Jessie Robertson reviews the twenty first episode of The Flash season 3…
Cause: HR drums nervously and talks a mile a minute Effect: He gets one hell of a kiss from the girl!
Now that we know who Savitar is (at least his identity; Cisco’s timeline is still ringing in my head if I put too much thought into it), how does Team Flash stop him? Cisco cooks up a brilliant idea of shutting off the part of Barry’s brain that can’t make new memories, that way Savitar won’t know how they stop him. Question: hasn’t Barry already thought about the device they are working , hence Savitar would know about it already? Never mind. This plan goes awry as instead of new memories, it erases all of Barry’s memories, as well as Savitar’s, and Wally’s speed powers because if Savitar never planned to give Wally his powers because he can’t remember anything, Wally never gets them. This leads to sort of another stop-off on the final destination of Barry and Savitar’s showdown as both of them are basically incapacitated for this whole episode. It’s starting to feel like the season’s are just too long; we’ve had several of these type of episodes this year; now if they are enjoyable, I’m all for them. This one was. But, was the stop necessary?
Yes. This episode does one thing (not just one, but one large one); it solidifies the union between Barry and Iris. If that isn’t highlighted and circled and lit up with gold stars, then what was it all for? Iris is slated to die; this is a known fact. If we don’t further cement these two’s bond for each other, this death has no meaning. They do a bang-up job of making this the forefront of where this season has been headed. If you can get past the fact that Barry and Iris were essentially raised as siblings and now make out regularly, there is a great love story between them. As Barry goes out to deal with a freshly released from prison villain named Heat Monger (that Barry basically let go because he also forgot all his CSI facts), his memory is still clouded. Killer Frost shows up to help Team Flash because without Savitar, what she wants also is lost. But, Barry’s memory needs a catalyst: the scene where Iris describes the night Barry’s mother was killed, and how he was frozen and silent, emotionless and in shock until late that night, she heard him crying downstairs and went and laid his head on her lap so he could mourn, that’s a deeply emotional moment between two people, any two people let alone kids, and it’s that kind of moment that shows the roots of the tree of years of love they have for each other; Iris goes on to say she thinks that’s the moment they fell in love so again, it’s not incest creepy.
There’s a good bit of acting going on here too; this Barry Allen doesn’t know he’s the Flash, doesn’t know his parents were both murdered by the same psycho-path; he knows none of it, so he’s just dorky , lovable, smiling Barry Allen. Iris, being his fiancée, is kinda warming up to Barry in this disposition because he’s woefully, ignorantly sublimely happy in a way he can’t be with all the weight of his life and it’s tragedies heavy on his shoulders. Barry’s also darkly fun as his future time replicant self with the burned face and Grant Gustin must have been having all kinds of fun playing these two distinct separate pieces of Barry Allen. Besides all things Barry-Iris, as I mentioned, Killer Frost (who refers to Caitlin in the third person), is back in the lab for a one time reunion tour and Cisco is taking every chance he can get to try and pull his friend, Caitlin Snow out of this being he sees in front of him. He makes a hell of an effort and as she leaves STAR Labs we see a flicker of life from Caitlin’s eyes and it looks like her current situation may not be as permanent as we thought.
8.5/10- Another fun, solid episode of the Flash; Grant Gustin really stole the show but Candice Patton was allowed some subtle heavy lifting
Other Notes:
– “I feel more like a Bart.”
– An energy source more powerful than the Sun is chilling in a pool with King Shark?
Jessie Robertson
Originally published May 10, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
