Hello Flash fans! After a month away, we are back. Time may have passed, but the goals for our heroes remain the same: stop Savitar and save Iris. With all traditional means of information-gathering turning up empty, Barry heads to 2024 to learn how the God of Speed is defeated. To win, he needs to go Back to the Future!
But the world he arrives in is more like the alternate timeline of Back to the Future Part II. Eight years after Savitar killed Iris, Team Flash doesn’t exist anymore. While Future Barry managed to eventually trap the evil speedster, everything else around him fell apart. He abandoned Joe, Wally was paralyzed by Savitar, Caitlin gave in to her Killer Frost side, freezing off Cisco’s hands in the process, and worst of all, Barry grew emo hair! Yeah, things don’t look great. But at least Barry can get some useful info, right?
Not really. It turns out that EmoBarry, depressed and broken, doesn’t know who Savitar is and has no interest in helping present-day Flash. Cisco is around to give his friend a tour of what all his friends are up to. But there’s no help to be found with the Savitar problem. Instead, Mirror Master and Top are running around, causing trouble. So, after being encouraged by Cisco, our Barry gets what’s left of Team Flash together to defeat the villains. They even manage to get EmoBarry back in the game. He also gives his past self a device that a scientist made that let him trap Savitar. Barry’s new mission is to find Savitar before Iris is killed.
This is my biggest problem with the episode. It doesn’t offer any answers. It doesn’t even explore this new future and give us an in-depth look at the hole that Iris’ death creates. Instead, our Barry gets the old team back together and takes down a couple of his rogues in a generic fashion. If you’re going to center an episode around a dystopian future, then really go for it!
At least Killer Frost keeps the tension up in the present. After escaping from S.T.A.R. Labs, with her Caitlin side nowhere to be seen, Killer Frost runs into Savitar. He offers an alliance and promises to keep Caitlin locked away forever. She’s not convinced….until Savitar reveals his identity to her. Then she’s immediately on-board. The secret of Savitar continues. With only a few episodes left, we should be on our way to revelations and resolutions to this season’s storyline.
Assorted Thoughts:
– H.R. as this successful, romantic author with hoards of women after him is the funniest part of this episode. It brings some much needed levity, until Flash intervenes. As he says about his interrupted experience, “I was about to check one of the most important boxes a man could check in his life!”
– Back in the present, why does H.R. start singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” when Killer Frost has them cornered?
– The way Flash gets to the future seems random and nonsensical, even more so than this show’s standards.
– Next week, it seems like we’ll actually learn who Savitar is. Or at least Barry will.