After some good episodes and some gorilla episodes, The Flash ran wild with both the feelings and the mythology in this episode. So, in the spirit of villainous time-travelers everywhere, I’m going to start in the middle…
Barry and Iris’s brief engagement is over. Iris doesn’t want Savitar—or saving her life—to be the reason for their engagement. At first, I hated this. Iris and Barry are clearly headed towards marriage. It seemed like an artificial roadblock meant to create drama and tension. Why not just go with it, even if the circumstances are less than ideal?
But after some thought, it makes sense. Iris is trying to find herself this season. She wants to be more than a daughter, sister, or girlfriend. The idea that she got engaged just so the prince’s proposal could save her from the monster—well, I can see why that rankles. Especially given our culture’s emphasis on the proposal and engagement (rather than the actual life-long work of marriage), Iris has a point. Barry should propose marriage because he loves her, not to save her. And he should be more open about his reasons with the object of his affections.
But Barry wasn’t the only one keeping his cards close to his vest. Wally didn’t tell anybody about seeing Savitar. Caitlin didn’t tell anybody about keeping part of the Philosopher’s Stone. The peril of secrets is a common theme on both Flash and Arrow, and usually I wish that people would just let the main characters keep some things private. This week, though, I wished that everyone would be more forthright.
Like Savitar. He’s a talker! And he gave our team just enough rope to hang themselves. For all the talk about how Grodd was “always one step ahead,” Savitar really is. His speed-deity powers, possibly enhanced by the fact that he’s imprisoned in the Speed Force, or whatever, give him a God’s eye view of actions, consequences, and reactions, not to mention a well-developed sense of self-righteousness.
I assume that’s why he was able to know exactly how to mess with Wally, and exactly what he would need to claw his way out of the Speed Force. We can even blame Flashpoint for some of this, as the alternate reality Barry created inspired Savitar’s actions.
For that matter, Savitar seems to be headed towards creating a Flashpoint of his own, since he wants to destroy Central City now just like he “did in the future.” I’m not even going to try to parse that until we get some glimpse of it happening.
Instead, I’ll ask the big question: is Wally really “another victim Barry Allen failed to save”? He may be trapped in the Speed Force, but he can handle it. Right?
Right?
Flashpoints:
• Julian: “I’m not a human Ouija board, Barry.” Whenever Tom Felton has to channel Savitar and use that silly voice, I feel slightly embarrassed for him.
• This is me not talking about the fact that Jesse was too preoccupied with Iris’s engagement ring to bother saving people from a fire.
• This is me talking about something much cooler: Violett Beane, who plays Jesse, does a lot with a little. Just look at her random glances and funny faces. Even without lines, she’s still often the best character in the shot.
• Having said that, I’m entranced by the idea that Jesse took the time to put on her perfect scarf before running off to tell everyone that Wally was gone. Her scarf game is on point.
• And her hugging HR was adorable.
Three and a half out of four engagement rings.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
They should add Jesse as a more permanent fixture of the show.
ReplyDeleteJigsaw (Tobin Bell) is the voice of Savitar,
ReplyDeleteIt's still silly.
ReplyDelete