The Flash S3 Ep. 7 Thoughts

"Killer Frost"

This week's episode of The Flash started off on a high note introducing Savitar in all of his speed God glory as he carried Barry around like a rag doll through the city. Wait, where does that sound familiar? Yes, this did feel a bit too much like a callback to the Zoom Vs Flash debut, but definitely done on a more spectacular scale given the visual FX and CGI heavy appearance of Savitar.

However, this is an episode entitled "Killer Frost", so did it deliver on its character spotlight? Well, we do get to see the beginnings of Killer Frost actually starting to accept her villainous title as a...well...killer. However, I do like the context of which it took place. We see Caitlin Snow attempting to get rid of her powers by forcefully taking things into her own hands. This of course only made her Killer Frost personality come out even more causing her to physically lash out on everyone. Watching the Flash team struggling to process and handle the idea of one of their own beloved members becoming a murderer was pretty interesting, but the highlight was seeing them trying to talk her down as she grew even more "cold" (pun unfortunately intended).

My only nitpick here is that the series never truly explained the concept of someone with a pretty stable and logical mind turning evil just because they possess the ability to conjure a particular element. Yes, visually speaking, it does perfectly play out as an ironic match to have ice powers being given a cold and dark persona, but it simply doesn't make sense when considering Caitlin's innocence and selfless nature. This is my only real issue whenever we're smacked with a Killer Frost related episode, and unfortunately for this one, I felt they completely missed the boat on diving into that part of her development. I'm pretty sure they've alluded to it previously but never in a way that has made me buy into her transition as of yet.

The character drama between Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry was yet another reminder of how much Barry continues to screw things up which honestly feels like a broken record at this point. However, I did give it a pass with this episode considering that Caitlin's Killer Frost outbursts was essentially a visual and audible symbol of Barry's worst mistakes coming back to haunt him. Let's just say that hearing "Barry, you ruined my life" told in different forms might be exhausting, but if done in a visually entertaining manner, I'll definitely let it slide.

The Wally West speedster moment towards the end felt a little bit out of place considering everything else taking place with the other characters, but again, this was an episode showing the result of Barry's timeline altering flying back at him in different forms. I did like the way in which they made Wally's transformation to be a very profound and bizarre experience. Having him run off to his old home like a lost soul finding his way was one of the most fascinating ideas that I've seen done on the show regarding character transformations. I only wished that they inserted his "It's awesome to be a speedster" happy moment at a different time just to keep the tone of the episode a little more consistent.

One of the best moments in the episode aside from Savitar's opening scene was seeing Joe open up to the Flash team about his purpose and worth to their cause. It's something that I've always thought about and I'm glad that they finally addressed it in a way that perfectly fits the character and situation. We're essentially seeing just a regular guy (and father more importantly) under lots of pressure preaching about his awareness of not having the same intellect as everyone else but the human instincts to make him a key component to the team. Joe and Iris have virtually no knowledge on the more scientific aspects of this insanely evolving universe, so it's nice to see the writers successfully pitch them as still being relevant to the team for other reasons.

Overall, I'm still not ready to hop on the hype train for this season just yet, but I will say that this episode was a nice nudge into the right direction give or take a few cheesy lines and character development nitpicks with Killer Frost. Fortunately, with great character drama for the most part, an awesome villain debut scene, and a couple of standout moments from the main cast, this was by far one of the more solid episodes of the new season.

However, I'm still having that overly dragged out feeling coming from this season as it continues to take its lovely time in building up to something that is hopefully fulfilling in the end. The build up itself simply hasn't been as fun as it used to be in the past where villains of the week were fun side plots for the most part as the more overarching story interweaved throughout. Let's just hope that things start to finally kick into full gear with the main story and villains moving forward. Savitar is shaping up to be one of the series' most interesting adversaries, but let's see if the writers have something in store for us that can transcend the popular criticism of The Flash having yet another speedster as its main villain. 

 

Bonus Content

1. Cisco Using His Powers

In this episode, we see Cisco use his powers twice in different ways. I like the fact that not only is Cisco evolving with his abilities, but the writers haven't overused him yet. He's essentially a powerful work in progress and that's pretty awesome in my book.

2. The Icy Kiss of Death

We get to see the iconic icy kiss of death by Killer Frost in this episode. We previously saw it during the Earth-2 episode if I'm not mistaken. This form of attack is something that has been around in the comics as with her brief animated appearances. It's cool to see that element of the character kept alive on the show.

3. The Not So Surprising Twist

If you were shocked at the Julian/Dr. Alchemy reveal then I won't fault you for thinking that his character was possibly far too easy of a misdirect. However, I called this twist since episode 1 considering the casting and the way they've developed his character. Still, I am curious to see how they'll explain it moving forward. Perhaps a multiple personality disorder? Nah, too easy right?

4. Savitar's Design

So far I've been pretty impressed by the CGI work on Savitar all things considered. However, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about his overly bloated metallic appearance coming across as one of the lesser impressive Transformer designs from the Michael Bay films. An easy remedy for this? What we're possibly seeing here is a speed force suit of some kind and Savitar will fully reveal himself towards the back half of the season.

Rating: 8/10