'The Flash' Season 8 Episode 5 Review: An epic showdown between Barry and Despero

Barry and Despero engage in an epic fight as the season comes to an end with a satisyfing finale
UPDATED DEC 15, 2021
Barry Allen (The Flash) and Despero (Tony Curran) in 'The Flash' (The CW)
Barry Allen (The Flash) and Despero (Tony Curran) in 'The Flash' (The CW)

Over the course of five weeks, the newest season of ‘The Flash’ has treated fans with some of the most epic moments in the show’s history and showed us how good writing mixed with good acting skills can make a show so engaging. The first four episodes gave us a lot of juicy content and perfectly set up the finale. Fans expected a lot from the finale and well, it didn’t disappoint.

The finale of ‘The Flash’ Season 8 had all the ingredients of being an epic final episode and it certainly did achieve that feat. The episode started with Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) asking Barry (Grant Gustin) to save him as he doesn’t want to lose everything he has. Barry and the team decide to let him die so that there are no future threats from his side. However, Joe West explains to them how they should save whoever comes to them for help. Barry decides to help Thawne and fight Despero for a happy ending.

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The best thing about the episode is that the makers didn’t try to stuff too much into the episode. It had a nice flow and everything that was in front of you made sense. People also got to know the reality of Despero and how he portrayed himself as a hero of his planet, but in reality, he was the one who destroyed his own planet.

The fight sequence between Barry and Despero was epic in every way possible. The fighting scene actually took the finale to a whole new level and encouraged us to root for Barry once again. With the alien neutralized, Team Flash went about powering down Thawne, against his will, and locking him up at ARGUS. The finale ended with The Flash taking away his powers and making him a normal human being once again.

Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash in 'The Flash' Season 8 (The CW)

Some people might not like the way the finale ended and wanted Thawne to die, but killing everyone is not the solution to everything. That’s what Joe said to Barry and Iris. Even though they saved Thawne in the end, they gave a warning to him to not do anything stupid in the future.

All in all, the final episode of Season 8 was the result of all the things that happened throughout the season and the makers couldn’t have done anything better than what we just witnessed. The final moments of the season introduced us to Nora and Bart Allen, children of Barry and Iris, and it seems they will have an important role to play in the next set of episodes that arrive in 2022.

Grant Gustin (Barry Allen) and Candice Patton (Iris West) in 'The Flash' Season 8 (The CW)

A perfect end to Allen’s pursuit to end Armageddon for the entire world.

‘The Flash’ returns to The CW with a new season in 2022.

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