WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 8, Episode 1, "Armageddon, Part 1," which aired Tuesday, November 16th on The CW.
The Flash Season 7 ended with the Scarlet Speedster faster than ever, his marriage with Iris even stronger as the young planned to add to their family and with Team Flash facing a bold, new future as they continued to defend Central City. However, the time-traveling supervillain Despero has arrived from the year 2031 with an ax to grind against the Flash, and it'll take a familiar face from Legends of Tomorrow to help Barry survive his first encounter with the powerful opponent while setting the stage for a larger crossover event to kick off The Flash Season 8.
Since emerging triumphant his harrowing battle against Godspeed and the resurgent Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen is more confident than ever in his abilities as the Flash. While catching up with Caitlin Snow over coffee, Barry quickly dashes off to prevent any casualties when two high-speed trains collide just outside of Central City and returns before Caitlin's coffee can even cool. Meanwhile, Iris West's news agency has grown to new heights, leading to an increase in staff size and Iris entrusting a reluctant Allegra Garcia with taking on additional responsibilities. But before Barry and Iris can enjoy some overdue alone time, Ray Palmer returns to Central City looking for a place to stay while attending a local science and technology convention.
Ray's return coincides with that of the Royal Flush Gang, a group of supervillains that were imprisoned while Barry was in a coma due to the particle accelerator explosion years ago. The Royal Flush Gang carries out brazen heists, stealing an experimental microchip from a nearby laboratory and breaking out a criminal hacker from Iron Heights; Barry deduces that these crimes and the train crash are linked, with the Royal Flush Gang causing the crash while stealing the trains' power source. Team Flash realizes the supervillains are using the stolen tech and fugitive to stage a crypto heist on a group of casinos before they are foiled by Barry, who is able to easily outthink the antagonistic ensemble.
While Allegra struggles with earning the respect of her subordinates and keeping them in line, a talk with Iris reveals that Allegra is absolutely up to the task, though her co-workers are still visibly not happy having to answer to her. While supervising Barry on the Royal Flush case, Police Captain Kristen Kramer admits that she feels guilty that her personal prejudices against metahumans fueled so much of her animosity throughout The Flash Season 7 but also observes a metahuman task force would have been key in stopping the Royal Flush Gang sooner. For his part, Barry is worried that Kramer's own metahuman abilities as a mimic will lead her to replicating his powers and make her deduce that he is the Flash.
Ray also finds himself at a crossroads, content in his domestic bliss with his wife Nora and free of the superhero obligations with the Legends. This extends to Ray unsure if he wants to pursue a new tech venture, causing an embarrassing misunderstanding with Chester P. Runk, who idolized Ray and wanted him to use the tech convention as an opportunity to launch a new startup. However, the arrival of a new supervillain Despero, forcing Ray to suit back up as the Atom and team up with the Flash, along with seeing all the bright-eyed, scientific minds at the convention leads Ray to reconsider, and he decides to create a nonprofit organization funding tech research in the name of Chester's late father.
Barry is troubled by why Despero sought him out, with the extraterrestrial antagonist announcing that the Flash would cause a devastating armageddon in the year 2031. Using her empathic powers, Cecile Horton realizes Despero is telling the truth about his timeline and Barry decides the only way Team Flash can work together to prevent this from coming to pass is to prove to Despero the good-natured strength of Barry's character. Allowing Despero to catch up to him, Barry reveals his identity to the new enemy in a way to earn his trust, with Despero ominously giving the Flash seven days to prove himself or face his wrath.
To see Despero in action, The Flash Season 8 airs Tuesdays at 8pm ET/PT on The CW.