In ‘The Flash’ recap, a metahuman with the ability to kill with just one touch is after Joe and Barry tries to train Wally to be fast enough to stop Savitar…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s tough to focus on the future when you know death is lurking just around the corner.
That’s where we find Barry this week on ‘The Flash’ as he continues to fight against fate because he knows in just a few months time Savitar is going to murder the woman he loves. The weight of this information is also starting to hurt Iris as well as she’s starting to see the events from the future come to fruition in the present, which only scares her that much more that the countdown to doom really is drawing near.
Meanwhile, Wally is doing his best to catch up to Barry so he can be fast enough to help stop Savitar from killing his sister. Unfortunately, Wally’s struggling to pick up new tools the same way that Barry did when he was training under Dr. Wells aka the Reverse-Flash.
And finally, Caitlin has to deal with her own dark side after being forced to unleash Killer Frost to help save Iris when a metahuman with the ability to kill anyone with a single touch nearly fulfills Savitar’s prophecy before he can ever lay a blade on her.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Untouchable’…
Say My Name
Barry and Wally are about to race with the gang back at STAR Labs placing bets on which one of the speedsters is actually the fastest man alive. The two go neck and neck through Central City but it’s Barry’s ability to phase through a building that ultimately gives him the edge to beat Wally, who can only go up and over the same structure.
Of course Wally is frustrated because he doesn’t know how to phase yet, but Barry says this is the learning curve he’s going to have to face if he wants to be good enough to stop Savitar from killing Iris.
When the race is over, Barry even hits Wally with a little Walter White when he reminds him who is still the fastest man alive and instructs his pupil to ‘say my name’.
Meanwhile, in the case of the week, Barry, Joe and Julian are drawn to a crime scene where a chef has been murdered but his body is already decomposing at an ultra fast rate. Despite being dead less than eight hours, the body is decaying to the point where it should have been after sitting in a casket for the past year.
When Julian takes the body to STAR Labs to use a 3D scanner to investigate further — while also getting into an argument with Caitlin because that’s what he always does when working with others — the body decays the point of turning into dust. Whoever killed this chef has some kind of power that can destroy the human body with the kind of decay that would normally take decades but this metahuman can do it in minutes.
The other downside of this death is the restaurant where it happened is forced to close down and sell to new owners due to the bad publicity. The new restaurant in its place is one of the news items that Barry saw in the future, which only further fulfills Savitar’s prophecy that will lead to Iris’ death.
A second body turns up after suffering the same fate and that’s when Julian and Barry both have a revelation. For Barry, he realizes that both the chef and the musician who was just killed were actually police officers when he visited the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline. For Julian, he discovers that the killer has DNA that is shared with only one other kind of metahuman — those created by Dr. Alchemy. In other words, Julian created this metahuman himself.
The DNA also reveals the criminal’s identity as Clive Yorkin — a character from ‘The Flash’ comic books, who actually gets involved around the time of Iris West’s death.
Death Touch
As much as Barry and the others want to focus on this case while Wally just wants to continue his training, the entire family gathers for coffee to meet with Cecile and her daughter Joanie, who is visiting from college. While the coffee date is awkward at first, things warm up after Joanie professes her love for Kid Flash, which of course makes Wally proud even if he can’t take credit.
The family gathering is soon interrupted when Clive Yorkin and his touch of death shows up and proclaims that he’s come to collect Detective Joe West. Thankfully, Wally is downstairs when it happens and he’s able to speed off and return as Kid Flash. With some helpful advice from Barry, Wally spins his arms to create a wind machine that blows the killer out of the restaurant thus saving the day.
Unfortunately, Wally may have slowed down this criminal but there’s no doubt that he will return.
With everything else happening including a metahuman stalking Joe and Iris’ own misery after another item on the future list gets checked off, she decides it’s finally time to let her dad in on the big secret. Of course, Joe is incensed knowing that everybody else knew that Iris was going to die just a few months from now, but now he’s only focused on stopping the future just like Barry and the rest of the team.
Later that night, Iris comes face to face with Yorkin, who decides that if he can’t kill Joe West, why not take his daughter instead? Iris hits her panic button, which alerts the team, but with Barry at the police department, Wally takes it upon himself to rescue her from Yorkin.
When he arrives, Wally sees Yorkin just about to touch his sister and he races to stop it, but can only get her away after he brushes her arm. Yorkin escapes again as Iris falls to the ground as her arm writhes in pain and her body becomes infected. Now it’s only a matter of time before Iris dies and no one knows how to save her.
Run Wally Run
With Iris infected, no one knows how to stop Yorkin’s touch from spreading through her body. The only suggestion is to slow down the spread by exposing her arm to extreme cold temperatures but it must be constant and also not too severe or Iris risks permanent damage. That forces Caitlin to take off her inhibitor and allow Killer Frost to emerge in an effort to save Iris’ life.
Of course, Wally blames himself for this happening but Barry consoles his young prodigy and explains that learning takes time and perhaps he hasn’t been the best teacher. At the same time, Cisco comes up with a plan to discover who else from the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline might be a victim of Yorkin’s death touch.
A vibe into that alternate timeline shows Cisco that there were four key officers who arrested Clive Yorkin — two are dead, Joe West is the third and the fourth is a woman named Laura Stone, who is a private investigator in the current timeline. Joe races to find her but she’s in the middle of a case and the two of them end up on a train together as she chases down a lead.
Yorkin was already in pursuit when seeing the two of them on the train together, he decides to take them both out at once by collapsing a bridge in front of the train, which means everybody inside will definitely die a horrible death.
When Joe realizes what’s happening he signals Barry, who races to the scene along with Wally but one of them has to stop the train while the other deals with Yorkin. Barry comes up with a plan to get inside the train and vibrate the entire structure so they will phase through the obstruction on the tracks. Miraculously, Barry’s plan works and the train — and everybody inside — goes through the debris and out to the other side.
Meanwhile, Julian has figured out a way to stop Yorkin by using a speedster’s blood.
It turns out, Yorkin’s ability mutates cells to degenerate and decay in rapid fashion in the exact opposite way Barry and Wally’s cells regenerate with extreme speed, which is how they are able to heal so quickly. So Julian tells Wally that he has to get his blood inside of Yorkin, which should counteract his mutation and stop his ability from working.
That forces Wally to phase through Yorkin to deliver his blood and after stepping through to the other side, the metahuman with a killer touch is no longer able to harm anybody. The plan worked and Wally helped to save the day — just like Barry knew he could do.
Back at STAR Labs, Julian and Cisco synthesized Yorkin’s blood to help create an antidote to save Iris and Caitlin was able to resist a complete transformation into Killer Frost. At the end of the day, Caitlin ends up asking Julian out for a drink after they both begin to realize that they are much more than the Mr. Hyde’s that are living inside of their respective Dr. Jekyll’s — in her case with Killer Frost and with Julian and Dr. Alchemy.
And finally, Barry and Iris share a special moment at home where they both resign themselves to preventing the current future from unfolding in which she dies at the end. These two just found their way to each other and there’s no way Savitar is going to take that from them.
Welcome to Gorilla City
As the episode ends, Wally sees a breech come through from another universe and Jesse Quick emerges from the vortex. As happy as he is to see her, she quickly informs him that she needs his help and the rest of Team Flash to help rescue her father Harry Wells after he was captured by Grodd and taken to Gorilla City.
The two-part ‘Gorilla City’ special kicks off in two weeks when ‘The Flash’ returns on the CW.
