It’s my husband’s and my anniversary today so I’m gonna be lazy with the intro. Enjoy this recap of CW’s The Flash.

I owe you all an apology. I’ve been slacking on these reviews, and while I have many justifications, I don’t really have a good reason. At the end of the day, I’m afraid these aren’t very good and I’m doing this show that so many people love a disservice by being endlessly negative about it. I think part of the problem is that doing an episode every two weeks kills any momentum I have, so I’m going to try to start getting these out once a week from now on. Damn the fears, full speed ahead and whatnot…I have no idea what the fuck I’m saying.

Spoilers under the cut.

After the intro, we get Barry, Wally, and Jesse speeding through Central City. Wally splits off, then doubles back to get to the others. Barry is holding Jesse much like how Savitar holds Iris in the future, and Wally is fast enough on this run to potentially stop Iris’ murder. Barry’s jubilant, but Wally is still seeing visions of Savitar.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Julian has returned from Hogwarts and is confused as to why he was summoned, as is everybody else there. Turns out Barry and Iris have decided now is a good time to reveal they are engaged. Everyone’s happy except for Joe, who’s a little stunned. He takes Barry aside and reminds him of the story he told about asking his father-in-law for permission. Barry says it was spontaneous, but they are interrupted by Cisco and Wally, who report a fire. Wally and Barry take off, but Wally is overcome by visions, which are now able to invisibly attack them. Barry can’t see his opponent and is shocked when Wally tells him it’s Savitar.

Barry is now fuming that Wally hasn’t told them about this for a week, and he just lays into him and then kicks him out of the cortex. Barry says he needs to talk to Savitar again, and Julian tells him to fuck off. Then this happens:

Caitlin gets Julian to agree to channel Savitar and they start the séance. There’s a lot of foreshadowing here, and Savitar flat-out tells them who he is, but without context Team Flash (and indeed, most of the audience) misses it. That being said, he does send them off to find the rest of his followers on the off chance that they have a second Philosopher’s Stone. Apparently, they’ve built a temple up in the mountains and are worshipping a statue of Savitar. Barry runs down and punches them out, then grabs the box they had. It’s empty, and the main cultist tells him he should move up the wedding.

Back at the lab, the team agrees that at first glance it appears to be the same box that held the Philosopher’s Stone, but ultimately decide to run more tests. Meanwhile, H.R. is pushing Wally to the limit, but Wally is too much in his own head to push forward. He and H.R. visit Cisco and Cisco vibes Wally to the night Iris dies. Wally gets a sense of what’s going to happen, but notices she’s not wearing an engagement ring.

He confronts Barry about this, and Iris doesn’t take it well, telling Barry she needs some time to think. Caitlin and Julian overhear this, and a little while later Julian says he’s worried he might betray them. Caitlin says she knows he won’t because she already did, and pulls out a slice of the Stone. Caitlin tells the team she only took it because she thought she could use it to cure herself of Killer Frost. A plan begins to form, but it requires Julian to channel Savitar one more time. You can just imagine how thrilled he is, and he takes it out on Caitlin a little bit, wondering aloud if she ever actually liked him or was just using him to get rid of Killer Frost.

Joe shows up at Iris’ apartment to talk and tells her to keep the love that she and Barry have for each other simple. Back at the lab, Savitar is resummoned through Julian and they begin to get a trace on him. At the West house, Wally is on the verge of freaking out when Jesse finds him. He confesses to how much the pressure is getting to him, and then he has a hallucination of his mother, Francine. Francine tells him to quit, and he figures out that it’s actually Savitar talking to him through the illusion. Savitar tells Wally he’s not going to stop him, and Wally runs back to the lab.

Barry meets with Iris at home, and she kinda sorta low-key breaks up with him, but her speech leads Barry to the realization that Savitar is in the Speed Force with most of the Stone. However, Wally has the last piece and he’s trying to open a portal to throw it into the Speed Force. Savitar continues poking and prodding Wally, getting him to go faster and faster until he finally tosses the fragment into the Speed Force…and then he’s sucked in along with it.

Savitar escapes and confronts Barry. He tells him Wally is forever trapped in the prison Barry made for Savitar inside the Speed Force, and then stabs Barry right in the clavicle. Barry shatters the blade and Savitar runs off. Team Flash is left in the aftermath awash in pain, fear, sorrow, and Barry blaming himself again.

This was a really good episode that not only furthered the main plot, but gave us some really nice character moments. There’s not a single second of this episode that was extraneous or poorly planned out, and made me really start looking forward to the rest of the season. Savitar is starting to take shape as a villain (although his overpoweredness is starting to be reduced), and the visual of Wally being shredded into the Speed Force much like Barry was last season was…still unsettling. Speaking of Barry and the Speed Force, it’s time to go back in next week.

George Hatch can be found stuck in the Twitter Force at @Raeseti.