WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 7, Episode 18, "Heart of the Matter, Part 2," which aired Tuesday on The CW.
After resolving the cliffhanger ending against Mirror Monarch left dangling by the premature close to The Flash Season 6 last year, Season 7 has expanded the Arrowverse series while seeing shakeups to its main cast, including additions and departures. And as the post-"Crisis on Infinite Earths" landscape of the DC TV Universe continues to take shape, the timeline is undergoing significant changes, with the Flash Family growing and Barry Allen's greatest nemesis returning, all set to inform the course of Season 8 when The Flash returns this November.
At the start of Season 7, Barry relied on an artificial Speed Force to keep up with Mirror Monarch and her army of duplicates menacing Central City, eventually leading to Barry channeling his Crisis-granted powers as the Paragon of Love with Iris to create a Speed Force. This led to the unexpected creation of other Forces, who shared a bond with Barry and Iris and decided to reside in a pocket dimension and maintain the natural balance to the universe. However, the door is left open for their return to the Arrowverse, as evidenced by the Speed Force resurfacing in the season finale to give the Flash Family a power boost.
The power boost yielded other major developments that may carry over into Season 8, most notably with the growing Flash Family. Changes to the timeline not only restored Barry and Iris' superhero daughter Nora to reality, but also added her little brother Bart, who had taken on the superhero mantle of Impulse. Traveling back from their native timeline in the year 2049 to the relative present, Nora and Bart were upgraded, along with Barry and Jay Garrick, by the Speed Force to combat Godspeed. However, the Speed Force also used Iris' burgeoning connection to the new Forces to make her a bonafide superhero as well, with Iris donning a version of Nora's XS costume to join the rest of the family in action.
Iris is not the only main character who'll be running through Central City at high speeds in Season 8, with the Season 7 finale's big twist being the return of Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash. With the rebirth of the Speed Force, the extra-dimensional entity also led to the creation of the Negative Speed Force, which fueled Thawne to tap into his own super-speed. While Barry proved himself to be significantly faster than his old nemesis, the Reverse-Flash escaped, vowing to find a way to match or surpass the Flash's speed himself and finally gain his ultimate vengeance, leaving their longstanding rivalry unresolved once again.
The rest of Team Flash is settling into their new roles as Season 8 looms on the horizon: Chester P. Runk has stepped up to be the team's new tech expert, though the door for Cisco Ramon's return is always open, and Allegra Garcia has experienced her own power upgrade. Sue Dearbon has decided Team Flash could use her continued services while Killer Frost and Caitlin Snow continue to anchor the team. Kristen Kramer, who spent a significant portion of her career hunting metahumans, has discovered she is a metahuman herself, potentially setting her up to be a valuable ally in the future. And with The Flash Season 8 set to open with a series of crossover episodes, Team Flash may need all the help they can get.
Season 7 of The Flash is now available to stream in full on The CW app.