[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Flash Season 8 Episode 18 “The Man in the Yellow Tie.”]
While Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) dealt with a speedster problem back in Central City, he wasn’t the only one to visit the Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) still locked up on Lian Yu in the latest episode of The Flash. Also dropping by: John Diggle (David Ramsey)!
Diggle sought answers about that cube that fell in front of him in the Arrow series finale and has been plaguing him since. “When this thing is away from me, I can still feel it in my mind, pulling me closer,” he explained. “The more I fight it, the louder I hear its call, but I have to know what it is. I have to know what these damn voices want from me.” Thawne recognized the transmatter tech and agreed to help if he could see what was inside. But after he coached Diggle as to how to open it, Diggle saw into the multiverse and decided he didn’t want any of it. After he closed the cube and threw it, it disappeared.
“I saw a thousand lives I could lead, but not one of them led me back to my family,” Diggle said. While Thawne argued it was his last chance to be someone powerful, “but I am someone special,” Diggle told him. “Now I realize the cube was trying to make me someone else, something else. And it even tricked me into believing that somehow I wanted it too, but I don’t. Because there is no power in the universe more powerful than the love I have for my family. I suppose a man like you wouldn’t understand that because if it came down to a choice between some cosmic destiny or being a father, a husband, there’s really no choice at all.” He left Thawne there and returned home to his family.
The CW
So what does that mean for Diggle’s future? It sounds like they’re going to keep him grounded, which considering he started on Arrow, which began as the show without metapowers or aliens (then the Arrowverse expanded), is a nice touch. And considering that Justice U, the spinoff in which Ramsay is set to star is still in development according to TVLine, it seems they want to not only keep him on Earth and in this universe, but also keep him without powers.
If that project progresses, the logline says that Diggle will be recruiting “five young meta humans to live undercover as freshmen at a prestigious university. There he will oversee their education and train them to become the heroes of tomorrow.” Chances are that by keeping him human — instead of going down the Green Lantern route, though it was never officially said that’s what the cube was leading to — Diggle would be the one to help keep the metas connected to their normal lives.
So what did you think of the ending to this arc that started on Arrow in 2020 and has been teased through Ramsey’s guest spots across the Arrowverse since?
The Flash, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW