In ‘The Flash’ recap, a bounty hunter from Earth-19 comes to collect H.R. and Iris faces her own mortality before facing her own possible death….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The future looms large on ‘The Flash’ like some sort of doomsday clock counting down to the day when Barry battles Savitar with Iris’ life hanging in the balance.
While that cloud continues to hang over everyone on Team Flash, the gang must still deal with some problems in Central City including a bounty hunter from another universe showing up to collect a fugitive named H.R. Well.
And while Barry and the team are consumed with changing the course of the future so Iris’ life will be spared, she’s left on the outside looking in as a bystander to her own fate. Rather than just sitting idly by and waiting for it to happen, Iris is on a mission to make her life count just in case she really does only have four months left to live.
Of course as it turns out, Iris’ life won’t be in Barry’s hands to save after all…
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Dead or Alive’….
The Collector
As Barry and the team continue to contemplate a way to change the future to stop Savitar from murdering Iris, H.R. continues to work on his new science fiction novel, which paints him as the real hero in Central City and Wally watches his speed tests increase with every run. Meanwhile, Iris is investigating a new arms dealer in town, who is reportedly selling futuristic weapons and she wants to nail this story for her newspaper.
And Julian is starting to find a place for himself on the team when he suggests building a 3-D replica of the scene where Barry will face Savitar with Iris’ life on the line to see if they can figure out a way to stop him.
As much as Barry and the others would like to put all their focus on the future and saving Iris, the world doesn’t stop turning for them and they are soon faced with a whole new set of problems with a bounty hunter named Gypsy arrives from Earth-19 looking to collect a very wanted fugitive named H.R. Wells.
It turns out, inter-dimensional travel has been banned on Earth-19 after another parallel universe invaded that world several years ago and nearly destroyed them. Since that time, Earth-19 has outlawed any kind of travel throughout the multi-verse but H.R. violated that when he decided to make a new home on Earth-One. To make matters worse, H.R. was caught because he’s been sending back chapters of his new novel to his Earth, which led Gypsy to find him with relative ease.
Gypsy is known as a ‘collector’ on Earth-19 — a meta-human powered bounty hunter sent after her prey — and she just so happens to have the exact same “vibing” powers as Cisco except for one problem — she’s far more advanced and knows how to use her abilities a lot more than STAR Labs’ resident geek god. Of course, Cisco is ready to fight for H.R.’s life and by fight that means asking Gypsy out on a date.
Her mission to retrieve H.R. also comes with a price because on Earth-19, anyone messing with multi-verse travel is immediately sentenced to death. Of course that doesn’t sit well with Team Flash but then again even Barry is left contemplating what this could mean for the future because in his latest vision about that showdown with Savitar, he sees H.R. on top of a roof aiming a gun a the God of Speed.
Perhaps allowing Gypsy to take H.R. back would somehow change the future on this Earth?
Barry finally admits that he can’t allow every decision he makes to determine what’s going to possibly change what happens to Iris so the team collectively opts to save H.R. from the fate that’s befallen him.
When Gypsy returns to collect her bounty, H.R. just so happens to mention the only law from Earth-19 that could save him and it comes straight out of Westeros — a trial by combat!
Cisco quickly makes the offer to battle Gypsy before Barry even has a chance to interrupt and she accepts. Gypsy will face off with Cisco in a battle to the death with H.R. as the ultimate prize. Did we mention the fight is to the death?
A Life Worth Living
As Cisco prepares for his duel with a deadly collector from Earth-19, Iris is tracking down a group of dangerous arms dealers much to the chagrin of her father and her boyfriend. While Barry and Joe try to talk her out of pursuing this story, Iris is determined to take them down not only because it’s what she does but also because she wants to make her life matter if the end really is just four short months away.
While Barry and Joe are trying to talk her out of it, Iris eventually convinces Wally to team up with her in a brother-sister duo to bring down the arms dealers just like the would have done on the alternate Earth during ‘Flashpoint’.
After swiping some intel from Joe at the police station thanks to Wally’s fast hands, Iris goes to the location where the arms dealers are hiding out.
Just when Iris gets the information she needs to report her story, one of the arms dealers walks in and catches her. Rather than running, however, Iris just stares down the barrel of the gun and dares him to do something about it. Thankfully, Wally shows up just in time to stop the arms dealer and save his sister from certain death.
Back at STAR Labs, Joe admonishes Iris for her rash actions — but remember he’s the one member of the team that doesn’t know about his daughter’s fate at Savitar’s hands — while Barry tries to understand why she did it.
Iris breaks down because she’s truly afraid of what lies ahead but she was determined to leave a mark behind if she’s gone unlike her mother who lived and died without ever truly making an impact. Barry reminds Iris that her mother did leave a giant footprint on Earth because she helped create her and Wally and that’s more than enough for one lifetime.
Iris is comforted but still feels a slight since of dread as the minutes and days continue to tick away until the ultimate showdown with Savitar.
Trial by Combat
Cisco’s training to prepare for Gypsy isn’t exactly going well and it’s clear that his chances of victory are slim to none. Julian manage to contribute one piece of information that could help after rewatching her initial attack on the team and noticing that after she comes out of her portal before blasting away that she’s off the air by a few inches. If Cisco can time a blast of his own in that exact moment, he could knock her off balance.
Finally the time arrives for Cisco to duel with Gypsy with H.R.’s life hanging in the balance.
Of course, Gypsy gets the better of Cisco at every turn as the two of them fight through multiple universes as they ‘vibe’ each other through numerous portals. The battle takes them through Earth-2 and even a stop to Earth-38 where they crash through Cat Grant/James Olsen’s office and scare the hell out of his assistant Eve Teschmacher. There’s even a brief fight on a volcanic world akin to the site of the Obi-Wan Kenobi-Anikin Skywalker clash from ‘Revenge of the Sith’.
Finally, the dual ends up back on Earth-One and Gypsy has gained a massive advantage so it’s time for her finishing move where she will jump through the portal and blast Cisco one final time to deliver the killing blow.
But just as she emerges from the portal, Cisco follows Julian’s advice and catches her off guard with an energy blast of his own that puts her down and out.
Rather than killing her, however, Cisco shows mercy and says that a trial by combat on Earth-One doesn’t have to end with her death. Gypsy agrees to return to her world and leave H.R. behind but only on one condition — she must explain that she killed him, which means he can never again return to his home on Earth-19.
H.R. agrees and says goodbye to his old home while finding permanent residence on this Earth. Of course, Gypsy and Cisco share one special moment before she vibes away but just when it looks like he’s going to get a goodbye kiss, the portal opens and she disappears. Sometime tells me, Gypsy will return sooner rather than later.
Save Iris, Save the World
Following a day spent saving H.R.’s life and nearly losing Iris, who was determined to risk her own, Barry reads the story that she wrote about the harrowing encounter with the arms dealers and he’s very proud of the work she’s done.
Over the course of the past couple of weeks, Barry and Iris have almost forgot about living while doing everything they can to change the future to make sure she doesn’t die. They are both starting to realize that fretting about her fate isn’t going to help either one of them in the long run.
And finally back at STAR Labs, Barry watches yet another of Wally’s speed trials as his apprentice continues to get faster and faster at an incredible rate. Early in the episode, Julian explains that given the rate at which Barry has been increasing his speed and how fast he’ll need to run to save Iris in four months, there’s no mathematical way he can be quick enough to stop Savitar.
That’s when Barry realizes he won’t be the one to save her.
Seeing how fast Wally has become in the short time he’s been a speedster convinces Barry that he will be the one to intervene with Savitar because in four months time, Kid Flash will be the fastest man on Earth.
‘The Flash’ returns with brand new episode next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
