Warning: major spoilers ahead for the penultimate episode of The Flash Season 3, "Infantino Street."
The second half of The Flash Season 3 has been pretty intense as Barry and Team Flash have tried to figure out ways to prevent the future in which Savitar murders Iris from ever happening. Unfortunately, they were sidetracked by giant gorillas and Killer Frost and a zany amnesia adventure, and they finally ran out of time by the end of "Infantino Street." Barry, armed with a handy dandy speed force bazooka and surrounded by allies, arrived for his showdown with Savitar feeling pretty confident. As it turns out, that confidence was very, very, very misplaced, as the episode ended with the terrible future coming to pass. Yes, Savitar murdered Iris in one of the most tragic cliffhangers ever to occur on The Flash.
For most of "Infantino Street," Team Flash was doing relatively well, all things considered. Iris was stashed away with Joe, Wally, and the most competent version of Harrison Wells on Earth-2, Barry and Captain Cold were retrieving the energy source that would power the speed force bazooka, and Cisco was keeping everybody straight from Star Labs. H.R. was... also there. Unfortunately, Team Flash failed to remember two things: Savitar can pull off a killer Barry impression, and telling Barry things is pretty much the same as telling Savitar things. H.R. spilled the beans about Iris hiding on Earth-2, and so Savitar yanked her from safety there and took her to that fateful place where he intended to kill her.
Of course, Tracy had finished the speed force bazooka, so there still wasn't too great a reason to panic. Barry showed up and channeled his inner Ghostbuster to unleash the bazooka on Savitar, and it really seemed to be working... until it very suddenly wasn't. Using a piece of calcified speed force energy -- which is apparently a thing -- Savitar spared himself the effects of the bazooka and impaled Iris, just as we'd seen back in the midseason finale. Despite the best efforts of the Scarlet Speedster, Kid Flash, a seasoned detective, and a brain trust, Savitar managed to kill one of their own. If The Flash intends to go through with Iris' death, then this was arguably the boldest story move that the show has ever made and we'll have to spend hiatus mourning poor Iris, who died because of somebody else's decisions.
Given that Season 3 has been filled with instances of Barry totally going back on his vow to stop meddling with time, however, my money is on Iris miraculously coming back to life due to a time travel twist or a multiversal switcheroo. For me, this cliffhanger would have totally reduced me to tears if The Flash hadn't gone back to mess with time over and over again. This was a solid way to end a penultimate episode and raise the stakes for the finale; I'll just be pretty astonished if next week's finale ends with Iris still dead.
That said, the promo for the Season 3 finale sure makes it seem like Iris is gone for good. Check it out!
The one thing I think we can be sure of is that next week's episode is not to be missed. Tune in to The CW on Tuesday, May 23 at 8 p.m. ET to catch the season finale of The Flash. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well. Our TV season finale schedule can give you all you need to know about your shows ending.
