The Flash "The Once and Future Flash" Review: Back to the (Gloomy) Future

Earlier today, my final post about the current state of The CW's "Arrow-verse" focused on "The Flash" went live. In it, I mentioned the things the show had been doing right in the midst of a lot of things it's gotten wrong in Season 3. Coming into this final batch of episodes, the show needed to pickup the pace with its "Savitar" storyline after the show pulled off the wrong move in teasing their audience in a bad way with the last episode, "Abra Kadabra". 

What they delivered tonight was a mixed bag. If anything, "The Once and Future Flash" is actually a microcosm of everything that has defined this season, in both good and bad ways.

The episode picked up right where the previous one left off. With Barry still determined to fully uncover who Savitar is, he fulfilled his promise to Joe and Iris and made a time travel trip to Central City 2024. Even with a mild detour at the beginning of the episode with a showdown with the reawakened Killer Frost, the show made it clear the main focus of this episode would be its future setting. And the results were interesting and a bit disheartening.

In today's earlier post, I mentioned how the show really is at its best when there is a tonal balance of light and darkness and not when one overwhelms the other. The show's recent obsession with keeping things in a gloomy/morose state were more or less true with today's episode. Central City in the year 2024 is a harrowing place to be, and made for an episode that was overly gloomy and a bit of a drag for most of it.

There was the obligatory excursion where Barry gets reacquainted with all the members of Team Flash as we got to see what their lives would be like 7 years after the death of Iris West. The results were what was expected: Future Barry Allen is a sulking Emo who blames himself for not saving Iris (how novel); Joe West has been left mourning the death of his daughter; Wally West got his spine shattered and left on a catatonic state after a fight with Savitar; Cisco lost both his hands after a battle with Killer Frost; Julian is a scientist at Iron Heights looking over a captured Killer Frost, and HR has become a thespian with a penchant for reading poems at Jitters.

If there was anything that didn't really help this future storyline, was, once again, Savitar. While there is some narrative sense as to why everyone is in such a depressed state, the truth of the matter is even up until this point Savitar still doesn't feel like the tangible, terrible threat he's been made out to be. The show insists on telling about his deeds instead of showing, and that is still such a slight dragging down the show even as it reaches the season finale.

The show also remains adamant about keeping the villain's secret identity close to the vest for as long as humanly possible. While it was already beyond annoying when they dared tease the reveal in "Abra Kadabra" and then not delivering on it, that plot point reaches its nadir here. Throughout the episode, Barry keeps on asking the future characters about who is this guy, and we still keep getting denials or drivel like "you will be so shocked when you find out." To cap it all off, the episode ends with a tag showing Savitar reveal his identity to Killer Frost. A reveal that happens entirely off camera. The show is close to crossing the line into “audience contempt” with this story at this point, as it still holds the only tangible thing about this story for ransom until a later date (something they now insist they will deliver in the next episode, based on the preview). Now that the show has dragged this thing for this long, there is no way the ultimate reveal will be as shocking as they insist it will be.

As always, we can depend on the character dynamics to keep this show afloat even during moments of weakness. "The Once and Future Flash" was specially strong with the character moments. Some of the acting from the majority of the cast was on point in this episode. The gloomy tone may be a real bummer, but it made up for it with the portrayal of its characters. Grant Gustin as Emo Barry in particular proved to be particularly strong and emotionally fulfilling (even with his ridiculous wig), and of course, Jesse L. Martin continues to deliver the goods as Joe West. Special mention to Carlos Valdes as Cisco this episode, as his portrayal of Future Cisco as the only person not saddled by the doom and gloom allowed the show to maintain hope despite its harrowing state.

Speaking of that, special mention to the return of Mirror Master and Top. While they were not the real focus of this episode, and didn't get any more characterization than what they got in "The New Rogues", their appearance and their battle did at least allow for a moment of lightness later in the episode. It was a reminder, once again, of what "The Flash" is capable of when there is fun and exuberance even in a dark installment like this one.

"The Once and Future Flash" was Tom Cavanagh's directorial debut, and he didn't disappoint. Visually, the episode had some great flourishes, but not anything out of the ordinary. From an effects perspective, the episode's high point came in the final battle with Flash against Mirror Master and the Top. There was an Inception quality of that fight that made it unique, even if it was disappointingly short. If anything, he was able to goad some really good performances out of the cast, and the hope will be that he gets more chances at the director's chair in the future.

If "The Once and Future Flash" made anything clear, is that Season 3 will stay the course. The acting and character moments still remain high points in the show and the one thing that keeps it afloat. However, it is clear the Savitar storyline is just causing more harm than good at this point, and the writer's insistence to keep the secret going puts the show in a position where it can't possibly deliver on such a long wait. The preview for the next episode at least makes it clear the reveal is happening now (even the episode is called "I Know Who You Are"), but with only four episodes left, it is getting doubtful the show can pull its story together in such a truncated time.

Score: 7.5/10