‘The Flash’ season 3, episode 6 review: Meet Savitar; did Wally get his powers back?
Going into Tuesday night’s new episode of “The Flash,” we had a feeling that this was going to be an enormous one for the character of Wally West — and for so many reasons. It all began with him having dreams about himself running through Central City as a hero, which was a reflection in some way of his role within the Flashpoint Paradox.
Where does this become problematic? Think along the lines of Alchemy. So far this season, he’s been able to cause some other meta-humans from the Paradox to dream about their former selves, which led to them being on a collision course. The only thing more surprising than this, at least in the eyes of the other characters, was that Barry didn’t tell anyone about this. Why wouldn’t he? Well, he didn’t want to mess with Wally’s head, and make him have hope that he could become someone different than who he is.
Do we think that there are times Wally comes across as a little much because of his constant proclamations of wanting to get powers? Sure, but at the same time we appreciate that it’s a different as an origin story from anything that we saw with Barry. At first Wally was upset about being treated differently, but eventually he came around and saw where they were coming from. Still, that doesn’t mean that he felt good about the fact that he was forced to sit around while so many people he cared about were out there helping people. We’ll have more on Wally’s journey in just a minute, but this was a solid foundation to the story ahead. Wally almost needed to be made into a reluctant hero so that he understood the weight of what was coming.
The Killer Frost journey continues – Speaking of people keeping secrets, let’s turn to Cisco for a moment. Caitlin asked him to vibe her so she could learn if she turns evil, and she clearly does. However, he decided not to tell her, fearing that he was going to lose her in his life. Here’s the problem: Cisco’s a terrible liar, so eventually this came out right before a massive movie party that was meant for Joe West to have a normal date with Cecile for a change.
Caitlin, after learning the truth about her future, was certainly uneasy, and understandably so. This would only get worse as we got further along in the story.
The Shade of it all – In the midst of everything else, we did have a villain-of-the-week story again. This time around, it was a meta-human with the ability to create so many vibrations (potentially) that he looked like a giant version of one of Melisandre’s evil shadow-babies from “Game of Thrones.”
After first wreaking havoc on who seemed to be a Wall-Street trader, Shade made his next appearance during the aforementioned movie night, and of course right when he was on a tear, Alchemy decided to inform Wally that it was time to fulfill his destiny. While he was possessed and furious to the point where Iris had to knock him out, we saw Shade be quickly throttled by Barry and company. Kind of a weak end to that story, no? The larger reveal came when Cisco outed Caitlin for having powers back at STAR Labs. It was her secret to tell, and she was understandably rather angry and fearful of her future with that floating around.
The plan to find Alchemy – Eventually, Wally and the team came around (or were forced to come around) to the fact that Alchemy wasn’t going away, and they were better off to put their personal drama aside in hopes of trying to track him down. Joe and Barry formulated a plan that would help to keep Wally safe first and foremost while tracking Alchemy down.
Now, we get to the good part, which we were waiting almost for the entire season: Wally met Alchemy for the first time, where he offered him the ability to give him his speed back. The twist is that he didn’t quite know what the effects would be, or that in Barry’s attempts to stop this, we’d have the arrival of someone unexpected in Savitar. The God of Speed is here, and he’s SERIOUS business. Also, Wally may have his powers back since he touched the stone at the end of the episode, but that wasn’t entirely clear. We just know that Alchemy’s voice remains nightmare fuel, and that Savitar is a ridiculous name.
Overall – There was a lot of fun in the midst of an episode that did have a lot of serious stuff going on. Specifically, we’re referencing HR figuring out a way to change his face in public so that nobody realized that he was a murderer. What we also learned is that he had zero problem hitting on Cecile, either. (Also, is HR on the same Earth as Gorilla City?)
Ultimately, though, this episode was about the big reveal at the end, and the obvious danger that we now see many of our characters in. “Awesome” would be a great word to describe the final minutes. Grade: A-.
Next week – We’re diving into Killer Frost in a very big way! Want to know more? Then head over to the link here right now. Be sure to comment in the box below and share your thoughts with us about tonight’s episode. (Photo: The CW.)