After last week’s feel good episode…well, you knew it couldn’t last for long, didn’t you? “Fear makes us do a lot of things we shouldn’t” – that turns out to be true in so many ways, for so many of the cast of THE FLASH. Season 3 Episode 15 of our favorite speedster’s show gives us some critical twists – but we can’t say anything more until after the jump. Join us there, will you?

SPOILERS AHEAD

Note: This review is being published prior to THE FLASH airing in the Pacific Time Zone USA. If you haven’t seen the show yet, STOP HERE and come back after watching the show. Trust us, it’s worth it!

Wally is moving up to his best speed ever, perhaps fast enough to save Iris! But, something is messing with his mind. Make that someone – and that someone is Savitar! Wally sees him, even though Barry and Jesse cannot. And the message Wally keeps getting is “you’re not fast enough”.

As Wally tells Team Flash, he starts a chain of unfortunate revelations that fray just about every relationship on the show. We learn that:

• Wally has been hiding these hallucinations…or are they hallucinations? Not telling the truth frays Barry’s trust, and he cuts Wally out of the inner circle for fear that Savitar can spy on them through Wally’s mind
• Caitlin has been hiding a piece of the Philosophers Stone all this time, in hopes of using it to rid her of her Killer Frost side. This revelation potentially tears apart her budding relationship with Julian
• And most critically, Barry asked Iris to marry him in part because he was trying to change the future – Iris wasn’t wearing a ring in the future death scene. That tears at Barry and Iris’ relationship (more on that in a moment)

There are multiple “conversations” with Savitar through Julian, much to Julian’s own consternation. We learn that Savitar calls himself the “Future Flash” (a phrase with special meaning to comics fans, but no word as to what that means in this series). And, we learn that he is almost free…but how?

Turns out, Savitar has been trapped in the Speed Force all this time, and when they threw the Philosophers Stone into the Speed Force it went straight to Savitar. Of course, it’s missing one piece (the piece kept by Caitlin), so he can’t completely escape. It explains all the brief trips to this world, as the Speed Force keeps pulling him back in.

So, how to escape? We get one more effect from the first arc of Season Three – Flashpoint showed Savitar how to get out (which means he wasn’t in Flashpoint?). He created and then used Wally West to his own ends, giving him speed and then baiting him eventually to…

Yes, Wally West throws the last piece of the Philosophers Stone into the Speed Force, thinking it will stop Savitar. Instead…

Wally becomes trapped in the Speed Force, freeing Savitar!

Barry and Savitar battle, and Savitar (of course) has the upper hand, stabbing Barry with a part of that very spiky costume. Barry gets free…but…

We see the fallout.

Wally is trapped in the Speed Force. Jesse is completely torn apart. Julian and Caitlin are on the outs…and Iris is no longer wearing that ring. Barry’s last line sums it up, “Fear makes us do a lot of things we shouldn’t. My fear’s the reason for all of this.”

SUMMARY: If you were giddy last week with all the relationships coming together, then this episode was likely a real downer. Still, could we really stay in a world where everyone was so unbearably happy? Not if we want to keep the dramatic tension going. And, boy, was there dramatic tension tonight! Everyone was doing what they thought was right…but when people act out of fear bad things can happen. And, we have finally brought the big bad out into the open. This is definitely a turning point for the season – I’ll give this one a 9/10. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!

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