The Flash's Farewell Run: Your Top 6 Wishes For The Final Season

The Flash's farewell "run, Barry, run!" isn't arriving until midseason (early 2023), but fans of the first Arrowverse spinoff have a very good idea of what they want from Season 9. 

As has been well-documented here on these pages, The Flash's showrunner and cast very much though that last season would be the speedster series' swan song, ergo the wrap-up of Arrow hero John Diggle's green-ish lantern-y journey, the kinda-sorta-return of Caitlin's dead fiancé Ronnie, and a rousing, season-ending showdown between The Flash and the improbably resurrected Eobard Thawne's supercharged Negative Reverse-Flash.

And yet there is still a thing or two (or six, based on the tallying of comments on a recent, casual reader poll) that The Flash could try to pull off, during its final, 13-episode run.

Review TVLine readers' Top 6 wishes below, and sound off if you haven't yet on what return or plot development tops your "must" list!

Many readers see an opportunity for The Flash, as the last true Arrowverse series standing, to "wrap up dangling storylines" — including the future kidnapping of Oliver and Felicity's son/Mia's brother William. But most of all, and despite Flash boss Eric Wallace speculating that he would not have time to do so, there is the hope that Barry & Co. can rescue Sara Lance and the other Legends of Tomorrow from time prison, to which they were headed when that series abruptly ended. "I definitely want to see The Flash do a Legends of Tomorrow episode, to wrap up the Arrowverse," said TVLine reader 69 Road Runner.

As you are about to see in the next few slides, the return of familiar faces from The Flash's past are a high priority for many fans. And while the likes of Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane (at least, the Earth Prime versions that Barry has actually interacted with in crossovers), Mia Smoak, William Clayton and Ralph Dibny racked up a few votes, Iris' brother, speedster Wally West (played by Keiynan Lonsdale), is among the Top 3 characters you would like to see make a final-season encore.

The return of "Arrowverse GOAT Oliver Queen" (as TVLine reader Azerty dubbed him) is as desired by many fans as it is improbable, seeing as Oliver heroically, truly and sincerely died during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event that preceded Arrow's very final episodes. But even a Barry/Oliver "bromance flashback" could do well to bring the Arrowverse, which launched 10 years ago this October, some symbolic closure.

A reunion with Kara Danvers (played by Melissa Benoist) would be, in a word, super, for many who loved that duo's dynamic. "They had such a great, friendly chemistry," TVLine reader Liz observed. Added Ingmar, "my biggest wish for the final season of The Flash would be a guest spot for Kara (Supergirl) to wrap up their friendship" — which of course was worthy of a crossover song, embedded above.

Barry's BFF Cisco (played by original cast member Carlos Valdes) was last seen in the Season 7 finale, where he officiated WestAllen's vow renewal. But hopefully he puts in at least one more appearance, possible to officially make an overdue discovery. "I hope the show ends with Cisco at least rediscovering the Multiverse," says TVLine reader Daniel, "thus leaving the possibility of Arrowverse characters maybe one day showing up on Superman & Lois, Stargirl, Gotham Knights...."

Fact: Barry and Iris are destined to have at least two children, Nora and Bart.

Fact: To date, there has been just one overt suggestion that Barry and Iris were actively (ahem) "trying," and yet no Clearblue or First Response kit has been spied.

Fact: The thing that Flash fans want most from the 13-episode final season is the official start of WestAllen's family — and ideally, not just some "I'm pregnant!" declaration leading into the series finale's closing credits. "Iris being pregnant better not be the note the series ends on," TVLine reader Scott, for one, opined. "I don't think the season has to take place over nine months, nor should the writing surrounding Iris's pregnancy mimic that of Felicity's... but there has to be something substantial."

Or as TVLine reader Nora similarly put it, "I need to see Barry and Iris start their family DURING the season and not only in the last five minutes of the last episode. I want the whole thing with the pregnancy reveal and them living it — like Barry said, "I want to be there for the ultrasound"  — and all that comes with it. It doesn't need to take up the whole plot, but it needs to take place. WestAllen has suffered enough!" And how.

Want scoop on The Flash's final season? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line.