‘The Flash’ 3.06 Recap: “It’s Like We’re Meta-Frenemies”

‘The Flash’ wasn’t on last week due to the U.S. Presidential election. I guess there are some disasters even the fastest man alive can’t outrun.

As for the subject at hand, this week’s episode opens with Wally having dreams about being Kid Flash. He’s excited because he believes this means he’s finally going to develop those meta-human powers he craves. Joe is very concerned and warns Wally that all signs point to him being a victim of Doctor Alchemy. Wally doesn’t want to listen to his negativity.

At the crime lab, Barry’s truce with Julian proves to be short-lived when the latter reverts right back to being a dick again. He’s annoyed when their captain assigns Barry permanently to the meta-human task force. (He wasn’t before?) Meanwhile, Joe finally arranges a date with the sexy D.A. named Cecille he’s been flirting with.

Struggling to prove himself a useful member of the team, H.R. concocts a scheme to open a S.T.A.R. Labs Museum with himself as its spokesman. That idea is almost deflated when Cisco points out that Harrison Wells is known as a murderer on this Earth, which means that H.R. can’t leave the lab or show his face in public. (I’m pretty sure he’s gone out for coffee in previous episodes.) H.R. has a convenient solution for this problem in the form of an Earth-19 “facial transmogrifier” gizmo that projects a different holographic face on top of his own. He’s even able to tune the device so that all of his friends see his real face while strangers see the fake one. As much as that might help, someone should explain to him that nobody in Central City is going to want to visit a museum devoted to the company that almost destroyed the town.

Barry tells Wally about his Kid Flash alter ego life in the Flashpoint timeline, including how he was nearly killed. Petulant Wally thinks Barry and Joe are just ganging up on him because they don’t trust him.

The new meta-human of the week is introduced when a stockbroker is attacked by a giant shadow monster. Watching security camera footage of the event afterwards, H.R. dubs the monster “Shade,” after a villain from his Earth. He theorizes that the culprit may be phasing really fast to blur his identity, much as Barry often does.

When Cisco notices that a fancy pair of handcuffs he’s built that can dampen meta-human powers are missing, he blames H.R., who denies taking them. Later, Caitlin confesses. She’s been wearing them to block her own freezing power, which she reveals to Cisco. She asks him to keep this a secret, and also asks him to vibe her future. She needs to know if she’ll go evil. Cisco has a vision of himself fighting with Killer Frost, but lies to Caitlin and says he didn’t see anything.

Wally has a flashback to being stabbed in the Flashpoint timeline and crumples to the floor, debilitated by the pain. This pretty much confirms that Alchemy is coming for him. H.R. suggests locking him in the Pipeline for his own protection (and theirs). Even Wally has to agree that it might be a good idea. Nonetheless, he insists that Joe should still go on his date. He says he’ll be fine.

Barry and Iris stay behind to watch Wally while Joe, H.R., Cisco and Caitlin have a group outing to Movie Night in the park, which doubles as Joe’s first date with Cecille. Cisco breaks down and tells Caitlin what he really saw in his vision. Suddenly, the movie is interrupted by the shadow monster rising up in front of the screen. People in the crowd flee in panic. Cisco sounds the alarm to notify Barry.

As Barry races to the park, Wally hears the voice of Alchemy in his head, which makes him curl up into a ball, writhing in pain. Compelled by the voice, he begs Iris to open the door and let him out. She refuses at first but eventually gives in. However, when Wally tries to run past her, Iris decks him.

During Barry’s fight with the shadow monster, Cisco comes up with a very obvious solution and uses his magic hacking powers to turn on a bunch of outdoor lights and car headlights. The exposure to light weakens the monster, which shrinks to human size and solidifies. Barry then slaps the special handcuffs on the man.

With the new meta safely in custody, Cisco outs Caitlin to all of their friends. (Dick move, buddy.) Barry has a talk with her and says that it’s his fault for creating Flashpoint. Caitlin then has a heart-to-heart with Cisco as well.

The team formulates a plan to deal with Alchemy. Wally volunteers to be used as bait. Joe gathers a S.W.A.T. team and notices, strangely, that Julian is not at work. Huh.

The voice in Wally’s head draws him to an abandoned subway tunnel with a cult-like altar. Hidden behind a mask, Alchemy introduces himself. Barry and the S.W.A.T. team rush in and have a big fight. Alchemy zaps Barry with a magic wand, but Joe shoots Alchemy and makes him drop it. The tunnel then starts shaking with tremors and a speedster races in and knocks down most of the S.W.A.T. members.

The crystal from the wand calls to Wally, who touches it and instantly turns into a giant cocoon. The very robotic-looking speedster then grabs Barry and pins him to a wall, announcing himself as Savitar, the God of Speed.

That can’t be good.

Episode Verdict

My first question here is why does Caitlin automatically assume that she’ll turn evil? Yes, Killer Frost was evil, but so was Cisco’s Earth-2 counterpart and nobody is worried about him going bad. That question has been nagging me ever since we learned that Caitlin has meta powers. Cisco’s vision of the two of them fighting could very easily be misleading. These are smart people. Can they really not think of any other possible explanations?

I’m not sure how I feel about this God of Speed thing. Was Doctor Alchemy not enough of a Big Bad villain for the season? Do we really need two now? I’ll try to reserve judgment until we can see how this plays out for a little while, but it seems redundant to me at the moment. Other than looking like a Decepticon from one of Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’ movies, how is he going to be any different than last season’s Zoom?

1 comment

  1. Ryan

    I feel the same way about Caitlin, it makes no damned sense that she would just go bad. Hopefully if that’s the case they give some explanation as to why her powers make her evil. I’m still hoping she will end up a force for good somehow.

    Savitar was known to be coming this year and was planned as the big bad…. That said I’d have preferred them turning Caitlin full evil and using her as the big bad despite what I said above, just to not have ANOTHER freaking speedster villain, like come on writers, 3 seasons in a row with a speedster big bad.

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