The Flash season 3, episode 22 recap: “Infantino Street”

By Tim Adams | May 22, 2017

The Flash has 24 hours to stop Savitar from killing his fiancee, Iris West. All out of options, Flash turns to Captain Cold for help breaking into ARGUS.

“Infantino Street” begins by letting us know that we are down to 24 hours until Iris West dies in front of the Flash. We see #TeamFlash working to devise a plan to save Iris from Savitar. Speaking of Iris, she and Barry Allen wake up in bed on what could be their final day together. One of Iris’ final requests is to have caviar, which Barry races off to fetch for her. Iris uses this opportunity to record a secret video message for Barry on his cellphone.

Barry and Cisco Ramon take a visit to see Lyla Diggle at ARGUS. They tell her that they need a power source at the facility in order to power their Speed Force Bazooka. Lyla informs them that the power source they need originated from the invading Dominators (during the four-part The CW crossover event earlier this season). Try as they might, Lyla won’t hand it over to Barry.

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If Lyla won’t give it to Barry, then he’s going to break into ARGUS and steal it. The only problem with this plan is ARGUS is retrofitted with metahuman power dampeners. They’ll need a master thief in order to break in: enter Leonard Snart, a.k.a. Captain Cold.

Snart is working with the Legends of Tomorrow in 1892 when the Flash recruits him. This is where I’d like to point out that Barry said he’d never time travel again. Also, how did he know when in time to find Snart?

Meanwhile, Killer Frost begins picking Savitar’s brain to see if he really has it in him to kill Iris. While this is going on, Savitar begins gaining the Flash’s memories of working with Snart to defeat him. Time travel is funky like that.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Snart goes over the four rules of a break-in: make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, and then throw the plan away. During the planning, Barry asks Joe West to take Iris somewhere far away, where her location is unknown to him. This leads the West family to visit the Harrison Wells of Earth-2.

We now check back in at ARGUS, as Lyla brings Snart in for processing. The guards are confused as to why Lyla is there, when she was is supposed to be out on another mission. After successfully passing a retinal scan, a guard asks Lyla for a passcode, which she doesn’t know. Suddenly, Lyla knocks out the guards and reveals herself to be Barry in disguise.

As Barry and Snart pass by some ARGUS cells we get Easter eggs for Gorilla Grodd, Cheetah, and Cupid. Our intruders end their march at King Shark’s door, where the power source is being held. Snart comes up with a plan to drop the temperature in King Shark’s room to below 50 degrees. Apparently, most sharks are warm-blooded but great white sharks are cold-blooded.

The romantic pairing of HR Wells and Tracy Brand has been adorable to follow. HR takes their relationship to the next level by proposing to Tracy. Not to marry him, but to officially join #TeamFlash.

Back at ARGUS, King Shark’s holding cell is now filled with a freezing mist. Snart gets a meta joke off at The CW’s expense with, “Reminds me of Jaws. They didn’t show him because they couldn’t afford to.” Barry grabs the power source but triggers an alarm in the process. The open doorway closes on the two, but Barry is able to pass through, leaving Snart behind.

Image Courtesy of The CW

Cisco tries opening the door for Snart. The former criminal remarks that if Cisco gets the door open he’ll put in a good word with his sister. Finally, the door cracks open long enough for Snart to pass through, but not before King Shark grabs his leg. This ends with King Shark losing a hand when the door closes on it. Lucky for him, he seems to have the power to regenerate body parts.

Just when it seems Barry and Snart will escape, they’re greeted by ARGUS guards led by Lyla. Even though she’s mad at Barry for not listening to her earlier, she’s pleased to see that Barry wasn’t willing to sacrifice Snart to save Iris. She reluctantly hands the power source over to Barry.

With that problem solved, Barry takes Snart back to 1892. Captain Cold leaves Barry with one piece of friendly advice: don’t try to beat Savitar at his own game. Goodness is Barry’s strength. Use it.

We then see what we believe is Barry racing through the streets of Central City and arriving at S.T.A.R. Labs. This is really Savitar, and he tricks HR into revealing that Iris is hiding on Earth-2. The God of Speed jumps to Earth-2, takes out Kid Flash, and kidnaps Iris.

Our death watch countdown alerts us to Iris having 53 minutes remaining until her death. The clock is ticking. HR is rightfully blaming himself for Iris’ predicament. Cisco tries talking some sense into him before he heads off. Something tells me HR will redeem himself after the camera shows him staring at the leftover Savitar blade from earlier in the season.

Speaking of Cisco, he receives another vibe of his upcoming fight with Killer Frost in the woods. He’s unable to ignore this any longer and goes off to confront his former friend. The rest of #TeamFlash heads to Infantino Street for the final showdown with Savitar.

The first of our battles is Killer Frost versus Vibe. Killer Frost says that in order to become a god like Savitar, she must rid herself of Caitlin. Not much is shown there, so now we head to Infantino Street for the Flash versus Savitar. The villain must have felt pretty confident because he allows Flash to attack him with the Speed Force Bazooka. However, Savitar brushes the blast off as if it was nothing. The Philosopher Stone is Savitar’s ace up his sleeve.

Now comes the depressing part; watching Flash run in slow motion to save Iris as her earlier recorded message plays. She ends the video by taking the wedding vow to be Barry’s wife, and Savitar still strikes her down as the episode concludes.

Next: Catch up with a recap of 'Cause and Effect'

Highlights

It was fun seeing Captain Cold and King Shark again, but I feel like #TeamFlash could have done a better job coming up with a plan. The Speed Force Bazooka was a dud, and Flash still meddled with time to recruit Snart. Barry is constantly causing his own problems.

Closing Thought

Is Iris dead or not? Is there some other swerve waiting to be revealed? The season finale can’t be a total downer, right?