This week on The Flash, Barry and Nora’s two grown children, Nora and Bart, arrived in 2021 just in time for Part 1 of the Season 7 finale aka Episode 150. Yet as happy a “reunion” as it was, it also meant more loved ones to land in harm’s way — which is exactly what happened to the future speedster known as Impulse.
Therefore, it makes sense that some of us were pretty nervous about what might happen in the show’s landmark 150th episode, which has been touted all season as a big, fanservice-filled deal, complete with the introduction of Jordan Fisher’s Bart Allen.
To be fair, “Heart of the Matter, Part 1” still struggles with some of the same problems that have plagued the rest of this season. No one would have noticed if such an important anniversary episode skipped the Allegra drama or whatever is going on with Kramer’s nemesis Adam. And it’s not as much of a nostalgia-fest as I personally might have liked, given how generally inconsequential The Flash’s 100th episode was. (Particularly when other Arrowverse properties, such as Supergirl, manage to get big landmark episodes like this so right.) But it’s hard to be too upset at an hour that’s filled with such pure fun and so much potential for the future.
A glimpse at the Central City of 2049 reveals Godspeed defeated by the combined efforts of XS and Impulse, with Bart Allen clearly still reckless as a superhero, frustrating his older sister. Godspeed narrowly escapes, however, using the Cosmic Treadmill in the Flash Museum -- the repurposed S.T.A.R. Labs facility -- to travel back to the Arrowverse's relative present. As Barry and Iris' children meet with Team Flash, it's clear that in this rewritten post-Crisis history, as the time-displaced superheroes are already well-acquainted with their parents' new colleagues. But with the Godspeeds preparing to escalate their attacks, Barry convinces his children to help him out with the villainous speedsters.
As Barry prepares to run with his children against the Godspeeds, Nora informs her father that he and Iris had told her stories about her pre-Crisis self, shaping her own outlook on life. As the Flash family confronts the Godspeeds, it becomes clear that the supervillains are focused on Impulse, ceasing their hostilities to focus on Barry's son. As the Flash family regroups back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Bart angrily reveals that Godspeed is his arch-nemesis before Iris emerges from the Still Force to reunite with his family. Jay Garrick hears Barry's call for speedster reinforcements but is intercepted by Godspeeds before he can leave Keystone City.
The West-Allen family moves to sideline Bart for being too personally in the fight against Godspeed to approach it with the appropriate amount of caution, with Bart tearfully recounting to his sister how Godspeed murdered Jay, who was his greatest mentor growing up. After a disastrous skirmish against the Godspeeds, Chester realizes a device he developed to stop them requires Allegra to charge it, with the photonic superhero still mourning the loss of her cousin, putting her powers in flux. As the team contemplates their next move, Godspeed demands they turn over Bart in exchange for Jay's life. The Godspeeds trap Bart in a local church with Jay before Cisco Ramon makes a surprise return and gives the heroes the opportunity to retreat back to S.T.A.R. Labs.
Elsewhere, Carlos Valdes returns before we’ve ever even really had a chance to properly miss him, but Cisco gets such a badass entrance, it’s hard to mind. Jay Garrick is also back, with his speed freshly restored thanks to the rebirth of the Speed Force, and everyone gets to make multiple jokes about Bart being impulsive. Killer Frost remembers she can actually shoot ice at her enemies. And Allegra’s powers are on the fritz in the wake of Esperanza’s death, which feels like a Chekov’s gun sort of situation, except that would imply this particular subplot had a larger purpose than wasting three episodes’ worth of screentime to sort of redeem a villain and then fridge her.
As Joe and Kramer turn Adam into the federal authorities at Midway City, Kramer tactfully omits that Adam revealed the original Kramer was killed when he betrayed their military squad years ago, with the omission noticed by Joe. While Kramer refuses to discuss the matter further with Joe as they complete the drive back to Central City, they are both surprised by the mass exodus of residents in the face of the Godspeed conflict before encountering a pair of battling Godspeeds firsthand.
But, thankfully, “Heart of the Matter, Part 1” is nothing so much as a timely and welcome reminder that none of that stuff is the reason we fell in love with this show in the first place – or why we’re still watching it, 150 episodes on.
