SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!
As predicted, Iris West did not stay dead. In fact, she wasn’t even dead to being with! Savitar never killed her because HR used his appearance changing device to take her place and was thus killed. I didn’t expect Iris to “come back” so quickly – certainly not at the beginning of the episode – or for the “solution” to be anything quite like this. The show succeeded in surprising me, but this kind of felt really cheap. I understand why HR did it, given his spiel during the last episode, but it felt so akin to a deus-ex machina.
Also, I wish that the writers would just do away with that ridiculous piece of Savitar’s suit that apparently is always trying to get back to him, but really only ever does so when the plot demands that someone on Team Flash use it to find him. And it conveniently flew out of HR’s hand just as he and Iris were running away and alerted Savitar to their escape. The whole twist didn’t feel earned or organic at all. It felt like the writers just pulled it out of their butts when they realised they wrote themselves into a corner. It’s especially disappointing too that the episode started on such a bad note, when the last two episodes were some of the show’s best.
Another thing that bothered me about this episode was that Savitar didn’t disappear immediately. Iris didn’t die so, therefore, the conditions which warranted his existence weren’t met. He should have ceased to exist right then and there like how when Eddie killed himself, Eobard Thawne immediately vaporised into to the ether. Even if Iris died, Barry would never have become him since he accepted his pain as a part of who he is. But of course, the plot needed Savitar to linger a little while longer so the writers ignored their already established rules. Without even explaining why it didn’t work that way this time.
They really doubled down with the cheese in this episode. Just like Barry did with Abra Kadabra, he tried to appeal to Savitar’s better nature; instead of trying to defeat him he decided to try to be his friend by offering to help him escape the paradox and continue to exist. And as selfless as that seemed to be on the surface, it really wasn’t. As Savitar pointed out, Barry hadn’t in anyway thought about what Savitar would do afterward. Especially not about how much it would hurt for him to see the woman he loved having everything he wanted to have with her with someone else. It was in some ways a half-assed attempt at being kind.
In any case it backfired on Barry anyhow because Savitar used it as an opportunity to pull the wool over their eyes. I feel like they should have seen that coming given their experience with the man. The same way that Savitar should have known that Cisco was never going to modify the speed bazooka in the way that he wanted. Instead of changing it so that it freed Jay from the speed force, Cisco should have made it do what it was meant to in the first place; trap Savitar in the speed force prison. That was such a missed opportunity! I won’t take “Only Tracy can do that” as an excuse because the fact that Cisco could modify it at all, to me, means that he understands how it works and should therefore be able to do that.
However, if Cisco had done that we wouldn’t have gotten the awesome CGI sequence of Barry, Wally and Jay running after Savitar in the forest. When this show’s CGI is good, it’s really good, but we unfortunately have to suffer through terrible CGI until we get there. Another awesome moment from the latter half of the episode was when Barry phased through Savitar’s suit and pushed him out of it. The suit looked cool with the red light, although I questioned why it didn’t change Barry’s voice to the same one Savitar used when he was in it, when they’re literally the same person with the same voice. Wouldn’t the modulation work on them the same way?
I was surprised that it was Iris who shot Savitar and not Joe. I immediately thought of how it must have felt to her shooting and killing someone who had the same face as the man she loved. It had to have been traumatic in some way. Except that it apparently wasn’t because Iris seemed absolutely fine about the whole thing and completely untouched by it.
I forgot that these seasons end with the next season’s issue rearing it’s ugly head. I also forgot that the speed force needs to have a speedster in residence. So I wasn’t expecting the speed force disaster at the end of the episode. I find it unfair that Wally and Jay suffered during their time trapped in the speed force when Barry won’t. They did not do anything wrong but Barry, who screwed everything up, gets off scot free. I guess we know which of the speedsters they favour now.
Random thoughts:
- How can Iris take off a hat that isn’t there?
- Are we going to end up with an X-Men: The Last Stand type scenario with this meta-human cure?
- Julian actually asked for Cisco before Caitlin.
- Why wouldn’t he remember Star Labs Iris?
- Whoo! Gypsy! Please make her and Cisco cannon next season.
- I got what I wanted; Caitlin with the powers but not evil!
The Flash returns this fall to The CW.
