In ‘The Flash’ recap, Wally is haunted by Dr. Alchemy and a new villain makes a first appearance in Central City…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
‘The Flash’ season 3 promised two big bads that would haunt the Scarlet Speedster and his friends in Central City.
One of them is the mysterious Dr. Alchemy, who has the ability to pass along metahuman powers to those people who had them and lost them after Barry created the alternate timeline known as ‘Flashpoint’. The second villain was promised to be a speedster, but most everybody — myself included — believed it would be the Black Flash, who is a grim reaper of sorts for those belonging to the speed force.
But the show pulled off a great twist this week by introducing the real speedster threat to Barry as Savitar — the God of Speed — reared his ugly head in the final moments of the latest episode. It seems when Dr. Alchemy came to Central City he didn’t come alone.
A little background on Savitar…
In the comics, Savitar was a former Cold War pilot, whose supersonic jet was struck by lightning before imbibing him with super speed. The pilot — and his real name is unknown — called himself Savitar after the Hindu ‘god of motion’. Savitar wasn’t just satisfied with super speed, however, and he started to study and explore the full depths of his powers and the manipulation of his speed to do miraculous things that even the Flash hasn’t done before.
Eventually, Savitar became so powerful that he was able to use his speed to create a force field around himself and even give speed or kinetic inertia to other people or even objects. In other words, he could launch someone or something using his own super speed, like tossing them against a wall or sending an object flying as a weapon. Savitar also learned how to use his super speed to heal himself at a rapid rate, much faster than the healing power that Barry currently possesses.
Over time, Savitar became so powerful that he attracted a cult of followers and even decided to eliminate other speedsters so he was the only one left on Earth.
It’s unclear how Savitar will be adapted for the TV show, but it’s clear he’s a powerful speedster, complete with white lightning that follows him around whenever he runs.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Shade’…
Haunted
All season long, Dr. Alchemy has possessed the ability to give back powers to the people who were turned into metahumans during ‘Flashpoint’ but then turned back to normal after Barry reset the timeline once again. Villains like the Rival have taken aim at Central City since Alchemy’s arrival, but this week he turns his attention to a hero — Wally West.
In the alternate ‘Flashpoint’ timeline, Wally was known as Kid Flash and he fought crime alongside his sister, Iris West, as they teamed up to stop the metahumans attacking Central City. Now Wally is having visions about that timeline, but the dreams are turning into nightmares after the effects turn painful.
As much as Wally wants to become a speedster, he knows the only way to gain those powers is through Alchemy and that’s not something he’s willing to risk, much less what Joe or Barry will allow him to do. Of course, Wally takes this as a slight that he’s somehow not able to do what Barry does and that’s why Joe is so against him gaining powers.
Still, as the condition worsens and Alchemy’s voice starts ringing louder and louder in his own head, Wally is forced to get locked up in STAR Labs while the team searches for an answer.
Meanwhile, a new metahuman threat shows up in town — a shadowy figure who with super strength, who kills an unsuspecting businessman one random night. H.R. — the new Wells from Earth-19 — recognizes this metahuman as ‘Shade’, who has powers that allow him to “phase” into this shadow like shape to travel through matter just like Barry does when he vibrates at super speed.
All of this happening has Joe apprehensive about taking a night off to go to the movies with his lady friend Cecille — the assistant District Attorney he’s been flirting with for weeks — but everybody insists that he goes on the date. Of course, Joe set this up as a night out for the family so Cisco and Caitlin join him along with H.R., who uses a transmogrification device to change the appearance of his face to look like his partner Randolph Morgan.
Don’t forget, Harrison Wells is still wanted for the murder of Barry’s mother after he confessed to the crime back in season one when Eobard Thawne was still posing as him. So clearly H.R. can’t go out of STAR Labs without a new face — so he uses a device from his home world to look like his partner from Earth-19. Also once H.R. arrives at the movies, he ends up flirting with Cecille the entire night, which doesn’t sit too well with Joe.
Thankfully, the movies and the awkward conversation are interrupted when Shade shows up out of nowhere and attacks the theater goers. That forces Cisco to send out an alert for Barry to come to the rescue.
Lights Out
Barry races off to help out Joe and the others at the park where the movie is showing while Iris is left behind to keep an eye on Wally in his cell. As Barry battles Shade, Iris witnesses her brother going through torment as Alchemy’s voice echoes through his head at such a disturbing volume that he’s going into convulsions.
Over and over again, Alchemy tells Wally to find him so he can regain the powers that were taken from him after the timeline was reset. Wally’s condition gets so bad that Iris finally opens the cell to check on him when he attacks her. Sadly for Wally, his sister is still too fast on her feet and she knocks him out cold and tosses him back in the cell.
Meanwhile, Barry continues to battle Shade with little success because the shadow creature can disappear and reappear anywhere — even quicker than the Flash can out run him. Cisco comes up with a plan to slow him down by turning on all the car lights at the drive-in theater. The idea is that the lights will slow down Shade, who operates in the shadows but if he’s drowned in bright lights there’s nowhere left to run.
Sure enough the plan works and Barry slaps on some power dampening cuffs to stop Shade dead in his tracks. Overall, Shade was a pretty lame villain but it turns out that was kind of his purpose all along.
After returning to STAR Labs where Wally is in bad shape and the team figures out that Shade must have been used as a distraction to keep the Flash busy while Alchemy attacked. Now Wally is struggling to fight off Alchemy’s advances and the team decides the only way to put a stop to this is to use him as bait and go after the source of the problem once and for all.
Cold Shoulder
Ever since Barry reset the timeline from ‘Flashpoint’, Caitlin has started to realize that she has powers that are evolving into the same icy touch as her Earth-2 counterpart Killer Frost. Caitlin has done everything to stop the advancement of these powers from taking over, but even her super scientist mother couldn’t help come up with a solution.
Finally, Caitlin reveals what’s been happening to Cisco while asking him to vibe on her to see what will happen if these powers continue to develop. When he looks into the future, Cisco sees himself as Vibe battling Killer Frost — a harbinger of things to come.
Caitlin takes this as a sign that she needs to leave Central City and get away from the people she cares about the most, but Cisco insists that the team can help her if she stays. Despite her wish to keep this a secret, Cisco eventually blabs to the rest of the team what she’s going through and they all resign to help her through this.
The God of Speed
With a trap set and a full SWAT team behind them, Barry and the gang go after Alchemy at his secret lair using Wally as bait.
When Wally arrives, he engages in a conversation with Alchemy, who promises to give the wannabe speedster everything he could ever hope for if he can only ask for it. Instead, Wally says he just wants Alchemy to go away and that’s when the police along with the Flash launch their attack.
Alchemy uses his Philosopher’s stone to blast away at the Flash and keep him pinned to the ground, but that doesn’t stop the SWAT team from nailing him with the anti-metahuman weapons they’ve designed. Alchemy is finally brought to his knees after the powerful stone is knocked away from his hand and he’s forced to surrender.
Of course, Alchemy doesn’t give up but instead warns the team that this is only the beginning and they have no idea what’s coming for all of them.
Out of nowhere, a white flash of lightning speeds through the room, taking out all the police guards and trapping Joe and the rest of the gang from escaping. Meanwhile, Wally continues to hear Alchemy’s voice in his head when he spots the stone laying on the ground so he decides to pick it up at which point he is covered up in a cocoon, presumably where he will emerge with powers as Kid Flash.
Finally, Barry is trapped by the creature behind the white lightning before the metallic monster reveals himself as Savitar — the God of Speed. Just before the scene fades to black, Savitar reveals a single blade from his hand and it’s a good bet that he plans on plunging that into Barry’s heart.
Flash-Bits
— Julian goes missing this episode after turning down an invite to go to the movies with Barry and his family while revealing that he also has a girlfriend. The next day when Joe and Barry want him along to help with Alchemy, he hasn’t shown up for work. It seems rather obvious that Julian is Doctor Alchemy, but at this point it’s almost too obvious.
— Iris feels like she doesn’t contribute in any meaningful way to Barry’s work as the Flash, but he promises her that the Flash doesn’t exist without Iris West.
— H.R. reveals that Earth-19 has several sentient gorillas just like GRODD on this Earth.
— There are six metahuman husks that have been found — three we’ve already seen as villains this season, which means there are still three more to be found.
— Next week’s episode is the return of Kevin Smith in the director’s chair — his work last season was the best of ‘The Flash’ season 2 so it will be interesting to see what he does with a focus on Caitlin’s transformation into Killer Frost.
‘The Flash’ returns next Tuesday night at 9pm on the CW.
