Recaps

Cisco and Caitlin watched surveillance footage as Savitar revealed that he was a surviving Time Remnant Barry, created by a time loop and rejected by Barry’s friends. Savitar explained that He-El’s presence had changed the loop, leaving this version of Savitar with memories from two timelines and making him the first.

• Caitlin and Cisco tracked Savitar and Barry to the eastern outskirts, where Cisco accessed a live surveillance feed.
• Cisco used his lip-reading program to hear Savitar reveal that he was a Time Remnant Barry who had survived a future battle against Savitar.
• Savitar said Barry’s friends had shunned him, driving him to become a god and return to the past as Savitar.
• Savitar revealed that He-El had been waiting for him and that the Speed Force techniques He-El taught Barry were meant for him.
• Cisco realized Savitar’s origins formed a repeating loop, but He-El’s presence gave Savitar memories of two timelines and made him the first.

Barry confronted the Time Remnant, who revealed He-El’s role in creating the timeline and explained that he intended to make Barry suffer and become the next Savitar. After Savitar escaped, Barry was left searching a dark, empty road.

• Barry accused the Time Remnant of killing Iris and threatened to kill himself, but the Time Remnant explained how time travel and He-El’s timeline made that irrelevant.
• The Time Remnant said he planned to kill Iris at the timeline’s predetermined future point so Barry would experience his despair and become the next Savitar.
• Savitar threw Iris toward the ground, and Barry caught her before she hit the road.
• Barry pursued Savitar and hurled a disc of condensed yellow lightning at him.
• Savitar countered with a silver lightning disc that blasted Barry away, then vanished.

Barry brought the unconscious Iris to STAR Labs, where Caitlin confirmed she would recover. As Barry prepared to confront He-El over Savitar’s accusations, Caitlin and Cisco reminded him that their own treatment of the Time Remnant had helped create Savitar, and Cisco offered to face He-El with him.

• Barry carried Iris to STAR Labs, where Caitlin examined her and said she had only fainted from suffocation.
• Barry kissed Iris’s forehead and headed out in anger, but Cisco blocked the doorway and urged him to calm down.
• Barry accused He-El of deceiving them and letting Savitar try to kill Iris.
• Caitlin challenged Barry, saying their rejection of the Time Remnant had helped turn him into Savitar.
• Cisco reminded Barry that Savitar’s claims could not be trusted completely and offered to confront He-El with him.

Barry and Cisco Ramon found Grodd in He-El’s laboratory after He-El vanished during a Speed Force experiment. Barry refused Grodd’s request to retrieve his father, leaving Grodd furious and convinced Barry had no conscience.

• Barry and Cisco Ramon searched STAR Labs and found Grodd on the fifteenth floor, anxiously checking the experiment data after He-El disappeared.
• Barry recognized the Speed Force equipment and confronted Grodd, who explained that he and He-El had conducted an experiment that caused his father to vanish.
• Grodd asked Barry to use the recorded Speed Force frequency to find He-El and bring him back.
• Barry refused, explaining that He-El had deceived them and that the Speed Force World had imprisoned him for damaging timelines.
• Grodd glared at Barry and accused him of refusing to help save his father despite all the times He-El had helped Barry.

Grodd attacked Barry after Barry refused to save He-El, whom Grodd called his father. Grodd subdued Barry and prepared to use him to open a link through the Speed Force apparatus, but He-El suddenly appeared.

• Cisco Ramon tried to calm Grodd, but Barry insisted that He-El deserved to remain imprisoned in the Speed Force.
• Grodd furiously defended He-El and attacked Barry, whose lightning failed to penetrate Grodd’s psychic force field.
• Grodd condemned Barry and listed the times He-El had helped him, while Barry prepared another attack.
• Cisco Ramon opened a vibrational passage that redirected Barry’s lightning into his back, allowing Grodd to catch the unconscious Barry and control Cisco.
• Grodd carried Barry toward the Speed Force apparatus to force a link that could bring He-El back.
• A hand landed on Grodd’s shoulder, and Grodd turned joyfully to greet He-El.

Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin confirmed that Grodd and He-El had left, then studied Savitar’s timeline and considered how to stop him. They decided Barry would travel back and recruit Reverse-Flash, leaving the team with a plan to confront Savitar together.

• Caitlin found Barry and Cisco unconscious in He-El’s laboratory, and they told her that Grodd had attacked them.
• The team searched He-El’s rooms and confirmed that Grodd had taken things and that he and He-El had left.
• After Barry and Cisco recovered and Iris woke, Cisco drew the timelines and the team reviewed what they had learned from Savitar.
• Barry admitted he could not defeat Savitar alone, and Cisco explained why Savitar’s knowledge of the previous timeline made tricks against him unreliable.
• Barry proposed recruiting Reverse-Flash, and the team agreed that he should travel back to before Reverse-Flash’s death and ask him to join forces against Savitar.

Barry traveled through time seeking Dr. Wells’s help against Savitar, but landed in a timeline where He-El did not exist. After hearing Barry’s account of the two timelines, Dr. Wells accepted a Speed Force transfer and traveled with him back to He-El’s timeline, where Reverse-Flash gained that timeline’s memories.

• Barry ran through a temporal tunnel and encountered an earlier version of himself wearing his old suit.
• Barry arrived in the Time Vault and discovered that Dr. Wells had never heard of He-El, then searched STAR Labs and confirmed He-El was absent from this timeline.
• Barry explained Savitar and He-El’s role in creating two timelines, and Dr. Wells realized Barry could cross between them.
• Barry transferred Speed Force into Reverse-Flash’s suit, giving Dr. Wells enough power to travel with him.
• Barry and Reverse-Flash returned to He-El’s timeline, where Reverse-Flash absorbed its memories and remarked that the situation was interesting.

Savitar arrived at STAR Labs to kill Iris, while Barry and his allies prepared to stop him. Reverse-Flash revealed that he had opened Iris’s metahuman prison and intended to reclaim what he believed was his.

• Grodd asked He-El whether Barry could have prevented the tragedy by having stronger will, and He-El warned that speedsters lost themselves trying to change the past.
• Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, and Reverse-Flash prepared for Savitar’s arrival at STAR Labs while Iris remained locked in Cisco’s metahuman prison.
• Savitar raced into the control room, and Cisco alerted Barry as Caitlin transformed into Killer Frost.
• Savitar confronted Reverse-Flash and said he would deal with Iris before their battle.
• Reverse-Flash opened his cowl, claimed the prison door was already open, and declared that he would take back what belonged to him.

Reverse-Flash betrayed Barry and helped Savitar capture Iris, leaving Barry unable to stop Savitar from killing her. Cisco Ramon and Killer Frost reached the plaza as Barry watched Iris die.

• Reverse-Flash revealed that he wanted to serve He-El and declared Barry worthless.
• Savitar raced past Barry, seized Iris by the throat, and escaped the control hall with Reverse-Flash following.
• Barry chased Savitar and Reverse-Flash while Killer Frost and Cisco Ramon opened a spatial passage to the plaza.
• Killer Frost and Cisco Ramon saw the plaza’s familiar headlines and found Savitar holding Iris.
• Savitar told Barry to hate him, then stabbed Iris through the chest as she told Barry she loved him.

He-El tried to persuade Reverse-Flash and Savitar to stop fighting and leave the world with him, but Reverse-Flash insisted on proving himself against Savitar. After Savitar killed Iris, Barry unleashed a swarm of Time Remnants against him.

• Reverse-Flash reunited with He-El on a rooftop and looked down at Savitar holding Iris in the plaza.
• He-El offered to take both speedsters with him and urged them to end their feud.
• Reverse-Flash rejected He-El’s advice and ran down to the plaza to challenge Savitar.
• Savitar stabbed Iris and threw her body to Barry, who caught her and grieved.
• Barry charged at Savitar, summoning Time Remnants to attack him.

He-El realized that the timeline had become one where Iris died, while Savitar devastated Barry and his Time Remnants. Savitar scarred Barry’s face before leaving to battle Reverse-Flash across Central City.

• He-El recognized that the events had branched into the timeline where Iris died and a despairing Barry would eventually seal Savitar in the Speed Force.
• Savitar slaughtered Barry’s Time Remnants with silver claw-blades and a Speed Force tornado, leaving Barry and one Remnant alive.
• Savitar killed the remaining Time Remnant and burned the right side of Barry’s face to give him matching scars.
• Savitar told Reverse-Flash that he would place him beneath He-El, then raced after him as their red and silver lightning clashed across Central City.

Reverse-Flash and Savitar fought across Central City while Barry mourned Iris and confronted He-El’s betrayal. He-El left with Grodd, Savitar, and Reverse-Flash, and Barry used the last of his Speed Force to try to change the past again.

• Reverse-Flash and Savitar raced through Central City, fought between twin towers, and Savitar used Time Afterimages to attack Reverse-Flash.
• Barry clutched Iris’s body as He-El descended into the square and Savitar returned dragging the defeated Reverse-Flash.
• Barry asked He-El why he had betrayed them, and He-El said Barry’s grief and repeated attempts to change the past had followed from gaining the Speed Force.
• He-El opened a Traversal Vortex and left with Grodd, Savitar, and Reverse-Flash.
• Barry kissed Iris’s forehead, laid her body down, and spent his remaining Speed Force to open a time-traveling wormhole.

Barry crossed the Speed Force and became a Time Remnant in a timeline where Savitar was defeated, but the people he remembered rejected him and left him isolated. After Iris drove him from the home he shared with his own Iris in his memories, he ran through a temporal wormhole into ancient times and became Savitar.

• Barry relived a timeline in which Savitar killed his Time Remnants before the other Barry sealed him inside the Speed Force.
• The scarred Time Remnant Barry arrived at STAR Labs, where the team arranged for him to stay and then increasingly avoided him.
• Caitlin privately researched ways to heal the Time Remnant's scars, while Barry, Iris, Joe, Cisco Ramon, and Wally kept their distance.
• The Time Remnant tried and failed to travel back to his own timeline, then sought comfort in the home he remembered sharing with Iris.
• Iris mistook the Time Remnant for a monster and drove him out of the house, prompting him to run through a temporal wormhole and become Savitar.

The Father of New Genesis weighed the Guardians of the Universe’s plan to attack New Krypton against He-El’s offer to join forces against Darkseid. He remained undecided, leaving Alex and Ganthet waiting for his choice.

• Guardian Alex urged Izaya to send New Genesis troops against He-El, while Ganthet asked what was making him hesitate.
• The Father considered He-El’s promise that he would kill Darkseid and give Izaya hope of escaping the original body’s control.
• The Father reflected that the Guardians of the Universe could at best seal Darkseid, while He-El might be able to destroy him.
• After weighing the choices, the Father looked toward Alex and Ganthet.

Zeus assembled the Olympian gods and led them toward New Krypton’s territory, where their arrival frightened the people at the New Krypton Magic Academy. As Zeus prepared to destroy New Krypton’s Magic Orb, Athena appeared to block the gods, and Zeus ordered her to return to them.

• Zeus summoned the Olympian gods, and Hera joined him on his Golden Thunder Chariot as their incarnations returned to Olympus.
• Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Demeter, Dionysus, and Hermes gathered beside Zeus and prepared to advance.
• Zeus led the gods toward New Krypton, and Hades joined them near the Sea of Death in his familiar form of Bleach.
• The gods reached New Krypton’s territory, alarming everyone at the Magic Academy with the pressure of their divine power.
• Zeus prepared to destroy New Krypton’s Magic Orb, but Athena appeared before the gods, and he commanded her to return to them.

The Father agreed to help the Guardians of the Universe attack He-El, but warned that their trap for Darkseid on Oa Star would fail. He demanded Doomsday’s flesh and blood so New Genesis could fight Darkseid afterward, leaving Ganthet to consult the Green Lantern Corps.

• Alex told The Father that the Olympian Pantheon had begun attacking New Krypton and that the Guardians planned to use the war to eliminate He-El.
• The Father doubted the Guardians could defeat Darkseid and explained that He-El’s ability to stand against him offered New Genesis hope.
• The Father warned Ganthet and Alex that Darkseid knew about their trap on Oa Star and that his Omega Beams would overwhelm it.
• The Father offered to help deal with He-El if the Guardians gave him Doomsday’s flesh and blood for the fight against Darkseid.
• Alex refused, but Ganthet took The Father’s warning seriously and said he would contact the Green Lantern Corps.

The Guardians of the Universe debated the danger of Darkseid’s planned attack on Oa Star and agreed to send Doomsday’s flesh and blood to New Genesis as insurance. At the New Krypton Magic Academy, Athena declared her loyalty to New Krypton and Zeus attacked her, but a mysterious hand caught his thunderbolt.

• Scarface warned the Guardians that Darkseid’s decision to attack Oa Star despite seeing through their trap meant he was confident of victory.
• The Guardians voted to send Doomsday’s flesh and blood to New Genesis so The Father could prepare to oppose Darkseid if Oa Star fell.
• Zeus demanded that Athena return to the Olympian ranks as the Twelve Olympians gathered over the New Krypton Magic Academy.
• Athena declared herself a citizen and goddess of New Krypton, its Legion Commander, and He-El’s future wife.
• Zeus hurled a colossal thunderbolt at Athena, but a hand crackling with dark lightning seized it and challenged him for attacking one of its own.

He-El confronted Zeus and the Twelve Olympians after Athena declared she had found hope and would oppose Olympus for New Krypton. He-El struck Zeus into a vast crater, then faced the remaining eleven gods as they attacked.

• He-El appeared before the Magic Academy students and stationed army, shielding them from the Olympians' pressure.
• Zeus challenged Athena for betraying the Olympian Pantheon, and Athena said she had found her hope.
• Hades and the other Olympians reacted with envy, disbelief, pity, and scorn toward Athena's choice.
• Zeus sentenced Athena to death, but He-El rushed in and smashed Zeus out of the sky, sending him into a crater more than fifty kilometers wide.
• He-El declared that Athena was his, and the eleven remaining main gods attacked him.

He-El overwhelmed the Olympian gods by briefly sending each attacker into the world of The Three-Body Problem, leaving them stunned and unable to fight. Zeus remained furious and ordered the gods to kill He-El, who sat on an iron throne and challenged them to feel what he had done.

• He-El sent Hera flying with Heat Vision after his Traversal Vortex stunned her, and Athena retreated to watch the battle.
• He-El struck Apollo, froze Poseidon inside a block of ice, and slapped Ares and his chariot away after briefly pulling each god into another world.
• He-El evaded Artemis's arrows and Hephaestus's hammer, then stopped Artemis, Demeter, Hermes, Dionysus, and Aphrodite from continuing their attacks.
• The Olympian gods who had faced He-El remained too stunned to attack again, while Zeus and Hades were the only principal gods he had not pulled into the other world.
• Zeus erupted from the ground and ordered the Olympian gods to kill He-El, who formed an iron throne from his cape and asked, “Do you feel it, gods?”

Zeus ordered the Olympian Gods to kill He-El, but the gods who had briefly experienced independent existence returned to Zeus’s side yearning for that freedom. Their response made Zeus realize that something was wrong with the gods.

• Zeus rose from the crater and commanded the Olympian Gods to attack He-El.
• Hera, Apollo, and Artemis recalled the sensation of existing as independent intelligent life-forms and flew back toward Zeus with renewed determination.
• Poseidon broke free from his ice prison and headed toward He-El, longing to regain the feeling of freedom.
• Ares rose from his wrecked chariot and joined the other gods, asking Athena whether their experience was real.
• The gods looked to Athena and understood why she had betrayed the Olympian Pantheon, while Zeus sensed their loyalty had changed.

Zeus assembled the Olympian gods, New Genesis fighters, and Guardians of the Universe to kill He-El, but the gods refused to obey him. Hera asked He-El how they could follow Athena’s path, and He-El ordered Zeus killed.

• Zeus ordered the Olympian gods to attack He-El, but a Boom Tube opened and brought The Father of New Genesis, seven fighters, and two Guardians of the Universe as reinforcements.
• Zeus condemned He-El and Athena to death and commanded the assembled forces to execute them, but the Olympian gods hesitated.
• Hera blocked the Guardians of the Universe and postponed the attack, declaring that the Olympian Pantheon needed to settle its internal matters.
• The Father restrained the Guardians of the Universe while Hera bowed to He-El and asked what price the gods must pay to pursue hope as Athena had.
• Zeus accused Hera and the other gods of betrayal, and He-El calmly ordered them to kill Zeus.

The Father confronted Ganthet over the Guardians of the Universe’s failures and revealed that a Guardian had helped He-El obtain Doomsday’s flesh and blood. Alex identified Scarface as the suspected traitor, and Ganthet pleaded to be released because Oa Star could not be allowed to fall, but The Father left their fate to He-El.

• Ganthet demanded to know why The Father had turned against the Guardians, and The Father accused them of letting Darkseid grow stronger by refusing to destroy Apokolips.
• The Father argued that the Guardians’ efforts to preserve peace would leave the universe vulnerable, then revealed that a Guardian of the Universe was cooperating with Darkseid.
• Alex deduced that Scarface had persuaded the Central Council to give He-El Doomsday’s flesh and blood, and Ganthet realized He-El had received it to help fight Darkseid.
• The Father decided that He-El was New Genesis’s only hope and resolved to support him, while Ganthet feared what Darkseid’s assault on Oa Star would unleash.
• Ganthet asked The Father to release them and spare Oa Star, but The Father said He-El would judge them, and Ganthet looked toward him.

He-El ordered the Olympian gods to kill Zeus after showing them the possibility of becoming independent beings. Hera and the others attacked Zeus, leaving him battered beneath their combined assault.

• He-El ordered the Olympian gods to kill Zeus, and Hades left Zeus's side to join the encirclement.
• Hera declared that she would kill Zeus for the chance to become her own person, then led the attack.
• Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Artemis, and Aphrodite joined the assault, each rejecting the memories and family bonds implanted by the original body.
• Zeus fought back and blasted away several gods, but the Olympians overwhelmed him with lightning, magic, flames, and arrows.
• The gods' combined attacks badly wounded Zeus, whose anguished cries rang through the void.

He-El watched the Olympian Gods defeat Zeus and submit to him, while Zeus warned that they would betray He-El too. As The Father brought him Doomsday's flesh, He-El realized that his body and Doomsday’s might have been destined to meet and merge.

• Apollo held the defeated Zeus aloft before He-El and said the gods would need centuries to erase his body and soul.
• Zeus condemned the Olympian Gods for betraying him, but Ares, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Hera defended their choice to follow He-El and seek independence.
• Apollo punched Zeus as He-El watched the Olympian Gods submit to him.
• He-El recognized that his body’s many superpowers and Doomsday’s adaptive physique could be complementary parts of a greater whole.
• The Father approached He-El carrying Doomsday’s flesh sealed in a transparent sphere, with two Guardians of the Universe behind him.

The Father of New Genesis offered He-El Doomsday’s flesh and secured his cooperation against Darkseid. When the captured Guardians of the Universe demanded to return to Oa Star, He-El required them to surrender their advanced Emotional Spectrum information, and Alex and Ganthet handed over their unrestricted Green Lantern Rings.

• The Father gave He-El Doomsday’s sealed flesh and agreed to cooperate against Darkseid.
• Ganthet accused He-El of conspiring with Darkseid and begged him to release the Guardians so they could defend Oa Star.
• He-El refused to let the Guardians leave without a price, saying he would otherwise let Darkseid destroy Oa Star before he killed him.
• He-El demanded all information on the Emotional Spectrum, and Ganthet rejected the demand as the foundation of the Green Lantern Corps.
• Alex removed the restrictions on his Green Lantern Ring and gave it to He-El, explaining that Oa Star held a threat capable of destroying the universe.
• Convinced by Alex’s reasoning, Ganthet also removed the restrictions on his ring and handed it to He-El.