The Flash season 3 finale was an exhausting end to an exhausting season. At least Iris West is safe. HR Wells sacrificed himself in order to save her. That’s nice, but the episode’s attempts to make HR seem more important than he ever was afterwards were awkward.
Barry Allen’s line implying that Cisco Ramon cared about HR more than any other Harrison Wells was just blatantly untrue. The tacked on romance with Tracy Brand, who just met HR, was painful. Only Wally West’s “thanks for believing in me” line truly resonated. Focusing more on Wally when it came to grieving HR would’ve done this episode some good.
With his plan to kill Iris ruined, Savitar moved onto his Plan B. He wanted to scatter himself throughout time. Savitar was so delightful in this episode, I wanted him to pull an Eobard Thawne and hop over to DC’s Legends of Tomorrow to become an actual fun villain. I know that’d be a strain on Grant Gustin’s schedule, but I can dream.
Once Iris was safe, Barry and Iris attempted to reach out to Savitar. This was weirdly adorable, but a little ridiculous. When Iris told Savitar, who tried to murder her, that they don’t give up on people I immediately thought of Peek-a-Boo, Grider, Hartley Rathaway and the other villains who were locked in a tiny cell for much less. It was a relief when instead of being arbitrarily merciful, Iris just deservedly killed him.
This episode also saw Caitlin Snow taking off, without ever actually explaining why she’d side with Savitar. Caitlin’s connection with Cisco still feels grounded, but aside from that one friendship her writing has been all over the place this season. It’s hard to care about her anymore because her motivations are so poorly thought out.
The ending in which Barry had to go live in the Speed Force was too much. A little bit of set up for next season would’ve been fine, but this was just one more thing in the onslaught of ridiculous peril that was The Flash season 3.