TV Show Review

TV Review: THE FLASH: Season 3, Episode 20: I Know Who You Are [The CW]

Grant Gustin Jesse L. Martin Danielle Panabaker I Know Who You Are The Flash

The Flash: I Know Who You Are Review

The CW’s The Flash: Season 3, Episode 20: ‘I Know Who You Are’ finally gave us some answers regarding the identity of Savitar after keeping it a secret for almost an entire season. The show had a lot of strong scenes, but the problem was that there was way too much filler to fill in the hour before the big reveal at the very end. We did get to spend more time with Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) after making her transformation into the villainous Killer Frost who has also partnered up with the evil speedster. Exposing the identity of Savitar should give the show a big push into the season finale after a string of some disappointing storyline from the beginning of the third season.

Caitlin proved herself to be a formidable villainess so far, making us wish that she were the Big Bad of this season instead of Savitar. Even after finding out who is underneath that armor, Caitlin’s betrayal of the team left a more emotional impact. Perhaps we will see Caitlin being just as important as taking down Savitar. Seeing her team up with Savitar was reminiscent to her Earth-2 counterpart working with Zoom last season. We had a feeling that someday, Caitlin would somehow lose control and embrace her dark side and we already love every minute of it. It will be interesting to see how much of a factor she will be in these final episodes and beyond.

We had some powerful moments leading into the big Savitar reveal, which had Caitlin fighting against her former friends. Caitlin really mastered her ice powers since the last time she used them, especially when she used it to create an ice slide to navigate the skies. Similar to the X-Men character Iceman, Caitlin manages to stay on point when she uses the ice slide, creating some amazing visuals. It does give her more creativity with her powers other than ice blasts or icicles.

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Even Caitlin and Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) friendship was on the line during the hour. These two had a very strong brother-sister type of relationship, so seeing them fight one another brought in a whole world of pain for Cisco. There’s also the possibility that Cisco may have no choice but to kill her, which makes it even worse. This is the perfect reason for Caitlin to become a big villain for the third season. There is so much material that can be used on her since Caitlin has been through so much. Both Daniele Panabaker and Carlos Valdes got to express so much emotion into their characters. There wasn’t enough tone in Panabaker’s performance as Killer Frost since her debut, but this week we got to sense a bit of Caitlin Snow beneath those cold blue eyes.

However, everything else that didn’t deal with Killer Frost wasn’t much to be excited about. Most of the material during the episode before the reveal acted as filler, although it was comical to see H.R. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) flirting with Tracy Brand (Anne Dudek). With this new development to the team dynamic, it often felt rushed that she would be brought into the team so soon. It’s pretty late to bring someone new to the team, so we have to question whether she really needed to be in the episode. Perhaps there would’ve been a better way to create a Speed Force prison for Savitar that didn’t involve bringing in another character.

Even the plot between Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) felt unnecessary. With all that’s going on with Team Flash, is Joe really concerned about his love life at this point? It also didn’t help that the writing had to exaggerate Joe’s conflict of whether to tell Cecile the whole truth or not. Most of the characters had to face a similar problem with keeping Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and the team a secret. Even Barry told Joe to speak the truth, so why was there a problem with that?

Having these two subplots proved that The Flash can be over reliable on adding the romantic drama with the seasonal storyline. The main relationship was between Barry and Iris (Candice Patton), so have Joe get out there put him in place. It was nice to see Joe and Cecile going into the next phase of their relationship, but the show is heavily focused on the their relationship that it has become is devastating choice for her.

With the Savitar reveal, it was surprising to say the least. It was anyone’s guess as to who Savitar is, but it didn’t seem like no one suspected Future Barry to be the Big Bad. There were some theories out there, but at least he didn’t turn out to be H.R. or Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) for that matter. The way that the big shocker and leading up to it was planned pretty well. Seeing all those flashbacks of Savitar and Barry offered some clues as to how Barry unraveled it. Having Barry as the villain does make him standout. Has he finally met his match? It will be interesting to see how Future Barry became who he is.

This week’s episode was a mixed bag, showing some big developments with our characters but failed to respond with us. The show went full-on with the damaged relationship between Caitlin and her former allies. The problem was that there was too much going on that we could care less about. There was just too much unnecessary drama leading up to the big reveal. This does leave the doors open for a new team, but they do have to let someone leave first. The big reveal with Savitar should keep us preoccupied before the season three filnale.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of The Flash in the comments section below. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Readers seeking more The Flash can visit our The Flash Page. FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Mufsin Mahbub

**Fired from FilmBook for Plagiarism** Mufsin is a freelance writer from New York who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at Long Island University. He has written for publications like HollywoodLife, Clubplanet, and Heavy. He is an avid lover for everything related to TV and film. He has gone to dozens of film screenings, press events, and loves to attend New York Comic Con every year. He gives an honest opinion on every TV show or film that people are going to be talking about.
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