The Flash S03E15 Review: To Change the Future

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 15: The Wrath of Savitar

It's a big tide-turning episode that I feel could've been handled a bit better, I think. I mean, it's still better than some of the stuff we got during the Zoom season, but I really thought that Wally's Savitar hallucinations and his antagonistic conflict with Barry could've been better handled. Likewise, while wanting to cure herself is something that Caitlin has wanted to do all season and it's a valid motivation as any, her stealing a chunk of the Philosopher's Stone seemed to be a bit of an ass-pull.

So the big thing that hit Barry is his newfound engagement, and as Wally sees during a vibing session with Cisco, apparently Barry does it partly to prevent the future where Iris is ringless. Okay, but I honestly think the sheer 'oh my good Iris is probably going to die in a couple of months' thing would make Barry propose anyway, preventing the future or not, and Wally exploding at Barry for it is a bit weirdly out of character. Poor Wally isn't faring really well in this episode, seeing visions not just of Savitar, but actually fighting him. And just like Savitar's previous M.O. when seducing Cisco and Julian, Wally sees someone dear to him that's dead, namely his mother.

I really think spreading this out over a couple of episodes would've been a lot better and feel less sudden, but still, I rather enjoyed Wally's fall into madness and desperation this episode, even if it doesn't really make sense for Jesse (who, by the way, is a superhero with powers herself!) to do nothing and just stand dumbfounded while Wally's clearly not right in the head.

Caitlin, meanwhile, kept a piece of the Philosopher's Stone and... it's bad... somehow? Turns out that while Craig the Acolyte (ha, Craig!) somehow managed to get his hands on the box and the Stone that Barry chucked into the Speed Force, Caitlin keeping a piece of it has delayed Savitar's plans.

This ends up causing Wally to try and get rid of the stone and inadvertently open a portal to the Speed Force, causing Savitar to abduct Wally and have him 'take his place' in his prison in the Speed Force, something that he likens to the Greek Titan Atlas, where someone must take his place in the prison. Savitar does get a creepy scene when poor Julian is made into, in his own words, a 'Human Ouija Board' to channel Savitar twice... though Savitar honestly is more a mystery than an actual compelling villain so far. Like, yeah, he's creepy and he's powerful and all, but so was Zoom in early season two and we all know how that panned out. This episode does flesh out Savitar a bit more, even if it's a retread of Eobard Thawne's "you did something horrible to me in the future, Barry Allen, and I will have my revenge" storyline... though the fact that Savitar's identity possibly stemming from one of Team Flash's members is probably going to make all his earlier scenes significantly different. Honestly thought that we were going to see Savitar's identity when Barry whacked him in his Megatronesque face, but nope.

Overall it's honestly pretty decent, even if Wally's transformation and descent into madness happened a little too rapidly for my liking. Special kudos to his performance when he sees his mother, though, that was a perfectly done emotional moment. Also, as usual, Joe absolutely delivers. From his quiet yet intense moment of being told of Barry and Iris's engagement (borderline incestuous as it may be) to his absolute, quiet horror when he sees Wally being ripped up by lightning and sucked into the Speed Force vortex... dude's an amazing actor, isn't he?

So we did get two parts of Savitar's prophecy down: "one will suffer a fate worse than death" is Wally, apparently, and "one will betray you" seems to be Caitlin? Maybe? If that counts as betrayal? That leaves the "one will fall", which refers to Iris, I think? Also I think Barry's right hand might be crippled from Savitar stabbing Barry's clavicle with his robot arm-gauntlet thing, but we know how quickly he recovered from Zoom going all Bane on his back, so.

Hopefully the follow-up to this episode will deliver. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The fact that the only thing left of Wally is parts of his costume is a homage to Barry Allen's death in the comics, though Barry leaves behind almost his entire costume instead of a chunk of the chest-piece.
• While I'm sure other characters in the comics have done it as well, Wally's all-in-the-mind battle with the supposedly-sealed Savitar, in a way that hurt him physically despite Savitar not actually being there, resembles how the then-deceased Slade manifested to Robin in season three of the Teen Titans cartoon.