The Flash: Iris' Time Sickness Explained

06/22/2022 09:11 pm EDT

All season on The Flash, the team has had to deal with not only the expected threats in Central City, but something more deeply personal. Iris West Allen (Candice Patton) has been dealing with an ever-worsening "time sickness" to the point that she fully disappeared several episodes back, seemingly lost somewhere in time after Barry (Grant Gustin) was betrayed by Deon/Still Force (Christian Magby). But series showrunner Eric Wallace has promised that this season would resolve Iris' issues and the previously-released synopsis for this week's "Negative, Part One" revealed that she'd finally learn the truth about what's been plaguing her — and now fans know the truth as well.

Warning: spoilers for this week's episode of The Flash, "Negative, Part One", below.

The episode sees Iris emerge from wherever she's been lost, arriving in 2049 at her home where she Bart (Jordan Fisher) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) immediately move to take her back to the present only to realize that Deon has made it so that she can't. They end up taking her to Joan (Michelle Harrison) who confirms that Iris is getting worse, and another attack could kill her. At the same time, in the present, Barry is beginning to find out why Deon betrayed him. It turns out that it wasn't the Deon that they know. Instead, it was the Negative Still Force — turns out that there are Negative versions of all the forces — and they were weakened when Barry removed Thawne's (Tom Cavanagh) speed because it "erased" the Negative Speed Force.

The weakened Forces wanted revenge on Barry for this so Negative Deon deliberately gave Iris the time sickness because they knew that it would spread to the other Forces, weakening them and thus Barry's speed powers, allowing them to carry out their revenge. However, there is a little bit more to the plan than that. They tell Barry that he is going to have to "sacrifice" and, in the future, Iris suddenly realizes that the flashes and visions she's been getting with her time attacks aren't random. She's seeing what's going on and it's all leading up to the fight between Barry and the Negative Forces. The sacrifice that they are talking about? It turns out to be her. Just as The Flash thinks he's in position to defeat the Negative Forces by throwing lightning at them, Deon brings Iris to the present — and the lightning hits her instead.

Now, it certainly looks like Iris is dead. After all, she did turn into temporal energy and that went into Eobard and resurrected Thawne. However, fans might not want to jump to conclusions just yet. Wallace previously told us that Season 8 will end with everyone "living happily ever after".

"Yes, I am happy to report, and you can quote me, Team Flash will be okay at the end of Season 8. Iris's Time Sickness will be cured by the end of Season 8. Barry and Iris, who have been in separate places, because she's either in Coast City with Sue, trying to do things as a reporter and he's fighting Deathstorm," Wallace said. "All of these things are there for a reason, they're all coming together in our final graphic novel this season, but everybody will get back together. And because I love happy endings, everybody will live happily ever after. Iris is not dying. Barry is not dying. None of that."

He did affirm that villains wouldn't be faring quite so well, noting that not only will they lose in a big way in the season finale, but that it's the biggest episode in the history of the series — and it's one that he feels they pulled off.

"The bad guys definitely lose big time in 820. Danielle Panabaker said to me when she read the episode, 'Eric this is the biggest episode in the history of hour show. How on earth are we going to pull this off?' And I said, 'I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out.' And I did. I'm happy to report, I did."

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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