The Flash season 3 episode 21 review: Barry’s memories; King Shark?

Going into The Flash season 3 episode 21, we would have never believed you if you were to say that we were getting an hour with everything from a Bart Allen reference to Barry hurting his face because of a souped-up Google Glass that Julian give him to remember who he was in key moments. Yet, here we were.

Here’s the rub on how this all went down — after learning the truth about Savitar (including that he is a time remnant from the future who went rogue and decided to try and become a god), the team of STAR Labs decided that they were going to try and zap him of his memory. By this logic, it would keep Savitar from stopping him because the memories wouldn’t be there.

Did things work? Well, they worked too well given that both Barry and Savitar suddenly had amnesia. Beyond this, we also saw that Wally was suddenly devoid of his powers thanks to him being blessed with them as a result of the Philosopher’s Stone in the first place. Everything that unfolded from here was pretty fun, mostly because Barry without powers, and a history of his past, was a hoot. He was excited to get to know everyone, and when his powers eventually did come back, he was thrilled to have them and to be a superhero. He didn’t know what it meant.

While Barry was running around starting to get a grasp of his new / old powers, we turn to the next order of business. Killer Frost needed Savitar to get back to his old self, so she returned to STAR Labs with an offer — if they helped her, she could in turn help Barry. This was a way to restore everything to as it was. The big twist here was that the team briefly felt convinced that they didn’t need her help, and that they may be able to train Barry to be The Flash on their own. That feeling didn’t last.

In the end, Killer Frost worked with the team in order to bring Barry back, and it was actually Iris who triggered many of those dark memories coming back into Barry’s soul — he suddenly knew everything that happened, and that was enough to stop an attack from a meta-human and restart the feud with Savitar. Oh, and Kid Flash was also back! The team tried to convince Killer Frost to come back, and Julian confessed that he was in love with her. Too bad that fell largely on deaf ears, save for a split-second when you could see her humanity trying to fight through.

Barry submitted that he needed the inner pain to remember who he was, and what he was fighting for. That, in turn, was important to Iris, as well.

The romantic arc

We certainly didn’t expect that we wouldn’t spent a lot of time tonight focusing on an H.R. – Tracy Brand romance, either. We don’t mind just because it was entertaining to see Tom Cavanagh get a love interest in three seasons, someone who was equally quirky to him.

At the end of the episode, H.R. showed the team what he and Tracy had been working in the “Speed Force Bazooka” — while it could work, it would require an insane amount of energy. The only way seemingly to get that, apparently, is by tracking down … King Shark? Well, that’s your cliffhanger! Grade: B+.

Where are things going on The Flash season 3 from here?

If you want to preview the next episode, head over to the link here! Let’s just say that another iconic villain from the show is going to be returning. (Photo: The CW.)