Did Savitar kill Iris? 'The Flash' season 3, episode 22 reveals the answer.

Culture

For months, The Flash has been teasing and building up to Iris West’s death at the hands of Savitar. In episode 22, “Infantino Street,” time finally caught up with Team Flash. The moment we’ve all been waiting for finally arrived. After all the effort Barry and company put in to changing the future and saving Iris, did it work? 

[Editor's note: This post contains spoilers on The Flash season three, episode 22.]

Dea Buscher/The CW

Iris West is dead

At the end of episode 21, things were looking up for Team Flash and their mission to save Iris. Tracy Brand successfully built the Speed Force Bazooka to trap Savitar — all they needed was an energy source strong enough to power it. Then in the first half of Tuesday’s episode, Barry, with the help of Captain Cold, is able to secure such an energy source. The team also has the idea to hide Iris on Earth-2. Everything is going according to plan.

Unfortunately, Savitar is one step ahead of them again. He disguises himself as Barry to trick H.R. into revealing Iris’ hiding spot. He goes to get Iris and brings her to Infantino Street — the location of her execution. 

Barry shows up with the Speed Force Bazooka, and at first it seems to be working. Barry is able to shoot the speed force energy at Savitar — but Savitar has accounted for this. He knew ahead of time how to stop the Speed Force Bazooka and in an ironic twist, he absorbs its energy into a ball: the Philosopher’s Stone! The stone is made from calcified speed force energy, meaning Barry was the one who gave it to Savitar in the first place.

Savitar then carries out his mission and stabs Iris in the back. Barry runs but is too slow to stop him. The future has arrived and Iris West is dead. To add to the tragedy, as all that is happening, we see the video message Iris recorded for Barry. In it she delivered her wedding vows. 

But wait, is Iris dead?

Savitar definitely killed Iris. It happened. But this isn’t the season finale. “Infantino Street” is the penultimate episode, meaning next week Team Flash might try to bring Iris back. And as we saw with Captain Cold tonight, people tend not to stay dead in The CW’s DC universe.

Mic has ongoing coverage of The Flash. Check out our main Flash page here.