‘The Flash’ season 3, episode 10 review: Barry clues Iris in; the STAR Labs Museum and Killer Frost’s necklace
After a lengthy hiatus, Tuesday night marked the return of “The Flash” to The CW, and this was an episode that chose to start things off full speed ahead. There was tension, drama, and mass arguments; there was also a secret that needed to come out.
At the end of the winter finale, Barry traveled to the future, and in the process saw Savitar murder Iris right in front of him. With the new byline on the newspaper and this vision, it was clear that if the future stayed the same, Iris would die. Trying to figure out how to change the course of this proved to be the real challenge. This is where Vibe came into play.
Back to the future! With Cisco’s help, Barry saw a vision of four months from now, and basically got a rundown of everything that is going to be transpiring. That includes the return of Gorilla Grodd, the arrival of Music Meister during the upcoming crossover with “Supergirl,” and also Caitlin Snow becoming Killer Frost once more. None of these events are guaranteed to happen, but they will unless the team somehow figures out a way to alter the timeline. Just by informing everyone about what happens to Iris, Barry noticed a small fluctuation already. Consider that your first shred of evidence that the future is to a certain extent malleable.
The Plunder problem – In our first instance of Barry being afraid to mess with the timeline too aggressively, at first he didn’t want to capture this guy. After all, he saw in the future that he was awaiting trial. When Wally took him down, at first Barry was enraged and our fellow speedster didn’t quite know why.
After the confession, Barry came up with a way to take the guy down: Have Wally do this instead. In doing this, the great thing that would come from it is that it would change ever so slightly the course of the future, and that may be enough to get the ball rolling. Also, it helped to make Wally feel a bit more like a hero rather than just the #2 that nobody in Central City respected.
Caitlin’s invitation – For those of you who wanted to see Julian Albert more involved on the show, we got it courtesy of an invitation for him to join STAR Labs. The problem is that this invite came from Caitlin, who didn’t exactly discuss it with the team first. She had a powwow with the group, and through that, they eventually did decide that since he was not Alchemy and responsible for some of those actions, he was worthy of getting a second chance.
Introducing the STAR Labs Museum – You gotta love H.R. for trying to find some sort of way in order to ensure that he was useful. Unfortunately, this idea seemed to go up in smoke in between the faulty Cisco hologram and also nobody showing up to the Grand Opening. We saw that in the future, the Museum closes down, so that’s something else that has to be fixed.
Well, Cisco to the rescue here, too! Despite not loving the idea of the Museum at first, he helped to get a field trip set up there so that it’d start to drum up some business. This also helps to make it clear as to how the team is going to be able to keep funding their missions.
The housewarming dinner – After making a few moves forward with their goal this week, the episode ended with Barry and Iris celebrating their new home. Julian and Cisco got Caitlin a new necklace to contain her powers, and H.R. gave an inspirational speech. It’s too bad that Gypsy showed up in the closing seconds to screw up the mood we were all feeling through most of the hour.
Overall – In terms of surprises and big character moments, we’ve seen better episodes of “the Flash.” Even still, this was a delightfully entertaining way to start off the second part of the season. Grade: B+.
Next week – Based on what we’ve seen courtesy of The CW, we’re going to see the arrival of Jessica Camacho as Gypsy! Let’s just say that there are going to be some showdowns ahead between her and Cisco Ramon. Vibe’s got a rival! You can read more, and see a promo for what’s next, over at the link here. (Photo: The CW.)