CW The Flash Season 3 poster
YOUTUBE:[]
PLOT:[]
The episode opens on Barry, sitting in Jitters and preparing to talk to Iris as the monologue tells us that some things that happen are random, and some happen because we plan them.
Before he can approach her, the news mentions a villain called “The Rival,” who is terrorizing the city and The Flash can do nothing to stop him. While Iris texts on her phone, Barry sneaks away at super speed — arriving just in time to see another Flash facing off against The Rival.
Barry, not in costume, simply watches as the speedsters square off. Rival spins around, throwing red lightning, and The Flash saves both Barry and a couple of cops from it. Rival gets away, and the new Flash is annoyed, but Barry tells him he’ll get him next time.
Back at Jitters, Barry steals Iris’s wallet at super-speed and brings it to her, telling her she dropped it. She (barely) recognizes him, and it leads to a conversation where he asks her out. It’s a crowning moment of awkward, but it works, and the two are set for a date the next day.
At work, Barry catches up with Captain Mendez, his supervisor who wants information on The Rival. Barry hasn’t got anything — and quickly, Mendez realizes that Joe West is missing. Barry tries and fails to make an excuse for him.
A few hours later, Barry finds himself standing outside an old warehouse and flashes back to the night he saved his mom, and then dragged the Reverse Flash here. Inside, Eobard Thawne is trapped behind glass that stops his powers from working.
The two argue, with Thawne telling Barry that they’re in danger — that the new timeline is already screwing with Barry, and soon it will “take me down with you.”
Barry tells Thawne that the only reason he even changed history is to make right what Thawne did to his mother, but Thawne promises Barry that one day soon, he’ll beg him to do it again.
Later, at his parents’ house, Barry shows up to see the two of them alive and happy.
The next morning, Barry talks with his parents over breakfast. His mother offers Barry a rental apartment in the basement of a house she recently sold, but Barry changes the subject and tells them that he got a date with Iris.
At work, Joe is missing again and Mendez is on the warpath. Barry speeds to Barry’s apartment and then, after unsuccessfully trying to wake him up by conventional means, cleans him up and runs him to work at super speed.
Joe isn’t particularly grateful for Barry’s constantly covering for him with the captain — but then sees Iris walk in and assumes that it’s because of her that Barry has taken a sudden interest in him.
Outside, Barry tells Iris that he feels like he knows her and Joe better than he really does — but she says she feels the same way around him. The two of them share some sweet dialogue, but he starts losing his memories of his relationship with Iris in the other world, and she notices him looking panicked. Just then, The Flash and The Rival are having a fight across town, and police cars are swarming to help. Iris excuses herself, saying there’s “something she has to do,” and Barry arrives on the scene just in time to see The Flash tossed out of a window and land in a Dumpster. He removes the unconscious hero’s mask and recognizes him as Wally.
Later, at Wally’s apartment, he and Barry are getting to know each other when Iris shows up, surprised to see him. Barry plays it off that he figured out who Wally was because of his mad CSI skills, and the pair accept that. Wally explains that back when he used to drive illegal cars, he was experimenting with a new nitro formula and one night, those chemicals mixed with a lightning bolt, put him in a coma for nine months, and woke up as The Flash.
When Barry offers them help in taking down The Rival, Iris instead says that they need to find the only man who can help them: Cisco Ramon.
They head to his company: Cisco is an ostentatious billionaire with models hanging on his arms. He excuses himself from them and pulls Iris, Wally, and Barry aside, upset that they’ve come to him for help, and that they told a stranger he’s helped them in the past. Barry defends himself by saying that he knows the kind of person Cisco really is, and recounting to him a story that Cisco once told Barry about working all summer to pay Dante’s bookmaker when he was a teenager. Cisco is amazed, and asks how he knows about that, but Barry only tells him that they’re meant to be friends, and a team.
Just then, he starts to lose some of his memories of Cisco.
He heads to see the Reverse-Flash, who tells Barry that the new reality is starting to overwrite his original life. He says it’s probably not happening to him because it’s Barry’s use of his powers that makes him susceptible. Ironically, the trap Barry has him in is protecting Thawne’s memories. He tells Barry that soon enough, Barry won’t even remember that he’s The Flash, after which point this world will be permanent.
Now suited up as The Flash, Barry gets Iris and Wally into Cisco’s lab at super speed, revealing his identity in the process.
After Barry has explained his backstory, nobody believes him — except Iris. Barry tells them that he wants to help them take down the Rival. Cisco gets ready to leave, saying he’s not interested, when Barry get on a computer terminal, finds Caitlin, and brings her to the lab.
In this timeline, Caitlin is an ophthalmologist. Wally and Cisco are starting to think Barry is crazy, but Iris pulls Barry into a hallway to tell him that something that’s been “wrong” in her mind started to feel right when she met Barry.
As they’re getting into their conversation, Cisco and Caitlin have figured out how to use the city’s traffic cameras to track near-sonic velocities. They find The Rival’s likely lair at a sawmill on the outskirts of town, and after a fight at super speed, Wally gets the better of The Rival (who revealed himself as Edward Clariss). He turns his back, though, and gets run through with a pipe for his trouble. The Rival tells Barry that if he can beat him in a fight, Clariss will let Barry take Wally to the hospital.
Barry and The Rival fight, with Barry about to deliver the final blow when he starts to forget memories of being The Flash. The Rival takes advantage of Barry’s momentary disorientation to put Barry back on his heels, before making a pair of cyclones.
When Barry starts feeling like he can’t beat The Rival, Iris gives him a pep talk and tells him to “be The Flash.” Barry starts getting his Flash memories back, then runs the cyclones out, and comes barreling out of one at The Rival, knocking him to the ground. When Barry turns to check on Wally, though, The Rival tries to kill Barry and is shot in the back by a newly-arrived Joe. Barry unmasks, bringing Joe to check on Wally, and the three of them all make their way to Ramon Industries. Wally is not rapidly healing for some reason, and is in a coma. Barry realizes that the world has been paying for his happiness, and that he needs to make things right.
Barry heads home to see his parents, introducing them to Iris. He tells them that he just wanted to see them one more time, and pushes through their confusion to tell them how grateful he is for the last few months. He tells them there’s nothing to be afraid of and that he loves them both. As he leaves their home, he starts to feel his memories of his childhood on Earth-1 slipping away. Iris helps him walk through the pain to see the Reverse-Flash, who makes Barry ask him to kill Nora.
Barry and Iris kiss, and she tells him she’ll see him soon, then Barry and Thawne speed off together.
In Barry’s childhood home, The Flash stops the Reverse-Flash from killing Nora, only to have the other Reverse-Flash show up and kill her anyway. Reality realigns, with most of the major moments from the first two seasons flashing on screen before Thawne drops Barry off at the West home
Barry heads inside, and Barry and Joe are still having a drink and celebrating the defeat of Zoom. Barry asks where Iris is, and Joe storms out. Barry is confused, and Wally “reminds” Barry that Joe and Iris don’t talk. Barry is left alone in front of the fireplace to wonder what he’s done.
That night, the Edward Clariss of this world wakes up to a voice, and sees a message carved for him in the glass of his bedroom mirror: “Alchemy.”
WHO'S WHO:[]
| CHARACTERS | ITEMS | PLACES | GROUPS | EASTER EGGS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BARRY ALLEN - FLASH | SPEEDFORCE | CENTRAL CITY POLICE | TEAM FLASH | CHANNEL 52 |
| WALLY WEST - KID FLASH | CENTRAL CITY P.D. | |||
| IRIS WEST | ||||
| DETECTIVE JOE WEST | ||||
| CAITLIN SNOW | ||||
| CISCO RAMON | ||||
| EOBARD THAWNE - REVERSE FLASH | ||||
| EDWARD CLARISS - RIVAL | ||||
| HENRY ALLEN | ||||
| NORA ALLEN | ||||
| BETHANY SNOW | ||||
| CAPTAIN JULIO MENDEZ | ||||
| BARRICADE COP | ||||
| CISCO GIRLFRIEND | ||||
| CFO | ||||
| JULIAN ALBERT | ||||
| UNIFORMED COP | ||||
| DR. ALCHEMY | ||||