5 Thoughts About The Flash: "Untouchable"

1.) Though I initially believed we were done with Flashpoint, it looks like that plot point will continue to hover in the background for the rest of the season, as this episode not only introduces another villain from the Flashpoint timeline, but points out that there's one more waiting in the wings.   This one was bad enough--Clive Yorkin, a deadly criminal who can cause anyone and anything he touches to decompose at rapid rates.   "Fortunately" he was just obsessed with all the cops who stopped him in the other timeline, but our heroes likely won't get off so easily the next time.

The one main issue I hope is resolved by the end of this issue is what's Savitar's connection to all these people from another timeline?  Right now it feels more random than anything else.

2.) A common theme this episode was Team Flash's supers learning to control their powers and do new things with them.  Cisco was able to "vibe" a parallel universe that shouldn't even exist anymore.  Barry managed to vibrate so fast he actually vibrated an entire train and all it's passengers to phase through a mountain of debris.  Near the end of the episode Kid Flash just learned how to vibrate, and Caitlin managed to use her powers without going all murder-y.

3.) Speaking of Caitlin, can someone explain to me why her Killer Frost persona acts the way it does?  Both in the new Rebirth version and the original, Killer Frost's main issue was that she fed off warmth--she craved it, even to the detriment of human life if it meant feeding--and thus, the only difference between the villainous one and the new heroic incarnation is that the latter has gained control over her hunger and won't take lives anymore to keep going.  Either way, her lack of interest in human life makes sense--we're all just walking heat lamp lunches to her, and no one seems to care very much about helping her, so why should she help us?  But here, it seems like she doesn't crave warmth at all--she's just a jerk "because spooky powers".   It's kind of a bummer, and I'd love for someone to give us a better reason why the only female with superpowers on the main cast can't use them without being a villain.

4.) While we're on the subject of Caitlin, this episode had a little bit of what HR Wells was talking about a few weeks ago, as the heroes try to change parts of the future to make way for the big change they want the most in saving Iris from Savitar, with the timeline attempting to correct itself.   Before they knew it, one of the major events they saw on the news ticker had already happened, and they were very much at risk of letting Caitlin turn into Killer Frost again in the same episode.   It was always obvious changing the future was going to be more difficult, I just wish this show was written a bit more Doctor Who-like if it's going to futz about with all this timey-wimey stuff.   Sure, it makes sense that if you alter events of the future enough you can cause things to unfold entirely differently--but how do these events they're changing affect Savitar getting free and murdering Iris?  It'd be cool if they had an answer for that.

At the same time, Joe finally found out about their future knowledge and was understandably pissed.  It's impossible to blame him--they were keeping such a massive secret from him that it was almost like shutting him out entirely.   He was on the team, but in no way was he involved in their big mission, which wasn't a good look.  It'd be just desserts if he came up with the ultimate part of the solution to save his daughter.

5.)  Lastly, we're right back to those future hints again, as Jessie Quick escapes from Earth 2 in time to explain to Wally that her father's been kidnapped by Gorilla Grodd.  If Grodd is finally the version of himself I'm hoping for, I have to say I'm pretty happy about how this turned out--we really got to see him go from barely understanding his powers, to manipulating them with some skill, to finally conquering Gorilla City and using it to wage war on everyone else.   It seems like he's literally turned into his terrifying comic book counterpart. 

Also, next episode it seems like we get more Grumpy Wells, and who's not excited about that?