The Flash, Season 3, Episode 7: Killer Frost
So, after the big introduction of Savitar last episode, this episode starts off playing around with the Savitar season plot for a bit before dropping it favour of Caitlin Snow's Killer Frost B-plot. Which, in other series would be irritating how the main villain, immediately after his introduction, gets shafted aside in favour of a B-plot... but here I definitely enjoyed Killer Frost's story way, way more than Savitar or Alchemy.
The thing is, well, Savitar feels so much more like a rehash of both Reverse-Flash and Zoom. Scary, mysterious evil speedster that runs circles around Flash. I mean, yes, Savitar looks like he's Megatron's cousin, and he does look and sound way more impressive than Zoom's silly skull-mask did, visually, and he does have the little gimmick where only Barry (and presumably Wally now) can see him... but other than that, he feels kind of samey as the previous two big bads. There's the whole 'god' theme that gets brought up, but honestly it's not enough to make Savitar all that interesting than Zoom, and I've gone on record on talking about how Zoom is a bad villain.
So it's actually fortunate that Savitar gets taken out and retreats for the majority of the episode. It is a very cool moment for H.R. to suggest that Cisco and Caitlin... sorry, Vibe and Killer Frost show up to help out Barry, and the combination of teleportation and an icy blast takes Savitar out and forces him to retreat. Savitar all but disappears from the plot at that point. His influence is felt, since Caitlin's main plotline this episode is to search for him in desperation, and H.R. keeps mentioning the need to hunt down the main big bad guy, but otherwise he's absent until the end scene.
And I absolutely love Caitlin Snow as Killer Frost. We had Caitlin don the Killer Frost outfit by way of Earth-2 evil hammy doppelganger in season two, and while Flashpoint is an inelegant, clunky way to force change, the results certainly can't be argued about. After using her powers to rescue Barry, the combined stress of generally everything that's happening -- Savitar's existence, Wally trapped in a cocoon, her own powers -- causes her to kind of snap. Also on the edge of fraying apart are Joe and Barry, both of whom blame themselves in different ways for what has happened to Wally. Joe for putting too much trust in the science guys and not trusting his instincts, and Barry for, well, not being powerful enough to protect Wally.
Caitlin tricks Joe into returning to STAR labs while she forcibly interrogates one of the Alchemy/Savitar cultists, being forced to unleash her powers to take out a couple of policemen before kidnapping Julian. Caitlin forces Julian to create an algorithm to help her find out Alchemy or Savitar, and Julian does so. Flash manages to intervene, knock Julian out and try to talk Caitlin down, but Caitlin cripples Flash and I absolutely love how Caitlin is more confused than evil. She's definitely in an antagonistic role, and a combination of confusion regarding her powers and wanting them gone by way of Savitar, and pinning the blame on Barry on creating Flashpoint in the first place... yeah, she's not in a good place, and all that anger boiling up within her is spilling out.
Though she does have a point -- everything messed-up about Flashpoint is brought about because of Barry dicking with the timeline.
Most unfortunately is the information that Dante was alive pre-Flashpoint, and Flash dicking around saving his mother, however unintentional it might be, killed Dante Ramon. This drives a cold, cold wedge between Barry and Cisco throughout the episode, where Cisco isn't outright hostile because of the crisis involved, but he also makes it clear that he's not happy about Barry, like leaving him with nothing but a simple 'vibrate yourself' during the battle against Killer Frost, or telling him that he's done enough when going off to stakeout the cultist house.
It all comes to a head after Killer Frost confronts one of the cultists serving the Speed God Savitar, and the cultist claim that Killer Frost will have a great plan to play in the future. Can she be the main villain instead of Savitar? She's so much more interesting. The three-way conflict when Vibe and Killer Frost finally attack each other, with Cisco still trying to talk Caitlin down, and when Flash shows up... that freezing kiss was awesome. Those icicle launching was awesome as well. The coldness between Cisco and Barry during the fight is a way to make Flashpoint somewhat more impactful in the personal sense
And, well, Joe follows his gut and cuts Wally out of the cocoon a little too soon than probably should be. I'm not sure if H.R. is being sinister or he's just being a helpful friend who tells Joe what he needs to hear, and Joe's just, well, going along with that. They needed Caitlin's help to help slow Wally down so his mind and body will be in sync, so Barry lets Caitlin out, and that final confrontation, cheesy and obvious as it was, worked so well because of the history behind these characters. It would just be a throwaway scene if this was, say, Magenta that Barry was confronting, but because this is Barry and Caitlin, and we have seen Caitlin gone evil throughout this episode, Barry just telling Caitlin to kill him while he doesn't resist ends up causing Caitlin to break down.
Long story short, Joe and Barry get Wally back into the land of the sane, and he gets his super-speed and as a Wally West fan I cheer so hard when they revealed that, yeah, Wally is faster than Barry. Woo! Wear the yellow suit now, man.
Of course, the episode ends in a very high note. Barry confronts Julian and tries to get him to protect Caitlin. Julian does so but with one thing in return -- for Barry to quit from CSI, because he cannot stand someone with no moral compass working with him. It is a selfless move from Barry, and without knowing all the facts Julian is actually being uncharacteristically cooperative as well... of course, it is revealed that Julian is in fact Alchemy, though how voluntary his work as Savitar's herald is might be subjective since the dude positively does not want to work for Voldemort. I mean Megatron. I mean Savitar.
In a way, it is a bit of a disappointing twist as it's the third time in a row that a friend of Barry Allen is actually the evil villain all along. Yes, Julian might be more forced into the role and less being a manipulative monster the way Fake!Harrison Wells and Fake!Jay Garrick were. But oh well. Maybe Alchemy will finally get to be more interesting after this revelation?
More Killer Frost, please. A very unexpectedly well-written episode, and I really do like that the conflict is driven more by Team Flash starting to fray apart as opposed to Savitar being a super-awesome villain. Ideally it would be both, but hey, we're not in an ideal world, are we?
Episode 8 is apparently going to be the four-way crossover, so I'm going to catch up to Arrow, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow before starting all the 'Invasion' episodes.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Wally West is faster than Barry Allen in the comics, due to being able to tap into a greater part of the Speed Force.
- One of the real names of the various Doctor Alchemy is Albert Desmond, which appears to correlate with Julian's last name, Albert.
- The talk about Barry Allen's superpower being hope is kind of a generic line in these sort of stories, but in the comics Barry Allen did become a Blue Lantern for a period of time, who wields the power of, you guessed it, hope.
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