Despite the fact that sheвЂ™s an intelligent doctor and scientist, The Flash positioned Caitlin almost solely as a tragic love interest in its first two seasons. (But it had plenty of time for us to hear about Barry felt about it.) Caitlin, for her part, hasnвЂ™t fared much better. The entire back half of Season 3 was predicated on the possibility of IrisвЂ™ own death and yet somehow it never bothered to interrogate how she really felt about it. Iris is an awesome character in her own right, yet sheвЂ™s frequently been stuck in stories that play down her intelligence or ability in order to keep BarryвЂ™s secret or allow him to rescue her. The Flash doesnвЂ™t exactly have the greatest track record when it comes to writing women. Not only has this storyline stripped one of the showвЂ™s female leads of the bulk of her personal agency, itвЂ™s lazy writing to boot. The problem, however, is that The Flash just doesnвЂ™t seem to know what it wants to do with Caitlin or Killer Frost, and the showвЂ™s indecisiveness on this issue is wasting a great opportunity for both characters. To be completely frank: This is pretty far from the story that the end of Season 3 promised us. She also вЂ“ for some reason вЂ“ got involved with some pretty bad people in the metahuman black market, and her subsequent attempt to get out from under her former boss, Amunet Black, has comprised much of her Season 4 narrative. Instead, we learned that Caitlin spent the summer hiding in a dirty bar, looking for meta technology to help her control her icy abilities. Rather than spending a season discovering herself or openly dealing with the inner darkness she obviously possesses, the show has swept much of the Season 3 Killer Frost arc under the rug.

However, The Flash has stumbled badly in Season 4 when it comes to fulfilling the promise of this original Caitlin/Killer Frost story arc. The prospect of discovering that character вЂ“ and of finally giving original Flash team member Caitlin a story that focused on her own agency and development вЂ“ felt like a welcome progression. After everything that happened, this person wasnвЂ™t Caitlin Snow anymore, but she wasnвЂ™t Killer Frost either.

Her decision to reject JulianвЂ™s proposed metahuman cure was not only a deliberate choice, but one which felt completely organic for her character. Killer Frost ultimately couldnвЂ™t bring herself to harm her former friends, leading to an interesting and open-ended finale in which it seemed as though the woman who was once Caitlin Snow had evolved into someone new.

No flash in quiterss