In ‘The Flash’ recap, Barry does everything in his power to save Iris from the terrible events he saw in the future…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The direction of ‘The Flash’ season 3 took a decidedly dark turn in the winter finale as Barry accidentally traveled to the future and witnessed the love of his life, Iris West, being murdered by Savitar.
The event was shocking enough by itself but even more startling considering Barry and the rest of his team had seemingly defeated Savitar by tossing the Philosopher’s Stone into the Speed Force thus trapping him in purgatory between worlds, unable to materialize in this timeline on Earth.
Still, Barry saw Savitar stab Iris through the heart and now he’s consumed by that moment for obvious reasons.
Meanwhile, Wally is adjusting to his new life as a speedster, H.R. is putting the finishing touches on his grand museum unveiling and Caitlin is still struggling to tamper down her alter ego as Killer Frost.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Borrowing Problems from the Future’…
Running From This Nightmare
It’s been one month since Barry welcomed Iris into their new home together during the mid-season finale, but despite laying next to the woman of his dreams, he’s been filled with nightmares lately.
The vision of Savitar killing Iris has been all Barry can think about and it’s starting to bleed into his personal and professional life.
As much as Barry wants to tell Iris what has been happening, he instead decides to keep it bottled up inside while trying to figure out a way to prevent that awful moment from taking place.
At work, Barry has been mentoring Wally for the past few weeks as he begins to truly understand his powers and it’s clear the apprentice is starting to catch up to the teacher. Of course one loudmouth captain at the Central City P.D. calls Kid Flash nothing more than a wannabe, who has been following around the real Flash and not doing much to save anybody himself.
That doesn’t sit well with Wally, who just wants to use his powers for good but can’t seem to get anyone to really believe in him.
Meanwhile the big bad of the week is a jewel thief named Plunder — nicknamed for his eye patch but sadly not wearing a puffy shirt — who encounters Barry during his first big heist. When Barry first runs into the store he recognizes Plunder from his trip to the future from the news broadcast that was playing just before Savitar murdered Iris. Realizing that Plunder somehow plays a role in his future, Barry is distracted for a moment and the thief blasts him with a gun before speeding away on a motorcycle.
A second encounter with Plunder sees Barry dart out of the way of some Flash-seeking bullets, but he once again refuses to pull the trigger on capturing the criminal because the clip from the future shows him on trial after being send to jail by the Scarlet Speedster. Before Barry can let him get away, however, Wally shows up and puts a stop to Plunder much to his mentor’s chagrin.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry lashes out at Wally and says their apprenticeship is finished because he just doesn’t listen. In reality, Barry hoped by letting Plunder go that he would somehow change the future and keep Iris alive.
Cold Day’s Night
While Barry is dealing with his own fear of the future, Caitlin is trying to prevent her own by stopping Killer Frost from ever emerging again. Unfortunately, Cisco’s power blocking cuffs run low on power too often and it has her feeling a cold front coming on.
Caitlin decides to visit Julian in hopes of him finding a way to remove her powers completely. After all as Alchemy, Julian gave people powers so she hoped he could do the same for her in reverse. Sadly, Julian rebuffs her question and quickly brushes her off.
A second meeting goes much better after Julian apologies for being an ass, but he’s still concerned about his actions as Alchemy that resulted in several good police officers dying by Savitar’s hand. Caitlin tries to make him understand that he’s feeling survivor’s remorse but there’s nothing he could have done to save them while under Savitar’s control.
Finally, Caitlin makes Julian an offer to join up with Team Flash to help them save people just like they did for him by breaking his link to Savitar.
As for H.R., he’s spent the last few months completing the big STAR Labs museum, which is finally ready to open. He believes this will be the key to boost funds for the laboratory and give them a more positive public image after the explosion caused meta-human disaster in the first place.
As much as H.R. wants the museum to succeed, the grand opening falls flat without a single paying customer and Cisco finally snaps and tells the Wells doppelganger that he really isn’t useful for much other than wasting everybody’s time.
Headline Hunting
Barry’s somber mood is affecting everybody so he finally decides to come clean with Iris by taking her into the time vault that was set up by Eobard Thawne when he first replaced Harrison Wells at STAR Labs. Inside, Barry shows Iris the ‘Crisis’ article from the year 2024 and then explains how it used to be written by ‘Iris West-Allen’ but now the author has changed. Finally, Barry tells her about his trip to the future and her ultimate fate.
Iris is understandably upset but believes that Barry will do everything in his power to save her but he can’t do it alone.
So Barry unleashes the truth on the rest of the team — minus Joe — and reveals everything he witnessed when he accidentally traveled to the future. There are two schools of thought about the future — one that says no events are set in stone and the future always changes or two, that the future is fixed and the events will unfold no matter what you try to alter. While H.R. seems to believe the latter, he also knows that perhaps by making a few minor tweaks to the timeline that they can change things enough to where Iris won’t die by Savitar’s hand.
Cisco offers to vibe Barry back to the future where they will watch that news report for any clues that could give them an idea of what to change so they can prevent Iris’ death.
The news report gives them several clues…
Plunder is found guilty after being captured by the Flash.
Music Meister signs a six figure book deal
The city is still cleaning up after a giant gorilla attack
STAR Labs museum closes
Killer Frost is still at large
And Joe West receives a commendation at City Hall.
The trip also shows one more change — Barry spots H.R. on the roof of a building nearby pointing a gun at Savitar just before he kills Iris.
Once they travel back to present day, Barry tells them what he saw and the fact that H.R. was there proves that he’s already made some sort of change to the future so perhaps it is possible to save Iris.
The team meeting is cut short after Plunder escapes custody and makes another play for some valuable jewels being held at the museum. Barry races off and invites Wally to join him this time after admitting that his anger was really just lashing out while trying to prevent the future from unfolding.
Once they confront Plunder, Kid Flash is toppled at first but then Barry tells him to go back after the criminal because if he’s going to learn to swim he just needs to jump into the deep end now. Wally finally gets the better of Plunder and places him under arrest and Barry realizes that they’ve already changed the future. Now Plunder will go on trial after being captured by Kid Flash instead.
Hope for the Future
With Plunder in jail, Barry and Iris host an open house for everyone at their new apartment.
Barry and Caitlin officially offer Julian a spot on the team and he gladly accepts. He also presents Caitlin with a present — a pendant that is charged by solar power that will dampen her powers and will never run out of battery life. And finally back at STAR Labs, H.R. gets the opening he always wanted after Cisco helps drum up business for the museum by offering schools a discounted price, which brings in field trips by the droves.
It’s a happy ending….for now.
Prologue
Following the end of the episode, a portal from another world opens up and a woman emerges — her name is Gypsy and she has powers very similar to Cisco, except she’s far more experienced. The preview for next week also reveals that Gypsy has traveled here from Earth-19 because she’s hunting for a fugitive — none other than H.R. Wells.
‘The Flash’ returns next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
