On Season 3 Episode 12 of The Flash, titled Untouchable, Kid Flash and the Flash face off with a villain that can’t be touched. How can they defeat a villain that can turn anything it touches to death? Check out our recap on this week’s episode, Untouchable as well as our thoughts on the episode!
- His thoughts on Untouchable, Episode 312 of The Flash
- Her thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 12: Untouchable
This week’s episode of The Flash begins with training between Barry and Wally, as Wally trains for his potential battle with Savitar. The rest of Team Flash is watching from STAR Labs, and even takes bets on who they think will win. Wally gives Barry a good run for his money, but Barry pulls a fast one and phases through a building, which Wally complains that he is unable to do yet. Barry explains that in the field you have to improvise to win.
Barry provides some advice this episode to Wally, trying to be a mentor for him, and help him learn his speedster powers.
Meanwhile, this week, the villain of the week has the ability to touch a person, which infects the person, causing rapid death and then degradation of the body afterwards. We see this villain attack two people in this way.
Julian and Caitlin are able to examine one of the bodies, which looks pretty advanced in decomposition. After Julian and Caitlin examine it though, the body disintegrates to ashes, which baffles both Caitlin and Julian.
One thing that does come to light to Barry after learning who the first two victims are—they were both people that were cops in the Flashpoint timeline that Barry had changed. Also Julian realizes this villain must be another person he turned into a meta—a point of which bothers him, as despite him not being in control of his body, he feels responsible for the turning of the meta-human. Caitlin actually is a bit offended by this, as she feels responsible for her own things she did as Killer Frost.
Realizing what is going on though, Barry warns Joe to be cautious. Joe says he isn’t concerned though, and he has to meet Cecile’s daughter. So, Barry, Wally, Iris and Joe go out to Jitters for some food with Cecile and her daughter. They seem to have a good time, until the villain, Clive, shows up.
Wally jumps into action, and with the non-verbal tip from Barry, Wally “whirlwinds” Clive away, and Clive decides to make a retreat. People seem impressed with Kid Flash’s abilities, which pumps Wally up.
Joe seems unfazed about Clive, so Iris feels she has no choice but to tell Joe about her impending date with death at the hands of Savitar. This really gets Joe irritated, knowing that the entirety of Team Flash had kept this secret from him.
Unfortunately for Iris and Joe, Clive targets Iris. Iris receives the death touch from Clive, despite Wally trying to save her. Wally gets her to STAR Labs and Barry shows up, miffed with Wally for not being fast enough.
Julian and Caitlin are trying to figure out a way to save Iris, but they can only come up with one solution as a band-aid for now — freezing Iris’ infected arm. Caitlin doesn’t think this is a good idea, as she will have to take off the necklace that inhibits her powers, and worries she will become Killer Frost.
Barry then has a heart-to-heart with Wally, apologizing for his snapping at him, and tells him he feels like he is not a good teacher, and the two talk things out, and calm down.
Then Cisco comes up with a way to figure out where Clive might be. Cisco vibes Barry to Flashpoint, and sees that Clive is taking down the cops who busted him in the alternate reality. There is a female private investigator that could be a target of Clive, so Team Flash prepares for that by having Joe talk to her. This unfortunately puts both Joe and the woman in the same place — an easy target for Clive.
Back at STAR Labs, there is some good news and bad news. The good news is Julian thinks that Barry’s blood might have the ability to counteract Clive’s infection in Iris, but Caitlin is having a hard time stopping the infection, and Killer Frost is beginning to take over. Julian actually comes to the rescue, calming Caitlin down and she is able to reel herself in, rather than turning into Killer Frost.
Meanwhile, Clive has decided to tear up the tracks of the train that Joe and the woman were on, and unless something is done, the train is facing certain doom. Barry manages to get to the train, and has to think quickly. He manages to phase the entire train through the rubble that Clive had caused. Barry is pretty tired though, so it is up to Wally to stop Clive. Barry tells Wally the plan—Wally has to get some of his blood into Clive. He does so simply by phasing through Clive and dropping off some blood on his way through. Easy, right?
The episode wraps up, and things seem to settle down regarding the group. Julian is set on finding the last meta-human he turned, but there seems to be one more problem — Jesse returns from Earth 2, saying that her father, Wells, has been kidnapped — by Grodd.
His Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 12: Untouchable
So, this was a pretty good episode. Wally and Barry’s interactions as they both go through the development of Wally’s powers is pretty interesting, as Barry knows that Wally has the potential to be faster than him, so it is humble of Barry to be able to train someone who will eventually be more powerful than himself.
As per usual, the villain of the week was pretty “meh.” He had an interesting power, but for the most part, the villains for the CW shows tend to be a “one and done” type thing, and they come and go pretty quickly.
Julian certainly seems to be proving his worth to the team, which is good news, as he does quite often seem to rub people the wrong way. The fact that he provides some usefulness at least off-sets some of that annoyance some.
It was also pretty heart-breaking watching Joe react to the news about Iris. I can certainly see why he became so upset. Having the entirety of my superhero team (let’s face it, Joe is basically a part of Team Flash as much as everyone else is) keeping something from me would irritate me, especially when it had to do with my daughter.
As for the stinger at the end of the episode, I am curious to see if Grodd situation here is leading to the headline that Barry saw in the newspaper Cisco vibed in back to a couple episodes ago. Will Grodd be making it through the breech?
I guess we will see soon….
Her Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 12: Untouchable
I had a little bit of trouble believing that despite Wally having so much trouble learning how to phase while training, that he was able to pull off such a complicated phasing move – through a person! – without having been successful at any kind of phasing before. But at the same time, I guess it’s kind of along the same lines of how Jesse got her powers in the first place – that she was about to be hit by a car, and then her powers kicked in and saved her. In this case, if Wally ran into Clive, he would disintegrate, so it was more of an instinct thing where his powers and self-preservation took over. In any case, Wally seems to be progressing quite quickly with developing his powers, and it seems pretty promising that he should be able to save Iris from Savitar when the time comes.
I continue to take issue with Caitlin’s powers though. Why must she necessarily become bad, and become Killer Frost, whenever she uses her powers? Why can’t she just use her powers for good, and be herself instead of this other entity whenever she uses her powers? Why does everyone who has powers have to be bad, unless they are a speedster, in which case the deciding factor of whether they’re good or bad seems to depend on whether or not they’re friends with Barry? Does this bother anyone else, or is it just me?
But anyway, it looks like the future that Barry saw is continuing to come true. There was a headline about Grodd, and sure enough, we will see Grodd next episode. My question is, will we get double Wells, with H.R. pitching in to help save Harry? Could be interesting…
Scenes from The Flash, Season 3 Episode 13: Attack On Gorilla City
Preview of Season 3 Episode 13 of The Flash
