Catching Up: The Flash Episode 315, "The Wrath of Savitar"

Wally West (KEIYNAN LONSDALE) is still seeing images of Savitar, but hasn't told anyone, even as he runs through a speed trial with Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) and Jesse (VIOLETT BEANE) in which he manages to cover the required distance to save Iris (CANDICE PATTON) in the future in the right amount of time. He's fast enough. But he's haunted.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, the entire team is brought together but they don't know why. Barry and Iris address the group to announce their engagement. Joe (JESSE L. MARTIN) is happy for his kids, but takes Barry aside to ask why he didn't go through the tradition of asking him first. Barry is rescued from the awkward situation by a fire emergency that he and Wally speed off to take care of. (Jesse is too "preoccupied with the ring" business of the engagement. So much for International Women's Day.

On the way to the fire, Wally is tripped by Savitar, who fights him. Barry doubles back and sees Wally fighting -- with nothing. And now Barry knows that Wally has been seeing Savitar. Back at S.T.A.R. Wally relates that it's been going on for a week but that this was the first time it went beyond more than just seeing him. Barry suspects that Savitar may have been spying on the whole team through Wally's eyes if he's in Wally's head, an experience Julian (TOM FELTON) can relate to.

They need to talk to Savitar again, and Julian is more than reluctant to be their personal walkie-talkie, but Caitlin (DANIELLE PANABAKER) talks him into it, and Cisco (CARLOS VALDES) sets up the equipment. Among the things that Savitar says through Julian are "You're there when I become who I am," and "I am the future, Flash."

The team concludes that even though they threw the Philosopher's Stone into the Speed Force, perhaps they didn't have all of it -- that there is another piece of it. They decide to check with one of Alchemy's former acolytes, and they find that he is leading worship of a statue outside the city. What's more, he has the box that held the original stone, which should be in the Speed Force. But the box is empty, and the acolyte tells Flash that Savitar is ten steps ahead of him -- and that he might want to move up the wedding!

When Wally finds out that he can't get up to speed in the speed lab, H.R. (TOM CAVANAGH) talks with him and they make a plan for Wally to see the exact moment of Iris's death, so he can better plan for the coming attack. They need Cisco to vibe them there to that moment, and Wally witnesses Iris's death at Savitar's hands. He also notices something else: Iris isn't wearing an engagement ring. He confronts Barry about this, and Barry fesses up that he thought getting engaged now might change the future, and you can just imagine how thrilled Iris is to learn the truth behind his proposal.

Elsewhere in the lab, Julian goes to Caitlin. He's worried that he might be the cause of all of this, since Savitar had been in his head before when he was Alchemy. He reminds her that Savitar prophesied that one of the group would betray them, and thinks it might be him. Caitlin assures him it's not him, because she already knows who betrays the group -- it's her. She then opens a drawer and removes the missing piece of the Philosopher's Stone!

Caitlin tells Team Flash that she thought she might be able to use the Stone to come up with a cure for her Killer Frost powers. Julian is upset with her, thinking that the only reason she asked him to be on Team Flash is to be her metahuman expert, questioning the budding relationship they've had building.

At the West household, Wally is packing up to go back to the lab and run more tests, to get faster. Jesse comes in and has a heart-to-heart with him about how he blew up on Barry. Wally says he'll make it up to her. They hug, and he says that he just wanted to do good -- and now he's responsible for saving Iris. (I'm reminded of someone who said, "With great power comes great responsibility.") Jesse tells Wally that he's not alone -- and it's a sentiment echoed from the figure on the stairways -- Wally's mother (VANESSA WILLIAMS), who's been dead a while now. Wally goes to her, and Jesse is freaking out because she cannot see this person.

Wally figures out that it's Savitar getting in his head again, telling him he's not fast enough and never will be, and Wally zips out to prove Savitar -- and everyone else -- wrong.

During a chat with Iris, Barry has had a flash of inspiration. He knows where he imprisons Savitar in the future -- it's the Speed Force. And they threw the Stone into there, where Savitar could use it. But he needs the whole thing, which is why he can only come out in glimpses -- he keeps getting sucked back in. That's when Jesse runs in and tells them about Wally's hallucinations. They check the Stone fragment -- and it's gone.

Wally has the stone fragment, and is trying to open a portal to the Speed Force, and failing. Savitar appears to him and taunts him about not being fast enough, which gives Wally just the kick he needs to run faster, open the portal, and throw the Stone in. S.T.A.R. Labs notices the power surge and checks the local security cameras, just in time to see Wally suspended in air, fighting being sucked into the Speed Force himself.

Flash arrives, but too late to save Wally. Wally cries out for help as he's torn apart, leaving nothing behind but a smoking chest emblem of his uniform. And then Savitar crawls out of the portal, and the fight is on between him and Flash, ending in a draw as Barry gets stabbed through the chest by one of Savitar's blades. Barry severs the blade and Savitar runs off, giving Team Flash a chance to save Barry. And when he recovers, he notices Iris is not wearing her ring.

The team is torn apart by these events, and all seems hopeless. Is the future set in...Stone?

THEORY TIME:

Savitar says that he created himself, and that he has been trapped by Barry in the Speed Force for an eternity -- long enough to lose his mind many times.

Savitar also gave Wally his speed through the Philosopher's Stone, and Wally just threw the last chunk of that stone into the Speed Force, giving Savitar what he needed to escape. The Flash arrives just as Wally is sucked into the Speed Force, and when Savitar crawls out of it.

This reviewer posits that this is the moment of Savitar's creation: The Flash is there at the moment of his creation, as Savitar prophesied. And, if he's created by the last piece of the Philosopher's Stone being thrown into the Speed Force which exists in all times, perhaps he's also created by Wally West being sucked into it as well, that Wally created Savitar just as much as Savitar created Kid Flash.

Yes, I believe that Savitar is none other than Wally West, living out a time loop of having been trapped in the Speed Force from this moment forward, until he goes insane and blames Barry for his imprisonment! That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section!