‘The Flash’ Season 3 Spoilers: Who Is That New Villain?


There’s no shortage of secrets that Barry and Co. are hiding from each other, which also means there’s no end to the number of The Flash spoilers around. Consider the last episode. Episode 6 of The Flash introduced a new villain in the last five minutes, one that took Team Flash completely by surprise.

We saw a glimpse of him in the ending moments of Episode 2 as The Rival was dispatched by who we thought was Dr. Alchemy. However, compare the screenshots of the gauntlet that grabs him then and Barry at the end of Episode 6, and it’s apparent that they are the same villain.

The Rival is grabbed by a mystery villain in Episode 2 (left) which is revealed to be Savitar in Episode 6 (right) [Image by The CW]

The new villain is called Savitar, a classic villain for Flash who first appeared in the comics way back in 1995 in Flash Vol. 2 #108. Savitar took his name from the Hindu god Savitr, a god of motion and stillness. While the television version of Savitar has yet to reveal his origin, in the comics, he was a Cold War pilot whose supersonic jet was struck by lightning. As with most people in the Flash universe, getting struck by lightning doesn’t kill you or give you really amazing scars, it connects you to the Speed Force.

What Can He Do?

Savitar’s set of powers is a little different than Barry’s. First, he can drain the speed from other people and objects. That means he doesn’t have to catch bullets like Barry does, he can actually absorb the bullet’s speed. He can also use this ability on other speedsters, so look for that to become a major threat to Flash and Co. later this season.

Savitar can also wrap himself in an inertial barrier as an extension of his speed-stealing power. This barrier acts as a force field and explains why he doesn’t wear a suit in the comics. His ominous armor in the television series makes us wonder if the writers decided that was a bit too much for even The Flash to take on.

Savitar as seen in the final moments of The Flash [Image by The CW]

Another facet of Savitar’s speed stealing ability is that he can impart speed and energy to anything as well. This means that he could give a book speed and send it flying across the room, or even impart speed to a person and send them careening down the hallway. Finally, Savitar has learned how to use the Speed Force to heal himself instantly, not just relying on the super-fast healing that The Flash and other speedsters do.

How is Savitar Different?

It’s Savitar’s ability to give others speed that makes him possibly the most dangerous villain that Barry has faced yet, surpassing even Reverse Flash and Zoom. In the comics, he has a cult of henchmen who follow his every lead, simply because he can make them super fast. We’ve already seen them, but we thought they belonged to Dr. Alchemy. Now that we know that he and Savitar are working in cahoots, it’s easy to see how dangerous having an army of super-fast ninjas will make life for Barry and his friends.

What’s to Come in The Flash (Spoilers)

Of course, this is just speculation, but the chances are that Barry isn’t going to be able to take down Savitar on his own. We’ve already seen the advent of the nascent speedsters Jesse Quick and Kid Flash on the show, but given their relative inexperience, they could be more of a hindrance than a help. In the comics, Savitar was only defeated with the help of a group of speedsters that included Barry, Impulse, Jesse, Wally, and Max Mercury among others. We’d expect to see Jay back as his version of the Flash to help the team out. In the end, Savitar was temporarily defeated by being pushed into the Speed Force by Wally, but emerged later, more powerful than ever. It wasn’t until Barry Allen became the Black Flash that Savitar was defeated for good; once Barry touched Savitar, he drained Savitar completely and turned him to ash.

[Image by The CW]

While we’ve seen glimpses of the dark side of the Speed Force in Season 2 as the Time Wraiths, it wasn’t until the season finale that we actually saw a Black Flash, as the wraiths drained Zoom of his energy. So, will Black Flash make another appearance at the end of this season, setting up one of The Flash’s greatest enemies ever?

[Featured Image by The CW]

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