The Flash (TV Series) The Mask of the Red Death, Part 2 (2023) User Reviews

There Are Moments......

[Tv-Addict1991 · 5/10 · 9 March 2023]

Look.... i am a Fan From Day 1 of this Tv Show

I love it. Its Fun, entertaining, action-packed.

8 Years i Follow The Show and i Have to Say.... The Worst Thing that happened to this Show is that from the beginning, its a The CW-Show

The Acting Sometimes is so much crap that i Cringe on my Couch while acting !

Red Death as a Villian was good but the Acting From Javicia Leslie is one of the worst Things i have seen in recent time ! ...... gruesome !

There are Things in This Show that destroyed it in some ways .....

Uggghhh..... I Hope, in Some way, after the Finale of this show ( wich could be a really good finale, maybe really satisfying, i hope so and dont know ) , that we get a way more serious The Flash-Tv-Show sometimes...... in some way...... Grant Gustin is a Great Flash, no doubt about that !

Some fun

[pauli_gomez · 7/10 · 11 March 2023]

Ok, Barry and the team apparently defeat Red Death with some unexpected help. Even when crazy Ryan Walder was too over the top to be believable or menacing, I think the whole story was quite decent and well done. I am also giving a pass to the show about the nonsensical idea of Joe and Jenna moving without Cecile, because I understand they have plans for Cecile and Joe is leaving. That is fine. And (surprising myself) I enjoyed the Grodd part. As it always happens with the show I have some critics Like, if there are "shadow clones" of Red Death all around the planet shouldn't other heroes like Superman, Supergirl, Cisco, and more join the fight? They could have name dropped them for something more useful that saying that the girls have mimosas with Ryan. Or why was Flash feeling so guilty and hopeless before the pep-talk? He had inspired Mark to help them against Red Death, and the new rogues to help rescue Mark.

Anyways, I think that Pied Piper is one of the best things of the season, but the scene of "It's a Wednesday" was awful, worthy of the Adam West show. It was cheesier than Wonder Woman '77!

This isn't a season finale episode, it's more about showing how the flash has gone downhill

[adeliamendes · 5/10 · 16 March 2023]

This season has to be at least better than the third season, but for this beginning. Let's go this episode it reflects what the flash is nowadays, a series that has good ideas, but the execution terrible, read death had potential, you can even understand why the red death is not Bruce Wayne, but it seems that they were too lazy to show his origin, and you get a little confused. Why batwoman disappeared, and then came back as if nothing had happened, and iris that was supposed to be shown there in season 5. I hope that the series from now on is really the end of the season, The cast deserves...

S9E5 is Painful to Watch!

[panagiotis1993 · 4/10 · 14 March 2023]

Reaction / Review for The Flash Season 9 Episode 5: The episode starts with Red Death's team attacking Central PD. I want to see now that Red Death has no treadmill, no way to leave, what will be her next move. Cecile will have to sense Red Death's hate so the team can find her, that's kinda ridiculous. Nice to see Joe hasn't left the city (yet). The acting from the actress that plays Red Death is really bad, not convincing at all, worst villain ever. Cant take the episode seriously when the acting and dialogue are so bad. Grodd is back? Really happy about that (we didnt see much of him though). How many times we have to see Barry losing his speed? It happens in like every season. So is it official? Is Joe staying? I hope so. So Grodd had some speedforce in him and gave it back to Barry? And the speedforce was inside Grodd's mind? His mind? Is that how the speedforce works?

Batwoman fighting against a powerful speedster? What nonsense is this? What's next? Batwoman beating Darkseid? So that's it, no more Red Death? Wow Red Death was awful, glad she's gone. It feels like this villain had no real plan, just random things happening, I hope the next villain isn't awful. So only Joe and his daughter will leave Central City, that sucks! They have a party to say goodbye to Joe. Who does that in real life? It's not like he is leaving planet Earth. Chester and Allegra are officially together and nobody cares. Wow, what to say? This has to be one of the worst episodes of the whole show. Nothing works, awful villain, cringe, bad dialogue, things that make no sense like Batwoman fighting Red death etc. Absolute letdown, cant get worse than this. My rating is 4/10 and that because it has some (not many) good moments. I expected more from the last season.

Flash characters deserve much better than Eric Wallace's twisted fanfiction

[marihgouvea · 1/10 · 9 March 2023]

What can be said about this arc? I really didn't think this show would ever get "forces storyline" bad again but this season is doing their best to try. Reath death and cheap rogues was a mess through and through in a way I can't even wrap my head around how people that do this for a living can mess up writing this bad.

You get the opportunity to finish a show on your terms and what do you do? You take characters that are a literal joke between the viewers and put them on the forefront, nerf the hero to the point that he loses his powers TWICE in two episodes and get repeatedly knocked on his ass.

Do a 5 episodes unsufferable arc of a character wanting to leave the City and other wanting to stay in a way that makes BOTH look horrible. Takes a couple that makes everyone cringe and does a back and forth not only no one cares but actually pisses everyone off and makes the announcement of the lead character's frist child about someone else?!

And don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of the badwoman storyline who was missing then randomly shows at the last second in the clunkiest resolution ever made?! Regardless of how you feel about Javicia or Red Death this arc manages to piss both haters and fans alike which is truly a feat.

Last season (actually since the back half of season 6) it became clearer how this writer's room hates to write for the leads. Barry is a joke learning the same lessons on repeat only cause they need him on screen (titular character duh) while everyone else gets to grow. Especially Chester who Eric admitted is his self insert, Allegra who is the comic book character he created (and put in a relationship with "himself" that takes half screen time, make that what you will), Cecile who is his pet character as the actress always sucks up to him and the new version of Caitlin/Frost/Khione who he decided to butcher down to his level.

Since season 7 (or even 6 after crisis) what I always get is that the writers room resent the show they inherited and do their worst to twist it into their own version killing the original characters for it. They literally killed all Wellses and Caitlins, erased Cisco and Joe until the actors asked to leave, sidelined Iris for 3 seasons as a plot device (and gave all her arcs to Allegra and Cecile) and just nerfed Barry into oblivion.

This arc puts it on blast 100x over with the way they dealt with Red Death (a literal poorly done power rangers version of a RF/Zoom/Godspeed/Batwoman mash up), Khione, Joe, Barry and the West-Allen pregnancy... It was all around bad.

THE BEST CONCLUSION FOR THE ARCH!

[dudumaubruna · 8/10 · 9 March 2023]

Finally we had a great episode of the flash, where he managed to deliver all the elements of the series, he brought grood, barry chatted with joe, who was truly a great character and we felt in this episode how he will be missed, we had a speedster fight that also we were missing the show, the fight between red death and batwoman, the fight reminded me a lot of the fight in episode 1x22 of the series, the cgi is noticeable that they are trying to bring a good one, but it still has its problems, but it is already better than the last ones seasons, I feel that now they are bringing the essence of the last one back, and a really good thing is that all the scenes were necessary and interesting to watch, the episode was really well directed at all, and managed to close the arc of the season very well.

Meh

[erikdehaan-69558 · 4/10 · 10 March 2023]

The only part i liked about this episode is the flash running against red death but the rest of the episode is just trash and bad acting. The action part was only 1 minute, but I liked Joe talking to Barry. It reminded me of season 1. I hope the acting gets better and I want more of the flash because the side characters are just trash and the acting is poor. Season 9 is focusing to much on other characters. They need to get back to the plot because there are only 13 episodes. And we are 5 episodes in with almost no information about read death so I hope they get better with the plot and the acting.

Elseworld Oliver was right

[MahmoudMolham · 4/10 · 10 March 2023]

Back during Elseworld crossover, Oliver said to Barry that he probably can't survive a day without some pep talk, and he was right. He always needs Joe, Iris, Caitlin to give him some sort of motivation and it became lame honestly. This episode ruined what could've been the best entrance for a superhero if it just replaced batwoman with Arrow. I gave the episode a rate of 4/10 just because of the fight scene between Flash and Red Death. Let's just hope the rest of the season would be better cause i would hate for this show to have a bad ending and hope that they will bring back Oliver in a way to please the fans.

This was horrific and painful to watch

[GomezAddams666 · 1/10 · 9 March 2023]

I remember the days when The Flash used to be not only one of the greatest series of the Arrowverse, but also one of the best comic book TV shows ever made, but those days are sadly gone.

The producers of this show sacrificed Red Death, one of the most terrifying villains in DC Comics in order to give gravitas to one of the worst characters ever created, Ryan Wilder.

Because of course when a powerful speedster is about to kill millions, you would be wrong to think that "the fastest man alive" was the one who would stop her, he had to desperately need the assistance of this universe's Batwoman.

Let's not even pretend this series is even Barry Allen's story anymore, it has not been for years. In a TV show about the Flash, Barry is the least developed character, and we all know it. Why should he be the one to defeat one of Flash's greatest adversaries from the comics? We know how little do the producers care of Barry Allen or the audience.

The only reason they brought Ryan Wilder back is because they wanted to give this undeserving character a last hurrah, never mind that Javicia Leslie is such an overactress that she chews the scenery every time she is on screen. At least she is versatile, because no matter if she is playing hero or villain, ether way she is a terrible actress.

We can also not fail to mention that in the pantheon of great villains the show has had with the likes of Eobard Thawne, Zoom, Savitar and others, this version of Red Death was incredibly weak and pathetic, but it's not like the audience even deserve a good comic book TV show anymore, when the most important thing is to glorify a character whose show was rightfully cancelled.

We all know this series has been agonizing for a long time now. But if it had finished with the season 8 finale, at least it would have died with dignity.

Answers Zero Questions, Fills Zero Plot Holes, and Just Keeps Digging!

[demigodshmurda · 1/10 · 11 March 2023]

God, that episode was SO LONG!! Thank god it's finally over!!

Guess who got bingo this week! That brings the total to 3 bingos in the 5 episodes we've gotten so far. And oh my god, do I wish that I'd put "Pointless Flashbacks" on my bingo card more and more every episode! Editors! Stop! We don't need a flashback to something from a previous season (or previous episode) every time someone says something remotely related to it! Stop it! Stop with the f--

Sorry about that. My therapist told me that getting angry about stupid things on the Flash is bad for my health.

So apparently Gorilla Grodd's a good guy now.

Firstly, I seriously doubt that Barry not being able to do the research about how the apes from Gorilla City lost their super intelligence on account of him being Grodd's mind prisoner back in "Grodd Friended Me" is truly his "greatest mistake". Not exactly sure what his greatest mistake is, but not being able to do research on account of being in a mental prison ain't it.

Secondly, I never interpreted Barry and Grodd teaming up in that episode as Grodd becoming a good guy. I always saw it as "Look, I saw Crisis on Infinite Earths and I know that Gorilla City is on this earth now. I just wanna go chill there for the rest of my life. I need your help to get out of Argus jail, and then you'll never see me again. I ain't got no beef with you anymore." I guess that's on me for misinterpreting, but you gotta admit, that's a lot more interesting than Grodd becoming a good guy.

Thirdly, I didn't think Barry and Grodd being in that mental space together was actually real. I thought it was a visual representation for the audience, and an excuse to see some CGI gorillas. So Barry giving Grodd a spark of Speed Force is total bullcrap.

Fourthly, even if all of that was real, Barry has to make contact with someone in order to give them organic Speed Force as shown during the season 7 finale "Heart of the Matter, Part 2". If they had some cables linked up between Barry and Grodd but they never made contact, you could argue that would work. But Barry can't transfer Speed Force across the globe through Argus security. That's not how the Speed Force works.

FIFTHLY, (yes, I'm still only talking about the problems involving Grodd's inclusion in the episode) Grodd needed a telepathic crown in "King Shark vs Gorilla Grodd" in order to mind control an entire city. But suddenly he's able to create mental constructs of Red Death across the entire globe without it. I get that the more you use your powers, the more they grow. But unless Grodd's been casually mind controlling/image projecting across the entire world just to see if he could do it, this plotline makes no sense! And don't even get me started on how he can make them shoot lightning from their eyes! They're not supposed to be real!

Sixthly, Barry can't instantly regenerate his Speed Force from just a spark. That's not how the Speed Force works. What happened when Barry got his speed back from just a spark in "Mother" was that Team Flash used the spark of Speed Force inside Iris (yeah, that was a real thing) to rebirth the natural Speed Force. The rebirthing of the Speed Force was what gave Barry his speed back. So even if Barry could transfer his Speed Force without contact, he couldn't instantly regenerate it the way he does in the climax of the episode.

SEVENTHLY, YES *SEVENTHLY*, WE ARE STILL ON THIS POINT, why is Red Death executing her plan this way? She can simply ask Grodd to mentally survey the entire world, and then the second somebody steps out of line she can just go kill them. She does have artificial Speed Force after all. Why does she even need the sentries? Because then the episode can't happen? Well crap, you've got me there.

I guess we're just never gonna know what happened to Ryan Wilder since, and I'm taking a quote directly from "Rogues of War" by the way, "A few weeks ago went out on patrol. She never came back." She just shows up for the final battle in the exact place Barry and Red Death are fighting AFTER a chase scene at super speed, and there's no explanation to where she was. All it would've taken was a simple "That imposter kidnapped me, but I managed to get out since all her cronies were out fighting you guys." One sentence. One sentence is all it would've taken to make her showing up make sense. But Eric Wallace and the writers couldn't even put in that miniscule amount of effort.

Please tell me this season's almost over.

So not only is Red Death able to shake off the effects of Bivolo's new fear-based powers, but she can also apparently fight off mind reader-- Sorry, empaths. How would she even know to do that? Again, this is another thing that would've taken one sentence to explain. "I figured Cecile would try to track me, so I had Rainbow Raider use his powers on me to divert your search and lead you into my trap." See? One sentence is all it takes. But because that's not the show's canon explanation, we don't have one. Thus, yet another plot hole.

Also, Red Death's trap wouldn't have worked if Hartley, the Hotness or Goldface just went to fight the Rogues and save Dollar Store Captain Cold like Barry said. And no, I can't believe I just advocated for saving Dollar Store Captain Cold either.

And I could go on, but I think you get the point. This once-great show continues to dig itself even deeper into the whole it's been digging for years! And this episode answers zero questions, fills zero plot holes, and *just keeps digging!*

But you know what? There's a small silver lining to all this. Superman and Lois season 3 starts next week. And unlike Eric Wallace who constantly proves that he has nothing but utter contempt for everyone that's ever even thought about the Flash, I trust (for now) that Todd Helbing will be willing and able to take the criticisms about season 2 to heart when making season 3.

The ball's in your court, Mr. Helbing. Don't blow it. Don't pull an Eric Wallace on us.

1 / 10.

Stories are so rushed !!

[Suepardon123 · 1/10 · 9 March 2023]

I'll give my honest experience since i was really hyped about this season as it was the last season and I thought everyone in the show will give a decent informative consecutive story but that didn't happen unfortunately so if you're looking for a season with consistency then you won't get it !! Also you can feel the actors didn't heartily act and they felt out of place and lost due to the rush of the stories with less episodes !! I don't know if it will be worth watching after this or not !! Red Death Arc i was really looking forward to it but it really disappointed me so as many things during this season.

COMPLETELY TRIBBLE!!!

[zajman-15466 · 1/10 · 9 March 2023]

Why am I still watching this show 😭😭, everything is just rubbish, so boring, no flow at all, this season could go down as the worst season ever, how can you be swinging with lightning🤷🤦, I feel like the writers are just very lazy and just choose to make a fun out of the flash who is one of the most iconic dc heroes ever( obviously not above Batman, Superman and Wonder woman). For new viewers, please watch only the first 3 seasons, then maybe the 4th, from 5 upwards is just a disgrace to the Flash.

Please and please don't watch season 5 upward, don't give yourselves unnecessary heartaches like most of us who have been following this show since from day 1.

I'm dumbfounded!

[KingSlayer99 · 1/10 · 3 July 2023]

I really wish the early years of the Flash were also this bad because now, every single year, I come back and watch the new season and I hate myself for it. I really wish I hadn't wasted so many hours and years of my life on these pathetic CW shows. It feels like the only viewers they have left at this point are people who have settled for mediocrity or just people who are simply stupid. There is not a single thing left in this show that is made for someone with at least an ounce of brain.

Also, I know that the bar is really low for actors in these CW shows, but wow, the actress that plays the Red Death is just next level. That has to be some of the worst acting I've seen in my life. I mean honestly, where do they find these people?

Javicia's (The Red Death) acting is so horrible

[vibhansh · 1/10 · 8 June 2023]

Javicia's acting is so horrible that the episodes she is in, this one and the one before are the worst in the entire Flash series. They do not deserve such horrible actor as the lead villain for their last season.

Whenever The Red Death takes off her mask, it is an instant mess up. Instead of feeling like "vengeance" or menacing, she makes the character look like a whining baby who cries whenever things don't go her way. Her shouting seems like crying among other things that makes her acting horrible. I can see why Batwoman was cancelled and it's a shame they brought her back for Flash's final season. I feel bad for Gustin as well as all the Flash villains. If like the last episode, this whole season was focused on previous speedsters, it would have turned out to be a much better season and a proper finale. Such an unnecessary villain portrayed with such bad acting was a total let down.

Pathetic

[sarwanprateek · 2/10 · 18 March 2023]

I don't think there is someone who likes The Flash more than me! But man!! It's just unbearably bad now! The story the direction everything is going downhill. Especially fight choreography and visual effects I mean just look at Grodd's scenes, even the CGI in earlier seasons was a lot better than this!! I will just say that the show is beyond saving now!! Good that they're ending it! Cuz they can not fix it now!!

And it genuinely breaks my heart!

Also why did they bring back Javicia back to play red death! I don't wanna sound mean but man she's a terrible.. terrible actor!!! It certainly could've been avoided!!!

So so bad...

[markforan-57744 · 1/10 · 18 April 2023]

I've not watched this show since season 4 when it declined rapidly, I loved the first 3 seasons but turned off after watching season 4 as to me it was starting to become really stale, so when I heard they were ending it with season 9 I thought I'd see what they would do for the final season & wow it's even worse! The flash just seems like a bumbling idiot needing every single person to help him, i think it should of been renamed to the family & friends of flash lol as for red death! Oh my days what were they thinking, terrible acting, dialogue & the costumes, I've seen better at comic con, I'm surprised it's lasted this long.

This episode shows the reason this series is being cancelled

[saull28 · 4/10 · 16 March 2023]

Not only the overly dramatic stares and empty drama moments, but the lack of any good plot, resorting to various incoherent, even for SciFi, malicious plot and equally "magical" engineering of the solution; all of these is like Disney tendency, with very childish moments, "my mommy doesn't love me anymore", just like the latest Star Wars Trilogy, this is a sad excuse for plot and final Season, repetitive drama, that is boring as F!

The series stopped being interesting long ago, about Season 4, never recovered really, Quatum Physics wacky delusions that made no sense and just gave more superpowers to everyone; while the Speed Force became a version of the Christian God, to calm down the many Christian Fanatics and don't get outraged and present a public complaint + sueing for "attacking their religion" or something self-victimizing; also very low quality on the discussion all Disney level, looks like trying to appeal the 4 year old or something like that.

This is not a Disney level super hero live Comic, it never was, so it shouldn't be; it's directed to 18+, so it's boring as it could be, that's why I missed the last 3 Seasons and I don't regret it at all; I'm just watching this last Season out of nostalgia for the good Seasons and trying to figure it out how it's going to end, but I'm going to stop 'coz it's simply more Disney Episodes, the only thing missing is a Pokemon, but don't fret, Episode 6 is here today; I had it, good bye and good riddance.

Wow this sucks bad

[dgrabau49 · 4/10 · 1 August 2023]

The atrocious over acting in every single other sentence from the Red Death is some of the very worst I have ever seen in TV. Man this show deserves to be forgotten big time. Like my Lord the writing is cringe and the plot is incredibly predictable. Outside of Arrow, every other Arrowverse show continues to go downhill and plunge into bad mediocre television. DC needs a complete retooling asap. HBO DC shows >>>>>> CW DC shows. Just end this garbage already. Show hasn't been interesting since Cisco departed. Same thing happened to Legends of Tomorrow too. Just a damn shame for real. Yikes......

Revisiting Season 9: Mask of the Red Death Part 1

[lbramson · 4/10 · 18 May 2023]

Hot take: best episode of this arc since Episode 1. This is one I really love! I love all the action! I love the fact that it feels final! I love how the Red Death doesn't say any Batman lines this time! I love how Gorilla Grodd returns after missing for 2 whole seasons! This was a step up from every episode, but still not perfect. Iris is revealed to be pregnant, I liked that. Joe leaves the show, I didn't like that. Red Death gets clones, I liked that. Red Death swings from a lightning lasso, I didn't like that. Joe talks to Barry about the past, I liked that. Red Death throes a batarang made of speed force energy, I didn't like that. It's solid but not perfect 7/10.

I can't wait for it to be over....

[manofkent-66876 · 2/10 · 17 April 2023]

For 6 or 7 seasons, the Flash, whilst not quite Arrow was not far behind. The characters had dramatic impact and were varied enough to make it a decent watch.

Now just as the ultimately woeful Supergirl and increasingly ridiculous Legends devolved into sickly sweet nausea evoking one dimensional woke gesturing (and Batwoman was infected with the same purile disease from the outset) so it seems the Flash is disappearing down the same bizarrely abstract rabbit hole into a netherworld of puerile irrelevance.

The perfect smug grinning niceness of all the heroes, like some comic tragic caricature of real super heroes, almost screams for them to be defeated. Equally the hysterical psychopathy of Red Death makes you wonder how on earth that such a maniac had the time to come up with any sort of scheme let alone one that would put super heroes on the brink of defeat in between her rage driven rants.

The characters are no longer credible and the dialogue and acting are simply terrible. Its as if the whole show has become some childish in joke for the cast and crew that they don't want anyone else to be in on. It's the worst sort of parody. 5 year olds could do better.

All I can put it down to is the complacent self indulgence of those involved in the shows production preferring to go out on a whimper rather than a triumph. In short knowing this is the last series they disappeared up their own 'rabbit holes' rather than give their audience a series to remember.

Still at least you can be fairly sure that few will ever want to see these shows revamped and in the 21st century that's a blessing because the vast majority of the revamps attempted have been awful (Charmed, 4400, Equalizer etc etc).....

it's such a shame.......