REVIEW: ‘The Flash,’ Season 7,\ Episode 3 – “Mother”

The Flash has officially wrapped the Mirrorverse arc with its season 7, episode 3, “Mother.” In the previous episode, Team Flash was mourning Nash Wells’s death (Tom Cavanagh) after he gave his life so the Artificial Speedforce machine could work. Unbeknownst to the team, Barry (Grant Gustin) got an additional power from the Artificial Speedforce machine: the power of speed thinking. This new power put all of Team Flash against Barry since he was using a more logical approach to rescue Iris (Candice Patton) from the Mirrorverse. Meanwhile, Eva (Efrat Dor) was forced to deal with the revelation that she was merely a Mirrorverse version of herself and not the real Eva.

In “Mother,” Eva unleashes her plan to replace all humans with their Mirrorverse counterparts. Iris, having been rescued from the Mirrorverse, cannot handle being back in the real world. While Iris is being taken care of, the rest of the team tries to find a way to get Barry’s speed back without the use of the Artificial Speedforce machine. The team gets help from a surprise visitor, both familiar and a stranger to the team. Meanwhile, Sue (Natalie Dreyfuss) and Ralph return to get her name cleared after being framed for Joseph Carver’s death by Eva.

For what was supposed to be the finale of season 6, “Mother” had the potential to build up a great showdown between Team Flash and Eva. However, the way that Eva was ultimately defeated was a bit of a letdown. Her defeat is something that The Flash has done before with some of its villains in previous seasons, which is when Barry talks to the villains about the error of their ways.

Understandably, talking through things with villains might be the solution, but Eva hasn’t been the kind of villain that would have listened to reason. Until the finale, she was dead-set on being the kind of villain willing to do anything to meet her goals. Talking to Eva was a disappointing way to end her arc, especially after her character’s immense character development in past episodes.

One of the major things that “Mother” did really well was fully solidifying the love that both Iris and Barry have. Yes, they have been married since season 4, but everything about their relationship since it began was how rushed everything felt. Fans of The Flash comics know that Iris and Barry belong together, and that was introduced from the beginning of the show, but their relationship never quite felt fleshed out to me. However, this week’s episode did a tremendous job showing just how important they are to one another and how much they love each other. As a long-time reader of Flash comics, “Mother” made me fully invested in their relationship with the scenes that Barry and Iris shared.

This has been an issue that The Flash has had since introducing more members to Team Flash, but “Mother” had one too many heroes involved in the episode. It makes sense for the plot to call for as many heroes to help fight against Eva, but it seemed like the titular character was sidelined until the very end of the episode. Every other hero and character was given something major to do, but Barry barely had anything to do until the actual fight at the end of the episode.

The Flash should get support from his team, but having one too many heroes takes away the feeling that Barry is a real hero. There was also the fact that Ralph made a return but not as expected. That was an unnecessary plot point since the previous episodes had already acted as a send-off for his character for the time being. If this was supposed to be the season 6 finale, having so many characters have prominent roles while Barry sits on the sidelines made the finale less impactful on the show.

Ultimately, while “Mother” was entertaining, The Flash’s season 7, episode 3 failed to deliver a worthy finale to the Mirrorverse arc. Eva’s final stand against Team Flash being reduced to a conversation rather than a bigger confrontation was disappointing. There was also the fact that one too many heroes were involved in the finale of the Mirrorverse arc, which ultimately pushed Barry to the sidelines until the end. However, the episode did an excellent job of displaying the love and affection that Barry and Iris have for one another.

The end scene of the episode shows great promise for the rest of the season, especially since it teases an amazing storyline from The Flash comics’ most recent run that fans should be excited for.

The Flash season 7 airs new episodes every Tuesday on the CW Network.