Jessie Robertson reviews the nineteenth episode of The Flash season 3…
Emo Flash is about as much fun as depressed Cisco….
This is one of those episodes that ventures into an alternate timeline, in this case, the same timeline just 8 years in the future. These kinds of episodes are always fun because you see all your favorite characters in a different light, and usually something revelatory comes out of them. Just as Caitlin escapes and evades Team Flash, Barry chooses that moment to leave; which seems insensitive until he reminds us he can return at the same exact moment as if nothing’s happened. Benefit of being a speedster. Hey, that dude never needs DVR then! What he finds is things are so much worse than he could have imagined; not only the weight of Iris’ death had a severe impact on all the team members, but Barry became insulated and shut off; he shut down the team and STAR Labs. He also didn’t keep his promise to Iris to make sure Joe is okay; when we find Joe, Cisco says if he’s not at home with Wally then he’s with Iris, at her grave, which he is. Cisco is now a powerless because he lost his hands to Caitlin (I so wish he would have made a Luke Skywalker reference right about then), Wally’s quadriplegic and unresponsive, Julian spends all his time watching over a capture Killer Frost in captivity and HR, well, he’s doing just fine working on his “checklist.” And Barry….well, he’s unkempt to say the least. and miserable in isolation and for many good reasons. Barry immediately regrets his decision to come because the piece of information he wanted ( Savitar’s identity) Barry doesn’t know. Yet for some reason, he can’t travel back to the past.
That would be because of Cisco; he created a device to stop Barry from leaving. He desperately wants to get the team back together and sees young hopeful Barry as the key to doing that. I really enjoyed Carlos Valdes performance here as he’s a changed man, his friends have disappeared and all seems hopeless; but that spark in his eye, that infectious optimism is still there and it was welcome. Without a Flash anymore, Barry sees a chance to at least help his friends, even if they are the future versions as Top & Mirror Master are running amok in Central City with no one to stop them. So Barry recruits the team back together, and even gets the help of his own future self (in a rad bright red suit) to take them down and get some much-needed help in the Iris puzzle from not as glum Barry from the future.
Once returned, saving Caitlin is on his mind. He finds out she’ll be working with Savitar in the future, and as we find out, yes, this season’s big bad once again has a secret identity. Once Caitlin is free (walking in the snow barefoot was a cool image), Savitar baits her into his camp by revealing himself to her ….and literally coming out of a robotic suit! Holy shit this just got camp! The God of Speed is just a dude wearing a Transformer costume? I really can’t wait till next season when we get a non-speedster non-secret identity big bad.
8.5/10- This episode was directed by HR himself (Tom Cavanagh) and was pretty well done but I audibly groaned at Savitar emerging from that metal suit.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published April 27, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
