Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't seen the latest episode of The Flash.
Tonight's episode of The Flash was pretty wild for all kinds of reasons. What other show on TV has a giant monster hologram AND an emotionally fractured Tom Felton? But while most of Team Flash and the GCPD had their hands busy with this week's threat, Caitlin had a little family reunion to see what she could learn about her own inner threat. And when the episode ended, she got some of the worst news that she could possibly hear: the more she uses Killer Frost's powers, the more Killer Frost will take over. But at least nobody touched her pizza pockets, right?
Caitlin's attempts to learn more about her condition played a big role in that condition worsening. She goes off to visit her mom, Dr. Carla Tannhauser (played by Susan Walter), which failed to ease any of the young scientist's tension, and actually added a lot more of it to her plate. It becomes clear that Carla is resentful of Caitlin for moving to Central City instead of sticking around to work together. Mother Dearest derails things anytime Caitlin tries to explain herself, which leads to talk about Caitlin's father dying. And apparently she didn't even tell her mom about Robbie's death until that very moment, which was a surprisingly depressing reveal. Does Caitlin have any friends she just texts?
That was just the emotional turmoil, too. Caitlin also had to bring out the Killer Frost powers several times during her examination from Carla and the douchenozzle Nigel, who totally deserved getting his hand all froze. By testing her freeze-em-up abilities so often, Caitlin was actually just allowing the powers to take over in a bigger way. Self-sabotage is something that happens often enough on The Flash, given Barry's Flashpoint decision is what caused Caitlin to tale pm her Earth-2 double's abilities, so it makes sense that it plays into this as well. (Assuming there isn't some big Alchemy twist coming down the line.)
So what does this mean for a nerve-wracked Caitlin who already seems to be losing control of when and where things get frosty? There are a couple of possibilities. One: she uses it one too many times and fully turns into Killer Frost, thus leaving S.T.A.R. Labs without a major player. This would also give Flash and the GCPD a difficult enemy to take down, considering the personal relationships involved. (We'll go ahead and assume Zoom doesn't come back to kill this version, too.)
Another option, which is the far more likely one, is that Caitlin will finally come clean about all this to Team Flash, and either Cisco or Earth-19 Harrison Wells will be able to come up with some kind of antidote or device to change up her body chemistry to revert back to its normal state. Because this show has proven time and again that there is literally nothing that cannot be fixed by Cisco sitting in S.T.A.R. Labs for around 20 minutes. (Maybe Wells can go out and get some coffee at that point.)
For the third option, I'm throwing it out there that Barry could always just go back in time again and try to fix things FOR REALZ this time. I really hope that doesn't happen, though.
The Flash will put another member of Team Flash in the crosshairs next week, so that should be fun. The Scarlet Speedster can be found every Tuesday night on The CW at 8:00 p.m. ET.
