The Flash‘s mid-season finale served as a great Christmas present for fans – promising some exciting highs to come next year…
Now that the first half of the season is over, we can look back on what’s happened so far – and it’s sadly been decidedly mixed, particularly in the villains department. Alchemy was never up to much snuff as a big bad and Savitar has so far been depicted as yet another evil speedster. Thankfully, ‘The Present’ – while not perfect – suggested that things will improve on this front in future.
With the Dominators’ invasion swept under the carpet, Barry resumes his efforts to stop Savitar – and recruits Jay Garrick to help him. It’s always nice to see John Wesley Shipp back on the show, and the mentor/student relationship between he and Barry is a particularly juicy one. It’d be great if he could stick around to fight Savitar in future.
Speaking of the future, it turns out that Savitar is another enemy of Future Barry’s who has returned to an earlier point in the timeline to make Flash’s life hell. Alchemy is also nothing but his puppet, a gateway into our dimension – through the use of the Philosopher’s Stone (so that’s why they cast Tom Felton!). This is a good move, as it allows Julian to remain a more human character. He started to bond with Team Flash, Barry and Caitlin specifically, this week which gives us hope that he might join them as a good guy for the second half of the season.
Because, unfortunately, they might have a vacancy. While attempting to dispose of the Philosopher’s Stone in the Speed Force, Barry accidentally jumped forward in time – and witnessed Savitar kill Iris! The clues have been building up for a couple of weeks now but this was still a shocking flashforward. Is this one time where the Flash won’t be able to change the future? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see…
Now that the show has got Flashpoint out of its system, it looks like some of the artificial conflict that has been holding things back has cleared up and are heroes will once again join forces to defeat a powerful enemy – with a tragic loss possibly around the corner. As a sign that things will get more exciting when The Flash returns in January, this episode was a great present to the fans.
Speed Thoughts:
- I would happily watch a whole episode of the two Flashes facing Earth-3 Trickster. Mark Hamill had a lot of fun channeling the Joker in the role (he even used the same voice).This also carries on the yearly tradition of Hamill turning up in episode nine.
- Let’s dissect Savitar’s warning. “One shall betray you, one shall fall, one shall suffer a fate worse than death.” After the “betray” line, the camera cuts to Wally. After “fall”, it cuts to Cisco and after the final line we see both Caitlin and Iris. Are those cuts significant or are they deliberately trying to put us on the wrong scent?
- After all the drama, the Team Flash Christmas party ending was very welcome. Drunk HR was hilarious – “Caitlo, Ciscin!” – and finally Wally got his Kid Flash costume, which should put an end to the drawn-out conflict with Joe. Plus, Caitlin even made it snow! Let’s hope she didn’t do an Elsa and freeze the whole city…
Rating:
Fandom Factory 