‘The Flash’ Season 5 finale recap: Emotional goodbyes and Crisis set up

If you thought Monday’s Arrow finale was emotional, The Flash responded with an even bigger finale that left fans weeping at the end of the hour.

Tuesday’s finale picked up at the exact moment when Ralph yelled at Barry to not shooting Cicada II’s dagger. We find out that Ralph got in between the dagger and the mirror blast, which ended up altering Ralph’s cells into some very odd shape. Cicada II grabs the dagger and gets away yet again.

A piece of wood is left at CCPD, which Cisco tracks back to the woods. Meanwhile, back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Sherloque figures out that Cicada II’s dagger is the only thing keeping Thawne alive in the future. This leaves Barry with a choice: either let Cicada kill meta now or let Thawne go free.

Obviously, Barry chooses to stop Cicada II. The team heads to the cabin in the woods with an idea to wake young Grace up and stop Cicada II’s birth that way. As they approach the cabin, Cicada II comes in and threatens to kill them all but Joe opens a breach, sending Cicada II back to S.T.A.R. Labs and they trap her in the same speed trap they used against Thawne in season 1.

Meanwhile, Nora enters young Grace’s mind and convinces her to take the cure. She wakes up and takes the cure but not before Cicada II comes in. Cisco tells Barry the only way to stop Cicada II is to destroy the dagger once and for all, which he does thanks to Cisco breaching him the mirror gun. Barry blasts the dagger, which kills the adult version of Grace in the process.

At the same time, in 2049, the dagger disappears from Thawne’s chest and he gets his powers back. He kills every guard, but Nora reverses time, which allows her to get the guards to safety before Thawne gets to them.

Thawne tells Barry and Nora that knows everything that will happen, gloating that he is the only one who can manipulate time to get what he wants. He then splits himself in two, launching a duel speed chase through future Central City. Thawne tells Nora that no matter what she does, Barry will always vanish in the future.

The rest of the team joins Barry and Nora in the future, giving each member of the team a pretty cool moment showcase their powers. Nora goes in to deliver the final blow to Thawne but her powers begin to glitch. Thawne tells the group that a new timeline has been created and Nora is beginning to be erased. Apparently, the only way to save her is by putting her back into the negative speed force.

He apologizes to Nora, telling her that he knew this was going to happen the whole time but he needed to be set free and this was the only way to make it happen.

Barry takes Nora and runs into the negative speed force before Nora can object. Grant Gustin and Candice Patton deliver a stellar performance in what is one of the series’ most heart-wrenching moments; they beautifully display the pain and emotion of realizing they are about to lose their daughter forever. Nora ‘dusts’ away and she is gone, leaving Barry and Iris in tears.

Later, Sherloque tells the team goodbye, going back to his own Earth with Renee. Meanwhile, Cisco takes the metahuman cure but not before he leaves a gift for Caitlin. At CCPD, David Singh promotes Joe to captain and informs Barry that he knew he was The Flash this entire time.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and Iris have a touching moment. Not only are they are proud of the person Nora became, Barry finds a flash drive, which has a video from Nora on it. “I love you both, no matter what the future brings,” Nora says in the video.

As the episode ends, we see the newspaper date change from 20149 to 2019, which means Barry disappearing is coming sooner than expected and likely happening in the “Crisis On Infinite Earths” crossover event happening later this year.

Episode Notes:

• While nothing has officially been announced, it does look like Carlos Valdes (Cisco) is leaving the show. If so, his journey came full circle as his first and last scenes ever were with Danielle Panabaker.
• Nora may have been erased from the timeline, but I have a strong feeling we’ll be seeing her again. Maybe not this Nora but another version of her for sure.
• It’s clear that “Crisis On Infinite Earths” is going to change the Arrowverse forever moving forward. I feel like this will be the event that brings Batwoman and Black Lightning officially into the universe.

What did you make of the finale? Let me know in the comments below!

The Flash will return to The CW for Season 6 in the fall.