The Flash – Liberation

By starrymag | May 5, 2020

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

Barry (Grant Gustin), Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) have gotten the artificial speed force together. Barry tells them to try it out, but when they turn it on it doesn’t fully work. Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) comes in and asks them how it went. They tell her not so well, but she offers them a trip with her to The Citizen. Barry doesn’t want to go. He tells Cecile to tell Iris (Candice Patton) he misses her and then leaves. 

 

Evil Iris and Kamilla (Victoria Park) are giving Eva (Efrat Dor) an update on Barry’s draining powers. She tells them her plan was a success and Evil iris looks forlornly to the side. She asks Eva if she wants them to continue to the next phase and she tells them to join their brother to do so. Cecile knocks on the office door and she comes to talk to Iris about Barry. She tells her that Barry’s in a bad place, but Evil Iris fires back all of the things Barry promised not to do yet did anyway. Cecile asks her what she wants and Evil Iris gets a look in her eye saying she doesn’t know. She asks Cecile to feel what she wants. Cecile says she feels sadness and concern from her, but Evil Kamilla steps in to stop her from learning too much. Evil Iris realizes what just happened and agrees and tells Cecile it’s important for her to take care of herself. Cecile relays Barry’s message and leaves. 

 

Barry’s in the West household when Cecile tries to come in but can’t because Barry has the door blocked. When he opens it, she finds a room full of boxes and boards filled with information. Barry says he can explain that, “Iris isn’t Iris.” He’s telling her his rundown of how he doesn’t think Iris is her true self. He says he had a lot of thoughts that didn’t pan out but now he thinks that the night that it all started was the evening that Iris went to McCullough Tech. Cecile asks if this is the reason he’s been avoiding Iris. Barry starts listing how now Iris suddenly speaks Italian, breaks bottles over people’s heads and cooks great pancakes, which he emphasizes that she can’t do. He says the real warning sign was when she stopped fighting for them because he knows the real Iris would never do that. Cecile tells him that maybe he’s just scared, but Barry is completely against it. He says his speed gage is still red because he realized the moment he stepped out of the loft was that his Iris was still out there waiting for him to find her and he won’t let her down. 

 

Cisco and Ralph go visit Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), but they touch the door and it’s freezing. They open it to find Caitlin in a puff of cold air and they check her temperature. They need to figure out what’s going on with her. 

 

Iris tells Eva she thinks she figured out a way to get them out and takes the pyramid on the desk and positions it to shatter the mirror. Eva immediately stops her, but Iris tells her that they should take the mirror down and examine it. Eva gets upset and tells Iris to do whatever she wants as she goes to work on a plan that will actually help them. Iris raises her arm to go forth with her plan but stops when she finds a button on the side of the mirror. She presses it and the mirror slides to the side revealing another room. 

 

Cecile and Barry are in Iris’ office looking through her computer for anything suspicious. He finds the picture of Evil Iris and Wally where she turned into a mirror. He thinks they’ve found what they need to stop her.

 

Evil Iris, Kamilla and Singh (Patrick Sabongui) are placing mirrors around the loft. Evil Iris says she’s ready after sadly looking into the mirror. She says all that matters is Eva’s will and now they have one more item they need to obtain for her liberation. Singh says that it’s the most dangerous yet and we see Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) in his cell lookup. 

 

Evil Iris comes into S.T.A.R. Labs after getting an emergency text. Nash (Tom Cavanagh) closes the doors behind her. Barry tells Evil Iris she isn’t leaving until she tells them who or what she is. She acts confused and Barry shows her the photo Kamilla took of her. She looks around them and tries to get them to understand that all of this is insane. Barry brings a machine that will make her look just like the photo. Iris tearfully denies everything, but Barry just backs away. She then says she’ll show them who she really is. 

 

Iris steps into the room to find mirrors hung with a control station in front of it. She presses something on it and images start to flash on them. She begins to feel excruciating pain in her head that knocks her down to the ground, but she makes herself get up because she has to know. She sees the images of all of Eva’s plans and what she’s done from her point of view. Eva finds her on the ground.

 

Evil Iris tells Barry she forgives him if anything happens before he shines the device on her. It doesn’t work and Evil Iris gets up and cuts it off. She turns on Barry saying he isn’t her husband and the real Barry would have fought for her in the week that he was away. Barry looks stunned and she turns the device on him, revealing his body like Iris’ was in the picture. Nash and Cecile immediately move beside Evil Iris. Cecile sneaks meta cuffs on him while saying she’s sorry. 

 

They have Barry locked up while he yells at them that it’s not Iris. Cecile says that if it’s not Barry then he’s some mirror version of himself. Evil Iris gets hesitant and steers Nash to look into it. She then says that she’ll do some digging of her own. Cecile says something doesn’t feel right, but Evil Iris assures they’ll get to the bottom of things. 

 

Caitlin’s body is trying to self-hibernation and Cisco needs Ralph to be the jumper cables to help get her out of it. He puts his fingers on her and the machine and gets blasted back. But, it worked because she awakens to tell them the wound from the light bullet got worse and she couldn’t heal it with the ice. She needs help and she needs to call her mother for it. 

 

Evil Iris tells Singh and Kamilla that things went to plan when they meet at the place where Ramsey is being held. We see in flashbacks that Eva said she would handle things. It seems she switched out the device that Barry used on Iris by giving them the mirror version. They get in to speak to Ramsey. They tell him if he helps them that they will get him out. Evil Iris explains who they are and Ramsey realizes she’s telling the truth. They explain that their mother is Eva and they just need one drop of his blood for her. Ramsey accepts their offer. Evil Kamilla says that Eva had a theory that she was the answer. Iris tries to stop her because she will die, but Kamilla says, “It is mother’s will.” She walks into the chamber and is eviscerated. Ramsey is released setting off the alarms and he immediately grabs the other two. He uses his powers as Bloodwork to throw Singh. He tells Evil Iris that he sees hesitation in her eyes. He asks her what she wants and she tells him “to be alive.” He releases her and says she deserves it. He steps back into the cell and notes that he’ll call this the long game. She has the vial of blood and leaves to deliver it. 

 

Cecile opens Barry’s cell and tells him to go get Iris back.

 

Evil Iris is talking to Eva about their next moves. When she applies the blood to the mirror on her side and Eva sets up the machines on her side, they will be able to make a safe passageway. Eva says success is assured just as Barry flashes in and asks, “Where’s my wife?” Evil Iris throws the blood on the mirror and then reaches her arms out as they turn into mirror blades. She starts towards Barry. 

 

Iris starts to realize how Eva targeted her from the beginning. She tells Eva that she and Barry were going to stop her. Eva explains the mirror showed her the truth when she thought the same about her love. She transforms the mirror so that Iris can watch her evil reflection fight Barry. 

 

Evil Iris comes full force at Barry and cuts his arm and face. She tells Barry that “she” says he’ll always be in her way. Evil Iris starts using the mirrors as a way for her to stab him without getting close to him. She sticks her blades through one mirror and they come out another. She tells him he should mind his surroundings and then shatters the mirror above his head. It slices him in many places just as she sticks her blades through the mirrors and stabs him on both sides at the same time. Barry falls yet asks for Iris’ whereabouts again. Evil Iris starts to taunt him because of all the days he didn’t realize she wasn’t really his wife. She towers over him. 

 

Iris tells Eva that she is going to kill her, but Eva says she cannot lose. Iris asks if they feel what she feels for Carver. She says she doesn’t still love him, but Iris yells otherwise. Eva starts to scratch and gets irritated. This causes Evil Iris to begin to feel pain and back away from Barry. She starts saying “suffer” repeatedly just like Eva. Barry looks to the mirror, realizing Iris may be able to see them. He starts moving towards Evil Iris and says he won’t fight her anymore. She’s still in pain and he tells her she has some of Iris inside because he’s seen it. He explains she can be more, she just has to want it. She tearfully looks at him and says, “I choose me.” She orders him to go find and save Iris. Eva realizes what’s happening. Evil Iris begins to crack before Barry can get up and he rushes to hold her. As she dies she says, “Barry, I feel alive.” Then, she shatters into glass pieces on the floor. Eva turns on the machine and exits the mirror saying, “Look what you made me do.”

 

Eva stabs him again saying that she had to get out. He asks for Iris once more. She tells him she’s still in the mirror along with Singh and Kamilla. He starts to slowly lose more and more strength. She hops back in the mirror and tells him to stay out of her way because she has business to attend to and a world to liberate. Barry loses consciousness on the floor. 

 

Barry awakens sometime later and is healed. He moves towards the mirror tearfully. He starts to talk to Iris without being able to see her. He tells her he misses her. Iris unties herself and moves towards the mirror. She begins to talk to Barry. She says being away from him hurts more and more every day, but she still has hope as she knows he’s still fighting. She says she loves him and “that love is constant.” He says he loves her “across dimensions and time, to the end of the world and back.” He knows she isn’t just fighting for herself and she says she’s going to find Singh and Kamilla. But most of all, he’s going to get her back and she’s going to find her way back to him.