Season 7 of The Flash has finally arrived on Netflix after over a year’s absence from the streaming service, season 6 having dropped online in May of 2020. For those of us that choose to binge the show rather than watch it weekly on The CW, that is one hell of a wait. With cliffhangers galore preceding season 7, a refresher course in the events that led up to Netflix’s new offering may be needed now more than ever. As always, Flash fans, Collider is here for your informational needs.
New Allies and Villains
Season 6 begins with Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) still reeling from the loss of their daughter, Nora Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy), at the end of season 5. Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) girlfriend, Kamilla (Victoria Park), has just been let in on the existence of Team Flash, and is eager to learn more.
A new character, who eventually becomes a part of Team Flash, is introduced by the name of Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight). Chester has the small personal issue of accidentally opening up black holes around the city with his mind. Unfortunately, a giant one materializes, sucking his consciousness into it and thus requiring the intervention of Flash and gang. Barry destroys the hole with his speed and makes Chester whole again (no pun intended).
Another new character joins the fold in the form of Allegra Garcia (Kayla Compton), who can control UV particles and rays. She has been arrested under false pretenses, due in no small part to her evil cousin, Ultraviolet (Alexa Barajas). But Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) senses this with her empath abilities and helps clear her name with her defense attorney abilities. Over the season, Allegra becomes a member of Team Flash and a reporter for The Citizen.
A new villain emerges named Bloodwork (Dr. Ramsey Rosso, played by Sendhil Ramamurthy) who can control people through the use of dark matter, the very substance he needs to stay alive due to his HLH cancer. Team Flash sets to work on developing a cure for Bloodwork’s condition. Unfortunately, Bloodwork infects Ralph (Hartley Sawyer), who then requires a blood transfusion from Barry in order to survive. As a result, Flash becomes infected (sigh…) and falls under the control of Bloodwork. After much chaos and in-team fighting, Flash and the rest of Bloodwork’s disciples are freed from his influence, thanks in large part to Allegra, and Bloodwork is arrested.
Of course, with almost every new season comes a new Wells (Tom Cavanagh). This time, it’s Nash Wells, a universe-travelling adventurer in search of ‘eternium’ particles. It turns out eternium can be used to locate the Monitor’s portal, and Nash is obsessed with proving him to be a false god.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Speaking of The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), he returns with some bad news for the Flash: Crisis is coming in a few months (instead of in 2024 as originally predicted) and will indeed require his sacrifice, as “events have been set into motion that [he] cannot possibly comprehend.” Flash tries to run to the day after his foretold disappearance (as reported by a future edition of Iris’s The Citizen periodical) to see just what happens, but is stopped by a wall of antimatter in the timeline. Barry consults with Earth-3’s Flash, Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp), who uses a gadget to project Barry’s mind past the antimatter wall. He discovers that his disappearance is unavoidable, occurring across all timelines.
This is where the big crossover event of the season, ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ falls into line. Although only one part of the crossover aired on The Flash, the entire event is important, so what follows is a summary of the entire thing.
Nash finds and opens the Monitor’s portal only to find out it was a trick by the Anti-Monitor to break free from said portal and kickstart Crisis. He subsequently enslaves Nash, who he renames ‘Pariah,’ to his cause. Meanwhile, the real Monitor dubs the Flash, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), Batwoman (Ruby Rose), Martian Manhunter (David Harewood), White Canary (Caity Lotz), Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), and Ryan Choi (Osric Chau) his ‘Paragons.’ The Green Arrow (Oliver Queen, as played by Stephen Amell), also mixed up in the game, winds up sacrificing himself in an effort to save as many Earth-2 denizens as possible, as well as to save the lives of Barry and Supergirl. Unfortunately, it is revealed that in order to save the multiverse, Barry must still die.
The Flash and Black Lightning (Cress Williams) discover the Anti-Monitor’s multiverse-destroying cannon, as well as its power source: Earth-90’s Barry Allen (also John Wesley Shipp) running on a treadmill (of sorts). The Flash realizes he must sacrifice himself to destroy the weapon (by running on it backwards), but Earth-90 Flash stops him, steals his speed, and takes the hit himself, erasing Earth-1 Barry’s long-fated death in the process. However, the sacrifice comes too late, and the Paragons become the last survivors of the entire multiverse. Some other less crucial things happen, until the Green Arrow returns with the help of John Constantine (Matt Ryan) in the form of Spectre, Oliver’s spirit from Purgatory. He helps the Paragons to escape the Vanishing Point they’ve been stuck in and defeat the Anti-Monitor once and for all. The Spectre also helps the team create a new multiverse, sacrificing himself for a second and final time.
McCullough Tech and the Mirrorverse
Post-Crisis focuses on Iris hunting down a lead that McCulloch Technologies, a scientific research company, is developing and selling illegal weapons. The CEO of McCullough, Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger), turns out to be linked to the criminal organization, Black Hole (strangely unrelated to the black holes that popped up at the beginning of the season), which uses light-weaponized metas to carry out assassinations. As a result of Iris’s snooping, she gets pulled into a mirror in Carver’s office, which turns out to be a portal to an entire ‘mirrorverse.’ A mirror copy of Iris enters the real world in her stead. Kamilla and CCPD’s Captain David Singh (Patrick Sabongui) also eventually wind up getting pulled into the mirrorverse.
Whilst traipsing about the mirrorverse, Iris discovers Carver’s wife, Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor), who’s been stuck in said mirrorverse since the particle accelerator explosion. Eva pretends to be an innocent victim of circumstance, when in fact, she is behind Iris’s capture and the creation of her mirror double. She plans to kill Carver, who she blames for her predicament and for taking over McCullough and her mirror tech research.
Eventually, Eva escapes from the Mirrorverse, killing Mirror Iris (who is just starting to display human emotions) in the process. Eva goes on to kill her former husband, framing Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) in the process. She takes over McCulloch Technologies, leaving Iris, Kamilla, and Singh to rot in the mirrorverse.
All the Rest
A few side-stories also took place during season 6, including Cisco exploring the new world to note its differences post-crisis and to create a complete collection of meta trading cards. Also, Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) allows Frost (also Danielle Panabaker) to “take the wheel” of her mind and build something of a life of her own. Frost subsequently discovers that Nash was Allegra’s adoptive father on another Earth, which affects Nash emotionally. Nash also seems to be getting messages from multiple Wells accross the other universes. Additionally Gorilla Grodd (David Sobolov) enlists Flash’s help to escape A.R.G.U.S.’s mindscape prison.
As for good ol’ Ralph, he eventually does find the missing Sue Dearbon. Carver (still alive at the time) sends Ultraviolet to kill Sue, who survives with Ralph’s help. This clues Ralph into the fact that Black Hole is extorting money from Sue and her parents.
Additionally, The Speed Force, having been poisoned by energy from Spectre, finally blinks out of existence. Thankfully, Nora’s old journal contains a method taught to her by Thawne to build a new Speed Force. Team Flash sets to work on building it.
This was the state of affairs in the Flash universe when the Covid-19 epidemic shut down production in 2020. Now Netflix bingers can finally see how these cliffhangers get resolved. So, please, by all means, binge away!