I know this may just turn out the same, but I’m cautiously optimistic that things will turn out better between Ralph and Sue this time around. The fact is that Ralph has a much better sense of Sue’s game and what she’s really up to, so he’s gonna be a lot more careful in dealing with her. Sue has to know this and be aware that her usual tricks won’t be as effective if she’s planning to double-cross him again. There’s a real connection that they have, and even though it’s taking longer than we probably thought it would, it does seem like Sue’s walls are slowly but surely coming down. The show has already changed up enough about this iconic pairing from the comics, so I’d like to think that even if the path to get there is different, the result will still be something more familiar.
The more I think about it, the more I start to feel like we could be seeing the end of Joe’s time on the show. Whether he’d be killed off or otherwise written off, it could be a way for the writers to further convey just how serious a threat Black Hole is, and going after one of the characters who’s been here from the beginning could prove to be an effective way to do that. Plus next season’s cast is already pretty crowded with Allegra and Chester being bumped up to series regulars, so the producers could be looking to trim down the cast. I certainly don’t want that to happen, especially considering my lack of investment in those two, but I also wouldn’t be too surprised at this point if that’s the route the show decides to take.
At the end of the day, it’ll probably be good for Joe to take some time off to clear his mind and refresh his basic police skills. Seriously, what was he thinking showing that recording to Carver?
Part of me wants to think that Barry and Iris are strong and iconic enough to get through anything, but it’s getting harder and harder to believe that as this situation goes on. While Barry will obviously discover the truth (next week), mirror Iris’ actions, while certainly still going too far, do still hold some truth. It’s understandable that Iris would be upset over not getting to say goodbye to her dad before going into WITSEC, and Barry could very well take that criticism to heart.
But ultimately, the thing that’ll almost certainly hurt their marriage the most is the fact that Barry’s gone this long w/out knowing that’s not actually Iris. For all his talk about Iris being his lightning rod and being able to find her anywhere in the universe, he doesn’t exactly have much of an excuse this time around. While I do think mirror Iris has been pretty convincing portraying the actual Iris, it doesn’t change the fact that this all makes Barry look pretty awful. Maybe Iris will be more forgiving that I’d imagine when she gets out, but for now, I just feel like they’d have to be really creative in finding a believable way for them to move past this. I didn’t think anything could possibly break them up, but this has ultimately had me thinking that that’s a real possibility now.
Even though I still prefer Zari 1.0 and would prefer her if I had to choose, I don’t really want this season’s version to just be wiped away immediately. Zari the social media influencer may have been kind of cringey at first, but the show’s done a really good job w/ fleshing out her character beyond the vapid first impression we got. She’s funny, clever, resourceful and caring, but not necessarily in the same ways as her predecessor. I’ve also got to give a lot of credit to Tala Ashe for being able to play two very different versions of the same character so well that I don’t want to see either go away permanently.
Something Atropos said right before cutting Behrad’s string really stuck out to me: “You don’t belong here.” As sad as this moment was, it actually felt oddly appropriate given the circumstances. The Legends are literally fighting against Fate itself, and Behrad’s very existence in that form was not what fate originally had in store for them. They changed their destiny at Heyworld, and Atropos likely considered killing Behrad a merciful act that was helping to set the world closer to how it’s supposed to be. It’s a very literal manifestation of their battle against Fate, and while it was certainly hard to watch, it did make sense in the grand scheme of the season. And by (hopefully) bringing Behrad back using the Loom, the Legends will further cement their argument that they create their own destinies.
