This season of The Flash has delved into Kid Flash and his powers, and in “Untouchable,†we get to see the same trials and tribulations in which Barry went through earlier. Untouchable may not be the best episode this season, but it does provide some nice story bits and much needed depth for various characters across Central City.
Kid Flash, while having the potential to be faster than Barry, still has a lot of learning to do. In this episode, the main focus is the ability to phase through objects. Hilariously, he pretty much follows the same path Barry did, and we see him running into a wall multiple times. But where Barry’s learning was enhanced by having a strong protege in Harrison Wells, Wally doesn’t have that same figure in his life; that is, until Barry realizes that he needs to step into that role.
While it is a bit of a retelling of sorts, I love the fact that Barry has to, in a way, take a step aside for Wally since he will be the one who is fast enough to save Iris. Barry’s role has certainly changed, but it has yet to diminish. He is still the glue that holds the team together, and he provided us with one of his biggest feats to date.
The villain of the week is Clive Yorkin; a villain who was created by Julian (when he was being controlled into becoming Alchemy) and has the ability to disintegrate anything that he touches. The villain was definitely unique, and could have seemingly been used for a multi-episode arc, especially considering we didn’t get all that much information about him. But the little information that we did learn of him was great. When he causes debris to block their train, Barry vibrates so rapidly that he is able to phase shift the entire train car through the blockage. Wally was also able to phase a drop of his blood into Clyde, which rendered his power useless.
Cisco is actually able to vibe into Flashpoint which provides a nice reminder that Flashpoint is actually a thing and that it does play into the overall story arc of this season. Seeing Cisco vibe into Flashpoint adds some layers to his ever-developing powers that should be able to provide some interesting concepts moving forward.
The villain was a little bit underdeveloped, but Iris’s supposed future finally being revealed to Joe was by far the best scene of the episode. The heartbreak that reverberated through the rest of the episode was intense. SInce he is really like a father figure to half of the show, the emotion in his eyes shows the pain in which he felt that they all believed it was best NOT to tell him. Joe is one of the best characters in the show, since he has and continues to deal with so much while being “just human.â€
The other aspect of this episode I really enjoyed was what they did with Julian’s character. While he is still struggling with getting over the fact that he turned a lot of these people into metas, he is finally becoming part of the team, albeit quite slowly. In this episode, he is the rock that Caitlin needs while she is using her powers to stabilize the disease that was killing Iris. It does a great job of finally normalizing the character to actually become a contributing part of the STAR Labs team.