The Flash, Season 3, Episode 23: Finish Line
Well, so ends the third season of Flash. It tried its best to end with a bang, which, in one way or another, it did. I'm personally conflicted as to whether I dislike the second or third season more, and honestly, basically my verdict is that the second season had a more cohesive season-long plot, it just was handled suboptimally, whereas the third season had better individual episodes, but the cohesive plot was piss-poor.
That said, though, if there was one thing this season finale got right, it was the pretty fucking awesome four-way battle between three Flashes and Savitar. The finale was honestly pretty enjoyable, it's just kind of sad that when you look back at the third season as a whole, it's yet another that is more or less a disappointment. They did try their best to recoup the damages they did and speed through an attempt to make Savitar more compelling, but honestly? It's too little too late.
The first few parts of this episode quickly backpedals on the depressing cliffhanger of the last episode by showing us that while Iris West did get stabbed by Savitar... it's actually not Iris West, and after Iris got kidnapped by Savitar, H.R. used a piece of Savitar's armour to track Iris down and do a switcheroo with his face-swapping hologram technology. Which... is a bit of an annoying plot device, to be honest, but it's not entirely a deus ex machina. We did see H.R. look forlornly at something off-screen, and we have seen the face-swapping holograms before, and H.R. is kind of trying to redeem himself... so, yeah. It's a pretty decent death, albeit one that, while certainly felt sad, also felt like a huge cop-out in a way -- especially since, well, not to cheapen H.R.'s death because that was a ballsy, amazing moment for the man -- this isn't the first Harrison Wells to die.
And besides, Harry Wells is my favourite Harrison Wells of all, and replacing H.R. with Harry is pretty much a welcome development.
So, with that switcheroo out of the way, we got some pretty great moments courtesy of Cisco (and Tracy, who I forget existed most of the time and had to remind myself just who she is). So, isn't the big, important moment in Savitar's vicious cycle eliminated? Shouldn't by the show's weird time travel logic, Savitar be wiped out of existence like Reverse-Flash in season one? Or why couldn't Savitar try and murder Iris again? Or is it going to be Flash fighting against Savitar as he tries to do the worst amount of damage before the time-wave thing catches up with him?
Well, the finale takes a different approach, as we see not just Savitar, the armoured godlike being, but the scarred man beneath it. Which... which might work for some viewers, and not for the others. And I'm leaning more towards the first group, but honestly, I can see why a fair amount of the internet had some backdraft against Savitar's writing here. I'm not really complaining for trying to give the villain depth in the last episode. In an ideal world, Savitar would've had his identity be revealed around the halfway point, while the second half of the season would be developing Savitar as a character, but, again, it's too little, too late. Barry attempting to basically weaponize his inner goodness and befriend his evil doppelganger was a pretty nice breath of fresh air from all the depression that this season has suffered from, but at the same time, basically talking Savitar to play nice just don't really work. The fact that the showmakers actually showed Team Flash acting angrily at Savitar's presence, and only Barry and Iris -- theoretically the ones that should hate Savitar the most -- really try to accept him.
This doesn't last, of course, and honestly, despite me appreciating them trying to find a more pacifistic ending for a change, it just wouldn't really work especially with Savitar having murdered H.R. earlier in the episode in addition to so much pain he's put the others through. The transition from 'damaged man' back into card-carrying supervillain could've really been handled better, though, and this is where the episode really suffers. Savitar could've shown how conflicted he is, both before the final conflict and during it, but he maintains his psychotic one-dimensional "I WILL BECOME A GOD AND DESTROY YOU" shtick all throughout it.
Which is, again, basically the same problem I have with Killer Frost, where she's just... a card-carrying villain with barely a hint of the conflict that she really should've had. So yeah, both Frost and Savitar are cool-looking villains that are more wasted potential than compelling adversaries. It would be so much more compelling for Killer Frost to be actually Caitlin Snow who let her emotions drive her to do extreme things (which was what Killer Frost originally was, earlier this season, none of this split personality stuff), but here she just... ends up siding with Cisco. Because. Of course, thankfully, her story does end with Killer Frost remaining Killer Frost, or, well, an entity that's neither Caitlin Snow or the mustache-twirling version of Killer Frost, which I guess kind of made her journey into villainy somewhat more meaningful, but it's still very messy looking back. I kind of liked how Killer Frost refused to take the cure (and Julian was absent last season because he's developing the cure with Mama Snow, apparently) and chose to help out Cisco willingly, but then that blurs lines even more. Is Caitlin Snow as we used to know her just... dead and replaced with this lady? I dunno. So much about this Killer Frost is just so muddled that I'm not sure what to feel about the conclusion.
I don't really have much of a problem in terms of the action. We have Savitar trying to replicate himself in every moment in time which will make him a god... for... some reason, and in a very unexpected entry, Black Flash returns from Legends of Tomorrow, intent on murderizing yet another speedster that's fucked with the timeline... only for Killer Frost to literally just one-shot smash Black Flash. Which kind of makes sense, cold does kind of slow speed down, but it is very hilarious to think that Eobard Thawne could've avoided the entire plotline of the second season of Legends of Tomorrow if he recruited Captain Cold first instead of Merlyn and Darhk.
And, well, whatever the case, the huge showdown certainly didn't disappoint. With Gypsy joining the fray with a last-minute save of Cisco, and Jay Garrick being broken out of the Speed Force prison when Cisco gave Savitar a dud device (seriously, Savitar, that was a completely stupid thing for you to do right there, trusting the enemy with your means of godhood). So on the side of good, we've got Flash, the other Flash, Kid Flash, Vibe and Gypsy; while on the side of evil you've got Savitar and Killer Frost. It's just a shame that for whatever reason Jesse Quick apparently couldn't make it onto the show, but hey.
And hoo boy, the epic slugfest between the three Flashes and Savitar is amazing, especially the moment when Savitar did the slo-mo unleashing of his two arm-spear things and turned two trees into a shower of splinters, and the heroes don't even slow down. Vibe and Gypsy versus Killer Frost was slightly more disappointing action-wise, mostly because it's just beams launched at each other, but it was still awesome. the resolution to the conflict was kind of predictable, with Killer Frost finally turning on Savitar and blasting him with ice at the opportune moment, in turn distracting Barry enough to jump into Savitar's armour (and turn it into a scarier glowing-red Ultron knockoff). There was a well done bit where Barry had the chance to kill Savitar but instead just blew the armour up, leading to a punch-up between the two Barries... and, of course, Iris gets to kill Savitar, shooting the bastard from behind before he gets wiped out of existence.
Is it the best resolution? Probably not. But I enjoyed it enough, and the speedster fight was cool enough that I didn't mind. What I was more iffy about is the big cliffhanger. H.R. is buried, everyone has some nice things to say and stuff, Killer Frost leaves them... and then the sky break apart in a crisis as thunderbolts ravage Central City. Apparently, the Speed Force demands someone take the place of Jay Garrick again, and, well, it's a bit of a strange cliffhanger, as Barry goes with Speed Force Mom and passes over the mantle to Wally. I don't really mind Barry taking a step back and Wally being the Flash (lord knows I love Wally West, and he is still my definite Flash despite the greatness of the live-action Barry Allen)... but the way the final sequence was framed was just... messy, and abrupt. It seems to just want to go from maximum happiness with Barry and Iris having saved each other and are totally in love, to Barry being taken away. But the thing is, Wally West himself hasn't been super prominent this season. He has had some great moments, especially when he went in half-cocked and tried to fight Savitar himself, but after being freed, he has had... surprisingly minor roles. The only thing I can think of is the odd action scene or two, but as a character I didn't really think that Wally is really ready for taking on the mantle of Flash, and the character is still more of a cipher than anything so it's a mixed bag. The transition from the quiet-time of the finale into a huge cliffhanger is certainly handled well than 'Emo Barry decides to create Flashpoint' last season, but still, it's still not the best-handled situation out there.
I guess it's kind of appropriate to punish Barry, sort of, for creating Flashpoint earlier this season, which literally causes every single bad thing in this season to happen? But at the same time, I dunno. The season finale is entertaining to watch, with loads of awesome superhero action moments, but as a satisfying conclusion to the very rocky third season, it's as hollow as the prison that Barry must fill in the Speed Force. Let's hope the fourth season won't fuck things up even worse.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Cisco calls Savitar "Two-Face", which, of course, while could easily be a jab at the scar on one side of his face, is also likely to be a reference to the Batman villain of the same name.
- Barry passing on his mantle to Wally before disappearing into the Speed Force is, of course, a reference to how in the comics Wally took over the mantle as the Flash when Barry Allen dies during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- The Black Flash, having briefly appeared in episode 16 in this season, returns after spending most of his time this year in Legends of Tomorrow's second season.
- Savitar makes several references to things that happened earlier in the series, among them threatening to kill Cisco with a vibrating hand similar to how Eobard/Harrison killed Cisco in the splinter timeline during season one and singing to Iris during his proposal, which happened this season in 'Duet'.
- Savitar being shot from behind by a normal person with a gun while gloating over Barry is similar to the ending of the first episode of Flash, where Clyde Mardon (who, as a bonus, also claimed to be a god) was shot from behind by Joe.
- The Speed Force Storm is apparently, as people told me, similar to an event that happened in DC Rebirth which gave the villain Godspeed his powers.
No comments:
Post a Comment