The Flash: Khione's Season 9 Origin Story And Powers Explained

As the ninth and final season of The CW's "The Flash" revs up for its climactic finale, there are undoubtedly going to be plenty of longtime "The Flash" fans tuning in to see how the series ends — even those fans who might have given up on the show years ago. Fans who stopped watching "The Flash" before Season 9 might be confused about the appearance of a certain character named Khione, who is played by Danielle Panabaker — the same actor who plays Caitlin Snow, the longtime series lead who works alongside Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) as a part of Team Flash.

Although you might assume that this new character is simply an alternate universe version of Caitlin Snow due to the numerous different realities and alternate characters we've seen throughout "The Flash," the truth is much more complicated. In actuality, Khione is an amalgamation of Caitlin and her alternate personality, who was known as Frost or Killer Frost; Frost was killed and later resurrected inside Caitlin's host body, and then took on the name of the Greek snow goddess Khione. 

Here's everything you need to know about Khione's backstory, powers, and how she came to use the body of Caitlin Snow in the first place.

As revealed in earlier seasons of "The Flash," as a child Caitlin Snow underwent a rigorous series of experimental testing at the hands of her father Thomas Snow (Kyle Ivan Secor) in order to cure her from a dormant ALS gene. The tests inadvertently created an alter ego within Caitlin known as Killer Frost who began to emerge during Season 2 and eventually formed a tenuous partnership with Caitlin herself, coming out only when needed and wielding cryokinetic powers.

In Season 7, Killer Frost (known then simply as Frost) is able to inhabit her own separate body after a fight with Mirror Master (Grey Damon), who used a mirror gun to split the two personalities into separate beings. After this version of Frost sacrifices herself to defeat Deathstorm (Robbie Amell), absorbing the villain into her body and dying in the process, the original Caitlin Snow and Frost's love interest Mark Blaine (Jon Cor) attempt to revive her using the Consciousness Resurrection Chamber in the finale of Season 8.

The machine ultimately malfunctions, and the new personality that takes over Caitlin Snow's body is the mysterious "Khione" –- who later confirms that both Caitlin and Frost are "gone," and refers to herself as a "goddess." Thus, Khione can be said to be a new character entirely, one whose powers are also remarkably different from the previous inhabitants of her host body.

While Khione took over Caitlin Snow's body during the attempted resurrection of Frost, she appears to have inherited much greater powers than the two other personalities. Whereas Frost's powers were cryogenically focused and often featured snow or ice, Khione's powers allow her to manipulate and connect into multiple different elements of the natural world, controlling the weather and wind alongside ice, and having the power to "feel" natural phenomena like volcanic activity or plant growth.

On top of that, she appears to possess incredible powers related to life and resurrection, shown when she is able to sense the life force of an unborn baby inside of Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) and, later, when she revives a deceased Mark Blaine with a single kiss. Khione also inherits Caitlin Snow's immense brain power, and (mysteriously) is revealed to emit neither a human nor meta-human biometric signature following her creation.

The full extent of Khione's power is still unclear, and will likely continue to grow throughout the rest of Season 9 and into the series finale. Although the transformation of Caitlin Snow into the powerful "deity" Khione is one of the more convoluted backstories in "The Flash," it's clear that this character's journey will be extremely important during the final season of this popular superhero drama.