Given a  Kahler manifold, the smooth Calabi flow is the parabolic version of the constant scalar curvature equation. Given that this fourth order flow has a very undeveloped regularity and existence theory, J. Streets recast it as a weak gradient flow in the abstract completion of the space of Kahler metrics. In this talk we will show how a better understanding of the abstract completion gives updated information on the large time behavior of the weak Calabi flow, and how this fits into a well known conjectural picture of Donaldson. This is joint work with Robert Berman and Chinh Lu.