On Tuesday’s episode of The Flash, Caitlin decides to make a lifestyle change. The truth about Dante is finally exposed, and Cisco is not happy with Barry. Wally goes through meta puberty, and Joe is not having it. Finally, Dr. Alchemy’s alter ego is revealed to be exactly who you thought it was.
Except for the Dr. Alchemy reveal, “Killer Frost” was a pretty good episode. And it’s not even that the reveal was terrible, it’s more that we could have done without it this episode, and it was honestly too obvious. Berlanti and crew might have thought that this was a good idea, but here was a time when an alternate Earth Eddie Thawne would have been the best villain candidate. Seriously, why can’t Eddie be the villain for once?
As usual, this post will contain spoilers from this point forward. You’ve been warned.
As the title suggests, this episode was mainly about Caitlin Snow’s decision to try out villainy for a few days. Honestly, that’s the best way to say it. For someone who was supposed to be permanently changed due to the continued use of her powers, Caitlin came out of the entire experience pretty average looking. And it only lasted all of two days. Wally spent a longer time as Kid Flash in “Flashpoint” than Caitlin did as Killer Frost.
Probably the best part about “Killer Frost” was the fact that we didn’t have to wait very long for all of those secrets to come out. The quickest way to ruin a show is to reveal something and never come back to it. Thankfully, The Flash has been pretty good about not holding anything for too long this season.
So of course, once Caitlin gets through saving Barry from Savitar, and hooking Wally’s cocoon up to a machine that could monitor his vitals, she decides it’s a terrific idea to go looking for Dr. Alchemy. This, of course, involves delivering death or frostbite to Shade, hypothermia to two police officers, and then kidnapping Julian Albert directly from the police station. There was also the stabbing Barry in the thigh with an icepick, attacking Cisco, and then giving Barry the kiss of death. And let’s not forget the exposing the fact that Dante’s death was Barry’s fault.
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say b*tch, but let me tell you Killer Frost is the definition. I love her; she’s so damned terrible. It was like Caitlin had been holding onto that grief from what happened with Ronnie and Jay/Hunter so that she could unleash it on everyone this episode. I personally was not a fan of Killer Frost when she was first introduced last season, but I liked the edge that she gave to Caitlin’s character. However, B*tch!Caitlin is the best thing ever to happen to the biochemist, and I hope that she stays because she is a savage.
Eventually, Caitlin calmed down, and Barry was able to keep her out of prison, but the damage is done. Caitlin cannot continue to hide behind the nice act if the whole of team Flash now knows what she’s capable of. Yes, she’s a great biochemist, but that doesn’t stop the fact that it doesn’t take much for Caitlin to get angry and start hurting people. She needs counseling, and that needs to be addressed before something else happens.
And still, b*tch!Caitlin is highly entertaining.
So I said before that The Flash has been pretty good about not holding secrets for too long this season. One secret that they could have kept is Dr. Alchemy’s true identity. People have been speculating that it was Julian Albert from the time he was introduced, but they’ve also been pointing out that that was too obvious of a pick. And after last year’s Zoom and Jay Garrick reveals, Flash fans have shown themselves to not be fans of obvious picks.
One thing I will commend is the way that we find out that Julian is Dr. Alchemy. Savitar the Decepticon visits Julian in the hospital after he wakes up, and corners him near the ambulances. What made this so interesting is that Julian apparently doesn’t want to be Dr. Alchemy. For someone who had wanted to be a meta himself, you would think that Julian would have embraced his role as the person that can create metahumans. However, it seems like almost getting exposed by the CCPD was too much of a risk for him.
It makes sense, though, when you think about it. Being the lead CSI for metahuman activity means that Julian gets to control how the CCPD investigates Dr. Alchemy. And now that he’s gotten Barry to resign, there’s no one to hinder his covering up those cases. It goes without saying that it’s incredibly hypocritical for Julian to say that Barry is morally compromised for covering for Caitlin when he is literally tampering with evidence to hide his own villainy.
Speaking of Barry’s resignation, maybe this means that we’ll finally get to see something done about STAR Labs. One of the biggest questions is how Cisco and Caitlin are still managing to pay the bills in the building, much less in their own lives. And then there’s the point that both HR and, this week, Detective Patterson have made: it’s only a matter of time before people link Cisco, Caitlin, and STAR Labs to the Flash. Patterson already thought Killer Frost looked like Barry’s friend, so they need to figure something out ASAP.
And really, we shouldn’t discount HR’s ideas. He’s a great researcher, and he brings a good perspective to the team. HR Wells of Earth-19 has given us more gems and Easter eggs in four episodes than Harry of Earth-2 and Harrison/Eobard of Earth-1 gave us in 2 seasons. Seriously, this guy is probably the best version of Harrison Wells to date. I hope we never get rid of him.
Considering that HR tried to steal his date last week, it’s a wonder that he and Joe got along this week. However, with Wally stuck in a cocoon, Joe was willing to do just about anything. Including leave Caitlin with a key witness in the Dr. Alchemy case. Seriously, the whole of team Flash needs to get a reality check sometimes.
In any case, when Joe sees Caitlin go over to the dark side, he decides that he doesn’t want his son to go through the same thing, and enlists HR to help him get Wally out of the cocoon. Obviously, this was a stupid idea, but you can understand where Joe was coming from when the person who was supposed to be monitoring Wally’s condition decided to go crazy at the worst possible moment for Joe as a parent.
Personally, I could have done with a few episodes of waiting for Wally to come out of the cocoon. Or even just one more episode where he visits the Speedforce. It just feels like taking Wally out of the cocoon so early was an unnecessary rush. I understand that the crossovers are next week – and I have been waiting my whole life for Wally to meet Jax – but I’m quite sure that we could have spent some time in Wally’s head during the transformation.
This week’s episode also brought us a little more information about Savitar the Decepticon. He might be the god of Motion/Speed, but there’s no denying the Transformers resemblance. Paramount Pictures and Hasbro must have a stake in the CW for them not to be suing over Savitar’s design right now.
In any case, Savitar must be friends with Zoom because he also dragged Barry on a Central City world tour, like the Flash was his favorite rag doll. And while there were no presentations like with Zoom, you get the feeling that Savitar could have if he wanted to. Thankfully, Caitlin managed to freeze Savitar before he did too much damage to Barry, but that was more of a quick fix than a permanent solution as Savitar was able to quickly shake it off and retreat.
How many of you want to bet that Caitlin is now on Savitar’s hit list?
Here’s what I don’t get: was Savitar the power being emitted from Alchemy’s light rock, or was he the light rock itself? Because that wasn’t clearly communicated. And it doesn’t help that most people can’t actually see Savitar. We know that Barry and Julian can, but it’s not clear if Alchemy’s followers can also see him even though they’re aware of Savitar’s existence. I don’t know; maybe I missed that part.
Another thing I want to know is how long will Savitar continue to be invisible, and what is his ultimate plan? Like, is the whole thing with Alchemy and his acolytes just Savitar’s search for a human vessel? Does he want to take Central City? Is he tired of Barry calling himself the fastest man alive, despite being maybe fourth when you consider only the currently living speedsters? Third, if you only count Earth-1, and seventh probably if you count up all of the speedsters and consider Jay Garrick slower.
Savitar is probably just tired of the shame.
I can’t end this post without talking about the emotional moments. Any and every Westallen moment is great to me, but Barry seems to be making declarations in the lab every week now. Can they at least go out on another date? Don’t get me wrong, I believed Barry when he said that Iris is his life, I just feel like they should be allowed to enjoy the newness of their relationship instead of immediately skipping to almost married.
Also, did you guys see the look on Iris’ face when he said that? I think it still shocks Iris that Barry would so quickly ruin timelines, and leave his own happiness for Iris and her family. There was also the look on her face when Cisco started to shove Barry, and then again when Barry named Cisco and Caitlin as his best friends. As if Iris hadn’t been with him since kindergarten, and wouldn’t quickly knock somebody out for trying him.
This Westallen. It’s so deep. However, I would give my left arm for an evil Eddie episode/arc to throw a wrench in that for two seconds. Just to see Iris have a full storyline to herself. Maybe putting Iris in that kind of emotional turmoil is unnecessary, but evil, alternate Earth Eddie needs to be a thing.
In any case, that Dante reveal isn’t going to stop being a problem anytime soon. Cisco could barely stand Barry after Caitlin exposed him, how will he be able to live with Barry? That’s not something that can easily be gotten over. On the one hand, Barry couldn’t have known that Dante would die, however, on the other, that doesn’t stop the fact that Barry is basically responsible. It’s so messy, and I don’t see Cisco letting that go right now.
All in all “Killer Frost” was a pretty good episode. The villain reveal was a bit uninspired, but you don’t hire Draco Malfoy if you don’t plan to put him to good use. I am curious to see how the Killer Frost aspect of Caitlin’s personality comes into play going forward, as well as Wally’s connection to Dr. Alchemy. There’s also the question of where Barry’s going to be living now that he’s jobless and Cisco can’t stand him. However, I don’t expect very much of this to be answered, as next week is the four-way crossover.
What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
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