The Flash S05 EP06 Spoiler Review

(Their reunion certainly wasn't as warm as Caitlin was hoping)

I honestly think this is one of the fastest storylines that Flash has burned through in the beginning of one of their seasons! I'm probably wrong about that, but it just feels a bit different to have a storyline that moves so fast, and while the episode had its fair amount of weak points, the main story was one that they had been building too with the first five episodes and paid off with this week's. So this'll be my review of this week's episode of the Flash, entitled: "The Icicle Cometh."

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To start things off, I will cover the side story with Ralph and Cecile as I felt like it was one of the less-good parts of the episode by a long shot. It was a bit cartoony and sitcom-ish with Cecile trying to find her intimidating side, but two things did come out of it in the end. The discovered that a young girl had been struck by the satelite on the night of the Enlightenment which will undoubtedly lead them to another conflict with Cicada, and someone finally called out Ralph on his weird nose wiggle he does. While it is a fun easter egg for the comics, I thought it was strange that everyone who saw him do it hadn't said a word about it until now, and his hurt reaction to Cecile calling it weird was worth the wait, haha.

Next up was another side story with Nora longingly tagging along with Iris and Sherloque to see her mother in action after seeing how awesome she was in last week's episode. Strangely, Iris seemed not too eager to have her around during the investigation after being so hurt by Nora keeping her distance, but Sherloque worked things out and found a way for them to work together. They found the core of the crashed satellite in the bay, from which the team spotted the missing chunk that had become Cicada's dagger, but they weirdly didn't show us Nora retrieving it after having a scene where Iris was explaining how to do so. Maybe the show's team is trying to save their budget for the possible King Shark vs Grodd battle they've teased?

The main meat of the episode revolved around Caitlin and the search for her father. Barry, Cisco, and her made their way to the artic and entered one of Caitlin's mother's black sites for experiments where they discovered her father still alive and shuffling about. Admittedly, I was surprised that the episode so quickly brought him in instead of building up to it more, but they still had the rest of the episode to do and they wouldn't have been able to do it if they had spent 20 minutes searching for him in the complex. Turns out he had been locked in by Caitlin's mother which is why he has never returned to his family, but with the help of Harrison Wells and Victor Fries (!!!) he had cameras set up in STAR labs to have some connection to the outside world. They brought Thomas back to Central City, thankfully gave us a moment where he was in awe of being back on the outside which would have been unrealistic to not have, and then things spiraled out of control from there. 

After a few tender moments with Caitlin and her father, it is ultimately revealed that he took an experimental drug to stop his ALS and in the process gave himself frost powers that descended genetically to Caitlin. He asks for their help in curing himself before he is killed by the frosting of his cells, but Cisco sensed something afoot and went back to the black site where Thomas had been staying and discovered skin grafts which lead him to accuse the man who being Thomas' own frosty alter-ego. After convincing Barry to see things in a more realistic view instead of a wholly optimistic outlook, they were able to get Caitlin on their side when she realized that the cure she made may remove the frosty side from a human; however, it would remove the human side from a frosty alter-ego. This lead to the ultimate revelation that Thomas has been suppressed by Icicle, who freezes the liquid in everyone's lungs and makes his escape to create an absolute 0 environment in which to administer the cure and remove Thomas forever.

The team arrived to stop him in a pretty cool battle, no pun intended. Barry and Nora were realistically subdued by the cold atmosphere, as well as Cisco and Ralph, which left Caitlin strangely unaffected and alone to face her father's alter ego. What followed soon after that was a awesome return of Killer Frost as she battled Icicle and sent him running, defending her friends, and making a triumphant return to the show. I've mentioned before how I wasn't too intrigued by the storyline of Caitlin wanting to get Killer Frost back, but when it is just a side plot to a bigger story, the search for Caitlin's father, I can get behind it. After her short return, the team deduces that Devoe used Brainstorm's powers to suppress Killer Frost instead of Melting Point to remove her, meaning that Killer Frost has been within her all along and they just needed to figure out how to bring her out again.

The final portion of the episode's run time was devoted to Cicada who was recovering from a battle with a spear armed metahuman in the beginning of the episode. As much as I like how much they're using him so early in the season, I will admit that he is getting a little hammy with his performance and I want him to act more like a real person than a grunting, glaring brute. I can't imagine that working too well in scenes with his daughter when she wakes up, so hopefully he acts a little more normal when that happens, which seems to be next episode by the looks of the promo!

They may have found Caitlin's father, but the storyline I think is far from over. Icicle is still out there, and until either he dies, or her father returns for good, this storyline will be an ongoing thing; however, I do think it'll slow down for now as the Flash focuses on other things. Overall, I really enjoyed the main story of the episode, but was a bit less caring for the side stories going on. I am really looking forward to next week's episode though, with the promo focusing a lot on Cicada and his daughter's reunion, and the synopsis for the episode detailing my long awaited return of the Weather Wizard!