@2017ApJ...836...12K; @2019ApJ...878..135K]. Still, fully resolved – spatially, temporally, spectrally – observations of the impulsive phase of flares remain scarce, owing to the difficulty of positioning the slit of a spectrometer exactly at the flare footpoints, and exactly at the time of energy deposition in the lower atmosphere. As numerical simulations mostly concentrate on the very first instants ($\le 100$ s) of the flare’s development, comparisons with observations have often been less than optimal.

Recent observations of flare dynamics, obtained at high spatial and temporal resolution with the IRIS spacecraft and other instruments, are much improving this situation [@2018ApJ...867...85B; @2018ApJ...856...34T; @2018SciA....4.2794J; @2019ApJ...879L..17P]. One of the best examples to date of chromospheric dynamics and condensation during a flare has been presented in @Graham:2015aa [hereafter Paper I], who exploited a unique sit & stare, high cadence (9.4 s) IRIS dataset obtained during a strong flare, to reveal clear signatures of chromospheric condensation in multiple footpoints sources. The fortuitous development of the flare along the spectrograph’s slit allowed the authors to uncover the quantitative similarity of the dynamical behavior of a number of flaring pixels, hinting at the possibility of spatially resolved [*elementary*]{} flare kernels over sub-arcsec spatial scales. The use of imaging spectrometers 