Clive May Be Tied To Iris' Death On 'The Flash'

As the third season of The Flash continues, Barry and the rest of his team are fighting to figure out how to save Iris from her possible future death. And the latest villain of the week joining The Flash is Clive Yorkin, who might actually be a key part in saving her — because he could be the cause of her death. See, in DC Comics, Clive Yorkin is a very crucial character, and the trailers for the Feb. 7 episode, "Untouchable" show that his utterly terrifying power is being adapted for the CW series. The villain has the ability to literally disintegrate his foes by causing them to rapidly decompose at far quicker than the normal rate.

In the comics, Clive Yorkin's powers drained people of their life force and were the result of an experiment called the Nephron Process. It had tried to adjust his brain to associate crime with pain and stop him from being a recurrent criminal, but gave him this villainous ability instead. And while he probably won't have the speed to get his hands on Barry, Clive could easily attack another, less speedy member of Team Flash. Based on the trailers, it looks like his first target is going to be Joe West. Hopefully, the team will be able to figure out a way to stop Clive before he manages to kill Barry's surrogate dad/boss.

However, it's Iris who might be in greater danger. The CW synopsis for the episode says Iris is "caught in the crossfire" as the team goes after Clive. And by "caught in the crossfire," I think they might mean "begins to be disintegrated."

Of course, it's possible that Iris could be collateral damage — if her dad, brother, or boyfriend is in danger, I believe Iris would happily sacrifice herself to save them. If that does happen, let's hope that Team Flash can find a way to stop the decomposition and save her. And there's a clue from the comics that could be huge. Clive was suspected to be Iris' killer, though as it turned out, he wasn't her actual murderer. But he was discovered next to her dead body.

That could mean that there's a near miss in "Untouchable" where Iris almost dies at Clive Yorkin's hand, or suggest that the villain will return four months in the future, when Iris is supposed to die. Of course, in the series, the Flash has determined that Savitar is the one responsible for Iris' death (in the comics, it was Reverse-Flash). But adding Clive Yorkin proves that The Flash is one step closer to Iris West's death and hopefully, that Barry is one step closer to preventing it.