SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
This was one of the funnest and funniest episodes of The Flash this side of season three and definitely one of it’s best. At least for about half of it. At about the midway point the funny moments stopped coming and it settled into it’s usual seriousness and melodrama.
Amnesiac Barry is the best Barry. His reactions to everything are hilarious. Especially his freak out about whether or not he still had a liver and when he looked down at his hand after Wally said that the two of them are brothers. Wally’s face after that was priceless and meme worthy.
The one thing about stories in which time travel is at their core, is that the explanations for the events taking place are often times migraine inducing. That was the case for me with Barry and Savitar-Barry’s conversation at the beginning of the episode. It didn’t make a lick of sense until Cisco explained it later and I thank the writers (for once) for including that scene. It’s still cheesy that Savitar exists because that version of Barry had no friends, but I get that it hurt being rejected by the people he loved.
Ever since Joe’s “love conquers all” adjacent declaration, the show seemed to have doubled down on the “without love we become monsters” idea in this episode. It’s a little nauseating but this is The CW and they deal in cheese, corn, melodrama and tired cliches.
The second that Cisco presented his idea to stop Barry from retaining new memories, I knew it wouldn’t work because they didn’t have Caitlin. And given that the whole point of it was to stop Savitar from learning of their plans because he is a future version of Barry and will remember everything he does, I was surprised that none of them brought up the point that Savitar would know about this plan as well and that Savitar didn’t speed over there to stop them from taking away his one advantage. I also feel like because Cisco and Julian are scientists, even if they don’t specialise in biology and medicine like Caitlin, they should still have accounted for Barry’s powers as a variable.
That being said, it was really just a vehicle for demonstrating how critical a component she is in Team Flash. They were essentially useless without her. And having Barry’s memory loss extended to Savitar was a means of getting her back into Star Labs. It was a clever way to do that.
I didn’t think that Cisco reminiscing about his shared past with Caitlin would bring her back, but it seems to have worked a little since her eyes briefly returned to their natural colour as she was leaving. Here too the writer are stressing the whole love thing; only the love of her friends can bring Caitlin back.
It sprang back up again in the end when they fixed Barry’s brain but he still couldn’t remember, because Iris always needs to give him a speech to motivate him and only her love can bring him back to who he truly is.
It became very evident very quickly that this episode was about Barry accepting his pain and suffering as a part of who he is. For this reason I think that this version of Barry will likely end the Savitar loop. He will not become or create Savitar. Because he has accepted his pain and because he knows where Savitar came from, he won’t create the conditions necessary for Savitar to come into existence. I just can’t see it happening that a new Savitar will come out of this.
Random thoughts:
- That clash between Barry and Savitar was cool.
- “Speed For Canon” sounds better.
- This Tracy and HR ship is moving pretty fast.
- Bart:”How do we afford to live here?” I know right!
- This court case was a disaster.
- Iris and Barry are going to fall in love no matter what.
- Wally: “You should never have tried this without Caitlin.” I know right!
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 PM on The CW.
