The Flash – I Know Who You Are

By: Stacy Miller

Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) has spent months trying to figure out a way to prevent Savitar from killing the woman he loves, Iris West (Candice Patton). The solutions he came up with were changing events leading up to the future tragedy and then traveling to the future to learn Savitar’s true identity.  Both of these options didn’t bring Barry any closer to saving Iris as they proved to be a bust.  But as the episode opened, it seemed that Barry hit pay dirt as he met with Savitar and announced “I know who you are.” Before viewers could ask “How?” and wonder if they missed an important piece of dialogue leading up to the reveal, words on the screen displayed “16 hours Earlier.” So, we’d have to wait a teeny tiny bit longer into the episode for Savitar to unmask himself so to speak.

In the meantime, we get to see Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) in coupledom. Cecile utters those three important words that begin with an ‘I’ and end with “love you.” Before Joe is forced to respond in kind, he’s saved by a phone call asking him to come to STAR Labs. Team Flash (minus Caitlin who is now Killer Frost) assemble where Barry tells them that in order to save Iris they will need to find world famous physicist, Dr. Tracy Brand (Anne Dudek).  Tracy was able to discover a way to trap Savitar in the speed force four months after he kills Iris. But if they can somehow help Tracy to make her speed force discovery earlier, problem solved.  Barry, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and H.R. (Tom Cavanaugh) head to Central City University. Dr. Brand is not feeling confident because she did poorly on her dissertation due to the fact that her ideas on the Speed Force were considered a half of their time.  She’s ready to give up when Team Flash arrives to talk with her.  Unfortunately, Dr. Tracy Brand is pretty popular as Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) shows up, too.  She’s there to put the deep freeze on Dr. Brand (and looks awesome by the way, love her new costume that screams “I’m a murderous bad ass.”)  Cisco is able to freeze time briefly to stop Killer Frost from harming Tracy Brand and The Flash is able to speed into action and pull her out of the way just in time.

Team Flash rethinks its strategy to convince Tracy to help them. Instead of returning to her in full force, they decide to enlist the solo efforts of H.R., who will talk with her genius to genius. The only problem is that H.R. isn’t a genius, he just plays one of television.  Cisco does the whole Cyrano de Bergerac thing by feeding H.R. lines on what to say to Tracy in order to convince her that he understands her theories.  I guess Team Flash reasons if Dr. Brand feels that she is communicating with a colleague, she will be more susceptible to help them.  I really like the interaction between H.R. and Tracy; they have a sweet chemistry and I can totally see them becoming a couple after the whole Savitar mess is over.  Plus, Dr. Brand has a Felicity Smoak-ish quality about her.  She’s highly intelligent, but not in an annoying “I’m smarter than everyone else” kind of way.

Savitar isn’t happy about Killer Frost’s failure; she calls herself Killer Frost, but she hasn’t actually killed anybody.  He orders her to return and finish the job by eliminating Dr. Tracy Brand.

Despite the urgency of getting Tracy to figure out the way to trap Savitar in the Speed Force sooner than later, Barry takes a moment to talk with Joe about West’s romantic issues with Cecile.  Part of the reason that Joe found it difficult to tell Cecile that he loves her is due to the fact that he is keeping the big secret from her about Team Flash and Meta Humans.  He likes that his relationship with Cecile is simple and not part of the drama that is about stopping superhuman villains.

Team Flash is at Jitters when Killer Frost arrives to kill Tracy again (if at first you don’t succeed). What we get next is an ultra-cool special effects sequence that looks like something straight out of a feature film: The Flash chases after Killer Frost as she ice surfs in the sky through Central City.  Barry wants to stop her, but doesn’t want to hurt Killer Frost because deep down she is still Caitlin. On the contrary, Killer Frost has no problem with hurting Barry, stabbing him in the leg with one of her ice shards to stop him from pursuing her.

Tracy is brought back to STAR Labs.  She refers to Killer Frost as “Ice Queen” and can’t believe that she is a target. Team Flash tells her and also shows her headlines of the great things that she will accomplish in the future. Dr. Brand is overwhelmed by the pressure of someday being a Nobel Prize winning physicist and takes off running. H.R. goes after her. They talk in Central City Park in front of a bust of Galileo (how fitting).  I already love these two in scenes together as they are sweet and genuine.  H.R. admires Tracy’s intelligence and admits that he is not the genius he claimed to be.

Meanwhile, Cecile comes to Joe’s home because he is not answering her texts or telephone calls. Joe decides that the best thing to do to keep her safe is to break up with her as he doesn’t want to have her be a part of the whole Team Flash/Savitar mess.  Unfortunately, keeping Cecile safe is not an option when Killer Frost suddenly appears and grabs Tracy.  The Ice Queen intends to use Joe’s lady love as a hostage; he either hands Dr. Brand over to her within the next few hours or she will kill Cecile!

Joe alerts Team Flash to what happened and they formulate a plan on how to rescue Cecile.  Julian (Tom Felton) questions Cisco about what happened earlier at Central City University when Killer Frost attacked; it appeared that Cisco froze briefly.  Ramon admits that he has been having difficulty using his powers as Vibe around Killer Frost because deep down, she’s still Caitlin and he doesn’t want to hurt her. Julian tells Cisco that he knows that Ramon won’t hurt her because he’ll be able to control his powers as they come from a place of love.  This is the type of “Go Team” pep talk Cisco (and viewers) needed to hear.

It’s Operation Rescue. Joe, Barry and Tracy arrive where Killer Frost is holding Cecile, who is tied to a chair.  Killer Frost is ready to make the exchange. She taunts The Flash that she knows what he is planning to do and say before he does it, but she knows the future. There goes the element of surprise! Killer Frost knows that Cisco is hiding in the rafters and is able to blast him out. This rescue sure isn’t going well. But Ramon has taken Julian’s encouraging words to heart and is able to knock Killer Frost unconscious.  Then, he draws some of her blood. Savitar arrives and doesn’t seemed worried that Killer Frost was subdued. “My ascension is nearly at hand,” he says cryptically before speeding off.

Team Flash returns back to STAR Labs. They plan to use Killer Frost’s blood to reverse the effects and get Caitlin back. And Tracy figures out that the key to trapping Savitar in the Speed Force lies in his metallic suit of armor.  Barry also gets an epiphany as the shows flashes (no pun intended) back to previous scenes between The Flash and Savitar.  Barry Allen finally realizes who Savitar is and goes off to confront him. Now that Cecile has been in danger, Joe comes clean with the truth about Team Flash and tells her that he loves her.

And this brings up back to the beginning of the episode with Barry’s announcement of “I know who you are.”  Savitar sheds his metallic armor for the big reveal.  When watching this scene, I couldn’t help but think of The Transformers as it looked like Savitar was transforming out of the armor to show the man inside.  “I’m the Future Flash,” Savitar says as we see it is indeed a scarred Barry Allen from the future. Now that we know who Savitar is, we need to find out how he became this way and more importantly, why does he want Iris dead?