The Flash season 9
| The Flash | |
|---|---|
| Season 9 | |
 Promotional poster | |
| Showrunner | Eric Wallace |
| Starring | |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Vesper+ |
| Original release | October 4 – November 22, 2034 |
| Season chronology | |
The ninth and final season of the American superhero drama television series The Flash is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen, a crime-scene investigator who becomes the superhero known as the Flash. The season was produced by Vesper Studios, Goodwin Television, Red Runner Productions, and Dominion Street Entertainment for Vesper+. Eric Wallace returned as showrunner, while series creator Freddie Goodwin remained attached as an executive producer.
The season stars Dacre Montgomery as Barry Allen / The Flash, with Kiersey Clemons, Delroy Lindo, Rahul Kohli, Lakeith Stanfield, Jessica Henwick, Giancarlo Esposito, Riz Ahmed, and Sophie Thatcher also starring. It concludes the series after nine seasons, following Barry and Team Flash as they face a final enemy who targets not only Central City but the people who made Barry's life worth saving. Following the events of the eighth season, Eddie Thawne has redefined the Thawne legacy, the city remembers multiple timeline crises, and Barry begins preparing Avery Ho and a new generation of speedsters for a world where the Flash may not always be the first line of defense.
Unlike the seventh and eighth seasons, the final season does not use the 22-episode structure or the Graphic Novel format. Vesper+ reduced the episode order to eight episodes due to budget changes and a decision to conclude the series with a shorter, more focused final arc. The season's primary antagonist is Daniel West / Black Racer, a ruthless speedster assassin from a ruined future who believes the Speed Force has become corrupted by Barry's repeated acts of mercy. He is depicted as the most lethal villain of the series, killing several metahumans and supporting characters across the season and forcing Barry to confront whether a hero can preserve hope when the enemy has no interest in redemption.
The ninth season premiered on Vesper+ on October 4, 2034, and aired weekly until November 22, 2034. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the shorter structure, finality, action sequences, performances, and darker threat posed by Black Racer. Some criticism was directed at the budget-driven reduction in scope, the absence of the Graphic Novel format, and the limited screen time for several supporting characters. The series finale, "Run Home", received particular praise for bringing Barry Allen's story to a definitive emotional conclusion.
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 93 | 1 | "No More Novels" | David Nutter | Eric Wallace | October 4, 2034 | |
| One year after the Thawne Dynasty crisis, Central City is quieter but scarred by years of speedster warfare. Barry works with Avery Ho to train a new generation of responders, while Iris prepares a final archive project documenting the city's impossible history. Vesper+ within the show's world cuts funding to several public metahuman programs, forcing Team Flash to operate with fewer resources and a smaller support network. A masked speedster begins murdering former timeline criminals before they can be arrested, leaving black lightning burns and a symbol carved into each crime scene. Cisco identifies the killer's speed signature as old, cold, and connected to the edge of the Speed Force. Eddie fears the killings are aimed at people linked to altered histories. The attacker appears at S.T.A.R. Labs, kills a metahuman witness in front of Barry, and introduces himself as Black Racer. | ||||||
| 94 | 2 | "Black Lightning Funeral" | David Nutter | Lauren Certo | October 11, 2034 | |
| Barry investigates Black Racer's victims and discovers that each person survived an event where the timeline should have killed them. Joe worries that the killer is not choosing targets randomly but correcting people he believes are living on borrowed time. Iris interviews the family of a murdered metahuman and refuses to let the city treat the death as a necessary cleanup of old crises. Thawne claims Black Racer is not a villain but a function of the Speed Force that became a man, a death sentence for timelines that have been cheated too often. Barry rejects the idea that any force has the right to choose who deserves to live. Avery encounters Black Racer while protecting a young speedster and barely survives. Black Racer later attacks Hartley Rathaway's safehouse, killing several protected witnesses and proving he is willing to slaughter innocent people to reach his targets. | ||||||
| 95 | 3 | "The Death List" | Rachel Talalay | Thomas Pound | October 18, 2034 | |
| Cisco decodes Black Racer's pattern and discovers a death list generated from every major timeline event since the particle accelerator explosion. The list includes former villains, erased-timeline survivors, displaced Thawnes, metahumans saved from Grodd, and several members of Team Flash. Barry wants to evacuate everyone, but the team's reduced resources make full protection impossible. Linda publishes a warning despite official objections, causing panic across Central City. Eddie learns that he is near the top of the list because his paradox energy allowed several timelines to survive. Thawne offers to help remove Eddie from the list by severing his remaining connection to the Thawne legacy, but Iris suspects a trap. Black Racer kills Senator Mara Ellis during a public hearing before Barry can reach her, then tells Barry that compassion has become a disease spreading across time. Barry realizes the killer will not stop until every timeline survivor is dead. | ||||||
| 96 | 4 | "Faster Than Death" | Rachel Talalay | Sarah Tarkoff | October 25, 2034 | |
| Barry pushes himself beyond safe limits after Ellis's murder, trying to protect every person on the death list at once. Avery argues that Barry is turning the final fight into another solo burden, but Barry insists that Black Racer is too dangerous for anyone else. Black Racer targets Lisa Snart, whose survival after multiple altered events makes her a high-priority anomaly. Leonard returns to protect her, forcing Barry to work with the Rogues one last time. The plan fails when Black Racer anticipates every route and kills several Rogue associates before reaching Lisa. Barry saves her only by letting Black Racer escape with a fragment of the testimony archive. Iris discovers that Black Racer is using the archive to identify people whose lives were extended by hope, mercy, or intervention. Thawne reveals the truth: Black Racer is Daniel West, Iris's lost relative from a future where Barry's final act saved the wrong city. | ||||||
| 97 | 5 | "Daniel West" | Deborah Chow | Eric Wallace and Jess Carson | November 1, 2034 | |
| Iris investigates Daniel West and discovers that he came from a future where Central City survived because Barry sacrificed several smaller communities during a multiversal collapse. Daniel was one of the few survivors of a city Barry never reached, and he became convinced that the Flash's morality depends on who happens to be close enough to save. Daniel confronts Iris and accuses her archive of turning selective rescue into legend. He does not try to persuade her; he simply kills a witness she was protecting and leaves her alive to report the truth. Barry enters the Speed Force to learn whether Daniel's future is real, where he sees echoes of possible failures rather than a fixed timeline. Cisco and Avery argue that the future can still be prevented, but Daniel's killings are making the city believe survival is a privilege granted by the Flash. Eddie offers himself as bait to stop the next murder. | ||||||
| 98 | 6 | "Dead Run" | Deborah Chow | Lauren Certo and Thomas Pound | November 8, 2034 | |
| Eddie's trap draws Black Racer into a closed section of Central City where Cisco, Hartley, Avery, and Thawne have prepared layered speed anchors. Daniel cuts through the trap with brutal efficiency, killing Hartley before he can activate the final harmonic field. Cisco is devastated but completes the field, trapping Daniel long enough for Barry to confront him. Daniel reveals that killing is not a tactic but a creed: every person spared by impossible mercy creates another unpaid death somewhere else. Barry nearly kills Daniel after Hartley's death, but Avery stops him, reminding him that the final season of his life as the Flash cannot end with revenge. Daniel escapes by severing one of his own speed pathways, leaving himself injured but alive. The loss of Hartley breaks Team Flash's confidence, and Cisco tells Barry that this time hope feels like something the enemy is hunting. | ||||||
| 99 | 7 | "Last Man Running" | David Nutter | Freddie Goodwin and Eric Wallace | November 15, 2034 | |
| Black Racer begins his final purge, killing multiple timeline survivors in one night and forcing Central City into emergency lockdown. Iris refuses to let the archive become a death map and destroys sections of it to protect living people, accepting that not every record should outlive the person it endangers. Thawne tries to escape during the chaos but is confronted by Eddie, who finally rejects both Eobard's hatred and Daniel's fatalism. Cisco prepares a final Vibe corridor that can remove Black Racer from the Speed Force permanently, but using it will burn out his powers. Barry visits Joe and Henry, admitting he no longer fears dying as much as leaving the people he loves with another impossible story to carry. Daniel attacks the city core and challenges Barry to prove that mercy can survive death itself. Barry runs alone toward him as the Speed Force begins collapsing around them. | ||||||
| 100 | 8 | "Run Home" | David Nutter | Eric Wallace | November 22, 2034 | |
| In the series finale, Barry fights Daniel West across the Speed Force, Central City, and memories of every major crisis he has survived. Daniel attempts to force Barry to choose who deserves to live, but Barry rejects the premise and calls every person he has saved, lost, and inspired into the Speed Force through Iris's remaining archive. Cisco opens the final Vibe corridor, losing his powers but giving Barry one chance to separate Daniel from the death function controlling him. Avery and August stabilize the city while Joe, Eddie, Linda, Leonard, Lisa, and Iris protect the remaining survivors. Barry defeats Daniel without killing him, transforming Black Racer back into a mortal man who must face the lives he took. Thawne is trapped permanently in a powerless timeline by Eddie. Years later, Barry retires from full-time hero work, Avery becomes Central City's lead speedster, and Barry runs home to Iris as the series ends. | ||||||
Cast and characters
Main
- Dacre Montgomery as Barry Allen / The Flash
- Kiersey Clemons as Iris West
- Delroy Lindo as Detective Joe West
- Rahul Kohli as Cisco Ramon / Vibe
- Lakeith Stanfield as Eddie Thawne
- Jessica Henwick as Linda Park
- Giancarlo Esposito as Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash
- Riz Ahmed as Hartley Rathaway
- Sophie Thatcher as Avery Ho
Recurring
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Daniel West / Black Racer
- Courtney B. Vance as Henry Allen
- William Fichtner as Leonard Snart / Captain Cold
- Tati Gabrielle as Lisa Snart / Golden Glider
- Regé-Jean Page as August Heart / Godspeed
- Keith David as the voice of Gideon
Guest
- Maya Hawke as Caitlin Snow
- Thandiwe Newton as Nora Allen
- John Boyega as Ronnie Raymond
- Ken Leung as Captain Elias Singh
- Rhea Seehorn as Senator Mara Ellis
- Jodie Turner-Smith as Daphne Dean
- Paddy Considine as Malcolm Thawne / Cobalt Blue
- David Oyelowo as Grodd
Production
Development
Vesper+ renewed The Flash for a ninth season in June 2034, shortly after the conclusion of the eighth season. The renewal confirmed that the ninth season would be the final season of the series. Eric Wallace returned as showrunner, while series creator Freddie Goodwin remained an executive producer and co-wrote the penultimate episode. The season order was reduced from 22 episodes to eight episodes.
The reduction in episode count was attributed to budget changes at Vesper+ and a creative decision to conclude the series with a shorter final arc. The previous two seasons had used a longer format, with the eighth season introducing the Graphic Novel structure to divide 22 episodes into multiple story arcs. Wallace said the final season would remove the Graphic Novel format because the reduced order made it unnecessary and because the writers wanted the final year to feel like one direct, escalating story rather than multiple separate chapters.
Wallace described the final season as "a knife instead of a mural", emphasizing that the shorter order required fewer subplots, fewer villains, and a more aggressive central threat. The writers wanted a villain who could make the final season feel dangerous despite the smaller scale. Daniel West / Black Racer was chosen because the character could combine speedster mythology, Iris's family history, and the concept of death itself into one antagonist. Wallace said Black Racer was intentionally written as someone who does not monologue about redemption or hesitate to kill.
The production also sought to respond to audience criticism that later seasons had become too dependent on large mythology explanations. The final season still uses the Speed Force and timeline consequences, but the writers built the story around a simple emotional question: what happens when Barry faces someone who believes mercy is not merely weak, but mathematically lethal. The shorter season allowed that question to remain central from the premiere to the finale.
Writing
Writing for the ninth season began in July 2034. The writers' room included Eric Wallace, Lauren Certo, Thomas Pound, Sarah Tarkoff, Jess Carson, and Freddie Goodwin as an executive producer. Wallace said the final season was outlined as a countdown, with each episode removing another layer of safety from Team Flash. Unlike previous seasons, there are no separate Graphic Novels, interlude chapters, or major standalone episodes. Every episode advances Black Racer's death list and the emotional pressure on Barry.
The season's central villain was written to be more openly lethal than many previous antagonists. Black Racer kills protected witnesses, metahuman survivors, political figures, Rogue associates, and Hartley Rathaway. The writers chose Hartley as the major death because he had grown from antagonist to ally over several seasons and because his death would deeply affect Cisco without undoing the earlier loss of Caitlin Snow. Wallace said the death needed to hurt the team and the audience, not merely raise the body count.
Barry's final arc centers on the difference between mercy and denial. Daniel West believes Barry's life proves that saving one person always condemns someone else. Barry cannot disprove every future or rescue every victim, which makes Daniel more frightening than a villain who simply wants power. The finale resolves Barry's arc by having him reject Daniel's premise rather than prove that every rescue has no cost.
Iris West's role was also central because Daniel is connected to her family line and attacks the moral foundation of her archive. After years of preserving impossible testimony, Iris chooses in the penultimate episode to destroy portions of the archive when they become a death map. Wallace said this was one of the most important choices in the final season because it shows that truth and care are not always identical; sometimes protecting the living matters more than preserving every record.
Cisco Ramon's arc concludes with the loss of his Vibe powers. The writers wanted Cisco's ending to be heroic but not fatal. His final corridor in the finale saves Barry and the city but burns out his connection to the dimensional forces. Wallace described it as Cisco choosing a human life after years of being asked to hold impossible realities together. Avery Ho's rise as Central City's lead speedster was written as the hopeful continuation of Barry's legacy.
Casting
Dacre Montgomery, Kiersey Clemons, Delroy Lindo, Rahul Kohli, Lakeith Stanfield, Jessica Henwick, Giancarlo Esposito, Riz Ahmed, and Sophie Thatcher returned as the main cast for the final season. Their characters appear throughout most or all of the eight episodes and form the season's core ensemble.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II joined the recurring cast as Daniel West / Black Racer. Wallace said the role required someone who could be charismatic, brutal, and emotionally unreadable without turning the character into a one-note murderer. Abdul-Mateen described Daniel as a man who believes he has already grieved every possible future and now sees killing as administration rather than rage.
Courtney B. Vance, William Fichtner, Tati Gabrielle, Regé-Jean Page, and Keith David returned in recurring roles. Maya Hawke, Thandiwe Newton, John Boyega, Ken Leung, Rhea Seehorn, Jodie Turner-Smith, Paddy Considine, and David Oyelowo appeared as guest stars. The cast list was kept smaller than the previous 22-episode seasons to reflect the reduced order and budget changes.
Riz Ahmed's role as Hartley Rathaway became one of the season's most discussed elements after the character's death in "Dead Run". Wallace said the writers debated whether to kill a newer recurring ally or a long-running character, ultimately choosing Hartley because his relationship with Cisco and his redemptive arc gave the death emotional weight without repeating the earlier Caitlin Snow tragedy.
Filming
Principal photography for the ninth season began in July 2034 and concluded in October 2034. Filming took place primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia. The shorter order allowed production to focus resources on fewer set pieces, though the final season used a smaller number of locations than the seventh and eighth seasons due to budget changes.
Production designer Lila Chen returned for the final season and emphasized familiar locations: S.T.A.R. Labs, the Central City Police Department, the West house, the testimony archive, and the city core. Wallace said the final season should feel like the series returning home rather than expanding outward. Black Racer's scenes were often staged in stripped-down environments with harsh lighting and minimal background detail, emphasizing his function as a killer rather than a world-builder.
The Black Racer suit was designed by Maya Amani as a dark counterpart to Barry's final Flash suit. It used black armor, skeletal silver detailing, and flickers of black-blue lightning. The design avoided the heavier red armor used for Red Death, instead creating a leaner, more predatory silhouette. Amani said the suit needed to look fast, surgical, and merciless.
The series finale required several callback sets and recreated visual motifs from earlier seasons, including the Allen house, the Speed Force void, the crisis skyline, and the S.T.A.R. Labs cortex. The final scene of Barry running home to Iris was filmed on one of the last days of production.
Visual effects
Mara Ellison returned as visual effects supervisor. The reduced budget required the visual effects team to prioritize fewer but more polished sequences. Black Racer's lightning was designed as black-blue energy with a sharp, cutting quality, visually distinguishing him from Barry's gold lightning, Thawne's yellow lightning, Zoom's dark speed, Godspeed's white lightning, and Red Death's red lightning.
The season used the Speed Force more sparingly than previous years. Ellison said the goal was to make every Speed Force appearance feel final or dangerous. The finale combines previous speedster visual languages in a controlled way, bringing back echoes of gold, yellow, red, white, blue, and black lightning without overwhelming the emotional focus on Barry and Daniel.
Cisco's final Vibe corridor was one of the largest effects in the season. It was designed as a collapsing blue-green pathway through the Speed Force, breaking apart as Cisco sacrifices his powers. Ellison said the sequence was intended to feel both heroic and painful, giving Cisco a visual farewell without killing him.
Music
Blake Neely and Hildur Guðnadóttir returned to compose the final season. Neely developed a final variation of Barry's theme that incorporated motifs from the first season, while Guðnadóttir created Black Racer's theme using low strings, distorted percussion, and clipped vocal textures. The music for Black Racer avoids grandeur, instead presenting him as cold and inevitable.
Hartley's death in "Dead Run" uses a quiet reprise of his harmonic motif before cutting into silence. The finale restores the original Flash theme during Barry's return, then resolves into a softer piano arrangement for the final scene. Wallace said the score was meant to make the ending feel like release rather than triumph.
Marketing
Vesper+ announced the ninth season as the final season in June 2034. The announcement confirmed the reduced eight-episode order and stated that the Graphic Novel structure would not return. The first teaser showed Barry's suit hanging in S.T.A.R. Labs while black lightning moved across the floor. The tagline was "Every run ends."
The official trailer was released in August 2034. It introduced Black Racer, the death list, the smaller final-season scope, and the return of several long-running characters. The trailer emphasized danger and finality, ending with Daniel West telling Barry, "I do not need to hate you to kill everyone you saved." Promotional materials described the final season as the most lethal chapter of the series.
Character posters were released for Barry, Iris, Joe, Cisco, Eddie, Linda, Thawne, Hartley, Avery, and Black Racer. A farewell poster released before the finale showed Barry's lightning forming the outline of Central City with the caption "Run home."
Release
The ninth and final season premiered on Vesper+ on October 4, 2034. The season consisted of eight weekly episodes and concluded on November 22, 2034.
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 93 | 1 | "No More Novels" | October 4, 2034 |
| 94 | 2 | "Black Lightning Funeral" | October 11, 2034 |
| 95 | 3 | "The Death List" | October 18, 2034 |
| 96 | 4 | "Faster Than Death" | October 25, 2034 |
| 97 | 5 | "Daniel West" | November 1, 2034 |
| 98 | 6 | "Dead Run" | November 8, 2034 |
| 99 | 7 | "Last Man Running" | November 15, 2034 |
| 100 | 8 | "Run Home" | November 22, 2034 |
Reception
Critical response
The ninth season received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviewers praised the shorter structure, the sense of finality, the performances of Dacre Montgomery, Kiersey Clemons, Rahul Kohli, Giancarlo Esposito, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Thatcher, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and the season's willingness to make Black Racer genuinely lethal. Many critics considered the season an improvement over the more uneven 22-episode years, though some felt the budget reduction was visible in the smaller number of locations and supporting characters.
Black Racer received praise as one of the show's most dangerous final villains. Critics noted that Daniel West's lack of hesitation made the season feel more urgent than many previous arcs. Unlike villains who sought redemption, control, or ideological victory, Daniel was written as someone willing to murder without theatrics. His killing of Hartley Rathaway in "Dead Run" became the season's most discussed moment and was widely described as the point where the final season proved it was not bluffing.
The series finale, "Run Home", received strong reviews. Critics praised the decision not to kill Barry, instead ending with his retirement from full-time hero work and Avery Ho becoming Central City's lead speedster. The final handling of Thawne, Cisco losing his powers, Iris preserving only part of the archive, and Barry returning home were generally viewed as emotionally satisfying conclusions.
Some criticism was directed at the absence of the Graphic Novel format and the compressed handling of several returning characters. Reviewers noted that the shorter season gave the final arc focus but left limited space for deeper farewells to the wider ensemble. Others argued that the smaller scope helped the series avoid the bloat that had affected parts of the seventh and eighth seasons.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds an approval rating of 87% based on 55 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Lean, lethal, and emotionally direct, The Flash closes with a final season that trades sprawl for urgency and lets Barry Allen run home on his own terms." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Audience response
Audience response was positive overall. Viewers praised the return to an eight-episode structure, the darker final villain, and the emotional endings for Barry, Iris, Cisco, Eddie, and Avery. Hartley's death divided fans, with some calling it one of the strongest emotional shocks of the series and others considering it unnecessarily cruel so close to the finale.
The final scene of Barry running home to Iris was widely discussed and generally well received. Many viewers praised the decision to let Barry live and retire rather than repeat the disappearance or sacrifice endings teased throughout the series.
Audience viewership
Vesper+ reported that the final-season premiere performed strongly, with viewership increasing across the final three episodes. "Run Home" became the most-watched episode of the season during its first seven days and one of the service's strongest superhero finales. Exact streaming figures were not released.
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2035 | Saturn Awards | Best Superhero Television Series | The Flash | Pending |
| Saturn Awards | Best Actor in a Television Series | Dacre Montgomery | Pending | |
| Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series | Kiersey Clemons | Pending | |
| Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series | Rahul Kohli | Pending | |
| Saturn Awards | Best Guest Performance in a Television Series | Yahya Abdul-Mateen II | Pending | |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie | The Flash | Pending | |
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series | "Run Home" | Pending | |
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | Best Original Score in a TV Show/Limited Series | Blake Neely and Hildur Guðnadóttir | Pending |
Legacy
The final season concluded The Flash after 100 episodes. Critics and fans noted that the series had changed significantly across its run, beginning as an eight-episode serialized superhero mystery under Freddie Goodwin, expanding into a 22-episode format under Eric Wallace, introducing the Graphic Novel structure in its eighth season, and then returning to a smaller final arc due to budget changes. The final season was often discussed as a compromise between the tightness of the early years and the broader scope of the later Wallace era.
Wallace said that ending the series with Barry alive was intentional. He argued that the show had spent years threatening Barry with disappearance, sacrifice, and destiny, so the most meaningful ending was allowing him to choose a life beyond constant crisis. Goodwin said the final scene honored the first season by returning Barry to the simplest idea of the series: no matter how far he runs, the people who love him are what bring him home.
Notes
References
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