DJ Watches: The Flash Season Three: Episode Seven: Killer Frost
We get right in the thick of things this week, as the Flash, after a failed attempt to take down Alchemy, is now at the mercy of the plague doctor’s boss, Savitar. Clearly having a god complex, the movie-verse Transformer looking speedster – who seems to be invisible to everyone buy Barry – drags our hero across Central City, kicking his ass all the way. He’s moving so fast that it looks like he’s randomly appearing and disappearing all over the place. Flash puts up a valiant effort, but it’s for naught as it’s no contest, and it’s only Cisco opening a breach and allowing himself and Caitlin to get to the waterfront that saves him. Even then, it’s really only because Caitlin uses her powers – against her better judgement – to annoy the robo-speedster that gets him to stop. Licking his wounds, Barry comes back to the lab with Cisco and Caitlin, as Joe and Iris look onto Wally’s strange crystal cocoon with understandable worry. While Barry thanks Caitlin, she notable pauses for a moment before going to check on the trapped West.
Wally is clearly alive in the cocoon, albeit in a coma like state, and everyone is more than a little puzzled about what to do. Frustrated, Detective West leaves to try and do what he can to get his son out of his prison. That entails interrogating one of the hooded followers of Alchemy – rather, Savitar – at CCPD, though he doesn’t get too far, other than noting that he’s pretty much acting like a cult follower. Before Joe takes a lead from DA Chase a few cities over, Caitlin oddly arrives just in time and tells the detective Wally is fine, which gets her alone in the room with the cultist. Which is what she wants, as Ms. Snow eerily turns and coldly demands to know where Alchemy is, and she proceeds to play bad cop on her own. The screams of the cultist are heard by some officers, and after running into Julian, kidnaps him and gets away from the department.
Joe discovers that Caitlin lied about Joe, and when Barry gets to the station, finds the entire force out for her. Like a hurricane flying, Caitlin gets Julian to a frozen food warehouse and demands that Julian helps her find Alchemy by creating a program to discover him….somehow. At STAR Labs, everyone is notably worried about their wayward ally, and Cisco points out the last use of her power might have pushed her over the edge, closer to Killer Frost. They do finally track her down to the warehouse, where Julian has found a couple of people who searched for Savitar. Caitlin has a moment of clarity, but the Meta-human forensics expert unwisely sends out an SOS, which snaps her back into villain mode. Fortunately, Flash gets there in time to intervene. Barry tries to talk her down, but alas, instead Killer Frost is there, and rather bitchily begins to dress down the speedster for all the mistakes he’s made and problems he caused, revealing to Cisco specifically that Dante was alive and well before the timeline was changed. CCPD arrives on the scene, and in the struggle Flash is injured and Caitlin gets away.
Back at the lab, Cisco is, shall we say, upset about the revelation, but to his credit, he exclaims that right now, finding and saving Caitlin is the most important part, and after finding the two locations Julian found, insists Barry stay behind as he’s injured, leaving the stake out for himself and the team of Joe and HR. The latter duo have a heart-to-heart (which most will notice is a thing that happens a lot in this series) about trust, while at the other location, Barry and Iris note on satellite that the temperature is suddenly getting colder. Caitlin gives a chilling story about her upbringing and threatens the acolyte, who not surprisingly acquiesces to her demands. After hearing that Savitar has a plan for her specifically and even knows both her name and supervillain identity, Caitlin hears Cisco calling her outside, and the to have a confrontation. Mr. Ramone’s fears are realized, as he and Caitlin have the fight he envisioned in his vibe, though Flash tries to intervene. It doesn’t go so well, however, as Caitlin, seemingly knocked down, surprises the speedster with a Barry X Caitlin Shipper’s Dream Come True killer, freezing kiss. Barry, fortunately, manages to not get to the conclusion of this act seen in comics since Cisco manages to blast Caitlin off just in time.
Now trapped in the tube at STAR Labs, Caitlin proceeds to continue her dressing down of everyone and especially Barry, which perturbs all involved. Sharing the same feeling of being powerless, Joe talks HR into helping him with Wally, somewhat ominously. Barry and Iris have a hea- I mean, have a discussion, and the latter tries to comfort the former. They’re interrupted, however, as Joe and HR are rather violently breaking the imprisoned Wally out, and successfully, I might add. Well, except Wally seems to be vibrating out of phase and bolts out of the lab. Running out of options, Barry returns to Caitlin, and after suffering some more verbal abuse, makes a deal with her – she can kill him if she wants, but Caitlin must help the team find and save Wally. This is just enough to knock some sense into her, as Caitlin finally snaps out of Killer Frost mode, at least for now. Despite still having a few streaks of white hair, Caitlin does manage to theorize what’s wrong, and Joe figures out where Wally might be as well, saving him.
Wally is more than a bit exhilarated to have his new speedster powers, though Joe and Iris are obviously not quite as at peace with it. Caitlin, power dampening cuffs snapped on, also seems to be more like herself, though not all is well as Cisco once more has his understandable grudge against Barry. The this keep on coming, as Barry visits Julian in the hospital, and makes him a deal – he’ll keep quiet about Caitlin being the meta who put him in the hospital, but Barry must quit forensics. It’s actually sensible, as he reasons that a man whose morality hinges more on his friendship then truth cannot possibly be the type of man who can be a member of the police. However, Julian has his own set of secrets, and one that he maybe has no control over, as Savitar begins to call on him. Indeed, Julian is in fact Alchemy, and it seems he’s not as willing a servant of the self-proclaimed god as he made himself out to be.
So, an emotional and wordy episode of The Flash, as to be expected from an episode directed by Kevin Smith, despite the lack of Barry and Cisco talking about dicks and Star Wars. We get what seems like a temporary resolution to the Killer Frost story, and Caitlin’s actress knocks it out of the park in this one. Everyone actually does pretty great in their talky scenes, but she especially gets super points for it. Honestly, the fact that to this point Caitlin has just been so bubbly and friendly and kindergarten teacher-esque despite having a lot of baggage made the shift into being a total scathing cold bitch that much more impactful. Let’s be fair, the cold truths weren’t that great or brutal, but coming from a typically nice character it worked well. Working the Cold Kiss of Death in there was a nice touch too.
I am getting a little worried that we may be dipping into the well of someone reminding Barry a lot of stuff is his fault, said person is mad at him, and Barry mopes before someone has a talk with him. Plus, while emotional scenes are a big part of this show, I keep having to type “heart-to-heart” way too much in these write-ups. Also, Flash is at its best when you have these big, fun, light hearted but still earnest plotlines and action scenes, getting into the dregs of angst is not where you want Barry.
Hey look, the Chinese Frozen Food Warehouse is called “Ledded Goh.” I wonder what that refers to.
It’ll also be interesting to see where Wally comes along with his powers, as well as seeing the inevitable return of the Killer Frost persona. Anyway, a good show and a good capper before we get into the crossover next week, and we’ll see how that turns out.