Josh recaps the midseason premiere of The Flash, Season 3 Episode 10, titled Borrowing Problems from the Future, where Barry struggles to prevent what he saw in his flash forward from happening. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Borrowing Problems from the Future, Episode 310 of The Flash
- Her thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 10: Borrowing Problems from the Future
On this week’s episode of The Flash, Barry is still shaken up by the future he saw, when Iris is killed by Savitar. He wakes up screaming next to Iris in their new apartment, and Iris tries to figure out what is wrong. Barry plays it off though, as nothing.
A fire erupts in Central City, and Barry is “saved by the bell” so to speak with having to go off and save the day. Kid Flash/Wally also shows up, and is basically learning from Barry about being a speedster hero. Barry is able to show Wally that the building on fire that they are in would explode if they didn’t figure out how to vent the fire slowly.
Barry then saves the day. Back at CCPD, one of the cops there is ragging on about how Kid Flash just stood around while Barry did all the work. Joe tries to provide some defense for Kid Flash without trying to sound too invested in Kid Flash, and Wally happens to overhear what is going on. Hearing this visibly frustrates Wally.
Meanwhile, Caitlin is still concerned about Killer Frost making an appearance, as her bracelets seem to need constant charging.
H.R. has his own personal project going on as well, trying to get the STAR Labs museum up and running. Cisco is thoroughly not excited about this, and is basically insistent that they have more important things they should be doing. Barry tries to keep an open mind about it though.
Then, evil strikes again with Jared Murrillo robbing a bank. Jared is able to incapacitate Barry though, as he has a gun that shoots special projectiles, which are able to take Barry down briefly.
This is becomes more significant to Barry than just a new villain though, as Barry has a flashback (flash forward?) remembering that he saw Jared Murrillo apprehended by himself just before Savitar murdered Iris. Eventually Jared, who has now been nicknamed “The Plunderer”, strikes again. Barry confronts him again, and while he is able to dodge the projectiles, he hesitates on apprehending Plunderer because he feels that if he does so, he is solidifying the future where Iris dies. Kid Flash shows up though, apprehends Plunderer, and seems pretty excited about saving the day.
Back at STAR Labs, everyone congratulates Wally for what he was able to do, but Barry goes off on him, thinking that Iris might be in trouble now.
H.R. has the team get ready for the grand opening of STAR Labs museum. Everyone is all dressed up in preparation for the big opening, but it turns out to be a dud. This disappoints H.R., and Cisco has an “I told you so” moment.
Prior to this, Caitlin had paid a visit to Julian, who seems unwilling to admit that he feels bad for what he did as Dr. Alchemy. She asks him for help with getting rid of her powers, and even offers to give him a spot on Team Flash. He basically shoos Caitlin out though, and Caitlin becomes very close to becoming Killer Frost. Luckily, she is able to get her portable charger out and give her bracelets a quick charge.
But Julian seems to have a change of heart, as during the STAR Labs museum opening, he shows up and accepts the offer to join the team. Barry and the rest of the group are surprised to hear he was even offered a spot, but Caitlin pulls them aside, and explains how she needs the help, and thinks he could be of use. The team seems to agree.
Barry then has a moment, where he feels he needs to come clean to Iris about his dreams. He takes her to the Time Vault, and shows her the article that is no longer written by her, and then hits her with the big news of her potential death in four months. Barry swears to her he won’t let it happen. Iris tells Barry they can’t fix this alone though. Barry calls a team meeting, and explains to them the situation. The team agrees to not tell Joe, as Iris is concerned he would flip out. Then the team works on brainstorming solutions—which leads to Cisco “vibing” Barry back to the future.
In the future “vibe”, Cisco and Barry are able to see some news stories, and they have H.R. take note of them in the present. Additionally, as Iris is being murdered in the vision, Barry notices that something has changed—H.R. is in the vision now, aiming a rifle towards Savitar.
The two pop out of the vision, and look at the various news headlines—starting with Plunderer being captured by the Flash, then a gorilla rampaging through Central City, Killer Frost attacking the city, and STAR Labs museum shutting down.
After doing a bit more brainstorming, the group works on the Plunderer situation. Barry has Wally come along, figuring that Wally can take down Plunderer and that is enough to change the future of this article. Wally has a bit of trouble at first, but Barry gives him a pep talk, and Wally takes him down. Barry, meanwhile, snags Plunderer’s fancy gun, and has Cisco take a look at it. It looks eerily similar to the one H.R. had in the future vision.
As the episode winds down, Iris and Barry have their housewarming party, and Barry decides to get a head start on unpacking, with his speedster self. Everyone shows up and they have a good time. Even Julian shows up, and Barry welcomes him officially to the team. Oh, and let’s not forget H.R.’s happy ending—Cisco pulled some magic with the local schools, drumming up interest in the museum, and got a pretty decent turn out.
His Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 10: Borrowing Problems from the Future
This episode as a whole was a bit bland to me. We had the typical villain of the week, followed up with some minor inter struggles of various characters—H.R. has his woes with STAR Labs, while Cisco keeps dragging him down. Caitlin is still on the edge of turning into Killer Frost, which for some reason entails the necessity of becoming evil; Barry has his nightmares, etc.
But the thing I found interesting about this episode was the whole future talk. I am curious to see how that all plays out. Will Barry be able to change the future? We have seen he can change the past, so you would think the future would be easier to change considering it hasn’t happened yet—at least not for Barry in the current timeline.
I also find it intriguing that we sort of have a basic roadmap of the future of the season—we can anticipate seeing Grodd in an episode, Killer Frost making an appearance, and STAR Labs museum shutting down. We will have to see how this all plays out. I am guessing that we might see more visions of the future, and more of Team Flash will wind up showing up in the vision, providing more resistance to Savitar, possibly enough to take him down hopefully?
Her Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 10: Borrowing Problems from the Future
First Joe doesn’t want Wally to play superhero, then he gets offended that Wally isn’t getting enough action. Make up your mind, Joe! Ha. Barry was kind of right, though. There is a lot more that Wally needs to learn about being a speedster before he can go off on his own. Barry seems to have the science background to know the nuances of chemical reactions and such, while Wally doesn’t have such a background. On the other hand, he should always have the Flash team in his ear, who does have a scientific background, monitoring him and advising him what to do, just as they’ve been doing with Barry. In any case, it looks like Kid Flash is now a full-fledged member of the speedster superhero team with Barry. I suppose it’s about time. But I’m glad they at least acknowledged that there was a learning curve. Even if Wally did get over it pretty quickly.
The conversation that H.R. and Barry had about whether the future is fixed or not was pretty interesting. Usually time travel shows and movies either adhere to one theory or the other – that the future is fixed and nothing you do will change it, or that the future can be changed. It turns out that H.R.’s theory about it being fixed was wrong. But then, we have pretty much already seen evidence of this throughout the show. I think as a whole, it’s more fun this way, to allow for changes. Otherwise, we’re just seeing how people’s actions cause things to happen that they were actually trying to prevent. I prefer to see how actions can instead change things. If not, then what’s the point of time travel? One thing Barry thinks he saw differently, though, was H.R. with a gun aimed at Savitar. I think it’s possible that Barry just didn’t notice this the first time around because he was too focused on what was happening to Iris. Plus, he also had an extra pair of eyes this time since Cisco could see what was happening. I’m surprised that this point didn’t come up, if only as a way to offer a possibility that the future was in fact fixed.
It was also kind of cool how we got a glimpse into some things that will happen this season – like the reappearance of Grodd. Or maybe these things won’t happen due to the Flash team changing things. Only time will tell…
Scenes from The Flash, Season 3 Episode 11: Dead or Alive
Preview of Season 3 Episode 10 of The Flash
I agree with your point that the future OBVIOUSLY isn’t fixed. I don’t even know why it’s a question.
We’ve seen Barry go back in time a dozen times and change one thing and it has a drastic affect on the future. Even if we aren’t consciously aware of what the future holds at this moment, that doesn’t means that every little action we make does in some way alter it. Otherwise the original timeline in this show would be the ONLY timeline, because nothing Barry does in the past (or as it relates to this episode, the present) would have any affect on the present (the future). But it does, so it should.
I hope that makes sense.