The Flash Recap With Spoilers: “Partners In Time”

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The CW’s The Flash Season 9 episode, “Partners in Time.” Read beyond this point at your own risk.

The year 2123, The Flash Museum. A hooded figure walks through the museum after hours and goes right for the weapon’s vault, accessing it and tries to go for a specific weapon and there’s a notice that the building was approved by the DOE in April 2023, but trips the alarm and has to flee. Back in the present, Barry paints baby Nora’s crib, He’s very excited for Nora to be born. Iris gifts Barry with a copy of an old magazine that featured his father. Barry races off because a mold inspection is going to take place at STAR.

At STAR, Barry tries to calm Khione’s nerves about meeting Caitlin’s mom, Carla. Barry sends Chester home and says he can handle the mold inspector himself, but a whole team shows up. Turns out, code enforcement for the DOE is there as well to inspect the facility as well. Iris offers to help deal with the inspectors. The inspectors have a lot of questions and Team Flash has a lot to hide. When Barry goes to lead them to the breaker box, however, they end up back in the speed lab they just left. They try again and it happens again. That’s when the mold inspector notices a random grandfather clock. It ominously chimes 2.

The clock is from the 19th century, but it looks like it was just built. One of the inspectors thinks it is a prank. Barry lets them believe that it is while they try to figure out what’s going on but when he tries to call out, he can’t. It’s like they are cut off from the rest of the world. Barry decides to run to the future for answers. At the West house, Allegra and Chester are playing Scrabble when she gets a notification on her phone. She’s being described as a new light meta on social media. Chester tries to hype her up and accidentally tells her that he loves her. Things are a little awkward, but Cecile comes home, and Allegra has her come play games with them, though Cecile knows something’s off.

Iris tries to stall the inspectors while Barry goes to the future, but a blue energy wave goes through the speed lab and suddenly, Iris is dressed very differently. Barry also gets dropped out into the lab and he’s also dressed in weird clothes and soon, all of the inspectors are wearing clothes from different time periods. Barry has to reveal that he’s The Flash. One of the inspectors passes out.

Now that everyone is aware that Barry is The Flash, they have to figure out what’s going on. One of the inspectors has a theory — space and time has lost elasticity for them in what’s apparently called a time magnet. Apparently, in the future, the speed lab is a weapons vault, and it houses a time magnet — which is what was being stolen in the future — and apparently when they stole what they stole in the future, they forgot the stabilizer. But what this means is that someone in the room is a thief so now this is a game of Clue. Iris scans everyone for radiation trying to figure out who is from a different time. As they scan everyone and clear them, the argumentative inspector is turned to a statue — he’s effectively dead and if they don’t get out of there soon, they are all next.

One of the other inspectors accuses Iris of causing the man to turn to stone so it’s back to the drawing board to figure things out. Barry and Iris talk, Iris continues to worry about being able to do what she wants because she’s pregnant. She says it’s like she’s stuck in the past and he’s racing to the future, and it triggers Barry to figure out who the time thief is. They make up some story about wiring causing an issue with temporal things but use a plumbing term and use it to out the time thief — the electrical inspector. She reveals herself and turns the other two inspectors into gnome statues.

At the house, the game of Settlers of Catan just gets awkward and Chester decides to leave. Cecile asks her what’s going on. Allegra tells Cecile that Chester said he loves her. Allegra is afraid of being abandoned or worse if she admits that she loves Chester. Cecile tells her to be in the moment and enjoy it and not worry about what might happen.

The time thief is Lady Chronos. She wants them to get her out of the room but refuses to give up the time magnet. She explains what happened in the future, She saw the date of the inspection and came to that date in the past so she could use that to go to the future and steal the magnet. She can’t go back because her time belt doesn’t work now. Lady Chronos also refuses to listen to any of the suggestions on how to fix this. Barry offers to charge her time belt and she reluctantly lets him. She then uses the time belt to go back to the future to put the time magnet back even though she will be arrested. The others are restored to life. Everything’s fine and reset. The inspection goes on.

Later, Barry and Iris talk to Khione. The lab passed all inspections. Things went well with Khione and Carla, too. They go to dinner. Allegra finds Chester at Jitters. She opens up to him and tells him she loves him, too. Barry and Iris enjoy some ice cream.

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