Tonight is the night, the season finale of The Flash‘s fourth season will air at 8pm. This season has been unlike the previous three seasons in a major way. Being that the villain is not a speedster, but someone whose intellect is far more superior than the series’ star Barry Allen. While I have loved this season, viewership is down compared to past seasons. I believe it is because a speedster is not the villain.
While I for one am a huge fan of villains, particularly most of the Flash’s speedster foes, he does have a few that are quite great who are not speedsters, like the Thinker aka Clifford DeVoe. But besides him, none can serve as the villain of an entire twenty three episode long season. So, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the show going forward in terms of the villains.
According to The Flash‘s executive producer Todd Helbing, the first cliffhanger will deal with the identity of the season’s mystery girl (played by Jessica Parker Kennedy), who was first introduced in this year’s “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover. While rumors have swirled quite a bit around the mystery girl’s identity, with theories ranging from Barry’s daughter Dawn Allen and his granddaughter Jenni Ognats, to some sort of evil speedster, it sounds like fans will finally get some answers. “You get the question answered as to who she is,” Helbing said in a recent interview. “There’s actually an extra little bonus where something happens where you’ll realize exactly how she’ll play a part in the future.”
And at the same time, the other cliffhanger in the finale is going to introduce some sort of new villain for the recently announced fifth season, and it sounds like it could be someone well known. “Most people that are familiar with comics will probably be able to deduce who the big bad is for next season,” Helbing added.
Before I get into the villain, I am going to theorize who the mystery girl is. I have strongly suspected that she is Dawn Allen, daughter of Barry and Iris, since we first met her way back in this year’s crossover event. She not only looks like Iris West Allen, but she is a speedster and her force lightning has the purple effect that is does in the comics. My theory to why she is here in the past, and not with twin brother Don, second half of the Tornado Twins, is that he has been captured in their future timeline by the Thawnes.
In the comics, Barry’s grandson Bart is captured and cloned, with that clone being the evil Thaddeus Thawne aka Inertia. They could do that just with Don if they don’t want to introduce Bart just yet. Dawn and Don also had a brief time in the comics where they went evil for a bit. So maybe Don is evil and Dawn wants her dad’s help to save him. Future Barry, so when he’s a bit older, older than Joe, was a bit standoffish. He didn’t want his children to get too into being heroes and risk losing them. This led them to resent him for a time because they wanted him to train him.
So this Dawn might respect his wishes, but Don might not have causing him to be evil and hating his father. Someone will the say, “well why hasn’t she revealed herself yet?” She wants to wait until DeVoe is handled with until she drop the, “I am your daughter from the future” bombshell onto the team.
With that being said, I will get into who I believe the main villain will be. Helbing said that he will essentially be recognizable to comic book fans. There are few that fit that stature who we haven’t yet seen on the show. Godspeed, Daniel West, Cobalt Blue, Don Allen, Inertia, Meena Dhawan, or Johnny Quick.
Godspeed
August Heart is the detective partner of Barry Allen. August was the only witness to Barry’s accident, that turned him into the Flash. While going after a criminal organization called the Black Hole, August was struck by lightning during a Speed Force storm in Central City. He became the Flash’s “partner”, but in secret, August became the ruthless vigilante known as “Godspeed”, and got his revenge on who he suspected to be his brother’s killer. Oh yeah, he also killed numerous speedsters to absorb their powers. We have seen this with Zoom, but last season’s Speed Force Storm most definitely created some new speedsters.
Daniel West: Reverse Flash
Daniel is the estranged brother of Iris West. They could go in many routes with how they relate him to Iris, but he and Joe West did not get along. So as a teen he pushed Joe down the stairs, paralyzing him. When he got out of prison Iris resented him, and wasn’t able to forgive him. This caused him to go insane, and long story short, he was in an accident that involved the Speed Force, granting him super-speed, and he became the next Reverse Flash.
Cobalt Blue
Malcolm Thawne, or Eddie Thawne as I have believed since we first met Eddie back in season one, was the twin brother to Barry Allen. Unknown to the Allen family, Nora was carrying twins. The Thawnes were in the next room and the Doctor was drunk and the baby was killed, but he took one of the twins, Malcolm, and gave him to the Thawnes. As Eddie got older, he found out, and his parents would beat him so he was furious. He got an amulet from his grandmother, which had a totem in it which game him powers. He went on to become the villain Cobalt Blue, and the very person that started the everlasting feud between the Allen and Thawne familes.
Meena Dhawan: Fast Track/Negative Flash
Meena Dhawan was a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist who was struck during the Speed Force storm in Central City, giving her superhuman speed. As Fast Track, she worked with the Flash to train the new generation of speedsters to use their powers at S.T.A.R. Labs. She has since become Negative Flash after a battle with Godspeed which is hard to explain, but the her powers now come from the Negative Speed Force. That who is infused with the Negative Speed Force becomes seduced by “the dark side” if you will Causing them to be homicidal, and completely insane.
Johnny Quick
Johnny is the Earth 3 doppelgänger of the Flash’s ally and friend, speedster Johnny Quick. We have already seen them deal with a bad guy, then a good version of him from a new Earth, so I don’t think we’d see that again, until we meet Earth 1 Johnny and establish him as a character.
I already explained Don and Inertia, but Inertia was created by the Thawne family to kill Bart Allen. So he could be sent back in time to kill Barry, Iris, Don, Dawn, anyone who means something to Barry.
The finale airs tonight at 8pm.
Superhero Dynasty 