As a superhero geek of long standing, I have loved the concept and closely woven continuity of the Arrowverse. That said, I won’t claim every moment has been perfect, and, honestly, this final season of the Flash hasn’t been their best. In this episode, there are time travel shenanigans and assorted flashbacks as the STAR Labs crew faces a new and different kind of threat in “Partners in Time.”

In the year 2123, the Flash Museum gets a very questionable after-hours visitor. They’re clearly up to something, and then leave abruptly, showing some fairly impressive tech. In the present, Barry is thrilled about his and Iris’ forthcoming baby, and is doing assorted tasks and playing the doting husband with the benefits of superspeed. As Iris shows something to Barry from his past, they get a message about a mold inspection at STAR Labs. Since they knew about this, all the Flash support equipment has somehow been hidden (I don’t get at all how that was supposed to work) and Barry zips off to join the team in welcoming the inspectors.  With the warning ahead of time, everything is going to go smoothly, right?

Arriving at STAR, Barry spends some time with Khione, reassuring her on a few fronts having to do with her past, her complicated family issues, and reuniting with Mark after his hurried departure following some not-so-great behavior on his part. Things go off the rails before the inspection even starts. Apparently, it’s not just one, it’s a team, and STAR is way overdue on a lot of different inspections. On the one hand, you’d think a collection of geniuses would manage to stay current on their paperwork, but on the other hand, I’ve never been clear on how many people work there. Is it just the team? It seems like a really big building for that to be so, but then, have we seen anyone else there? Iris shows up, and offers to help with the inspectors. After we meet the newcomers and see some of their odd quirks, things start getting weird. They cover for the Speed Lab really badly (even with time to prepare? Really?) and then they have trouble leaving the place.

They find a strange new (or old) addition to the lab, and can’t make sense out of it being there. The inspectors are trying to figure out what’s going on, but they don’t have anywhere near enough information about the weirdness magnet that STAR is. Iris and Barry speculate on some odder possibilities, and Barry comes up with a really bad idea about how to try and resolve the current mess. At the West house, where it seems like half the cast has lied at one point or another, Chester and Allegra have game night (with just two people?) and an interesting slip of the tongue makes everything a lot more tense. You don’t need to be an empath to pick up on that, but Cecile is one so she can really tell something’s wrong when she wanders in.

Back at the lab, Barry’s bad idea doesn’t work anyway, so at least there’s that. It does kick off some interesting ripple effects, especially in the wardrobe area. Naturally, Barry’s next big idea is to reveal his identity. Again. This is the man who told Oliver to wear a mask, and he can’t seem to keep his on. The team has a variety of different reactions to Barry’s big reveal, and then some plot twists put a new spin on everyone being trapped together. While they grasp at straws, things keep getting weird at the West home (where currently no one named West actually lives, now that I think about it). After a few awkward exchanges, Chester leaves, and Cecile starts pushing Allegra for some answers about what’s going on.

Things go from bad to worse at STAR, as their situation goes from puzzling and annoying to outright dangerous. The inspection team might as well be wearing red shirts as the seriousness of the situation starts to become clearer. Even Iris and Barry, with all their experience in strange events over the last few years, don’t really have an idea about what’s going on. Cecile manages to prod Allegra enough to get her to start talking, and she relates her perspective on recent events viewed through the lens of her admittedly tragic personal history. Cecile listens well and gives her some good advice.

Iris and Barry take turns blaming themselves for the current mess they’re in, and neither one of these makes much sense to me. They talk about all the changes they’re going through, with her pregnancy and life changing for them both. Their ramblings finally give Barry an idea, and he pulls an old-fashioned detective style reveal about his theory. The good news is that Barry was right. The less good news is that the revealed thief figures they have nothing to lose and starts making some serious threats. The thief turns out to be a second iteration of a minor villain who most often clashed with the Atom in the comics. After a lot of speculating and theorizing and attempts to solve the problem, they manage to resolve the dilemma they’re in, and there’s a sort of time loop effect and most of the events of the episode are reset. Even the universe or timestream does a better job of keeping Barry’s secret identity than he does.

With everything finally more or less resolved, Barry meets with Khinoe to talk out the events of the day. Khione talks about her meeting with a supporting cast member I guess they couldn’t afford for the episode or something. Barry talks about all the general weirdness they’ve been through over the last several years, and we get assorted flashbacks from previous episodes. At Jitters, the only other place people hang out besides STAR, Allegra goes to find Chester after having her talk with Cecile. The two have a heart to heart, and Allegra confesses about everything that was bothering her earlier. So those two get a happy ending. Barry and Iris end the episode back at their place, doing their best to accept letting life happen without the benefit of their future knowledge.

What I Liked: Cecile seems to be stepping up to take Joe’s place as wise mentor, although she’s not really that much older than the rest of the team. Allegra’s reservations make sense when you consider all she’s been through. Iris and Barry do make a good team.

What I Didn’t: The whole inspection plot didn’t make any sense to me, as I mentioned above. They are starting to use “weird random threat from the future” almost as much as “oh no, an evil speedster is on the loose… and he’s even faster than Barry.” The problem with a show going on this long is that you lose cast members and characters, and I really miss Joe and Cisco.

This was not one of their better episodes. I’ll give this a 2.5 out of 5. Hopefully they pick up the quality again before this final season ends.