Things are heating up as The Flash season 7 nears its conclusion, and to tease the higher stakes that are on the way, The CW just copied a key scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
“P.O.W.”, the third-to-last episode of the season that acted as a precursor to the two-part finale storyline, opened with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) watching the news in his apartment. As the news anchor reported on the chaos in downtown Central City caused by the speedster war, advising citizens to remain in their homes, a concerned Barry prepared to leave and aid in the situation. He was then confronted by a vision of Nora AKA XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy), his daughter from the future.
“Dad,” begins Nora, giving the Scarlet Speedster a dire warning of what’s to come. “Something’s wrong… Our family, the future… It’s all changed.” As she’s saying this Barry appears to be struggling to breathe. “Flash needs to do something before it’s too late,” Nora tells him, before she disappears. Barry calls out her name only to wake up. It seems he just had some kind of prophetic dream…
This whole sequence is clearly a massive homage to a very similar dream sequence from Zack Snyder’s BvS, just with the Flash as the one receiving the dream instead of appearing in it. In Batman v Superman, it’s Ezra Miller’s Barry who comes to Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne in a vision. Just like Nora, he’s from a dystopian future timeline and is attempting to avert it by telling another hero – Bruce, in this case – about the darkness that’s imminent. And, just like Barry, Bruce then awakens afterwards and wonders if the vision is real.
Barry choking when he receives his warning from Nora is something unique to The Flash, though. Presumably it’s a hint that his very existence is in jeopardy as the timeline is changing. We’ll find out what it’s all about as season 7 continues with “Heart of the Matter, Part 1”, the show’s big 150th episode celebration, next Tuesday, July 13th on The CW.