“Magenta” is episode three of season three of The Flash.
In the previous episode, “Paradox”, Jay Garrick – the real one – stopped Barry from attempting to change the timeline yet again. Jay told Barry that he would never be able to set things back the way they were; every time he tried there would be something different. So Barry told everyone what he did. They decided that they didn’t want to know what the alternate versions of them were like. Barry told Caitlin she was the only person who didn’t seem to have changed. However, Caitlin looks as if she’s developing powers and hasn’t told anyone. Killer Frost’s powers at that. Hopefully Caitlin won’t get her frosty disposition as well. It was also discovered that someone called Alchemy was restoring the powers to those who had them in the alternate timeline but not in this.
Barry is in his lab, looking at the clock and waiting for it to strike seven. Julian is there as well, Julian doesn’t trust Barry and he doesn’t like what he doesn’t trust. Julian thinks he can see beneath Barry’s good-guy mask that has everyone fooled. Only it’s not a mask. What happened in the past that Barry hasn’t experienced to make Julian so distrustful, if anything? When Barry starts to leave, Julian asks where he is going. Barry has a date. Julian tells Barry that he can’t leave. He might not be Barry’s boss but he is the senior lab tech and it’s not yet seven. And the shift ends at seven, not 6:58. Or 6:59. It turns seven and Barry leaves.
Barry buys some flowers on the way and when Iris comes out he’s arranged them into a heart. Which Barry second guesses and then changes the flowers to spell Iris. Iris tells him that she wants a date with Barry tonight, not the Flash. Barry takes her to a restaurant, an expensive one too by the sounds of it. There are awkward silences and then discussions about work. The date is not going well – although Iris says she’s yawning because she’s tired. Then they hear an alarm. There’s a robbery across the street. So Iris tells Barry to go. He does, and is back in a flash. Then both their phones go. Cisco needs them.
At S.T.A.R. Labs Joe is holding a gun at something. Barry asks why they opened a breach. Cisco says they didn’t. That’s why they called them. Iris asks if they can close it. Again, no, if they could have closed it they wouldn’t have called Barry and Iris. Wally says that someone is coming through and Dr Wells from Earth-2 arrives. Wells says that he needs their help. Joe asks with what and a yellow blur zooms around the breach before stopping and revealing it’s Jesse. That’s what. Jesse is a speedster.
She’s been so for a few days. Both Jesse and Wally were hit with dark matter in “Rupture” when Barry was being given his speed back. Jesse has been affected. Wally has not. Clearly Wally is disappointed. He asks if it could have been from something else and Wells says probably not. Dark matter affects different people in different ways and some are not affected at all. Wells wants to run tests on his daughter to see how much she has been affected. Caitlin tells him he’s come to the right place and they should head to the speed lab.
Barry has never been in the speed lab before. Or even heard of it. Wells realises that Barry has travelled back in time again. Iris says he figured that out pretty quickly; Wells tells her it was easy. As neither he nor Jesse have been in the speed lab before either. Different Earth, different timelines. Barry says that only a couple of things are different. Wells does not agree. He has started saying ‘not’ to things like that. Wally is definitely jealous that Jesse has speed and he does not. Joe is happy about this but Barry tells him to watch out. Joe asks if it’s about the other timeline. It is, but Barry doesn’t explain – in that timeline Wally was a speedster.
A woman and a girl are sitting on a couch when a man arrives home and demands dinner. His wife tells the man, John, that it’s almost ready and runs off. John starts complaining that he works hard to provide for his family and he comes home to an empty table. So, he’s one of those. The girl, Frankie, says it will be just five more minutes. John yells that he’s hungry now and tells Frankie to speak when she’s spoken to. He saved her from the orphanage and he provides for her every day. John is already proving to be a really unpleasant individual. He walks over to the window and Frankie’s eyes glow. She says that Frankie is gone and John is thrown across the room. By a lamppost that has just crashed through the window.
The next day, Barry bumps into Iris at the precinct. She was trying to get some information on the man who was attacked by a lamppost last night. They then discuss there not that great first date. They both agree it was boring; Barry thinks he’s boring without his powers. He suggests that it may be a sign. Iris disagrees. Vehemently. Barry wants to try again as soon as possible but, with everything going on at the moment.
Joe is interviewing Frankie who doesn’t remember anything that happened. She doesn’t, as she blacked out, and that’s not the first time either. John isn’t dead but he’s in hospital pretty banged up. No great loss if he was dead frankly. Joe goes over to Barry who explains that the lamppost was bent with a lot of force. Might be superstrength. Julian says that there were no fingerprints on the post and the amount of pressure was equally applied all over the post. Joe explains the blackouts; Barry says it’s a common coping mechanism with a lot of foster kids. Julian thinks it could be something else and gets Frankie’s glass.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs Caitlin tells Jesse she has some serious speed. Wells wants more tests. Any tests. He’s clearly in dad mode, not scientist mode. When Jesse leaves, Cisco asks Wells what he’s doing. The reply is being thorough. Caitlin thinks it seems like stalling. Wells admits he is. They want to know why. Wells explains, seeing as neither are parents. He and Jesse spent months on this Earth, watching Barry defeat meta after meta and then Zoom himself. Jesse wants to be a hero just like Barry. Her father doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He asks Cisco, as a meta, to talk her out of it. Being a meta makes Cisco think he is the last person to try. So Wells asks Caitlin. Not being a meta – and she’s definitely not she says – makes her the last person to try.
Julian is taking a DNA sample from Frankie’s glass. He tells Barry that he has identified an element in all five husks found, including Edward Claris. Julian doesn’t know what the element is but it’s not in any of the other metas. Julian thought Frankie might have the same element in her DNA – and she does. So Julian heads to confront Frankie as she is leaving and starts yelling at her that she did it. This may not be the world’s brightest approach. Julian accuses Frankie of hurting John and she changes again. Frankie tells Julian that she wants to do more than hurt John, and do the same to Julian. Frankie appears to have power over metal and would have killed Julian if not for Barry, as the Flash.
Outside, Frankie says she’s Magenta, not Frankie. And she recognises the name Alchemy. Barry has to save a police officer rather than catch Magenta. Back at the labs, it seems that Frankie has had a problem with being dissociative her entire life. And, presumably, she had powers in the other timeline. Wells has not heard of Alchemy; Barry explains. It’s yet another side-effect of his temporal tampering.
Magenta wants the Frankie side of her personality gone. And she’s harbouring a serious, and justified, hate-on for John. Jesse really wants to be a hero and her father is being a bit over-protective as a result. Wells and Barry have a talk; Wells says that he has always been too quick to forgive his own mistakes and Barry too slow to forgive Barry’s. It may help. A bigger potential problem is Wally. He really wants powers and does something a little foolish to try and get them. Then there’s Alchemy, who is giving powers back to people who had them in the other timeline. Which includes Wally.