With the coronavirus pandemic causing the shutdown of the entertainment industry, many TV shows are being left in a state of limbo, and Grant Gustin has confirmed that this season of The Flash will be no exception.
Next week’s episode, “Success is Assured” will act as the season finale despite three further episodes having been originally planned. Episode 20 was incomplete when production was halted, while the subsequent two had not even begun filming, which will leave the current story unresolved.
Now, in a recent interview, Gustin has explained what we can expect from the suspension of the mirror universe plot, saying:
“Generally, we tend to finish the season with a little bit of, you know, we like that element [of surprise] to end the year and to keep everybody waiting during the hiatus time – but a lot more than usual is left unfinished. It’s not necessarily a reconciliation with a lot of things that were going on with Team Flash, and Barry and Iris’ separation and the mirror-verse – so yeah, there’s a lot that is left unfinished.
As we saw in the last episode, Barry had started to catch on in 617 and he finally was having this epiphany that he hadn’t been living with his wife, and something was going on. He shares his concerns with Cecile and the team starts to catch on to what’s been happening and that maybe Iris is somewhere else. We’ll see that start to develop a little bit more in 618 and things will definitely still come to a head in 619, but it doesn’t get resolved as much as we’d probably like it too.”
As Gustin stated, The Flash tends to leave at least one major thread either incomplete or enigmatically initiated, much to the consternation of many viewers who are perfectly happy to return for a new season without the threat of not knowing what happens with regards to a specific plotline. As a result, the story being suspended prematurely won’t make quite as much of a difference as it might for other shows.
There isn’t really any ambiguity over whether Iris will ultimately be rescued from the mirror dimension, but more questionable is what will happen after she returns. It’s unclear if the neural dissonance she suffers due to her imprisonment will be permanent, as is how she’ll react to people taking so long to consider the possibility of her being an impostor in spite of the multitude of ways in which metas have displayed the ability to assume the identities of others, possibly leading to her questioning if the volatile and unreasonable personality of the double is truly how people perceive her.
While it’s currently unclear when we’ll see The Flash return after its enforced hiatus, there will certainly be a lot to be resolved when it does.