“Killer Frost” (3×07) picks up right where “Shade” (3×06) left off; Wally(Keiynan Lonsdale) has been turned into one of Dr. Alchemy’s husks, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) is suppressing her inner meta-human, and Barry (Grant Gustin) meets a self-proclaimed God. “You are only a man, but I am a God, your God, I am Savitar,” and then the invisible force takes our hero on a run; reminiscent of Zoom’s introduction in “Enter Zoom” (2×06). Then it’s Team Flash to the rescue, despite the consequences Caitlin will experience after using her powers to help take down Savitar. Repetitive plot points be damned in “Killer Frost” (3×07) the great performances uplifts this emotional episode, as Barry Allen learns that his mistakes will always catch up to him.
Savitar, the “God of motion” arrives in Central City just as quickly as he disappears to another dimension in time. After this episode, I am still onboard with the religious subtext and mythology Savitar brings to The Flash; I just wish he could leave his poor CGI baggage at home. The opening sequence was really hard to watch, and took me completely out of the show. Although Savitar becomes an afterthought throughout the rest of the episode, his loyal servant, Dr. Alchemy leads back to him; just like how Caitlin hunted down Dr. Alchemy’s acolytes to find him. Power always leaves a trail for others to follow. “He’s shown us the future, you were there, glorious and powerful, my Lord has special plans for you,” explains an acolyte to Killer Frost about halfway through the episode. Well on Earth-2 Killer Frost served Zoom, so I suppose it’s only natural that in the future she finds herself in the shadow of another evil speedster. The question still remains how far into the future are we talking? Fingers crossed that The Flash writers don’t meld together the Killer Frost arc with Savitar too quickly, because both serve very different antagonistic roles to our hero.
“I used to practice the hippocratic oath, if someone were to so much as step on a bug I would say do no harm, it’s built into my DNA, but unfortunately my DNA isn’t what it used to be,” explains Caitlin to a Savitar acolyte. Danielle Panabaker really shines in this episode as she effortlessly externalizes her inner struggle for control between two sides of herself. After multiple seasons being tied down to doomed romances it takes a powerful metahuman identity to bring out the best in Caitlin Snow. Her brains throughout the episode really heightens her threat level as Killer Frost. Not to mention her psychological warfare tactics that come from being a Team Flash member for the past two years. She evokes pure villainy, twisting words, and past events to show how negatively Barry Allen’s actions affect his friends and loved ones, “Oh like you did Eddie and Ronnie. You know for a hero Flash, you sure let a lot of people around you die.” Scenes like these are why fans have long anticipated Caitlin to go to the dark side. This is a very refreshing villain character arc, as viewers are able to watch the turn take place over seasons, it’s not shown in flashbacks or alluded too. Killer Frost is likely to serve as constant reminder to Barry Allen that even speedster actions have consequences that he can’t outrun.
“You keep messing with everyone’s lives and we’re left to pick up the pieces from your mistakes, some things you break can’t be put back together,” state’s Killer Frost after being locked up by her friends. They have managed to defuse Killer Frost’s physical powers, but gave her time to inflict some serious psychological warfare. Reminder, Caitlin is not the only Team Flash member paying the price for Flashpoint, but Cisco too. In “Paradox” (3×02) we observe Barry readjusting to a new timeline with some slight differences to his life in “Race of His Life” (2×23). This included walking into a fight with Cisco after he loses his brother in a car accident, and Barry refuses to go back in time. Fast forward a few episodes to Killer Frost making sure Cisco understands the full weight of Barry’s guilt from his brother’s death; that’s some killer irony. I also noticed how all Team Flash members kept alluding to Jay Garrick’s (John Wesley Shipp) demonstration to Barry about how time travel fractures don’t heal correctly along the timeline, “I’m broken, but what do you care, you got Iris, you got your happy ending everyone else be damned.” Our hero does care enough about his friends to sacrifice his CSI position with CCPD after making a deal with Julian to protect Caitlin. Another bandaid to temporarily fix the damage that most likely will resurface later on this season.
Dr. Alchemy is Julian Albert, said everyone when The Flash season three began. The predictable circumstances surrounding this reveal allows this episode’s ending to fall flat. I do appreciate the Harry Potter connection to Dr. Alchemy’s own philosopher’s stone, but the villain angle undermines Julian Albert’s human perspective on metahumans. If the last two episodes have proved anything it’s that Central City needs more humans, not metas running around. No worries next week it’s aliens that will lead Barry Allen to take part in “The best team up ever,” to quote Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards). No evil metahumans for an episode, but Barry Allen’s Flashpoint consequences will certainly not be forgotten; if John Diggle (David Ramsey) has anything to say it.
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