The Flash season 3, episode 7, “Killer Frost,” directed by Kevin Smith, featured Caitlin losing control of her powers.
“Killer Frost” picks up where last week’s episode left off, Wally going through terrigenesis in a cocoon and Barry being attacked by a Michael Bay Transformer the god of speed, Savitar. Savitar is completely out of Barry’s league, and he’s preparing to kill Barry when Cisco opens a breach and brings himself and Caitlin to the scene. Caitlin uses her powers to save Barry’s life, but sets off the events for the rest of the episode.
Caitlin switches into Killer Frost mode and begins a search for Alchemy’s lackeys because she wants Alchemy to take her powers away. She doesn’t want to be what she’s turning into, even as she expertly channels her ice abilities. After confronting one of Alchemy’s lackeys at CCPD, she kidnaps Julian for his help in looking for Alchemy. (The irony of this will become apparent later.)
Julian creates an algorithm that will look for people searching for specific terms. This gives her two potential leads, but she’s interrupted when The Flash arrives. After punching out Julian, who already had frostbite on his arm, Barry tries to talk Caitlin down, but she’s furious with him for changing her fate. She also reveals that Dante was alive in the original timeline, which shakes Cisco. She stabs Barry in the leg and runs away.
Caitlin visits one of Alchemy’s followers, and he reveals that while Alchemy can take powers away, he won’t take hers. Killer Frost is a part of the future they were promised, and their leader has plans for her. This freaks Caitlin and she flees — right into a confrontation with Cisco. With Barry as a distraction, Cisco is able to knock her out, and they lock her up in the pipeline.
At this point, there has been a huge crack in the foundation of Team Flash. Cisco doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to trust Barry again. Caitlin is bitter toward Barry for what she’s turning in. And neither, I think, are entirely wrong. Barry acted with no regard for the effects his actions would have on anyone else. And it turns out he did some serious damage to the people he cares about most.
To the show’s credit, that is something that is continually being addressed as the season goes on. Barry, for all his heroic tendencies, can be selfish. I think he’s learned his lesson, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done some serious damage to his loved ones. Consequences.
Iris, though, gives Barry a quality pep talk; she tells him he can’t take everything on his shoulders. After all, Dante could have died in the original timeline and Caitlin could have been affected by the particle accelerator. There’s no way to know, and agonizing over it will only cause unnecessary stress and pain. And as much as I’m here for people calling Barry out on his BS, Iris is right. There’s no way to know what would have been, and he can’t let that stop him from moving forward.
Meanwhile, Wally is still stuck in his cocoon, so Joe and HR eventually decide to cut him out. This is a bad idea. Wally comes out, but he’s vibrating at super speed and he flees. Once they find Wally, the team realizes they’re going to need Caitlin to help him.
Barry lets Caitlin out of her cell with the caveat that she has to kill him. She creates a sharp icicle, but she hesitates — exactly what Barry thought would happen. For all that she’s acting like a villain, she’s still Caitlin and she doesn’t want to be this person, a killer. This realization causes Caitlin to regain control of herself, and she falls into Barry’s arms in a heartbreaking moment.
So, Caitlin put the power-dampening cuffs back on, and it’s likely that her using her powers will set her off again. I’m sure the team will be working on a way for either her to get rid of her powers or to stop the change in her body chemistry that comes with using her powers, but I doubt this is the last time we’ll see Killer Frost. I just hope she doesn’t become a permanent villain; she’s too important to the team to lose.
Back to herself, Caitlin realizes Wally’s mind and body aren’t working in sync because they’re not used to be working at super speed. She creates an injection to get his body and mind working together. Joe and Barry track Wally down to the house he grew up in and inject him with the medicine, and Wally comes back to himself.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Wally runs around the speed track; he’s going even faster than Barry could when he first started. He’s in good spirits and wants to fight crime with Barry, though Joe is not ready for that just yet. Considering Wally got his powers from Doctor Alchemy, I have a feeling this happy-go-luckiness won’t last. There hasn’t been a great track record for people who have gotten powers from him so far.
At the hospital, meanwhile, Barry asks Julian not to tell CCPD about Caitlin. Julian agrees — provided that Barry quit his job effective immediately. His moral compass is askew, and it’s not right for him to be working as a CSI.
Barry agrees (is he going to work for S.T.A.R. Labs now?), but Julian loses the moral high ground when we discover he is Doctor Alchemy. I am shocked. Shocked I tell you.
Oh wait, no. That was telegraphed from the beginning. The Flash is good about surprising us, though. Since this reveal seemed so obvious, there will have to be a twist that catches us all off-guard (such as initially learning that Harrison Wells was the Reverse Flash, only to discover he was Eobard Thawne in Harrison Wells’ body).
So, what’s the twist?