'The Flash' Season 7 Explained: What Is The Chronarch?

The Flash Season 7, Episode 4 may have seen Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin) defeat Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian), but another 64th-century threat seems to be coming for Team Flash.

The most recent episode of The Flash, titled "Central City Strong," is streaming now on The CW website and app. In the episode, Abra comes to the present day looking for revenge. He says he can remember his life before the Crisis on Infinite Earths led to the destruction of most of the multiverse (including Abra's family) and now he wants revenge.

However, he is not the only one seeming out for vengeance. "Central City Strong" sees Abra warn that in the future a being known as the Chronarch becomes an enemy of The Flash.

For fans less sure of their DC Comics history, the Chronarch has had a number of forms. In the Legion of Super-Heroes, he is an insectoid creature called Circadia Senius, who is the director of the Time Institute, which does research on and around the time barrier.

However, the mention of the Chronarch in The Flash Season 7, Episode 4 seems to be a reference to a different Chronarch, who is linked to Abra Cadabra. In the comic book The Flash #68, the Chronarch is a vast computer that minutely controls every aspect of life in the 64th century. The Flash eventually destroys this computer, but this has potentially worse implications for the future, as the people freed from the control of the computer develop a messianic cult around the figure of The Flash which he then has to go back and correct.

This computer in the comics is also an enemy of Abra, who is sentenced to death by the machine.

Quite how a computer can become an enemy of The Flash in The CW show is unclear, but if Abra's warning proves prosthetic fans will discover everything in the upcoming episodes.

Abra's warnings, of course, have come to be realised on the show before. He was the first person, for example, to mention Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands), who went on to become a major villain in The Flash Season 4.

However, fans may have a while to wait before the show returns to this warning. The villain for the first half of Season 7 is set to be Godspeed, a villain fans have long wanted to face off against Barry and the gang.

Godspeed's role in the current season was confirmed by Flash showrunner Eric Wallace. Asked if viewers would see the character face off against The Flash in Season 7 by TV Line, he said, "Yes, you just might...Because that's where we're going!"

The Season 7 synopsis also teased a dangerous enemy for the season. It reads in part, "Flash will ultimately defeat Mirror Master. But in doing so, he'll also unleash an even more powerful and devastating threat on Central City: one that threatens to tear his team—and his marriage—apart."

The Flash Season 7 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on The CW. The last five episodes are streaming now on The CW website and app, Seasons 1 to 6 are streaming now on Netflix.