‘The Flash’ Review: “I Know Who You Are”
John David Mazzarella ’20 / Emertainment Monthly TV Staff Writer
Warning: The Following Contains Spoilers for The Flash season 3
Savitar’s identity is finally revealed! Unfortunately, this is only a cliff note in the episode.
After Barry Allen/The Flash’s (Grant Gustin) visit to the future, Team Flash’s focus is shifted to a lead given to them by future Barry. According to future Barry, Dr. Tracy Brand (Anne Dudek) will one day be responsible for trapping Savitar (Andre Tricoteux). Barry, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and H.R. (Tom Cavanagh) travel to Brand’s university to recruit her, only to be met by Killer Frost/Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) who has pledged allegiance to Savitar. Now, Team Flash needs to ward off their fallen friend while simultaneously convincing Tracy to construct Savitar’s prison.
This episode is completely unfocused. While the episode is titled “I Know Who You Are,” Savitar and his reveal only take up a couple of minutes of the show’s run time. Most of the episode is dedicated to Tracy Brand; she isn’t that great a character. She constantly makes bad decisions, whether it be declining police protection or leaving the safety of S.T.A.R. Labs while a threat to her life is still present. She also begins to develop a relationship with H.R., which is near creepy as (and the show probably forgot about this) H.R. looks like Randolf Morgan (Adam Bergquist).
Another huge chunk of the episode is dedicated to Joe West’s (Jesse L. Martin) and Cecile Horton’s (Danielle Nicolet) relationship. There hasn’t been much with these two for a while and, at the start of this episode, their relationship seems cute and innocent enough. Unfortunately, their story digresses into drama because Joe can’t say he loves her without getting her involved in his chaotic life. It’s understandable, no normal person can say they have a life as weird as Joe’s, but this is the fourth to last episode of the season. What the writers are reminding the audience is that these are real people who still have their own “real life” problems to worry about, but there doesn’t need to be this much added drama, not with what’s already at stake.
On top of this, there’s yet another subplot, this one about Cisco being apprehensive about fighting Caitlin. Again it’s complex and understandable. With enough time this could make for an interesting plot, but there’s not enough time for all of this in one episode.
This is why all the filler episodes hurt the season. There was enough time to explore Tracy’s character, there was enough time to flesh out Joe and Cecile’s relationship and there was time to explore Team Flash’s reaction to Caitlin’s fall. That time was wasted. As a result, everything in this episode was rushed and uninteresting. The only thing that stands out in “I Know Who You Are” is Savitar’s reveal.
Savitar is Barry Allen and it’s obvious. If the audience somehow missed the hints prior to this episode, the episode directly implies his identity seconds before the reveal. Now the truth is out and there’s only so many ways to go from here.
Episode Grade: D