With Christmas just around the corner, Barry and Iris are settling into their lives together. But DeVoe has other plans. And so does Amunet Black…

If you wandered away from the show around the same time I did, during the 1.5 seasons of Barry Allen’s Terrible Life Choices, please come back. Everything about this episode is massive fun.

Not the least of which are Barry and Iris. The characters who have in the past taken turns being the worst person in the room are now the heart of the show. Iris is grounded, calm, compassionate and not to be trifled with. Her choices here, and the way she and Barry talk about them, are the dramatic engine that powers the show and are based entirely on the love and trust these characters have one for another. Likewise Barry, who has a vital turn this week. His speech about realising he doesn’t have to run all the time, especially the way it sets up the ending shows a level of maturity that’s astounding. This is Barry Allen as adult, Barry Allen as hero. It’s great!

Elsewhere the episode impresses too. The B plot in particular is great fun as Amunet Black kidnaps Caitlin to operate on a wounded Meta. The way the two women orbit one another, and the twisted and sweet way Amunet views Caitlin are genuinely surprising and some of the best writing in the show’s history lives in those scenes.

Verdict: Rounded out by a killer final twist that sets up a major plot for next year, this episode is assured, funny, sweet and large scale. The show has come out of the crossover at a dead sprint and it’s a delight to be along for the ride. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart