'The Flash' Recap: 'Shade'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

So far the third season of The Flash has been a fascinating character study on both heroes and villains. We've seen stories that explore the sacrifice a hero must undergo when they make the choice to protect others and what it means to be a hero and how that role inspires others. We've also seen stories that explore the flip side of that for the bad guys and gals out there too. Specifically, the sacrifices they make as well and what they leave behind by choosing a life of evil. 

While all of this has been fascinating to watch, it turns out that these little vignettes have been nothing more than a grand setup for some tough choices for our characters to make since last night's episode, 'Shade', put both Caitlin and Wally in the toughest positions they've been in so far this season and it seems after this one, nothing will quite be the same in Barry's altered timeline. For Wally, the day that everyone on the team feared arrived at last since he began to dream about his life in the other timeline where he was the Flash and life was awesome. While there's nothing wrong with having kickass dreams, Joe knew what kind of trouble this meant...that Alchemy was reaching out to his son and things would only get worse.

Indeed the process of selection for Meta Human conversion had begun for Wally and this is where the episode delved into some fascinating territory. Because Alchemy's summoning brought forth incredible conflict for Wally, since the allure of becoming a speedster remains a strong draw for him and while at first he wasn't worried about the matter, it's clear as the episode rolled on that he wondered what kind of man he would become with such power at his fingertips, and the team was gravely concerned that he would suffer the same fate as everyone else that was converted at Alchemy's hands and turn to a life of evil. Granted he did make the bold and heroic decision to lead Joe and Barry into the monster's lair to fight Alchemy, but despite his best attempts to stay human and ignore temptation...the draw was just too great and Wally gave in, touched the gem and entered his cocoon...

As Wally dealt with all of that, Caitlin went on a more personal journey, because the fear growing inside of her regarding her own powers...and the potential to become Killer Frost finally pushed her to a precarious place mentally and in a surprise moment, she swiped a pair of power inhibiting handcuffs to stave off the inevitable. Her decision led Cisco to believe that HR swiped them, forcing Caitlin to finally own up to the theft and her powers and she begged Cisco to look into the future in the hopes of seeing a tomorrow where she wasn't a monster. Alas, Cisco's vision was that of a battle between Vibe and Killer Frost and well, when you combine that and Cisco telling the team about her powers in the hopes of altering the future, Caitlin's story is becoming a heartbreaking one to say the least...and a dangerous one as well. Because sometimes it's the little things that change us and the setbacks that Caitlin has been dealing with...could put her on a slippery slope.

But what's truly amazing is that this is the first time this season that the show has returned to the darkness that permeated season two. After all, uncertainty now hangs over everything in this reformed timeline since we are left wondering as to whether or not Wally or Caitlin will stay on a path of righteousness or turn to the dark side, and I'm loving the fact that the show is in essence, forcing Barry to pay the piper for his selfish decision to change the timeline. No more can he simply 'get by' in this new world, everything is starting to crumble and Barry is about to face off against his greatest challenge this year since we now know that Alchemy is really the God of Speed known as Savitar and he is none too pleased that Barry has been toying with time. Either way, things should get extremely interesting from here on out. Until next time.

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