‘The Flash’ Recap: "The Present"

The mid-season finale of The Flash showed us the past, present and the future of many of our characters.

The episode kicked off with a look into Julian’s past and took us to The Indus Valley 4 years earlier. Julian was searching for Savitar and he sets him free when he discovers the Brum Astra aka The Philosopher’s Stone. An ancient Hindu artifact. The same artifact Dr. Alchemy uses. The team slowly unravels the mystery of Dr. Alchemy and seek out Julian’s help as he wrote the paper about the stone. Barry hopes he can help the team figure out what the stone is and how it gets its power. Julian tells Barry that he never found the stone and wasted all his inheritance money. He then warns Barry to move on from Savitar.

Later on Iris tells Barry that she did some digging on Julian and his expedition. Turns out the 4 scientists he was traveling/working with died during the voyage. Left with many questions and zero answers, Barry heads to Earth 3 to speak to The Flash aka Jay Garrick about Savitar. Barry interrupts his battle with The Trickster and captures the villain for Jay. Jay then tells Barry everything he knows about Savitar.

Savitar was the first man granted speed and over time he became the fastest man of all. His m.o. is to send a predecessor to the world he is going to before he finally presents himself. In Barry’s case this predecessor is Alchemy. Savitar is preparing for battle against Barry as his powers are threatening his own power.

Jay agrees to come back to Earth with Barry and gives him some friendly advice. He tells Barry to live in the present and appreciate what he has right now. Forget about Savitar, live in the moment and enjoy the time while he still has it.

Just as Barry and the team are beginning to settle into holiday festivities, Savitar summons Julian and the real action begins. Jay and Barry team up and go after Alchemy who is trying to restore all the power of the metas from flashpoint. Jay takes on Savitar while Barry goes after the stone. Savitar gives Jay a beating and he tells him that it is not his fight. This gives Barry enough time to put the stone back in the stone box. Once the stone is secure Savitar disappears and Barry learns that Julian is Alchemy.

He puts Julian in a pen in the basement and begins to question him. Julian doesn’t recognize the Alchemy mask. He doesn’t remember anything and thinks he is being setup.

While Barry tries to wrap his head around Julian/Alchemy, Caitlin and Cisco begin doing tests on the box. All the scans it comes up empty. It is like it doesn’t even exist.

Back in the basement Barry shows Julian that he is The Flash in order to get him to trust him. Julian then comes clean about blacking out and losing time/days. He tells Barry that his dead sister told him about the stone and where to find it. That it could bring her back to him. When he found the box and opened it his fellow scientists were killed. Julian ran to America to escape potentially being blamed for the deaths of his fellow scientists. That is when he started hearing Savitar’s voice.

Unfortunately for Barry this is only the beginning of the nightmare that comes in the remainder of the hour. Throughout the episode Cisco had been seeing images of his dead brother Dante around him. He confided in Caitlin thinking that would help them go away. However, Dante did not disappear. He popped up for a third time when Cisco was in front of the box with the stone inside. Dante tells Cisco that he can be reborn if Cisco grabs the stone. He can come back to life again. Cisco opens the box and Savitar appears. Savitar finds his way to Barry and begins to attack him. Wally goes to help Barry. While Kid Flash and The Flash take on Savitar, Caitlin finds Cisco and tells him he has to close the box. Cisco doesn’t want to lose Dante again. Caitlin pleads with Cisco telling him to give her the box or close it. If he doesn’t Barry and Wally will die. This gets through to him and he ultimately closes the box.

The team then learns that Savitar speaks through Julian. There is no Alchemy. Cisco hooks up Julian to a brain machine in order to mesh Julian’s brain with the stone so that they can speak to Savitar directly. It works. Savitar speaks to Barry through Julian.

Savitar holds the power of life and death over all of them. He knows their strengths, weaknesses, fears and their destinies. One shall fall, one shall betray you and one will suffer a fate far worse than death. This is the knowledge Savitar possesses. Savitar is the future. He wants everything Barry took from him and wants to destroy Barry. Apparently future Barry trapped him in eternity. The age of his revenge rises. Barry will fear the wrath of Savitar!

After waking from whatever that was, Julian informs the team that the stone is impossible to destroy. Jay comes up with the plan to throw it into the speed force; an endless void of time and energy. Savitar or anyone else for that matter, will never be able to find it that way. Jay and Barry team up. Barry siphons Jay’s energy in order to throw the stone into the speed force. Barry is thrown into the future with the box.

Barry jumps 5 months into the future. He sees Savitar free and watches him kill Iris right in front of him. Future Barry cradles her body as Present Barry watches in shock. Jay comes into the speed force, grabs Barry and brings him back into the present. Barry now understands why the newspaper article changed. Why Iris no longer writes the article 8 years in the future.

Barry immediately wants to head back and save Iris but Jay tells him that he can’t go back to the future and that it is only a possible future. There are infinite possibilities for the future. Jay tells him to focus on the here and now and live his life. He can’t worry about a future that may or may not happen.

Finally taking his advice, Barry and the team go back to the West home to celebrate Christmas. Caitlin invites Julian to the get together. He turns it down at first but shows up and with a present for Barry. He gets Barry reinstated at CCPD.

Joe and Cecile have their nog off and finally kiss, Wally gets his Kid Flash super suit and HR is drunk off egg nog which is absolutely perfect. To top off the hour on a happy note, Caitlin gives everyone a white Christmas by changing the rain to snow using her powers and Barry gets him and Iris their own place for Christmas.

The Flash Returns Tuesday January 24^th.

To come on this season of The Flash:

The team will be working together throughout the rest of the season to figure out how to save Iris and defeat Savitar. How it plays out, only time will tell.

We will see a lot more Vibe. He will get new tricks, new powers and we will get to meet Gypsy.

Caitlin will train Kid Flash and still will be dealing with her powers.

Clip from the new episode coming Tuesday January 24^th:

For those that have the CW app (if you don’t download it, it’s free!), The CW has given app users an exclusive look into episode 10 of The Flash which airs on Tuesday January 24^th: Wally and Barry go out on their first mission and he takes charge on the mission. They put Plunder (Jared Morillo) in Iron Heights. If Wally can’t follow orders he can’t work with Barry anymore. He is supposed to shadow Barry. Observe and learn. That’s it. Doesn’t matter that Wally just saved his life. It’s also the museum’s opening night.

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