The things we see, the things that we face, no one can do this alone. Trying is the biggest mistake that you can make.
„
~ Caitlin Snow to Barry Allen
Dr. Caitlin Snow (formerly also known as Killer Frost and simply Frost) is a major character in the Arrowverse. She is the tritagonist of the television series The Flash (however, she was the secondary antagonist of Season 3 of the series) and has made guest appearances on Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl.
Caitlin is a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs and the best friend of Cisco Ramon and Barry Allen. She is also is the daughter of the late Dr. Thomas Snow and Dr. Carla Tannhauser, the widow of the late Ronnie Raymondand the ex-lover of "Jay Garrick", before discovering his true identity as Hunter Zolomon, and Julian Albert.
She served as both Barry's close friend and closest confidante who could alternate between her Snow identity and her "evil" persona Killer Frost. However, when they were able to coincide with each other, Killer Frost became an anti-hero. The two eventually split and developed a sisterly bond with each other.
She debuted in the Arrow episode, "The Man in the Hood." She later made her first major appearance as one of the main characters of the spin-off series, The Flash and a guest character on Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. She has done so by becoming a major character in the shared crossovers, Invasion!, Crisis on Earth-X, Elseworlds, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Armageddon.
History
Background
Caitlin Snow was born in February 1989 to scientists Thomas Snow and Carla Tannhauser. From a young age, she idolized her parents and was inspired to follow in their footsteps. As a child, Caitlin practiced the Hippocratic Oath and was apparently obsessed with it, growing to value life so much that she refused to let anyone even step on a bug if she could help it. As a child she was often bullied by her classmate, Lexi LaRouche because the nasty little girl always stuck gum in Caitlin's hair.
Pre-Flashpoint
Helping Team Arrow
Founding Team Flash
Flashpoint
Post-Flashpoint
Killer Frost
Crisis on Earth-X
Elseworlds
Crisis on Infinite Earths
New Multiverse
Personality
Caitlin is a kind, compassionate woman who, as a doctor, will do whatever she can to help people, such as insisting that Ralph Dibny needed her help when Barry spoke ill of him. She can also empathize with others, such as not asking for powers like Ralph. After the loss of her husband Ronnie's first death, Caitlin shut her emotions off but still retained her car for Cisco and Dr. Wells, never refusing to leave the latter because of his tarnished reputation. She also understands the loss of a parent as she emphasized with Barry when he revealed his mother was killed when he was a child and she supposedly lost her father to ALS. She also once shamed Barry for using the "dad card" when he pleaded with Caitlin to not directly confront Dr. Wells when the latter refused to believe her mentor was the Reverse Flash (the one who killed Nora Allen). Ultimately for Henry's sake, Caitlin decided to heed Barry's warnings that she would not confront Wells until Joe and Cisco returned from Star City.
Caitlin speaks very highly of her family and friends. Despite her father experimenting on her with his cryo-medicine, she knew he only did so out of love to save her life when Thomas refreshed, she had the genetic marker for ALS as he did. She is also distant toward her mother, Carla Tannhauser and Caitlin added that she never acted like her mother again after her dad got sick. However, the two reconciled when they were held captive by Icicle and only got closer after Thomas sacrificed his life to save Caitlin from Cicada's dagger. Also as the doctor of Team Flash, Caitlin will often scold her friends or family if they ever neglect to take care of themselves.
She was afraid of her powers at first, as well as her alternate personality and potentially becoming like her Earth-2 counterpart. However, during her time as Killer Frost, Caitlin was devoid of all her previous emotions, even insisting that Caitlin was not her name and was desperate to keep Caitlin suppressed forever. However, Killer Frost still seemed to have some care for her friends, as she willingly joined Savitar after learning he was a future version of Barry Allen, someone she trusted. Frost claimed she never really cared for her friends and going back to Savitar after restoring Barry's memories when Cisco inadvertently wiped them out. However, when Frost's eyes briefly changed to brown when she was in the elevator, this proved that she was blatantly lying to them. She also confronted Savitar and asked how he could kill Iris, the woman he loved. Cisco was eventually proven correct when he successfully got her to turn against Savitar, returning Caitlin/Killer Frost to the heroes' side. However, even after that, Frost decides to leave Team Flash to discover herself because she is neither Caitlin nor Killer Frost. In the six months she was absent from Team Flash after Barry was imprisoned in the Speed Force, Frost/Caitlin worked for Amunet Black before rejoining Team Flash to get Barry out of the Speed Force. Despite their past grievances, Caitlin was initially adamant and trying to get rid of Frost or potentially leave Team Flash as a result. After The Thinker supposedly killed Frost, Caitlin fought harder to get her split personality back. Their bond became so strong they were able to communicate with one another and encourage each other, ever regarding each other as sisters.
Additionally, another reason that Caitlin tried keeping her stern person to keep her emotions in check. This has put her and others in dangerous situations. In Season 2, she was adamant in insisting Henry Hewitt was the right person to help stabilize Martin Stein and unjustly snapping at Jax for refusing to merge with Stein, unaware of the place he was coming from. After a lecture from Barry and learning Hewitt was now emotionally unstable with a criminal record, Caitlin apologized to Jax and successfully merged him with Stein. In Season 4, she followed this flaw again when she insisted that Team Flash could use Amunet Black's help in stopping DeVoe when she was hoping for the quantum splicer, she believed Amunet used to help her switch between herself and Killer Frost. This put the entire team at risk, but Caitlin apologized to Joe and the rest of the team when she revealed the truth to them. Later, in Season 5, Caitlin refused to believe Cisco when he claimed to be vibing Icicle, Thomas' alternate identity, and even yelled at him to leave the room. When Cisco proved to be correct, Caitlin was remorseful for not believing her friend because she was desperate to have her father back with her again. However, Cisco apologized as well because he understood that Caitlin missed Thomas dearly. Later in Season 8, she insisted that Ronnie Raymond was the mysterious fiery entity killing off people suffering from grief. However, Caitlin was horrified to learn that "Ronnie" was an entity made of grief created from Ronnie's death when he sacrificed himself to close the breach in the sky. She realized she had been tricked into bonding the entity to the Firestorm matrix, which not only enhanced its power but also gave him a strong human form. Caitlin later apologized to Barry for how she acted.
After Frost's death, Caitlin did everything she could to resurrect her sister despite Barry's objection that bringing Frost back was unnatural and something she would not have wanted her sister to do. However, in Season 9, Caitlin eventually realizes that she must let go of trying to unnaturally bring Frost back to life and finally grieve properly.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Former Powers
Cryokinetic Metahuman Physiology
Transformation
Thermo-Cryokinesis
Energy Absorption
Cryokinetic breath
Cyrokinetic breath
ice constructs
Healing
Limted atmokinesis
Flight
Cold Immunity
Accelerated healing factor
Superhuman durability
Mental communication
Velocity X enhancement: Caitlin/Frost took the Velocity X drug in order to gain temporary super speed and stop Barry when he was being corrupted with their artificial speed Force.
Electrokinesis; Superhuman speed, agility, durability, reflexes and stamina
The first allusion to Caitlin being Killer Frost and Ronnie being Firestorm is when she tells Barry Ronnie used to say that they used to be "fire and ice."
The fact that Caitlin sometimes acts cold or distant when she suffers a loss (Ronnie and Jay) and later, the time Barry disappeared in the Speed Force.
Her doppleganger from Earth-2 is a metahuman, Killer Frost.
She claims to Cisco that she will never truly become like Killer Frost, alluding to them being a split personality.
Her father has a split personality like she does: while Caitlin manifests as Killer Frost, Thomas manifests as Icicle.
References
↑The Flash - Season 5, Episode 6: The Icicle Cometh
Kryptonite (Red • Silver • Blue • Black) • Toyman's inventions • Vigilante Suits • Oliver Queen's Bows • Phantom Zone Projector • Glasses • Legionnaire Rings • Yellow sun grenade • Myriad, Jarhanpurium, • Lexosuit • Book of Destiny • Book Of Ra • Staff of H'ronmeer • Sword of Juru • Antimatter • AllStone Totems
Species
Kryptonians • Metahumans • White Martians • Saturnians • Amazonians • Daxamite • Green Martians
