5 Thoughts About The Flash: "The Once and Future Flash"

Our first week back with The Flash from the third series break, Barry visits the future in an attempt to save Iris.

1.) The "Who is Savitar?" mystery is being stretched out for at least one more episode, as future Barry reveals to his past self that he never figured out who Savitar was, he simply defeated him and that was that.   This almost makes the episode as a whole feel like a waste of time, because at that point Barry's only in the future to see what happens if he lets Savitar actually have the victory he wants from killing Iris.


2.) Of course, since this is essentially a "bad' future, we get to see the distorted funhouse mirror versions of Team Flash.  Some of them are doing fine, but then others...well....not so much.  Cisco takes the brunt of this, having lost his hands in a battle against Killer Frost.  Having said that, somehow he ends up being the most hopeful of Future Team Flash and plays an instrumental role in getting the team back together, which is an almost complete 180 over how he starts the season off as a broken man after losing his brother. 

3.) Having said that, it's actually a surprise how quickly all of Team Flash takes Future Barry back.  It's almost as if they weren't ever mad at Barry in the first place, just really sad that he lost Iris at all.  Even Joe, after losing his son and daughter, didn't seem like he blamed Barry at all--he was just sad that Barry abandoned him when they needed one another the most.  I'll admit, it was nice to approach it that way instead of having everyone yell at Barry again for something that's not really his fault.

4.) Holy crap, the new version of Flash's outfit is the best live-action version of the suit there is.  It trumps both the current suit, the original, and the movie outfit easily.  It really feels like the closest to bringing his comic outfit to life, and the sooner we see him wear it as a standard the better. Not that I mind his older suits, I love that it's felt like a progression towards him becoming the hero he was meant to be before Thawne changed the timeline at the start of the series.

5.) I still don't understand why Killer Frost necessarily has to be evil.  In the comics she clearly would prefer if she could return to normal, and it even makes sense why people view her as a bad person--she consumes heat to live, and just touching another human being can absorb their heat and risk killing them.  She's a danger to everyone around her, but it's not really her choice.  Television Killer Frost seems to subsist just fine without needing heat, and is apparently just evil because her Earth-2 version was.  It's...weird. 

Next week: A battle to save Killer Frost, and Savitar stands revealed....maybe?