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‘The Flash’ Recap ‘The Present’

The Flash Recap ‘The Present’

It’s time to take down Alchemy and Savitar.

We open in India with Julian on an expedition. His team finds a crypt and Julian removes a box from the wall. He opens it and there’s a flash of blue light.

In the present, Team Flash figures that what they need to do is take Alchemy’s crystal away from him. If they can do that, then Alchemy will be powerless. Barry decides that he can’t do this alone (and refuses to let Wally join him), so he jets over to Earth-3 to get help from Jay Garrick. He helps Jay stop the Earth-3 version of Trickster, who looks really nasty, then the two of them return and talk about Savitar. Jay tells him that Savitar is the first man to ever be harness the Speed Force. He is a myth among speedsters and usually only appears when he feels his power is threatened.

Team Flash do some research into the crystal and stumble upon a research paper written by Julian. Barry then believes that he might be Alchemy. There is a spike of power and the two Flashes run off. Alchemy is using a reflective building to amplify the power of the crystal and cause the mass changing of people who had powers in Flashpoint. Barry and Jay interfere, but Savitar appears. Jay tells Barry to stop Alchemy while he deals with Savitar, which pretty much just means getting beat up. Barry takes down Alchemy and removes the mask, revealing Julian. He then grabs the crystal and puts it back in its box, which was good timing because Jay was about to be stabbed by Savitar.

Julian wakes up in the pipeline and is angry that the Flash has him locked up. He has no memory of being Alchemy and demands to be let go. They later realize that Julian might be having blackouts whenever he is Alchemy, but when Barry asks, Julian doesn’t want to tell him. Barry reveals himself as the Flash in order to gain Julian’s trust. Julian tells Barry everything that he knows. He was hearing voices and seeing his deceased sister. She led him to the crystal and told him that if he opened the box, she could be with him again. On the expedition, all he remembers is opening the box and then waking up in his hotel room. When he heard that the rest of his team had been killed, he fled to the United States.

Cisco has been seeing Dante around the office and at first believes that it is because it’s Christmas time and he misses his brother. But it isn’t. It’s the call of Savitar. Cisco goes to the box and opens it. Savitar appears behind him, but all Cisco can see is Dante. Savitar then goes after Barry. Wally, much to the dismay of his father, runs off to help. They are no match for Savitar, but Caitlin manages to talk Cisco down and they seal the box once more. Savitar disappears.

Team Flash realizes that the voice of Alchemy and Savitar is one in the same. Savitar would speak through his acolyte. Cisco believes he has come up with a way to unlock that part of Julian without having to open the box. They do so and Savitar speaks to them. He says that future Barry is the reason he is here now. He says that he knows all of them. One will betray them, one will die, and one will suffer a fate worse than death. Barry gets to his boiling point and unhooks Julian from the machine. They then decide to hide the box where no one will ever be able to get it. Barry and Jay throw it into the Speed Force, but Barry is going so fast that he time travels to the future.

In five months, Savitar will return and kill Iris.

Barry is dragged back to the present by Jay, who tells Barry that the future isn’t set in stone and he needs to focus on the here and now.

Later, the West’s are having their Christmas get together and everyone is in a good mood. Joe and his lady friend, Cecile, finally kiss. Then, Joe, Barry, and H.R. gift Wally with the Kid Flash suit. Joe has been against him helping Barry from the start, but he knows that he can’t keep Wally from going out there. There’s a knock on the door and Julian appears. He hands Barry an envelope with his CCPD ID in it. Julian says that he talked to Singh and if Barry wants the job back, he can have it. Barry and Iris leave the party so he can give her her gift. They arrive in a nice apartment and Barry says that it is theirs. He tells her that he wants her to be the first and last thing he sees every day.

Let’s talk about Savitar’s prediction. He says that someone will betray the team. There are a lot of possibilities with this one. Cisco is still a bit hurt by Flashpoint and Dante’s death, but after last week has seemingly forgiven Barry. He was easily tempted to open Savitar’s box though, so there’s a possibility it could happen again. Another person on this list is Caitlin. In the ‘Killer Frost’ episode, she was told that in the future, she was working alongside Savitar. She is wearing the power suppression cuffs at all times, but if there were an instance when she had to use her powers, Killer Frost could take over again. And if Savitar uses loved ones who have died in order to get his lead acolyte, Caitlin has quite a long list. There’s also H.R. I still don’t fully trust him and I don’t think the team really does either, except for Wally, who might also be in danger of betrayal because he was created by Savitar. Julian could also betray everyone and be called back to Savitar.

As far as the one dying, we know that it could be Iris. Now that Barry has seen this happening though, he will try and change events to where that doesn’t occur. Unfortunately, time might always try and make that a reality. I’m afraid that if it isn’t Iris who dies, it could end up being Joe.

And the last one, the fate worse than death, could probably only mean Barry. He will lose everything he loves.

This episode has set up a lot for the second part of the season and I am interested to see what happens and how Savitar comes back.

The Flash returns from the winter hiatus on January 17 with the episode titled ‘Borrowing Problems from the Future.’

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