The Flash season 3 finale review: Is Savitar dead? Barry Allen’s sacrifice

Iris West is dead. This is how the season 3 finale for The Flash started, and following that the primary question was simple: Would she live?

Well, in the opening minutes it turned out that one of the biggest fan theories out there was confirmed as H.R. used his body-swapping technology in order to go undercover as Iris. He effectively saved his life in order to ensure that she would live. What a heck of a beautiful moment to start what would be an epic finale like no other.

From here, the timeline was altered, and it was clear once more that Iris West-Allen would eventually find a way to publish the article in the future. With this in mind, the team went into action on the next order of business: Making sure that he was wiped from existence before he achieved the next phase of his plan. Julian, who was apparently off seeing Caitlin’s mother, found a way to effectively cure her of Killer Frost. Meanwhile, Cisco did his best to refuse helping to fix the Speed Force Bazooka, at least until Savitar threatened to kill Killer Frost. This was in part why she was there: Collateral.

With the current set of circumstances in mind, this is where one of the strangest choices of all was made: Bringing in Savitar to STAR Labs. They claimed that they wanted to help him, and from here, there was a story that suddenly became about … turning Savitar good? Consider this an unexpected direction for the story … but it was followed by another twist. Savitar knew that he would be invited there, and he tried to set a trap using the Philosopher’s Stone.

Savitar prepares for godhood

Thinking that he had emerged victorious, he then decided to show Caitlin the other reason why she was there: To stop Black Flash using her powers so that he could use the bazooka to tap into the Speed Force and effectively place himself at every moment in history.

It’s too bad for him that Cisco tricked him, and instead made the bazooka into something that he could use in order to bring back Jay Garrick and tip the scales. Everything changed from here. Cisco got through to Caitlin enough in order to convince her to find her inner good, and Barry managed to phase into the Savitar suit, effectively destroying it.

So who was ultimately responsible for Savitar’s final death? Iris. She shot him right when he was about to use the last seconds of his life to kill Caitlin and Cisco. He’s gone, and the team can move forward.

The aftermath

H.R.’s funeral was attended by the entire dream including Tracy Brand and Earth-2 Harry, who is one of the reasons why Tracy was convinced at STAR Labs to go along with the plan.The biggest surprise is that Caitlin attended form a distance. She wasn’t Killer Frost anymore per se, but also made it clear that she wasn’t Caitlin Snow anymore.

After the funeral, Barry and Iris had a chance to actually start their wedding … however briefly. After all, lightning started to rain down from the sky. The Speed Force was starting to become unstable, largely because of the fact that there was nobody occupying it after Jay was left. Barry realized in that moment that he couldn’t ask Jay to do this. He had to go, and with that, save the city one more time.

Odds are, Barry will be back … but when? This is his penance, and this is his time. It remains to be seen what the future will hold.

Final verdict

With the season 3 finale, The Flash delivered virtually everything that you could have possibly wanted. Excitement, drama, a shocking death, and also hope for the future … at least for some characters. For Barry, he’s facing a new dimension and a shocking, unknown future. A crazy finale with a pretty dramatic cliffhanger at the end. Grade: A-.

When is The Flash coming back?

In the event you are interested in getting some further news when it comes to the show, be sure to head over to the link here right now! (Photo: The CW.)