The Flash Season 3 Recap

After saving his mother, a brand new timeline is in full flux. Barry, his mother, Nora, and his father, Henry, are living happy as ever in their childhood home. Whilst Barry is happy that his family is back together and he's still a speedster, he keeps having these awful migraines, which we later, determine as an effect on his old life and his speed. 

After a few painful migraines, he visits a imprisoned Eobard Thawne where he learns that the more he uses his speed, the quicker his old life will disappear 

Enjoying his morning coffee at Jitters, he sees two speedsters running past. He can't help but run after them and see who these speedsters are. Stopping in downtown Central City, he sees a yellow lightning streak whiz around and chase after someone with a red lightning streak. 

Later on we learn that the yellow streak names himself Kid Flash and his speedster enemy calls himself The Rival. The pair begin racing around the buildings and before we know it, Kid Flash is thrown out of it and unable to get balanced. Barry rotates is arms to make a wind funnel to try and slow him down but it doesn't work as well as it usually does. After Wally is badly injured, Barry feels guilty and feels an obligation to try and restore the time line before anyone else gets hurt. 

In this new version of the present day, Wally West is Kid Flash. His crime-fighting assistant is his sister, Iris. Cisco is a billionaire tech genius, and Caitlin is an eye doctor for kids. Joe is drinking a lot and getting in trouble at work. The worst thing for Barry to experience is that Joe and Iris don't speak anymore. 

In a bid to restore his original timeline, Barry returns to The Reverse-Flash’s speed dampening cell and asks him to go back in time and kill his mother... again. Barry believes that this will turn everything back to normal, but he couldn't be further from what will happen. 

Barry’s attempt at correcting the timeline didn’t work out as he’d hoped. His parents are dead... again. Cisco’s brother Dante (played by Nicholas Gonzalez) is also dead, who, was alive in the original timeline. Plus, Joe and Iris are not talking. And Barry has a new lab partner at Central City Police Department (CCPD) - Julian Albert, played by Tom FELTON (who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise - who Barry doesn’t get along with. Essentially, this new ‘corrected’ timeline is probably worse than Flashpoint timeline. 

Barry attempts to go back in time again and make some more changes, but Jay Garrick (Earth-Three’s version of The Flash, who’s also played by John Wesley Shipp) pulls him out of the Speed Force and gives him a talking to. Barry soon learns from E-3's Flash that the original timeline can never be resurrected. 

Edward Clarris (The Rival) who, we discover, has no powers in the new timeline, is confronted by a hooded figure named "Alchemy". He promises to restore his speedster abilities from the Flashpoint timeline. Barry defeats the repowered Clarris, who is then killed in his power dampening cell by Savitar. We see Clarris get rag-dolled around the cell in a hard-to-watch death scene. 

We discover later on that Caitlin has gained ice powers – like her evil Earth-Two doppelganger, Killer Frost. We can all thank Barry and his meddling with the timeline for this

Jesse (played by Violett Beane) and her father (Earth-Two’s ‘Harry' Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh) return to Earth-One. 

Jesse reveals to Team Flash that she gained speedster powers from the dark matter explosion at the end of season 2. Wally is, understandably, very jealous, and soon works out that he is having visions of his powered life as Kid Flash from Flashpoint timeline, just like Clarris did.

Jesse and Barry work together to stop Magenta (Joey King), another repowered Flashpoint villain that Alchemy restored. Harry decides to support Jesse’s superhero career, and Jesse gets her own speedster costume as a result, which has a striking resemblance to Trajectory's suit from season 2.

She sticks around to get some training from Barry, and the pair work together again to defeat emergent new rogues Mirror Master (Grey Damon) and Top (Ashley Rickards). Barry ends up trapped in a mirror, and Caitlin secretly uses her ice powers to get him out. Shortly after this, Caitlin seeks help from her mother, Carla Tannhauser played by Susan Walters, who is a renound scientist, about her condition.

Harry returns to his own Earth, and the gang recruits Earth-19’s H.R. Wells as his replacement on the team. This Wells turns out to be an author rather than a science genius, and he likes playing with drumsticks. In his first adventure with Team Flash, the gang goes up against a giant hologram of a Godzilla-like monster. Barry stops Tom Felton’s Julian from the shooting the person behind this destructive deception, who turns out to be a 15-year-old boy. This experience causes Barry and Julian to put aside their differences, somewhat. Alchemy summons Wally, and Team Flash eventually decide on a plan. The plan is to let Wally meet Alchemy so they can get his location and and arrest him. Barry and Joe follow Wally with a SWAT team, and they do their best to confront Alchemy. However, an introduction with a new evil speedster, Savitar, arises.

The super-fast speedster, Savitar, kills the SWAT team and takes Barry away, while Wally is encased in a cocoon by Alchemy. 

Episode 7 of the season begins with Savitar taking Barry on a beat-down tour of Central City, clearly displaying superior speed and fighting skills. Caitlin and Cisco shows up to aid Barry and attacks Savitar.

The Killer Frost side of Caitlin takes over as she breaks into CCPD and interrogates one of Alchemy’s acolytes, seeking a chance to confront Alchemy and take away her powers. Meanwhile, Joe breaks Wally out of his cocoon.

Wally now has speedster powers, but they aren’t particularly stable. He is in a state of constant phasing. Caitlin’s personality re-emerges, and it becomes apparent that Wally needs treatment. She concocts a serum to stabilise his phasing. Julian – who got caught up in the whole Killer Frost incident – agrees to keep Caitlin’s secret, on one condition: Barry resigns from the CCPD.

Team Flash takes part in the huge Invasion crossover event with Arrow, Supergirl and Legends Of Tomorrow. Across four episodes of fun, the assembled heroes of The CW go up against The Dominators, an invading alien species.

In these episodes, everyone learns about Flashpoint. Not because Barry told them but because a couple of the Legends find a recording in the time ship that told them about Flashpoint and not to trust Barry. Tempers flare and Arrow’s John Diggle (played by David Ramsey) learns that Flashpoint, somehow, changed the gender of his child.

In the end, everyone just about puts their issues with Barry to the side for long enough to defeat the invading aliens. Also, in an important piece of housekeeping, Cisco creates a device that will allow Supergirl to move between dimensions with less hassle.

In the episode, The Present, Barry works with Jay to track down and defeat Alchemy. They put the Philosopher’s Stone back into its box, which makes Savitar disappear. They also unmask Alchemy, revealing that Barry’s grumpy former lab partner, Julian, who only came into existence after Flashpoint, was Alchemy.

Julian explains that Savitar lured him – using visions of his dead sister – to the burial site of the Philosopher’s Stone. This stone allows Savitar to take physical form. Since locating it, Julian has experienced blackouts, during which time he’s acted as Savitar’s lackey, Alchemy.

While the stone is Team Flash’s possession, Savitar encourages Cisco, using visions of his dead brother, to open the box and allow him back into existence. Caitlin intervenes and Savitar’s precious stone stays inside the box. Savitar remains without form and trapped in the box.

Team Flash finds a way to use Julian to communicate with Savitar. Savitar displays a keen knowledge of Team Flash, and speaks of a dark prophecy: one of them will fall, one will betray the others, and one shall suffer a fate worse than death.

Savitar also explains that he is imprisoned because of Barry. He also utters the words “I am the future, Flash.”

Jay and Barry decide to lob the Philosopher’s Stone into the Speed Force, so that Savitar cannot use it again to return to the physical world. They succeed in doing this, but Barry is thrown forward in time as a result. In the final moments of the mid-season finale, Barry witnesses a shocking future event: Savitar stabbing Iris to death.

Barry returns to the present. Julian is no longer under Savitar’s control. Wally gets a very dope looking Kid Flash suit. Barry gets his job back. Jay tells Barry that the future is not set, but Barry, understandably enough, is still shaken by the things he saw in the future.

As well as the death of Iris, Barry also witnessed a future news report, in which, a villain known as Plunder goes on trial, the "Music Meister" gets a book deal, Caitlin becomes Killer Frost, the STAR Labs museum closes, and so on. 

Over the next few episodes, Team Flash works on changing the outcomes of these events, so they don’t match the news report Barry saw in the future. If they can change small details like this, perhaps they can stop Iris from dying. That's what they think anyway. 

Providing a distraction from all the morbid discussion of Iris’ impending death, an Earth-19 bounty hunter named Gypsy (played by Jessica Camacho) arrives and tries to take H.R. back to his original Earth to face trial and execution for inter-dimensional travel, which, turns out is illegal on Earth-19.

Gypsy has similar powers to Cisco, and the two strike up something of a rapport. For responsibility for H.R, Gypsy and Cisco have a trial by combat. Cisco ends up winning, but he stops short of killing Gypsy. H.R. is allowed to live but on the condition that he can never return to his original Earth. Gypsy heads home and The Flash head back to base. 

Barry, then, comes up with the idea of training up Wally to defeat Savitar and save Iris. In the future, it was obvious that Barry wasn’t fast enough to stop Iris' death but, perhaps, Wally could be. While training, they conjure up an idea of working together to defeat a new villain with the ability to decompose people with a touch.

Jesse comes to town again, and tells the team that her father has been kidnapped and taken to Earth-2’s Gorilla City. Barry, having heard about a gorilla attack on Central City in his vision of the future, sees another opportunity to alter the news reports. Team Flash heads to Gorilla City, and, quickly, get captured by Grodd.

Grodd wants Barry’s help to dethrone gorilla overlord known as Solovar. There is a big CGI fight in an arena, which Barry wins. However, Grodd doesn’t keep up his end of the bargain. Instead, he keeps Team Flash hostage and plans an attack on Earth-1.

Barry fakes his own death in order to be removed from the cage. This, outrageous and also very dangerous, plan succeeds, and the gang escapes back to Earth-1. However, Grodd is revealed to have a brainwashed Gypsy on his side, and the gorilla invasion of Earth-1 Central City takes place the following week.

Grodd tries to mind-control an army general into bombing the city, but Barry stop this plan with little time to spare. In order to stop the gorilla invasion, Barry brings Solovar to Earth-1 and allows him to defeat Grodd. This plan works, and ARGUS takes Grodd away.

In romantic news: Jesse decides to stay on Earth-1 so she can be with Wally (cuteness overload); Julian asks Caitlin on a date; and Barry proposes to Iris, which she accepts.

In episode 15 of the season, a couple of secrets are revealed: Wally explains to Team Flash that he has been having visions of Savitar; Caitlin admits that she kept a piece of the Philosopher’s Stone for herself, because she thought it might help remove her powers; and the gang works out that Savitar, who speaks through Julian again in this episode, is trapped in the Speed Force.

Sadly, Wally isn’t present for that third revelation, and he doesn’t work out – like the rest of the gang – that throwing the final fragment of the Philosopher’s Stone into the Speed Force is exactly what Savitar wanted him to do. With the full stone, Savitar would be able to take true form and escape the Speed Force. 

Wally's plan backfires in spectacular fashion, as Savitar emerges from the Speed Force immediately and forces Wally to take his place in the grim Speed Force prison.

Barry and Savitar have a brief scuffle. Savitar taunts Barry about Iris’ upcoming death and Barry chops off of one of Savitar’s metal arm blades in frustration

Barry heads into the Speed Force in the next episode, opening the door to a few cameos. Ronnie Raymond (played by Robbie Amell), Captain Cold (played by Wentworth Miller), Hunter Zoloman/Black Flash (played by Theodore "Teddy" Sears and Eddie Thawne (played by Rick Cosnett) all show up, as Barry works his way through the mysteries of the Speed Force in order to save Wally. These fallen friends and foes explain that Barry must be the one to face Savitar – it can’t be Wally that confronts him.

Jay Garrick volunteers to take Wally’s place in the Speed Force prison so wally and Barry can escape. This entrapment entails reliving the worst moments from life over and over. 

The exact nature of the Speed Force prison hasn’t been explained, but apparently it needs a speedster occupant. If it doesn't have a prisoner, then the Speed Force will break down and millions of lightning bolts will spill all over Central City and destroy it. It’s been suggested that the prison was originally built for Savitar, by a future version of Team Flash.

Barry admits to Iris that he proposed to her because he wanted to change the future. In the future, Barry glimpsed that Iris wasn’t wearing a wedding ring when she was stabbed by Savitar. The pair decides to spend some time apart following this revelation.

The seventeenth episode of the season is my favourite. "Duet" is a crossover with Supergirl, which sees Barry and Kara Danvers (played by Melissa Benoist), working through their separate romantic issues through the power of musical theatre. The episode begins with Martian Manhunter (played by David Harewood) and Mon-El (played by Chris Wood) arriving at STAR Labs with a coma-induced Kara, who was attacked by the Music Meister (played by Darren Criss). 

Barry and Kara sing their way through a story of love and woe, in a hallucinated dreamscape created by the Music Meister. John Barrowman makes a cameo appearance as Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow's neighbourhood, as well as Martin Stein (played by Victor Garber) and Winn Schott (played by Jeremy Jordan) from Supergirl.

In the imaginary musical, Barry and Kara encourage Iris and Mon-El to reveal their true feelings and make their secret love known to their parents (who are enemies). At the end of the episode, Barry and Kara return to the normal world knowing that they need to fix their broken relationships and embrace the loving feelings they have for Iris and Mon-El, respectively. Barry proposes to Iris again, after singing a very emotional song called Running Home to You. This song has a much deeper meaning for Iris. She accepts the proposal but all for the right reasons this time!! 

With his love life sorted out, Barry continues his superhero work. He comes up against Abra-Kadabra (played by David Dastmalchian’s), a crook from the far-flung future who uses snazzy technology that modern eyes cannot distinguish from magic. Kadabra offers to reveal Savitar’s identity to Team Flash in exchange for his freedom. Gypsy, who has also being pursuing Kadabra, rejects this idea.

Joe is desperate to save Iris from her fast-approaching death, so he sets Kadabra free. The villain doesn’t keep his end of the bargain, though, and he soon tries to build a time machine and escape back to the future. The gang succeeds in stopping him, but Caitlin is wounded in the process.

Caitlin refuses to let her Killer Frost persona free, even though it could save her life. Keeping with Caitlin’s wishes, Julian attempts to perform life-saving surgery on her. Julian fails, so he removes Caitlin’s power-suppressing necklace and allows Killer Frost to emerge. Her injuries heal rapidly, but Killer Frost gets violent and makes her escape.

Inspired by the fact that the future-dwelling villain Kadabra knew (or claimed to know) Savitar’s identity, Barry decided to travel forward in time to a point where Savitar's reigns had blown over. He heads to the year 2024, hoping to gain some answers and advice from the future incarnation of Team Flash

However, in 2024, Barry is met with a number of horrible sights: Wally is alive but is catatonic after having had his spine shattered by Savitar; Cisco is powerless after having had his hands frozen off by Killer Frost in the big fight, previously discovered episodes earlier; Iris is dead, and Joe is depressed; Team Flash is no more, and Barry has grown out his fringe in misery.

Present-Barry brings together future-Julian (who works at Iron Heights prison, keeping an eye on Killer Frost), future-Joe and future-H.R., and this reunited version of Team Flash works together to stop future-Mirror-Master and future-Top’s reign of criminal terror. Future-Barry shows up at a vital moment, using a device from future-Cisco to save the day. We see that Barry has a sick new suit which would one day be owned by present-day Flash. 

Despite present-Barry’s efforts to make this future a bit less grim, future-Barry refuses to reveal Savitar’s true identity to his younger self. However, future-Barry does tell present-Barry to seek out Tracy Brand (played by Anne Dudek). Tracy is a scientist that helped future-Barry create the Speed Force trap, which enabled his version of Team Flash to trap Savitar in the Speed Force after the murder of Iris.

Meanwhile, in the present, Killer Frost meets Savitar. Savitar reveals his identity to her (but not to the audience just yet), which immediately earns her trust. There are a few possibilities as to who Savitar is in order to earn Caitlin's trust immediately. 

Barry returns to the present, hoping that working with Tracy Brand earlier on in the timeline will allow him to trap Savitar quicker and stop Iris' death. Work begins on the Speed Force trap, and romantic feelings blossom between H.R. and Tracy.

Soon enough, Killer Frost kidnaps Joe’s girlfriend Cecile (played by Danielle Nicolet), and tries to trade her for Tracy. Killer Frost’s evil plan fails, and she loses a fight to Cisco. Cecile is saved, and Joe reveals Barry and Wally’s superhero secrets to her. Savitar rescues Killer Frost.

Barry has a eureka moment, and confronts Savitar. Barry has worked out that there’s only one person who could know everything that Team Flash is going to do before they even do it: a future version of himself. His assumptions are right, and Savitar reveals his true identity, even going so far as to quote his line from earlier on in the season “I am the future Flash.”

Skilled speedsters can create Time Remnants of themselves, which is when a speedster run so fast they travel back a few seconds and meet a version of themselves. It is also revealed that Savitar is a creation of Barry's Flashpoint time. When he defeated Zoom, he created a time remnant but that remnant died. It wouldve stayed that way but Barry decided to go back in time and change the course of events.

At some point between the present day and the future we glimpsed in 2024, Barry would try this same tactic against Savitar: he created numerous Time Remnant copies of himself, and Savitar killed all of them but one. This sole remaining Time Remnant would live on, and get shunned by Team Flash for not being the original Barry and then Savitar would be created. 

Savitar explains all of this in episode 21, as well as making it clear that he has all of Barry’s memories up until the moment of his creation as a Time Remnant. That’s why he always anticipates Barry’s tactics.

To try and tackle this, Cisco tampers with Barry’s brain, trying to stop him from creating new memories. This backfires completely, and Barry loses all his memories. Cisco ultimately undoes the process, and Savitar carries on knowing everything that Barry knows.

Tracy completes the design for the Speed Force trap, and the plan to trap Savitar in the Speed Force before he can kill Iris remains in tact. There’s just one hitch though. The trap requires a power source more powerful than the sun. The only such power source on Earth is a piece of Dominator tech that ARGUS has locked up with King Shark.

Lyla (played by Audrey Marie Anderson) doesn't allow Team Flash to take the power source. So Barry travels back in time, picks up Captain Cold from the heroic age of his life, and plans a risky heist. In a penultimate episode of the season, Barry and Captain Cold sneak into the ARGUS base (using a piece of face-disguising tech from H.R.’s Earth), scuffle with King Shark, and fail to steal the device. Lyla ends up letting them have it. The Speed Force trap is named by H.R as The Speed Force Bazooka, and it is now fully operational.

However, the Speed Force bazooka turns out to be completely useless. Savitar renders it so within seconds, using concentrated Speed Force energy from the Philosopher’s Stone to deflect its blasts with utter ease. Joe’s backup plan of hiding Iris on Earth-2 also backfires, with Savitar easily unfolding the ruse by pretending to be normal-Barry for all of five seconds. 

Wally’s chances of intervening are nullified when Savitar breaks one of his legs. All while Cisco is busy fighting Killer Frost. 

It appears to be game over, then, as the penultimate episode of the season draws to a close with Iris being stabbed to death. Barry holds her corpse in his arms, and Iris’ final message plays out in tear-jerking style for the audience’s benefit.

Gotcha! Iris is fine! Using H.R's face-disguising piece of technology, Iris was swapped out for the showdown with Savitar. Iris was safe on a rooftop disguised as H.R., while H.R. dying on the ground disguised as Iris. He sacrificed himself so that Iris could live and Savitar's plan would fail. 

Everyone, including his newfound love interest Tracy, was heartbroken when they realised H.R. sacrificed himself. Even though he may of been more of an ideas mean than a genius, he still felt a duty to protect Team Flash.

Barry had no knowledge of H.R.’s secret plan, so Savitar too was oblivious. And now that Iris didn't die, Barry won’t be driven to create Time Remnants of himself. Therefore, Savitar will never be born. However, it takes time for changes to the timeline to fully take effect (just ask Eobard Thawne), so Savitar continues to exist – for the time being. 

Savitar kidnaps Cisco, and tasks him to modify the Speed Force Bazooka into a quantum splicer. We learn that this device would disperse Savitar across all of time, saving him from being erased, and essentially making him a god.

Barry tries to reach out to Savitar, taking his evil Time Remnant clone to STAR Labs and promising to help him avoid non-existence. Savitar, as you’d expect, is having none of it: he destroys the lab and orders Killer Frost to kill Cisco. Gypsy intervenes and saves him.

Savitar tries to open a portal into the Speed Force, but Black Flash, essentially the Grim Reaper for speedsters, emerges, intent on erasing Savitar. Killer Frost freezes and kills Black Flash.

Savitar then attempts to complete his original survival plan into action, using the modified Speed Force Bazooka. Cisco ignored Savitar’s instructions and made his own alterations, turning the bazooka into a skeleton key instead of a quantum splicer. Freed by Cisco’s Speed Force skeleton key, Jay Garrick appears! Along with Barry and, a now healed, Wally. Jay helps to battle Savitar.

Meanwhile, Cisco and Gypsy battle with Killer Frost, which of course, she loses. Cisco has a chance to kill her but, obviously, doesn’t take it, and instead Cisco offers Killer Frost a cure to her condition, which Julian developed. Killer Frost doesn’t use the cure, but she does turn on Savitar, walloping him with an ice beam at a crucial moment.

Barry phases into Savitar’s suit and, using his phasing abilities, destroys it. He refuses to give into the pain and kill Savitar. Instead, he knocks Savitar out and leaves him on the ground. Savitar gets up moments later, but Iris puts a bullet in his back. Savitar slumps over, dies, and flickers out of existence. Game over.

However, removing Jay from the Speed Force prison, to help with the battle against Savitar, has to have consequences. It was established earlier in the season that the Speed Force prison must have a speedster occupant at all times, and, at the close of season 3, a Speed Force lightning storm rages across Central City. Barry needs to stabilise it. 

Barry volunteered himself, and the Speed Force took the form of his mother to beckon him. Barry called this imprisonment "his penance and his redemption", following his Flashpoint mistakes.

Barry said his emotional goodbyes to everyone, and he stepped into the Speed Force… 

THE END