The Flash S05 EP14 spoiler review

(This guys keeps getting scarier and scarier)

Last night's episode was a very fun one that focused very heavily on Nora to give us possibly the best episode of the season, at least in my opinion. Here is my review of the 14th episode of the Flash, entitled, "Cause and XS"
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I'm not sure where to start with this one. It was a simple episode, but it was all so good and entertaining. The biggest thing I should mention is that Barry was omitted for nearly the entirety of the episode but the show didn't feel hurt by his absence. That goes to show that The Flash has a wonderful supporting cast that can carry the show for at least an episode without the main lead, Nora in particular got to shine and I do not mind whenever she gets the spotlight. She has been an extremely fun, flawed, naive, hopeful character with doubts and ambitions that fuel her development. This episode helped portray this more than ever.

Starting off, Cisco managed to complete the meta-human cure only for it to need another month to finish "cooking" and be in a readily usable state. Thanks to Sherloque, who I'm warming up to more and more, they determined that an hour in the speed force would be long enough to do the job, and so Barry left for an hour with Nora in charge. It happened to be a very eventful hour.

The team dispersed to separate locations, with the primary focus for the time being being Ralph couching Cisco on his date that night with Kamilla, the bar tender he had met several episodes ago. Admittedly, these sections were very painful to watch due to Cisco ineptitude and bad choices, but it was still entertaining to see. Ralph got into Cisco's head by cyber stalking the girl and telling Cisco that he didn't quite match up with her "ideal" man, which lead poor Cisco to changing his persona to try and match what he believed she wanted. This first attempt he pretended to be a suave, suited up, business man who deals in money rather than inventions, a direction that did not go over well and Kamilla ended up leaving him without a word.

I say, "first attempt," because while this is occurring, Cicada tracked down Iris after their confrontation last week and lured the team to come and save her. Hurling his dagger out into the sky once he saw Nora approaching, it ended up coming back into Killer Frost's back when she wasn't expecting it, killing her, and sending Nora running away to turn back time to the beginning of the episode again after Barry had left. This was the main plot of the episode and I really enjoyed it, watching as a new team member ended up in danger no matter what Nora did, or who she made stay behind. Ralph was the next to be captured, being in his office down the hall when Cicada couldn't find Iris (Nora made her stay at STAR labs). Telling Killer Frost to duck, the dagger instead struck and killed her, then in the following timeline Sherloque was the one captured. Seeing Nora acting erratic and telling her mother to stay in STAR labs, he went to investigate Iris' apartment for why Nora might want her to stay away only for Cicada to find him instead. Cicso was then the first to appear on the scene and to be struck down by the dagger, followed by each member of the team being forced to stay behind, only for Cicada to find a picture of Cecil in Iris' office and kill her. 52 times, Nora told the others once Cisco's vibes clued him in that she was time traveling, that was how many times she had tried to fix things only for someone to die each and every try. It was frustrating, scary, and demoralizing for her, and truly showed the danger that Cicada posed to them as a nearly unstoppable killer. The team was smart though, and worked together so that instead of the dagger striking any of them, they lured Cicada into a trap wherein the dagger struck him instead. The villain flew off into the night, wounded now in both lungs it appears, and he'll be on the back burner for the next couple episodes I expect.

Afterwards, Cisco went on his date as himself, not as a jock, or a social media star, but as the dorky tech engineer that this time proved successful for their first date. Cisco and Kamilla had a cute interaction and agreed for another date at a later time, leading me to wonder how she is going to fit into the season, whether she be a closet-meta, or the road through which Cisco leaves the show (to have a normal life). His storyline panned out well in the end, though was painfully frustrating to watch him fail so many times, haha!

Barry returned and had a talk with Nora about changing the timeline, bringing up the coffee cup metaphor that Jay told him way back in season 3. I love seeing Barry evolve into the teacher from the student, so that interaction was great to see. Following this, we saw Nora being assured by Thawne in the future that they will stop Cicada, and we see Sherloque decoding the rest of her journal, the contents of which surely to be unveiled in the next episode.

All in all, this was a very thrilling episode for me with a scary atmosphere, and a great performance from Nora. This episode ranks among the highest of the season for me, and I'm very excited for their next encounter with Cicada after this win. Seeing the team come together is always lots of fun, and I'm sad that we have to wait until March 5th for another episode; however, the promo teases us that we'll be seeing a showdown between King Shark and Gorilla Grodd! March 5th cannot come soon enough!