The Flash Season 8 Episode 1 recap: Armageddon, Part 1

This article contains SPOILERS for The Flash Season 8 Episode 1

As the Armageddon event begins, Ray Palmer returns to Central City, and a new villain makes his presence felt in the premiere episode of The Flash Season 8.

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This episode naturally starts with reminders about how good Barry and Irish are both doing after last season. We see Barry save passengers on two bullet trains 50 miles away in under 12 seconds while reassuring Caitlin when she states she is going to try dating again. And Iris is seen running her conglomerate of CC Citizen Media that has expanded its office and personnel. Iris promotes Allegra to Supervising Editor as we see their relationship and mutual love of the company on display.

That night in their loft, Barry and Iris are getting ready to have a candlelit dinner of pizza from Milan when they get a knock on the door — it is Dr. Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) in the flesh! He is in town for a tech convention, and since his hotel was overbooked, he decided to take up Barry and Iris’ offer of them always having a bed for him. Ray was clearly interrupting, but the adorable couple is too nice to say anything, even though they were about to try and have a baby.

The Flash Season 8 Episode 1: Ray Palmer finds his footing

The next morning, Ray explains that he barely talks with the Legends and misses his friends but is happy he can focus on his tech and research like he used to before he became the Atom. Chester arrives at the loft, and the two are set up to be with each other a lot since Chester is Ray’s liaison throughout the convention. Barry and Iris make halfway good excuses about why they have to leave, and this scene honestly concerns me for Ray and Brandon Routh, especially considering how the actor left Legends of Tomorrow in 2020.

Barry escapes to a crime scene where the Royal Flush Gang stole an important and likely expensive microchip that was being protected by four armed security guards. Sgt. Kristen Kramer and Barry talk about how the meta task force would be equipped to handle this case if it didn’t have a lot of institutional racism ingrained in it. Barry then is rightfully inquisitive about how his boss can mimic meta abilities, and that is something Barry will have to keep an eye on. At his lab, Barry finds out that the bullet train event was created by the Royal Flush Gang to get an energy source along with an Iron Heights power outage that Barry is thankfully able to subdue before anything goes awry and only one prisoner escapes.

Chester is trying to be the best handler for Ray, and he is doing so well with preparing for everything, but then we find out the two have different ideas as to why Ray is here. Chester thinks Ray is ready to start a new tech company, but in actuality, he is very happy living a balanced life with no Legend or superhero business. Back at CC Citizen Media HQ, Allegra struggles to supervise in her new position and stand up for herself when being the new boss of the bullpen. This leads to Iris telling Allegra she expected as much and sees a lot of potential in Allegra and inspires her Supervising Editor to keep going.

The Flash Season 8 Episode 1: Dots are connected for the Royal Flush Gang

Team Flash connects the microchip, the power source on the bullet train, and the Iron Heights prisoner to the Royal Flush Gang since they were trying to steal the cryptocurrencies from the casinos in Central City. The Flash makes his presence felt, stops the playing card group of metas with his leveled-up super speed, and barely breaks a sweat. Allegra finally finds the words to stand up to the CCC Media bullpen and does so through inspiring her writers to do their jobs with heart and emotion and remember “Citizen” is right there in the company’s name. This clearly gets through to the snobbish writers while proving Allegra is the right person to carry on with Iris’ vision for their brand.

At the Central City Technology Convention, Chester is hosting a live stream for his audience when Barry and Ray stop by. Chester is still feeling embarrassed after messing up in front of his idol, so he darts away as The Flash would have. Barry and Ray have a talk as they compare their experiences, and Ray looks to be realized he might be too rigid. Ray and Irish have their marquee interview that ends with Ray announcing he might have been wrong to put all of this behind him.

The Flash Season 8 Episode 1: Despero arrives in Central City

After the chat, Despero (played by Tony Curran) appears, who we saw at the top of the episode causing destruction in 2031 before traveling away somewhere, and causes everyone at the convention to flee and for The Flash to arrive. After some powerful mind games and a return of the Atom, the evil Despero is sent away because Atom was able to manipulate his belt that looked to be the source of his power. This is not before we find out Despero is here to prevent an Armageddon that was caused by none other than The Flash?

This opens a lot of questions that Team Flash all ask within themselves. The team and Ray start planning for the fight of their lives by outsourcing help. The episode ends with The Flash trying to reason with Despero at STAR Labs rather than fight him. Despero delays his execution by giving The Flash a week to prove he will not become the destroyer and killer that Despero knows.

How will the rest of this Armageddon event unfold? Will The Flash really cause all of the pain and suffering we saw in 2031? Stay tuned into Show Snob so you never miss a thing!

Watch The Flash Season 8 with new episodes every Tuesday at 8 pm EST and catch up at CWTV.com or on The CW app