The Flash mostly dropped the ball on the Savitar follow-up, but gave us a laugh-out-loud filler episode in its place...
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By Kayti Burt | May 10, 2017 | | Comments count:0
This reviews contains spoilers.
3.21 Cause và Effect
How much you enjoyed the latest episode of The Flash was probably dependent on how frustrated you were that, after last week’s big Savitar reveal, it was mostly a filler ep. Personally, I got a huge kick out of watching Barry — excuse me, Bart — Allen try to make his way through the world without knowledge of his identity or his speedster abilities.
For me, this episode proved that The Flash is far more skilled at lighter, standalone episodes than it is with the heavier, serialised plot stuff that it tried lớn engage at the beginning of the ep. Tell me: Did you have more fun watching Team Flash try khổng lồ explain how Savitar is a version of Barry? Or did you have more fun watching an amnesiac Bart try khổng lồ explain how he knows when a fire is burning hot khổng lồ a waiting judge?
Cause và Effect picked up more or less where I Know Who You Are ended, with Barry confronting Savitar và the supervillain finally revealing his identity lớn the superhero. Long story short? Savitar is a time remnant created by Future Barry (circa four years from now). When Time Remnant Barry was rejected by Team Flash, he turned bitter & angry, going back in time khổng lồ become the first speedster, collecting minions along the way and creating the myth of the god of speed.
“That makes no sense,” Joe tells the team when they try lớn explain it lớn everyone and the audience back home. Bless him. Plot-wise, it doesn’t make sense. Thematically, it makes total sense that Barry is his own worst enemy.
Team Flash is understandably disheartened by the big reveal, especially because they realise that Savitar will literally know every plan they come up with khổng lồ try to lớn stop him because he was there… as Barry. Rather than try to come up with a plan without Barry, Cisco comes up with an alternative idea: they’ll temporarily interrupt Barry’s ability lớn create short-term memory. What could go wrong?
Of course, Caitlin is usually the brain scientist around these parts (a fact that Joe wisely points out before Barry agrees to lớn undergo the experiment), which means Cisco and Julian accidentally erase all of Barry’s memories. He’s a blank slate. He doesn’t even remember Dragon Ball Z.
Team Flash is obviously perturbed by this development, but, rather than use this opportunity lớn come up with a plan khổng lồ take out Savitar, they immediately phối about trying to fix Barry. The thing is: Barry is happier than ever, lending itself to lớn a larger meta-discussion about the tone of this show in general. Without his memories of his parents’ deaths or all of the pain he has suffered since he became The Flash, Barry is a much lighter person. (No word on why Savitar is still an asshole.)
Barry revels in his relationship with Iris, in his ability to lớn move at super speeds, & in his mission khổng lồ help people. It’s a reminder of what this show once was when it first started: a superhero tale that wasn’t as broody as big brother Arrow, but rather a tale of why a motivation to vì good doesn’t have to lớn come from pain. Sadly, that ship has mostly sailed for The Flash. For better or worse, Barry is just as broody as Oliver these days, which makes for a much more somber tone. Cause & Effect was a nice reprieve from that tone, though one that could never last — especially not this late in the season.
While Team Flash is trying lớn figure out what to bởi vì with adorable amnesiac Bart, Savitar is having similar memory problems. Now, this doesn’t make any sense to me. If Team Flash succeeded in restoring Barry’s memories by the kết thúc of the episode (which — spoiler alert — they did), then why would Savitar thua kém his memories in the present day? So much for a closed loop, yet linear explanation of Savitar’s life span.
Savitar’s memory loss was really an excuse lớn get Killer Frost lớn join forces with Team Flash. For one brief, shining moment, their goals were aligned: lớn restore both Barry & Savitar’s memories. It’s unclear why Killer Frost is so committed to lớn helping Savitar, và she refuses to tell Cisco & Julian when they ask nicely, but nothing about Caitlyn’s evolution into Killer Frost makes much sense when you look too closely at it, so…
As with the Savitar explanation, The Flash has never done a very good job of explaining exactly why Caitlyn’s Killer Frost powers automatically turn her into a completely different person. Any kind of consistent explanation or rule here would go a long way in making this storyline work. And, with glimpses of Caitlyn slipping through the Killer Frost persona in this episode, it seems increasingly likely that she might be the true key to defeating Savitar. After all, because of Barry’s temporary memory loss, Savitar doesn’t know about Killer Frost’s brief stint with Team Flash. Might it change everything?
Meanwhile, Tracy Brand was hard at work on her Savitar trap during this episode (you know, actually trying to lớn solve the problem instead of just goofing around with memory loss). Her work is slightly interrupted by some flirting with H.R. I’m really digging the dynamic Tracy brings to lớn the show và the way she plays off H.R. So perfectly (#CoffeeLovers). S.T.A.R. Labs is getting pretty crowded with new friends, but the way it’s losing old friends, maybe Tracy will have a chance khổng lồ stick around.
She’s definitely earned her place on Team Flash, coming up with a rough design for a speed force bazooka. The only hiccup? They need a lot of energy lớn power the thing. Lượt thích more energy than the sun. Like the kind of energy that apparently King Shark has in his possession. Wait a minute… I thought King Shark was supposed to lớn be locked in some ARGUS black site facility? Lyla is not the best at her job, huh?
So it looks lượt thích King Shark will be back next week và Team Flash will be teaming up with Snart (who… isn’t dead) to steal the shark’s energy orb thingamajig. Like all of Team Flash’s plans, I’m sure nothing could possibly go wrong…