The Flash returns tonight on The CW. After this fall’s five-episode “Armageddon” event, the series returns to right where Season 7 left of with Bart (Jordan Fisher) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) visiting their parents and being present for their wedding vow renewal. It’s when they go back home to 2049 that they quickly realize things aren’t quite right, prompting them to return to the past to set things right. As we’ve seen from teasers and photos from the episode, that sends them back to the time after their father was struck by lightning, but before he’d become The Flash and with time travel involved, fans can already guess that it’s going to be an adventure to save the day.
Miss out on tonight’s episode of The Flash, “Impulsive Excessive Disorder”? We have you covered with all the details from the episode with our recap but be warned: there are full spoilers beyond this point!
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Bart and Nora return to 2049 following their parents’ vow renewal, charged by Barry to “keep the future safe”. Shortly after they arrive home, however, there is a temporal wave, and they notice some changes — the biggest being that Jay Garrick is alive when he shows up with dinner. They do a little questioning and realize that there are other changes as well, namely that Jay isn’t married to Joan — he’s married to a woman named Rose instead. A quick trip to The Flash Museum and they check the timeline for more issues and discover big problems and trace them back December 31, 2013, when Joe West is shot during a robbery. The siblings race off to 2013 to prevent it and save the timeline.
Back in 2013, Joe is nervous about asking Cecile out and she shoots him down when he tries. Bart and Nora try to keep a low profile but almost immediately run into Eddie Thawne who wants to know why they’re there. They cover for themselves, claiming to be intern CSIs helping while Barry is in the hospital. Eddie sends them to fetch coffee. While in line to get the coffee, they encounter a young woman studying temporal dynamics. Her name is Avery, and she works for Fast Track Labs, where she’s an underappreciated intern.
Alerted that the robbery is underway, Bart and Nora head there. Joe and Eddie are already on the scene and Joe confronts the rather bumbling thief. He drops the gun and Joe is about to be shot and, frantic to prevent the shooting, Bart speeds in and shifts Joe, saving him from the bullet but they unwittingly cause another issue in the process. The timeline issue is getting worse as the woman who becomes the Queen of the Royal Flush gang is nearby and hears them talking, realizing for the first time that she is not alone with her powers.
Since they can’t travel back in time to fix things without their being issues, Bart and Nora decide to try to get the surveillance footage from the incident so they can figure out how to fix things. Elsewhere, the Queen — real name Mona Taylor — has assembled a team of criminals with powers to carry out a heist at the Utopia Casino and the Royal Flush Gang is born. Back at the CCPD, Nora swipes the surveillance footage (and subtly gives Joe some advice about Cecile). The footage shows them Mona at the crime scene and when Nora checks the timeline, they find out about the casino heist. With lives on the line, they must stop the heist, but Bart has a meltdown blaming himself for events and races off.
Nora finds him at Barry’s bedside and gives him a pep talk. They then go to see Avery for help. After convincing her that they really are from the future she works with them and when Nora realizes that the death toll of the casino robbery keeps changing, Avery explains that’s because the robbery itself is a fixed point so it must happen, but they can prevent the deaths and fix the timeline. Bart and Nora go to the casino and the heist begins. Nora starts looking for bombs placed in the casino while Bart tries to speed people to safety. The Royal Flush Gang notices Bart’s efforts. The heist must play out but now saving everyone falls to Nora finding the bombs. With just seconds remaining, Nora starts to panic but Bart gives her a pep talk and she’s successful. The heist goes off, but everyone is safe.
At the CCPD, Eddie dismisses reports of people being “streaked” to safety. Iris meets Eddie for the first time. Cecile apologizes to Joe and gives him hope that they might be able to date in the future. Bart and Nora end up in the staff photo. The day saved, Bart and Nora go back to see Avery at Fast Track where Bart and Avery have a romantic moment and Bart promises he’ll see her again. Back in 2049. Bart and Nora confess to Jay what went down, and Jay reassures Bart that even he made mistakes with time travel.
Back in the present, Team Flash gets together to head off to Paris for a New Year’s meal (courtesy Barry’s speed). After they leave, however, Iris’ hairbrush disappears in a temporal wave.
The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
