WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Flash Season 7, Episode 10, "Family Matters, Part 1," which aired Tuesday on The CW.
As The Flash Season 7 has progressed, Joe West has had his authority repeatedly challenged after the arrival of a special investigator named Kristen Kramer, who was tasked by the governor to definitively stamp out the growing metahuman problem in Central City by any means necessary. While sanctioned by state law, Joe grew increasingly concerned with the methodology and obsessiveness Kramer displayed in conducting her hunt to bring villains to justice. And as Kramer expands her directive after facing a legal defeat in court, Joe decides to act with his conscience and resigns from the Central City Police Department.
In a lot of ways, Joe's resignation had been steadily building all season, as he began asking hard questions about his lifelong commitment to the rule of law and what the ethical implications of justice entailed in the wake of Kramer's arrival. Kramer set her sights on Killer Frost, completely uninterested in the fact that the metahuman had reformed from her supervillain origins to become an important member of Team Flash and a valuable ally to the Arrowverse superhero community. Even after assisting the Flash in bringing down the new supervillain Chillblaine, Kramer had Frost taken into custody to try her for the crimes she committed when she first surfaced in Central City years ago.
Obtaining the serum that S.T.A.R. Labs developed to negate metahuman powers from A.R.G.U.S., Kramer looked to score a legal precedent by pushing for a sentence that would result in the justice system forcibly administering the serum to Frost and robbing her of her powers permanently. Kramer was not concerned if the serum would have negative effects on Frost's health, determined simply to make this sentence mandatory for all apprehended metahumans nationwide. Ultimately, Kramer's zeal got the better of her in the courtroom, and Frost instead successfully petitioned the court for a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole.
While Kramer did not receive the outcome she intended, with Joe warning her of letting her personal feelings affect her judgment and moral compass, the special investigator only saw this development as a temporary setback. Receiving additional power straight from the governor, Kramer returned to Central City with a gun designed to shoot the serum. Realizing Kramer now has shoot-on-sight authority and the legal backing from the state, Joe can't stand compliantly by as police have an open license to shoot suspected metahuman criminals without the right of facing trial in the court of law, and he publicly resigns.
The Flash isn't the first series on The CW to address themes of police overstepping their ethical authority, as both Kung Fu and Batwoman have explored similar topics. However, this series veils this matter under the guise of how it relates to superheroes while underscoring its moral implications when Joe faces his own crisis of conscience. And while Kramer argues she's only interested in hunting metahuman criminals, it's really only a matter of time before she believes the Flash to be on the wrong side of the law, putting her on an irreversible collision course with the Scarlet Speedster.
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.