarah Tarkoff.

Casting

The episode star Grant Gustin as Barry Allen. Gustin is joined by Danielle Panabaker,

Several former series regulars return across the episodes including

Development

On July 2, 2022, The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace revealed that the cast and crew didn't expect for the show to be renewed for a ninth season, so the writers wrote "Negative, Part Two", the season eight finale, as the series finale. Thus, an additional scene in which Team Flash would have all said goodbye to each other to provide closure, but when The CW renewed the show, Wallace and the writers had the final scene cut and replaced by a teaser of Cobalt Blue.

After the ninth season was greenlight, Wallace had expected about the network renewing the show for an additional tenth and last season, but once the decision to wrap-up the show was made by the cast and crew with a 13-episode long season, thanked the network for notifying him with a year in advance and resorted instead to make along with the other writers the best series finale they could for The Flash. Although The Flash became the last ongoing show of the Arrowverse after Superman & Lois was retconned out from the continuity into taking place in another universe, Wallace didn't write A "A New World, Part Four" as an ending for the Arrowverse, hoping it could be continued through other shows.

Writing

In preparation to write the last episode, Wallace turned to rewatch some of his favorite series finales, like those of Angel, Lost and The Office, opining that he had to approach similar conclusive feelings for The Flash finale, particularly like those from the Lost finale, but finding major inspiration in The Office finale and admitting that while he could wrap-up The Flash in a cliffhanger like in the Angel finale, he knows that such plot device wasn't fitting for The Flash so he wrote the episode in a way not cliffhangers are left, promising a "properly" last episode.

Bringing Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash back one last time was always part of the show's plan according to Wallace, who felt that Barry Allen / Flash's story had to end with "one final confrontation" with his archenemy. The episode also brings Hunter Zolomon / Zoom back to fight against Barry Allen one last time, a reunion that Wallace had been hoping to write for several seasons.

Casting

Main cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, Brandon McKnight and Jon Cor appear as Barry Allen / Flash, Iris West, Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost / Khione, Cecile Horton / Virtue, Allegra Garcia / Accelerant, Chester P. Runk and Mark Blaine / Chillblaine.

Guest cast members include Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Rick Cosnett, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Teddy Sears, Karan Oberoi, Andre Tricoteux, John Wesley Shipp, Patrick Sabongui and Carmen Moore reprising their roles as Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash and Harrison Wells, Joe West, Nora West-Allen / XS, Hunter Zolomon / Zoom, August Heart / Godspeed, Savitar, Jay Garrick / Flash and David Singh respectively. Stephanie Iszak co-stars as Daisy Korber. Cosnett's return as Cobalt Blue completely "blew away" Gustin, admitting that the writers always built moments to foreshadow such fan-rumored storyline.

Carlos Valdes, who portrayed Cisco Ramon / Vibe in previous seasons, considered to return as Cisco in the series finale so he could "round up" his run in the show since his first appearance in the season one premiere "Pilot", having left the show since seventh season due to some creative opportunities and mental health issues he had been struggling with, but unworkable scheduling conflicts with his starring role as Miguel in the Hulu series Up Here prevented him from reprising the role. Ahead of the episode's release, Valdes felt "heartbroken" at his failure to work out his reprisal as Cisco. Nonetheless, Valdes expressed his hopes that Cisco is happy now with Kamilla Hwang, feeling that his character deserves some happiness.

Filming

Preparation for the episode had begun by February 26, taking place in the same location of downtown Vancouver, Canada where the fight scene between the Flash, Reverse-Flash and Godspeed took place in the seventh season finale "Heart of the Matter, Part 2". Reports confirmed the return of several castmembers, though noting that stunt doubles filled-in to portray Godspeed and Savitar, while Gustin was replaced for some scenes by Cody Laudan due to not working a whole night of shooting. Gustin contracted COVID-19 during filming six days before wrapping up the episode, so he had to be quarantined for ten days before returning to the set, resulting the production shutting down one day before Gustin returned. According to Panabaker, scenes were shot without Gustin to later add him through greenscreen and one extra day of filming was ordered to enable him to return to the set. Gustin's wife and daughter visited him during the last day of filming, allowing Gustin to ask them to take a photo of himself hanging the suit for a last time.

Release

Broadcast

All four parts were released on the American television network, The CW.

Critical reception

References

1. ^ Petski, Denise (February 3, 2023). "'The Flash': Rick Cosnett, Matt Letscher, Jessica Parker Kennedy Return For Season 9". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
2. Behbakht, Andy (January 27, 2023). "The Flash Season 9 Set Photos Tease Surprising Time Travel Characters". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on January 25, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
3. ^ Mitovich, Matt Webb (February 16, 2023). "The Flash Brings Back Teddy Sears as Zoom, John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick". TVLine. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
4. "The Flash Recap With Spoilers: "A New World, Part One"". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
5. Bucksbaum, Sydney (May 8, 2023). "The Flash showrunner reveals how Tom Cavanagh returns in series finale: 'Always part of the plan'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
6. Bucksbaum, Sydney. "Get a first look at 'The Flash' series finale with new photos". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
7. Humphrey, Julia (2023-05-03). "'The Flash' Will Have a Super-Sized Four-Part Series Finale". Collider. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
8. Mitovich, Matt Webb (July 2, 2022). "How Exactly The Flash's Series Finale Was Changed to Be a Season Finale". TVLine. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
9. ^ Bucksbaum, Sydney (May 18, 2023). "How Grant Gustin runs The Flash — and the Arrowverse — across the finish line". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
10. Bucksbaum, Sydney (May 19, 2023). "The Flash showrunner says series finale is similar to The Office, Lost, and Angel finales". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
11. Bucksbaum, Sydnei (May 8, 2023). "The Flash showrunner reveals how Tom Cavanagh returns in series finale: 'Always part of the plan'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
12. ^ Webb Mitovich, Matt (February 16, 2023). "The Flash Brings Back Teddy Sears as Zoom, John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick". TVLine. Retrieved May 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
13. ^ "THE FLASH - episode 9x13 set photos - MAJOR SPOILERS - 11 characters on set - season & series finale". Canadagraphs. February 2, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
14. Webb Mitovich, Matt (May 31, 2023). "Grant Gustin Opens Up About The Flash Ending and What Exactly in the Series Finale Made Him 'Emotional' (VIDEO)". TVLine. Retrieved May 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
15. Bucksbaum, Sydney (May 18, 2023). "Carlos Valdes not returning for The Flash series finale: 'It was really heartbreaking'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 19, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
16. Bucksbaum, Sydney (May 18, 2023). "Grant Gustin reveals he got COVID in last days of filming The Flash series finale". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

• "A New World: Part 1" at IMDb
• "A New World: Part 2" at IMDb
• "A New World: Part 3" at IMDb
• "A New World: Part 4" at IMDb

Category:2023 American television episodes Category:American television series finales Category:The Flash (2014 TV series) episodes Category:Television episodes about time travel