Cisco comes up with what may be the best or worst idea ever to keep Savitar from being two steps ahead of them in this episode of The Flash. But realistically, it’s a plan that can’t last — even if everything goes as it should.
Elsewhere in “Cause and Effect,” Tracy and HR are basically in their own little world of science, flirting and coffee, as the scientist attempts to put together what they need to trap the future Flash.
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Meet Bart Allen
Barry and Savitar’s conversation continues, with Savitar revealing just how he came to be. Barry created time remnants to fight Savitar, who let this one live so that he could become Savitar. The others shunned him because he wasn’t the true Barry Allen, and Savitar was alone and wanted the pain to end. He realized that gods don’t feel pain, so all he had to do was become one.
Now he only needs two more things. First, for Iris to die so Barry is driven so far into the dark that Savitar can be born. (Once Savitar is imprisoned in the speed force, the remnant goes crazy and goes back in time to become Savitar. It’s a closed loop.) The second thing he’s keeping to himself.
It’s all coming together in the worst way, Cisco realizes, recalling the message the Legends found from older Barry. They can’t trust Savitar Barry Allen.
Barry admits to Iris that when he thinks about how his parents died so violently, sometimes he wants to repay the violence with more violence and make someone else hurt as much as he does. That power, that pain, is where Savitar comes from — from loss, from losing Iris. It wouldn’t take much, just the love in his heart being drowned in anger and the bad memories outweighing the good ones. He can’t help but wonder what he’ll have to become to stop Savitar.
Cisco then comes up with a plan to keep Savitar from being two steps ahead of them: stop Barry from making new memories so he (and Savitar) can’t remember what they’re doing now. Barry’s on board, but, of course, it has to backfire, and instead they’re left with a Barry Allen who doesn’t remember anything at all. He’s worried that they experimented on him — which, technically, they did but with his permission — or want to sell his organs on the black market. He’d even prefer to go by Bart.
This is also a Barry Allen who wonders if he and Iris are planning their wedding and honeymoon, calls Iris out on not keeping him from making bad style choices in high school and doesn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s also a Barry Allen who doesn’t remember that his parents are dead, and Iris tells him that they died peacefully. It’s when they kiss that Barry’s hand starts vibrating and he finds out he has powers.
And, hey, if there’s a possible upside to this, it’s that Savitar doesn’t remember anything either. That also means, however, that Wally doesn’t have his powers. Killer Frost shows up to offer her assistance to get Barry’s memories back so everything goes back to normal. With no Flashes to protect the city and a lot of villains around, they can’t exactly take the chance that Barry can re-learn to be the Flash.
This is also an opportunity for Cisco to try to get through to Caitlin, bringing up memories of them working with Ronnie. And while Killer Frost tries to stay focused on the task at hand, that doesn’t stop her from joining in on remembering, at least for a moment. But then she’s back to being cold, insisting that she doesn’t want to be there any longer than she has to.
The Barry Allen They Know and Love
While Barry delights in running on the speed track, Joe realizes that Iris doesn’t want his memory restored. Yes, they both want Barry to be happy and light, but as Joe reminds her, she fell in love with Barry Allen, and this isn’t him. He’s had 28 years of experience to define him. And without those memories, both the good and the bad, the Barry Allen they know and love is gone.
The thing is, the city needs that Barry Allen because they need the Flash. Barry’s lost his memories just as he’s supposed to testify to keep an arsonist behind bars. Cisco and Julian give him glasses to wear so that Julian can type to him what to say on the stand, but they short-circuit when Barry starts sweating, and the arsonist goes free and sets fire to an office building.
Upon learning that he is a superhero, Barry can’t just stand by and watch people die, so he runs off to save them (after returning for his suit). Since he’s having problems running and stopping, there’s no way he’ll be able to just run everyone out of the building. They need to electroshock his brain to get his memory back, but that’s not enough. He also needs a visceral memory to spark his brain.
That’s where Iris comes in, telling him that his mother was murdered and she found him crying on the couch that night when he came to live with them. She didn’t know it then, she says, but that’s the night they fell in love. She can’t make that pain go away, but for every bad memory, there’s a good one that will get him through it. (As he’ll later tell Iris, the pain and darkness are a part of him and what he needs to be a better person and hero and keep him from forgetting who he is.)
It works, and Barry remembers (but so does Savitar). With Wally’s help now that he has his speed back, the two put the fire out and leave the arsonist for the police.
They got Barry back, but can they get Caitlin back too? Barry, Cisco and Julian try, and Julian even tells her he loves her, but Killer Frost tells him that she doesn’t love him and never did. “I never loved any of you,” she says before leaving. But it does look like they may have gotten through to her just a bit.
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A Calming Coffee, Kissing and a Breakthrough
Tracy has hit a speed bump in building her device. They name it the speed force bazooka, but for now it’s just a speed force epic fail. HR suggests that she take a step back and think of something that calms her, and it just so happens that they both like the same coffee to chill out. And while the stage is set for a kiss, it doesn’t happen.
It’s when HR returns to talk about the elephant in the room and insists that they have to focus on the task at hand that a kiss does happen. There are sparks but not just between them, as Tracy has an idea and immediately gets to work.
As she shares with the team at the end of the episode, there is a tiny (aka a big, big) problem with the speed force bazooka. In order to generate enough power to work, they need 3.86 terajoules of energy, which is more energy than in the sun. Where are they going to get something like that? Maybe the device that’s with King Shark?
Do you think Cisco’s plan would’ve been a good one if it had worked like it should have? What did you think of the happier, light “Bart”? What do you think of HR and Tracy as a couple? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
The Flash season 3 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
