The Flash - 'Into the Speed Force'

"So, which aspect of whose personality am I representing this time?"

Wally West is missing, presumed... gone.

Determined that no-one else suffer for his many fuck-ups, Barry determines to go into the Speed Force after Wally and bring him back. Cisco creates a tracking device and Caitlin adds biometric sensors, so that they will  be able to monitor him even in the Speed Force, tether him to the world and bring him back if he gets into trouble; no prizes for guessing which part goes wrong around the midpoint of the episode.

The Speed Force appears to Barry, as before, but this time in the form of everyone who died to save the day when he couldn't: Eddie Thawne, Original Firestorm, even Leonard Snart, who sacrificed himself to save all of time and space because he was inspired to be better by the Flash. The Speed Force is also less charitable this time around, since last time it/they returned Barry's speed on the grounds that he was over his mother's death, only for him to turn around and create Flashpoint. They tell him that Wally is trapped in the prison he created/will create for Savitar, in his own personal hell, and that to free him Barry must first escape his own hell.

Meanwhile, Jesse tries to go up against Savitar, pointing out that on her world she is the real Flash. It doesn't work that well, but she and HR are able to establish one thing: Savitar wears his frictionless, quantum indeterminate armour because underneath it he can be hurt, and in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, 'if it bleeds we can kill it.'

Oh, break my heart why don't you.

Barry finds Wally trapped in the worst moment of his life and offers to take his place, but the Speed Force ain't having it. Barry may be offering himself as a sacrifice, but they see it as an abnegation of his responsibilities. Saving Iris, stopping Savitar, that's Barry's job and nobly offering himself in exchange for Wally won't get him out of it. Fortunately, when the tether breaks, Cisco goes to Jay Garrick for help, and Jay is able to see Barry through and take Wally's place, giving the Earth-1 Flash his helmet so that when the time comes, Barry and Cisco can pull him back out.

Back home, Barry takes ownership of his actions and his blind rush to change the future by any means necessary and takes a step back from his relationship with Iris after pushing it too hard. While this will probably be presented as a mistake, it's a surprisingly grown up thing for him to do. I'm not sure that the same can be said of Jesse's sudden decision to go to Earth-3 and be their stand-in Flash, but it's better than her standing around like a third wheel the way she did last week when the writers had no idea what to do with her.

'Into the Speed Force' suffers from the fact that deep, philosophical navel gazing is not The Flash's A game, and that its ultimate moral reverses Barry's revelation of a few episodes back that he doesn't have to be the hero every time. Apparently he does have to be the hero every time; the Speed Force is big on brand identity or something. I don't like the idea of Barry as some sort of Flash Messiah.

On the other hand, next week: Singing!