After months of being put on the defensive, Barry Allen and the rest of Team Flash learn the Negative Forces have been behind most of their recent troubles. Selecting Eobard Thawne as their avatar, the Negative Forces manipulated Barry into accidentally killing Iris West and facilitating Thawne’s restoration as the Reverse-Flash. As Barry races to avenge his wife, Team Flash learns that Iris may not be quite as dead as her husband thinks while scrambling to assist the other Forces.

When Thawne gloats over murdering both Iris and Barry’s mother, the Flash nearly kills the Reverse-Flash with his Speed Force lightning before XS and Impulse arrive on the scene to talk him down. Barry is determined to track down Thawne to resurrect Iris, believing he is hiding in the Negative Speed Force... though the rest of Team Flash is concerned by the immense risk. Meanwhile, Iris awakens in a surreal world, where she is greeted by Damien Darhk -- who claims she is not dead but is instead experiencing something far more interesting.

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Cecile Horton uses her empathic powers to sense that the regular Forces are ailing in the wake of the Negative Forces’ rise and similarly need Barry’s help. Chester P. Runk modifies the tachyon booster to the Flash’s costume to allow Barry to enter the Negative Speed Force, only for the device to fail. Instead, Meena Dhawan uses the machine the good Eobard Thawne developed to grant her a connection to the Negative Speed Force that will boost her speed and shares it with Barry, giving him a different access point to the extra-dimensional realm.

Jay and Joan Garrick travel back from the year 2049 and discover a Time Stone linked to Iris’ consciousness at Joe West’s home while Cecile sets out to help the Forces by transferring her powers to Bashir, the Sage Force avatar. Barry confronts the Negative Forces but is expelled back to Central City along with a negatively empowered Thawne -- who now possesses a corrosive black suit. Wielding all the Forces, Thawne uses his connection to the Negative Speed Force to send Barry’s children and Meena back to the distant past so that he can face his old nemesis alone.

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Restored by Bashir’s power boost, the Forces join Barry to rally and defeat Thawne, lending their powers to give him an upgrade. Once equal with Thawne, the Flash battles him across Central City and turns one of the Reverse-Flash’s attacks around to effectively remove him from the timeline once again. The Flash also reveals that encouraged by Damien, Iris is able to will her own resurrection, appearing before Joe and the Garricks through the Time Stone. She rematerializes, rejoins the rest of Team Flash and helps Barry regain control of his emotions.

Iris is given a clean bill of health, finally free of her temporal sickness, while Meena appears to have lost her speed for good and Cecile gains telekinetic powers. Chillblaine’s secret efforts to resurrect Killer Frost cause a mysterious entity to awaken in her place, identifying herself as a friend. Reunited, Barry and Iris finally enjoy a quiet moment together, with Barry vowing to be ready for whomever the Negative Forces choose to serve as their next avatar with his wife back by his side.

Developed for television by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns, The Flash Season 8 is available to stream on The CW App.