The Flash Boss Eric Wallace Explains Season 9 Premiere

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 9 premiere of The Flash on The CW.

The Flash is nearly done fighting crime in Central City — but not before one final villain comes to town.

The CW series’ ninth and final season kicked off Wednesday night with the introduction of some new hurdles for Barry Allen and Team Flash to overcome. The episode begins with Barry and Iris (Candice Patton) getting stuck in a time loop, which exacerbates some of their fears about the passing of time and the lack of control they have over what may or may not happen to them. In order to get out of it, the couple must decide to take on life head on, together — rather than avoiding the problem and each other.

But just when things seem to be settling down again, Barry is faced with yet another bump in the road. Viewers will remember that, at the end of Season 8, Caitlin is on a mission to bring back Frost after she sacrificed herself by turning into Hellfrost to extinguish Deathstorm by absorbing his energy. Well, after an entire episode of wondering what has happened to both characters following Season 8’s cliffhanger, we finally have an answer (sort of). It isn’t Frost or Caitlin that emerged from the Frost chamber, but rather a whole new character who will likely join Team Flash.

The end of the episode is a one-two punch, revealing soon after that Captain Boomerang (who had been terrorizing Barry in the time loop) is actually working for someone much worse…who is surrounded by red lightning. But who could it be?

Showrunner Eric Wallace broke down the Season 9 premiere and gave Deadline some answers about who the newcomers and fan favorites who will be making an appearance in Central City for the final episodes of the series — and what they all mean for the fate of Team Flash.

DEADLINE: How did you approach these final episodes and what did you want to leave fans with at the end of the season?

ERIC WALLACE: Back at the end of Season 8, before we knew this was going to be our final season, the hope was still to have a Season 9 and a 10 and get to 200 episodes. I had a master plan for those two seasons. Then we found out not only would this be the final season, but that it also would be a shorter season of 13 episodes, not 22. That really put something into motion and changed a lot of things about how we could really approach the story. The idea was bringing as many Arrowverse folks as we could. Sadly, we’ve got to tell the end of the Flash Family saga, and we can barely do that in 13 episodes. So unfortunately, it’s not going to be so Arrow-centric. Although we do have a lot of guest stars, it’s gonna be very Flash-centric. That’s the important thing, to really honor Barry and Iris. Coincidentally, related to that, is the plans that I had for episode 200, should we have gotten there. Now, that’s become our series finale. So, we are still getting to tell that very emotional, very special epic tale. It’s just a series finale.

DEADLINE: I’m glad you mentioned the guest stars. How did you develop the right stories for them to make one final appearance?

WALLACE: Everything’s related to what would work for the story we wanted to tell in Season 9. This season’s themes are very much about Barry coming to terms with unfinished business in the past, and Iris coming to terms with events in the future that have yet to come, and the apprehension and anxiousness that comes with that. In Barry’s thematic journey, in dealing with the past, we simply just needed people from his past to join the story at key moments throughout Season 9. Two people that immediately came to mind that had to be part of the season were Stephen Amell and Rick Cosnett. We have to have them come back, because they’re such a big part of Season 1 of the show in very different ways. One is kind of a mentor figure and the other is a close friend to Barry. Fortunately, it all worked out. It’s the same thing with a lot of the other folks who’ve been chosen as guest stars, specifically Javicia Leslie. Ironically, her storyline has to do with — this isn’t a spoiler — but it has to do with future events, which play directly into Iris’ storyline. We knew coming off of Armageddon last year that there was such incredible chemistry between Candice Patton and Javicia Leslie, and I knew I wanted to duplicate that. So when we decided dramatically to tell the story of Iris this season dealing with anticipation and anxiousness over the future, bringing in Javicia became a no brainer.

DEADLINE: In the premiere, we see Iris and Barry get stuck in this time loop. It’s an interesting way to drive home the point that they have very similar fears, yet they are just not able to see eye to eye.

WALLACE: It hits home. Barry and Iris had the same fear, just opposite sides of the coin. He is afraid of, how do I control my future? And she’s afraid of ‘Oh my gosh, I have no control over the future — it’s going to happen, and it’s set in stone, and I’m almost a victim to it.’ That leads Barry to fall into a rut and Iris, who is the wiser person in the season premiere, rightfully says: ‘The only way for us out of this is to be together as a couple and for us both to stay in the moment.’ That’s really the season theme that plays out over the rest of Season 9. This is a series about family, and how families survive and thrive with all the things going on around them in the world. They don’t survive by just wishing something’s going to happen in the future. They don’t survive or thrive certainly by dwelling only on events in the past. You have to stick together and you have to do it in the moment. You have to move forward moment by moment, second by second. That’s what we’re gonna see Barry and Iris do all season, and we see them do it in some fun ways. This episode is the introduction of their babymoon adventures. Sometimes, we’ll see it on camera, where they may go to an exotic locale. Other times, we’ll hear about it off camera, because at some point, let’s face it, they have to fight crime. They can’t just be galavanting all over the planet all the time. So all of that fits together to create what I’m calling the season of romance. It’s the greatest romance the Arrowverse has seen. I know Olicity (Oliver and Felicity) fans will have a little bit to say about that, but from my point of view, it’s Barry and Iris.

DEADLINE: As I’m sure many fans will, I spent much of the episode wondering what happened to Frost and Caitlin. What can you say about this new character who is revealed at the end, and will Frost and Caitlin come back?

WALLACE: Well, Danielle Panabaker’s character says in the premiere, ‘I am not Frost and I am not Caitlin.’ That is the truth. The question then becomes not only who is this person, but why are they here? Why now? And what will they do as far as feeding into The Flash? Folks aren’t going to have to wait long at all. They’re gonna find out in Episode 2 who this person is — what her name is, what abilities she may or may not have. But her season long arc is a mystery about, Why is she here right now? I’ve talked to Danielle about this, and she’s super excited. I told her that her character is so integral to the series finale when we face our final big bad. Flash cannot win the final battle against the evil facing Central City in our final episode without the help of this new character, and that’s why she is here right now. But does she even know that? That’s the journey she’s on. It’s a journey of self discovery.

DEADLINE: So let’s address the last scene. Is Captain Boomerang working for Thawne?

WALLACE: Is that what we learned at the end of 901?

DEADLINE: I mean, that’s what it seemed like to me, but that’s why I’m clarifying!

WALLACE: I would say keep watching till next week, because I don’t know if that was Thawne or not. Now, you’ve hit upon something that’s very critical. Was that red lightning at the end? Definitely. Without question. But who’s red lightning? Well, the good news is for fans, you’re gonna find out next week. The thing about a short, accelerated season of 13 episodes is we don’t have time to fool around. We got to get to stuff pretty darn fast. So the mystery of who this year’s first big bad is will be solved at the end of Episode 2. The question in Episode 3 and beyond is why are they here and why are they so angry at The Flash?

DEADLINE: What else can we expect from this final season?

WALLACE: I would say look for a lot more romance in Season 9. One of the things that we deliberately wanted to do in working on the scripts this year was add a more emotional and human quality to all of our characters in just everyday settings. So romance doesn’t just apply to Barry and Iris. It can apply to all of the characters. So look for the same chills and thrills and action that we’ve always had in seasons before, but I’m happy to report that folks have a rom com [as well].