Welcome back to your weekly recap of our favourite Central City speedster, Barry Allen, as he fights crime and other metahumans. Today’s episode is Episode 9 of Season 3, titled The Present.
Barry speeds off to Earth-3 to meet with Jay Garrick, in order to get some advice on how to deal with Savitar. We jump to Jay’s current position, a face off with the Trickster (surprise cameo by Mark Hamill) who’s prepared to set off an explosion. Barry appears in the nick of time and ties the Trickster up, leaving him to be dealt with by the police. They had back to Barry’s Earth, where Jay and Barry discuss Savitar. According to speed force myths, passed on from other speedsters Jay has met, Savitar was the first speedster meta who became the God of Speed. The reason why Savitar has come to Barry’s Earth is because Barry’s speed has started to challenge Savitar’s power.
Cisco’s research reveals that the stone Alchemy appears to be using is from a Hindu myth, which says that the stone has the power to create metas. The paper Cisco researches appears to be written by Julian. Barry goes to the CCPD to talk to Julian about it, to which Julian reveals he blew his inheritance on the expedition, uncovered nothing and headed to America for work. Julian reveals that the stone also goes by the name ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ (I wonder if Tom Felton had a straight face when he first said that, haha).
Despite the Christmas holiday season, Cisco and Caitlin can’t help but mourn the loss of their loved ones, especially Cisco who starts hallucinating his brother around the lab. H.R. decorates S.T.A.R. Labs with festive items, while secretly training Wally during his time outside of S.T.A.R. Labs. Joe invites Cecil over to his family’s Christmas party, which she accepts. Jay reminds Barry that he shouldn’t just wait around for Savitar to strike, he should spend time with Iris, it’s Christmas after all. Barry heads home to see Iris, who’s finished wrapping a mountain of presents. Iris lets Barry know that she’s been doing some research through news articles to dig more up on Julian’s expedition. It turns out that everyone in the expedition died but Julian.
Cisco detects energy from the Philosopher’s Stone at a building, so Jay and Barry speed off to stop Alchemy. Alchemy’s followers scramble when the duo arrive, but Savitar shows up. Jay takes on Savitar, or rather gets tossed around by him like Barry had been. Barry takes on Alchemy, knocking him out and then closing the box containing the Philosopher’s Stone, which traps Savitar inside. He pulls off Alchemy’s mask, revealing Julian inside.
Barry locks Julian up in one of the particle accelerator’s prisons and begins questioning him. Julian genuinely believes he’s being set up by the Flash, much to everyone’s surprise. Cisco runs test on the chest with the stone inside, but the tests are inconclusive, as if the box doesn’t even exist. Barry goes back to talk to Julian, this time taking off his mask to reveal himself and gain Julian’s trust. Julian finally admits that he’s been having black outs and comes clean about why he was obsessed about finding the Philosopher’s Stone. Ever since Julian’s sister died, he started seeing hallucinations of his sister, who guided him to find the stone. When he opened the box four years ago, the black outs started.
During their conversation, Cisco has another hallucination of his dead brother, who convinces him to open the box containing the Philosopher’s Stone. Once he opens it, Savitar comes forth and starts (hilariously) tossing Barry’s ass around S.T.A.R. Labs. Wally speeds off to the room to help Barry since Jay is still in recovery from getting his butt kicked earlier. The two are still no match for Savitar who prepares to gut them. Caitlin saves the day though, by convincing Cisco to close the box and save both the speedsters.
Team Flash designs a device to use Julian’s brainwaves to talk to Savitar, since Savitar has been able to possess Julian as Alchemy. Savitar speaks to the team and reveals a prophecy about Team Flash: one of them will betray the team, one will fall, and one will suffer a fate worse than death. He then goes on to reveal that Barry in the Future traps him for eternity, which is why he is going to take everything from Barry.
The team concludes that they must destroy the Philosopher’s Stone, which Julian points out is practically impossible because it’s been around forever. Jay suggests they throw it into the Speed Force, which acts as basically an endless space. Together Jay and Barry manage to do it, but Barry is tossed into the future by 4 months where he witnesses Savitar killing Iris in front of his future himself, before Jay pulls him back to the present. Barry frantically questions the future, but Jay tells him the future is always changing and he should focus on the present.
Team Flash head to Joe’s house for Christmas with Cecil and even Julian shows up. While Cecil is in another room, the team presents Wally with his present: a Kid Flash costume. He’s officially on speedster duty. Julian tells Barry that he stopped Barry’s resignation from going through, and he’s like to share labs again to which Barry agrees. Barry and Iris then head out so Barry can give Iris her Christmas present, a house in both their names.
Jessica is Skatronixxx’s episode recapper for The Flash, Arrow, Game of Thrones and Shadowhunters. Currently brewing butterbeer for Christmas, follow her on Twitter @SohoDoll.
background of this awesome character. Mr. Mxyzptlk is an impish character found in the Superman comics. Known also as Mxy, he has been a part of the DC world since 1944. His species is called the 5th Dimension Imp, Zrfffian, and has the ability to manipulate reality. He is a villain unfortunately, showing up as a trickster in the series and tormenting Superman. Apparently either tickling him or spelling his own name backwards can stop him… (I’m getting a Rumplestilkin vibe here.)
Recent Comments