The Flash: Diggle’s Central City Visit is a Season 7 Highlight

| July 6, 2021 |

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The Wink -- "P.O.W." -- Image Number: FLA716b_BTS_0260r.jpg – Pictured: David Ramsey as John Diggle -- Photograph: Bettina Strauss/The CW -- © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Bettina Strauss

The following THE FLASH article contains spoilers through Flavour seven, Episode sixteen.

The Wink Season 7 Episode 16

The War of the Godspeeds continues on The Flash , but Barry and friends get a boost from an old friend: David Ramsey'due south John Diggle. And the arrival of the former Arrow star could not have come up at a more opportune moment, as his preexisting friendship with Barry – and his general stand-in for Oliver Queen-condition – manages to infuse this largely confusing story with something that genuinely feels similar emotional stakes at concluding.

Plus, maybe I just miss Arrow more most people are willing to admit, but it'southward only so good to see Diggle again in a pregnant capacity. (Ramsay's recent Legends of Tomorrow stint as Bass Reeves was entertaining, but it'due south non quite the same matter.) That his appearance seems to be hinting at finally dealing with his cosmic destiny as the Greenish Lantern is just the icing on the cake.

Technically, Diggle'due south inflow in "P.O.W" is about bringing Team Flash some Cisco-crafted tech meant to help fight the Godspeeds, but mostly he seems to be nearly providing a burst of sanity in a story that'southward apace becoming the sort of messy that's hard to even explain to someone who has never seen the prove before. If Barry can't have these sorts of middle-to-hearts with Oliver anymore, and then Diggle is the next best thing, and their emotional conversation about Barry'south fears for the time to come and his worries over the existence of his family unit is wonderfully done.

Information technology would be really peachy if The Flash allowed Barry to accept more of these sorts of talks – the ones that remind us he'south as homo as anyone else despite his superhero condition, with all the fears and anxieties that come along with information technology. Once upon a time he and Caitlin used to be the sort of best friends who could discuss these sorts of problems, which would at least give her a valuable role to play on a show that'southward found Frost to exist the shinier and more entertaining of Danielle Panabaker's dual roles of belatedly. More often than not I'd just like to feel that Team Wink was a existent team again, instead of Barry, Iris, Caitlin, and a rotating cast of characters that someone finds a reason to yell at or lecture. (Sorry, Chester, yous drew the curt harbinger this week.)

Granted, in that location's more than a little bit of irony nearly John encouraging his friend to run a risk the timeline (yet once more!) to brand certain Nora's okay when we all know that Barry's the reason the Diggle family was completely altered post-obit Flashpoint. Possibly we're supposed to take it every bit an instance of Dig's growth or grace in the wake of fatherhood, merely mostly information technology just seems like another alibi for The Flash to play fast and loose with its already barely real internal rules of time travel.

Outside of Diggle'south very welcome visit, much of this episode feels like table-setting for the two-role finale that kicks off next week, as we're given a vague motivation for the Godspeeds behavior that involves battling over an amnesiac version of original evil (God)speedster August Eye; Nora and Bart arrive from the time to come, proving that the timeline of Barry's family unit is nevertheless intact if slightly expanded; and nosotros acquire that Iris hasn't been offscreen just to give Candace Patton a suspension just because she'south been phasing through various temporal planes because…reasons.

What exactly that means is anyone'south guess – though I'yard assuming this is in fact some sort of pregnancy confirmation and the reason Iris is so unstable is because the number of her hereafter children keeps irresolute depending on whatever'due south going on with the timeline. Whether that's really the example or non, later a flavor in which Iris spent the majority of it trapped in a mirror dimension with lilliputian to do, it seems actress cruel that The Flash has essentially decided to trap her in a different alternating dimension for the concluding arc of this i.

I know I tin can't exist the only person who really groaned aloud when Deon appeared and somehow his Even so Force abilities make even less sense at present than they did a half dozen episodes agone. But mostly it's simply the concept that Iris is once once more stuck in some state of affairs that requires Team Flash to effigy out how to save her – this is non the arc I wanted for her this year, is all I'1000 saying.

Unfortunately, the largely inexplicable just at least by and large messy fun of the Godspeed plot is well-nigh completely derailed every fourth dimension The Wink turns its attention dorsum to the equally terrible Kristen Kramer and Esperanza subplots, which both seem to exist for little reason than considering someone somewhere promised Jesse 50. Martin and Kayla Compton something to do in the flavour's final prepare of episodes. Don't go me wrong, Allegra has really grown on me this flavor and I will stan for Joe West forever, only these two stories could not possibly experience more out of identify in the larger arc of Season 7 correct now.

I suppose someone could fence that Allegra'due south learning her own valuable if cruel lesson virtually family unit, merely after wasting so much screentime on Caitlin fixing Allegra'southward voice, it feels especially pointless to end it all with Esperanza's expiry. (Though, since well-nigh people don't plough into glittering gold pulverisation when they die, I think it's safety to assume we somehow oasis't seen the last of her.)

The worst offender of the hour – of the flavor, possibly, which is saying something – is the ridiculously terrible Kristen Kramer plot, which sees her and Joe literally beingness hunted through the woods by her former babyhood friend turned possibly immortal mercenary. Truly, y'all, what did we do to deserve this?

"P.O.W.", like "Enemy at the Gates" before it is one of those episodes whose stock will exponentially get upward if the final two episodes of Season 7 manage to coagulate into a decent story. If the Godspeed plot turns out to exist as cool as we all desperately desire it to, if Nora and Bart'due south arrival and the serial' 150^thursday episode nail all the emotional beats that make our hearts grow 3 sizes, this will all of a sudden become an hour that nosotros remember fondly for being function of it all. If they don't…well, information technology's not like we haven't had to live with disappointment this season already. Fingers crossed for the onetime.