Super Tuesday Recap - Comic Book & TV Show Reviews · MTR Network

The Flash Season 9 Episode 9 Review

·24 min·1 clip

Chris opens by stumbling over the episode number, then the pair settles on season nine, episode nine, "It's My Party, I'll Die If I Want To." They quickly make Oliver Queen's return the main event, and treat it like the reason the hour really works. The first big point is plain: they miss watching Oliver Queen kick ass. That feeling drives almost everything else they say. They rave about the fight scenes and the way Oliver cuts through the CCPD riot police like they are red shirts. They keep coming back to the suit. They keep coming back to the bow. They keep coming back to the Green Arrow image lit by lightning. For them, that visual mashup is the show at its peak. It is fan service, sure, but they argue that it also works as story service. They say this is the right amount of cameo energy, not bloated and not empty, just enough to make the whole thing land. Wally and Diggle matter in that conversation too, because the episode only works if the audience already cares about the people in the room. The hosts use that shared memory as proof. They argue that The Flash is strongest when it leans into the larger Arrowverse instead of pretending it can survive on generic superhero mechanics alone. They also say the show does not need to be a direct comic adaptation to be valid. In fact, they argue the medium works better when it invents its own event. There is no comic equivalent for Oliver returning from cosmic death in this exact way. That is the point. The episode becomes proof that television can build its own mythology. They spend time on the production context too, including the report that Amel wanted to come back in the suit from his last season and not return in the finale. That detail matters because it explains why the return feels specific instead of lazy. One host also admits the Flash marketing campaign is starting to work on him. That opens the door to a stretch of side talk about Batman v Superman, a remembered parking-lot apology, and a long-running boycott of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. None of it feels random in the room. It all feeds the same debate about conviction, fandom, and when a franchise earns another chance. They keep swinging between sincerity and jokes. They keep undercutting themselves and then circling right back to the praise. The back half folds in a plug for UD pod and a note that a special guest is coming. They also remind listeners that the show is nearing the end of a nine-season run, which they treat as a real feat for genre television. Syndication money enters the conversation. So does support for the WGA. By the time they wrap, the episode has been framed as both a celebration and a warning. This is what the show should have been doing more often. This is also why it still matters that it got here at all.

As heard by us

Oliver Queen's return becomes the argument for The Flash at its best.

The review makes a strong case that Oliver Queen's return gives The Flash its best kind of momentum, especially when it lets Oliver, Wally, and Diggle do more than simply show up.

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Why you'd press play

For the moment when Oliver Queen walks back in and the episode leans all the way into crossover-era fan service.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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