The Flash turned a page last week when, thanks to the love between Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) the Speed Force was restored, and Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor) was defeated with the would-be Mirror Monarch returning to her Mirrorverse to create a better world, sending back to reality everyone she’d been holding captive. While things had a generally happy ending, Central City endured a lot of trauma in the process, and don’t expect the city to be able to breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
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This week in “Central City Strong”, the villain Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian) returns with a vengeance and a score to settle while Iris finds herself having to take a hard look at something from her past. The rest of the team has their challenges as well, with Allegra (Kayla Compton) dealing with a tricky situation and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) having some concerns that something is off with Frost.
Need to get caught up on the major details and stories from “Central City Strong”, this week’s episode of The Flash? We’re here to help. Here are the major plot points for “Central City Strong”. Warning: full spoilers for the episode beyond this point. Read on only if you want to know.
Rebuilding Central City
The Episode opens with Barry setting up a romantic dinner at home for himself and Iris thanks to his speed. He’s been using his speed to spoil her since she got back. They get interrupted briefly by a seemingly normal earthquake, but outside, colorful lightning crackles in the distance.
Kayla, Cisco, Chester, Caitlin and the rest of Team Flash are volunteering to help rebuild after Eva’s attack. Flash gives a press appearance and apologises for the Mirror Monarch situation and promises to make it right. Caitlin says that since the Eva business, she’s been exhausted and has a headache. Allegra is dodging Iris, but eventually shows up at the office but has to tell Iris that the article she wrote isn’t awful. Allegra encourages her to put herself in the story.
Abra Kadabra has a bad trick
That night, Abra Kadabra shows up and kills someone at the construction site with a fancy card trick before reducing a shed to a small, extremely heavy object. His next trick? Absolute suffering. The next day, Cisco detects temporal energy and Joe shows Barry the card-riddled body of the victim. They realize who they are dealing with and realize he’s escalated from the last time they dealt with him.
At STAR, they get a ping on the temporal signature downtown. The Flash shows up, with Cisco (Abra Kadabra calls him Mecha Vibe). Abra gets the upper hand — and mentions the Chronarch — and nearly takes him out when Frost shows up, stopping him. ARGUS comes to collect him and the obelisk but Frost swiped something before they left. At ARGUS, Abra Kadabra escapes and goes right to the trio of obelisks they’ve collected.
Kadabra tells The Flash that he stole his “light” from him and claims that he’s lost everything so he’s taking it out on The Flash. He plans to make Central City disappear.
A new threat
At STAR, they pick up anti-matter energy readings and realize Kadabra has made an anti-matter bomb and he’s teleporting around the city to charge it. The bomb is impenetrable. Barry starts to take his error — being tricked by Kadabra — personally. Iris comes to talk to him and Barry admits feeling guilty for not realizing Mirror Iris wasn’t her. Iris tells him it’s okay and that he has to face the trauma and that what happened isn’t his fault. The conversation makes him realize that Kadabra’s family was his glimmer of light. Cisco finds a Martian memory restoration ring in the device Frost stole and the team starts to piece it together.
Flash catches up to Kadabra and says he won’t’ try to defeat him. He shows him his family from another timeline. Kadabra says that he started having memories about this alternate timeline and realized that things were tied to the Flash, but that because Flash didn’t vanish in Crisis, his family did instead. The Flash tells him about losing Oliver and tells Kadabra that he can’t go back to that timeline because it’s gone. The Flash appeals to him as a scientist and makes him run the odds. When he admits he knows it won’t work, Barry tells him the only way to heal is to face his trauma. Kadabra deactivates the bomb. They call a truce and suddenly there is an earthquake that isn’t Kadabra. Some other massive threat shows up. Kadabra tries to use the anti-matter bomb on it but it has no effect. Kadabra is taken out and nothing The Flash does helps, either. The mysterious threat leaves. Abra Kadabra/Phillipe is dead.
Trauma, healing, and a huge surprise
Iris is struggling throughout the episode and when she goes to a Mirrorverse Survivors support group to interview people, it’s obvious she hasn’t dealt with her own trauma. Barry is also dealing with the trauma, trying to make things up to her, though Iris tells him that the only way he can deal with his trauma is to face it. At the end of the episode, Iris decides to face hers and goes to the support group. She also makes Allegra a full staff member.
Caitlin and Frost are also struggling. The episode sees Cait dealing with exhaustion and headaches. Frost is concerned it means something is wrong, though test results come back normal. However, at the end of the episode, there’s a big surprise for everyone when Caitlin and Frost are now two separate people.
