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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 3×16 – “Into the Speed Force”

The Flash (3×16) – “Into
the Speed Force”
Written by:         Brooke Roberts & Judalina Neira
Directed by:       Gregory
Smith
So things
have gotten pretty bad, Wally’s trapped in a Speed Force and it seems like the
gang is left with three options.  There’s
the pragmatic option; Move on, accept that Wally’s basically dead and learn to
accept that while avenging his death by defeating Savitar.  This is a really bad plan and not even
remotely heroic so we’ll save it for the last resort.  Option two: The intelligent plan.  Figure out a way to reverse what you’ve done,
research figure out exactly what future Barry did to trap Savitar and use that
to form a plan to trade Wally and Savitar again.
Or Barry can
just rush off full of self-recrimination and guilt into the Speed Force on what
amounts to a suicide mission but that would be stupid. No way are they going to
do that one…
So Barry,
full of guilt and self-recrimination, plans to rush off into the Speed Force on
what amounts to a suicide mission to save Wally.  Sigh, some episodes there just aren’t enough
facepalm gifs.  
While Cisco, Julian and
Caitlin tech-tech up some bring him back tech Jesse offers to help but Barry
needs her to stay behind and of course no one sees this for the red flag it
actually is.  So stupid plan go!
Barry tries
to talk to Iris about Wally but he realizes that he may have just nuked his
relationship with Iris and she leaves, meanwhile Joe may not realize exactly
what is going on but he knows something is wrong with Barry and tries to talk
to him but Barry’s pretty far down the rabbit hole.
Speaking of
pretty far down the rabbit hole.  The
Speed Force looks a lot gloomier than it did last time.  A lot more like the CCPD too, but hey time
for his loved ones to help him along the way, right?  Wrong! 
Speed Force Eddie is here and he’s pretty pissed.  Turns out God the Speed Force doesn’t
appreciate being lied to.  They helped
Barry come to terms with his mother’s death and he said he had then he almost
immediately raced off and changed the past. 
They
understand but that doesn’t mean they forgive him and it sure doesn’t mean they’re
going to let him save Wally.
Back in the
real world, Jesse has a suicidal plan of her own.  She wants Cisco to vibe the piece of Savitar’s
armor so she can go after him.  Cisco
says no dice because he can see a suicidal plan for what it is and he’s not
going to help all of his friends kill themselves.  Just Barry this week, try again next week.
Joe finds
Iris in the Time Vault look at the 2024 Newspaper and asks her if she’s having
second thoughts.  Iris is worried she
drove Barry to running off to save Wally but Joe knows better and he also knows
Iris.  He convinces her to do some soul
searching he knows she’ll do the right thing.
Back in
Speed Force Hell, Eddie talks to Barry about the impact he had on Eddie’s life
before asking Barry if he’s sure that he is only there to save Wally.  When Barry agrees, Eddie points him to where
he needs to go but also sics the Time Wraiths on him.  Barry gets away and finds himself in a spooky
STAR Labs.  He finds Caitlin taking care
of a baby and now it’s time to talk to Ronnie.
Now just
because Cisco’s not going to help Jesse kill herself it doesn’t mean that
figuring out what Savitar’s suit is mad of isn’t a good idea and they hit on
something.  The metal is in a state of
flux which means that it’s linked to Savitar even broken off as it is.  Jesse tries to rush off with it but the gang
is presenting a united front. 
Jesse asks
them when they’ll actually go off after Savitar but HR says “When the real
Flash gets back” and Jesse takes it badly. 
HR tries to apologize but she isn’t interested.
In the Speed
Force, Ronnie’s figured out Barry’s real plan. 
That Barry doesn’t intend to rescue Wally, he intends to take his place
and the Speed Force isn’t keen on that at all. 
So Ronnie sics what’s left of Zoom Barry.  That goes as well as the majority of Barry’s
fights with Zoom so when he has Barry down and is ready to kill him Ronnie
explains that if he wants to save Wally he has to stop trying to let other
people carry his burdens.  Barry uses the
tether Cisco make to destroy Zoom. 
He wakes up
in the hospital in the Speed Force and finally finds Wally.  Wally is trapped in a loop watching his
mother’s death over and over again. 
Barry tries to get to Wally but now it’s time for another visit from a
dead friend.  This time it’s Leonard
Snart.
Back on
Earth, Jesse is all set to steal the Savitar piece but HR has drawn the line in
the sand.  
But you can’t draw a line in
the sand when you have a glass jaw and Jesse leaves HR in a heap.
So Barry
gets to have a heart to heart with the Speed Force as played by Captain Cold
which is for the best because we’re in Act III so it’s time to lay things out
in the open.  Barry isn’t being noble, he’s
being a coward because he doesn’t think he’s fast enough to save Iris from
Savitar.  Meanwhile, Snart explains that
this whole trip down spooky memory lane has been about showing Barry that his
actions have far reaching consequences, even the action of taking himself off
the board. 
Enter
Earth-3 Jay Garrick.
But before
we can finish this confrontation it’s time for Jesse to fight Savitar.  She chases after the shard and it leads her
directly to an ass kicking.  Fortunately,
HR has regained consciousness and doesn’t hold a grudge.  He points out that it’s a bit suspicious that
an invulnerable god needs a suit of armor and is so intent on getting pieces of
it back so she should give Savitar his piece back the hard way.  What do you know! It worked and Savitar runs
away.
Back to the
Speed Force one more time.  As soon as
they lost contact with Barry, Cisco went to Earth-3 and gave Jay the scoop so
he’s here to bring Barry home.  After a
brief fight with Speed Force!Captain Cold, Jay and Barry get to Wally.  But there’s a problem, someone has to stay
behind, Jay feels it should be him.  He’s
had a good run and more importantly it’s up to Barry to defeat Savitar.
Barry brings
Wally back to the real world and the gang vows to defeat Savitar and save Jay
from an endless hell of his own design. 
But they’re going to have to do it without Wally in the meantime, as he
is in no shape to fight anyone after watching his mother die over and over.
They’re also
going to have to do it without Jesse, with Jay gone Earth-3 needs a Flash (This
wasn’t a problem for Earth-2, Jess?) 
Also, Savitar seems to have plans for her so it might be best for her to
put some distance between herself and Savitar.
Worst of
all, they’re gonna have to do it without Barry and Iris as a couple.  Iris was right, Barry proposed for all the
wrong reasons and that would’ve have tainted their marriage sooner or later so
they need to take a break.  He’s going to
move back in with Cisco (Did you ask, Cisco?) until he’s got his head on right.
So…  Let me get this out of the way first.  Simply from the point of view of a fan, they’re
all idiots.  There, that’s out of the
way.
As far as
episodes go, this was pretty good. 
Everyone being big stupid, suicidal idiots is to be expected when they’re
rocked by what happened to Wally so that was a good point to build the episode
from and a good place to build the drama from. 
People are stupid when they’re hurt and everyone here was hurt.
Now, going
forward I hope that Barry and company can learn from this lesson.  Barry has to start growing beyond the need to
run away from his problems, the episode came right out and said it so the
writers need to commit to that going forward.
It was fun
to revisit Eddie, Ronnie, Snart and Jay even if that isn’t quite what happened
so no complaints from me on that part.  I
also like that they’ve introduced something they can actually fight Savitar
with.
Not much
else to say, as a fallout episode prior to a stunt episode next week this was a
good point to solidify where things stand before the final five episodes.  But it wasn’t much more than that.
Things We Learned
This Week:
1)     
Iris and Barry have called off the engagement.
2)     
Jay is trapped in the Speed Force and someone
(Savitar) will have to take his place to get out.
3)     
Jesse has gone to Earth-3 to fill in for Jay.
Unanswered Questions:
1)      Savitar’s
a man.  Kind of expected that all along
but who is he?
2)      Will
it even be possible to save Jay or is this really his end?
3)      What
were/are Savitar’s plans for Jesse?

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