The Flash Review: The Once and Future Flash (Season 3 Episode 19)
Barry time travel again on The Flash Season 3 Episode 19, “The Once and Future Flash.”
Hard-headed Barry Allen thinks using his speed to time travel is still the best way to solve his problems in the present. This time he heads to 2024 where he thinks he can find out who Savitar is.
But after going to the future and visiting his future self, dubbed Emo-Barry, he realizes he still doesn’t know who Savitar is. This makes his trip almost worthless and it is a flaw you’d think Barry could’ve considered in his plan. However, while in 2024 Barry gets to visit with the members of Team Flash and see how awful their lives are.
Barry is found by Cisco who helps guide him through the future. Cisco calls himself Doc Brown in the “Back to the Future” scenario which is, surprisingly, the only reference to the movie in the whole episode. Cisco’s hands have been frozen off by Killer Frost so he can no longer vibe and his joking has all but vanished. Nevertheless, he is glad to see Barry from 2017 who he recognizes from the suit details.
Cisco leads Barry to find himself in an abandoned STAR Labs. Barry learns the effects of Iris’ death turn him into a recluse. He also broke his promise to Iris to take care of Joe. Barry somehow didn’t realize he was estranged from Joe even though he knew Emo-Barry was not leaving the lab. Barry can be so dense sometimes.
Another major plot is about Caitlin turning into Killer Frost in “Abra Kadabra,” which continues to baffle me. I can’t comprehend why no other metas are turned evil by their powers only Caitlin. My new explanation is that her heart turns to ice and that makes her evil. This makes little sense and the whole Killer Frost story-line has frustrated me all season!
The ramifications of Caitlin turning evil are that she works with Savitar and is the only person in the future that knows who he is. Barry cannot get it out of her, but hopefully, he can change Killer Frost back to Caitlin.
Barry decides to help get Team Flash back together in the future.
I don’t know how that helps him in the present in any way. But this gives us the best scene of the episode, HR being a romance writer and giving a reading at Jitters. Barry gathers up the viable team and goes after Mirror Master and Top with the eventual help of Emo-Barry.
Barry is able to go back to the past with Cisco’s help. Barry’s return gives little hope to Team Flash, since the only thing Barry learns is that the future sucks.
With Emo-Barry’s declaration that there is nothing he can do to keep Iris alive, are you starting to think maybe she will actually die? Not that in this universe deaths are permanent, there’s always ways to bring people back.
Maybe the team should be focusing on keeping Iris somewhere Savitar can’t get to her as opposed to how to stop him from killing her? Surely, they could find a safe house that others couldn’t get to. Or if nothing else, take her to a different Earth for awhile to keep Savitar from her.
With the almost reveal of Savitar’s identity, surely we will learn who Savitar is next week.
Who do you think Savitar is? What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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Allie Perkins
Allie is a civil engineer who annoys her friends by trying to make them care about shows they don't watch. She is always obsessing over TV shows, watching as much Netflix and Hulu (they have all the good, old teen dramas!), and trying to find ways to entertain her dog while she watches TV. Loves Gilmore Girls, The X-Files, Dawson's Creek, Lost, and way too many shows to list!
2 comments
The whole “Caitlyn going evil” is tres stupid, UNLESS. I am probably giving the writers more credit than they deserve, but in Earth2, Caitlyn was evil, but so were Laurel Lance and Ronnie Raymond — two people who were heroes on Earth1. Caitlyn developed this major phobia about being evil because of Earth2 Caitlyn, so I think she’s essentially talked herself into being evil if she shows her powers. What Killer Frost said in this episode is that Savitar gave her what Barry couldn’t — acceptance of her powers.
But what if that is something that Barry can give her, accepting her powers not as Killer Frost but as Caitlyn Snow? The key to defeating Savitar could be, in part, flipping Killer Frost into a meta-but-good Caitlyn, also changing the future for everyone else like Cisco and Julian.
You are right she did become worried about it after meeting her Earth 2 counter part! And I really do think she is the key to beating Savitar. Caitlin working with Savitar was the one thing I think Barry learned from this trip to the future that seemed relevant. I truly hope that it plays out that we can get a good meta Catilin like you said!
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