The Flash Reveals Barry Allen's Surprising Link to the Forces - CBR - Comic Book Resources

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Flash Season 7, Episode 9, "Timeless," which aired Tuesday on The CW.

One of the most shocking developments -- pun wholeheartedly intended -- in The Flash Season 7 is the introduction of new Forces, all stemming from Barry and Iris reviving the Speed Force. Among the powerful elements joining Speed, are the Strength, Sage and Still Forces, each bonded to a different human host in Central City, imbuing them with superhuman powers. And as Nora, the living personification of the Speed Force, relentlessly hunts down the other Forces to destroy them, seeing them as aberrations of the natural order, Barry and Iris discover they are more connected to the beings than they initially realized.

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While the other Forces' arrival coincided with the Speed Force being revived, Team Flash was still unclear if Barry and Iris were actually responsible for creating them until further tests of their unique energy signature confirm their origins are linked directly to the couple. This revelation drives Barry to move towards eliminating the Forces' existence altogether to prevent Nora from murdering any more of the Forces' hosts, resolving to travel back in time and use a modified tachyon enhancer to absorb the particles that created the Forces in the first place, effectively changing history.

However, while the knowledge that he is directly responsible for the Forces' creation has dialed up Barry's guilt and resolve to remove them, it has had the opposite effect on Iris. Iris sees the Forces as a natural extension of Barry and her love, likening their introduction as surrogate children. Without their expressed consent from the hosts to remove the Forces, Iris vehemently disagrees with Barry forcibly eliminating them from history, a sentiment echoed by Cisco, Chester and Joe. And while Barry is still determined to carry out his plan, despite the team's misgivings, his own conscience makes him realize his wife has been right all along.

Deciding to spare the Forces and let them continue to exist, despite the risk that the hosts, including Nora, pose to Central City, Barry returns to the present. And with Barry and Iris back on the same page, both emotionally and in regards to their personal motives, the couple discovers more about how deep their connection to the Forces actually is. Just as Barry and Iris were able to revive the Speed Force following its demise from the "Crisis on Infinite Earths," they are able to work together to revive the other Forces, too, most notably the Strength Force, whose host Fuerza had been murdered by Nora.

With Barry and Iris only just learning the amount of influence and control they both exert over the Forces together, this connection will likely be key in stopping Nora's rampage and protecting the other Forces from her. It also leaves the possibility that any other Forces murdered by Nora can similarly be resurrected by the couple. However, once Nora figures this out for herself, she will likely develop a new strategy to discover this particular deus ex machina can no longer be employed to undo her body count, perhaps targeting Iris herself to stop the couple from working together.

The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh. New episodes air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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