The Flash S05 EP19 spoiler review
(Well, this storyline was reopened and forcibly shut very quickly)
The episode picked up right after the finale of last week's, and saw Iris confronting Barry about bringing Nora back to the future. It was a very heated and well acted scene, with some great dialogue between the characters that flowed naturally into an argument between who are supposed to be the most perfect couple of the whole Arrowverse. It felt intense, weighty, and not like they were just throwing words at one another. I think this was the high point for the episode.
Immediately, future Grace kidnapped the younger Grace who remains in the coma, then the story shifted to Icicle finally returning and stealing something from the lab that Caitlin's mother works in. Team Flash arrived to investigate the scene; however, during their investigation Icicle turns up again and kidnaps both Caitlin and her mother. Meanwhile, in the future Nora begs Thawne to tell her how she can return to the past without her father knowing, as Thawne traveled the speed force dozens of times without anyone knowing. While apprehensive, Thawne decides to teach her to tap into the reverse speed force, where rage and pain is the entry point, where things are a bit, "Negative," as Thawne described it. I actually loved this as it introduced the negative speed force onto the show, something I never thought they would do, but the episode made it feel like something that just...happened, not some big comic book concept coming to life, just another thing that happened. Also currently, Iris decides that she wants to travel to the future to get Nora, bringing Ralph with her who wants to help, being as blindsided as all the others that Barry took Nora back to the future without telling anyone. Also, also currently, Sherloque was feeling as though he had done enough, being scolded by Barry for revealing Nora's secret (I think that's why they were mad at him, they didn't like hearing that Sherloque had been investigating his daughter), so he was planning on going back to his universe. There was a lot going on.
Turns out that Icicle didn't want to create a new ice age like they initially thought, he just wanted to make Killer Frost the dominant personality, and give Caitlin's mother an evil ice persona of her own. Barry went to intercept, while in the future Iris found Nora and Thawne together. Nora had been unable to enter the negative speed force due to her inherent goodness; however, seeing Iris, without Barry, reminded Nora that her father had left her, and with the believe that he no longer loves her Nora blasted off into the negative speed force. Thawne immediately showed remorse for telling her how to do so, and after Iris snapped at him, the show gave us a moment that I really enjoyed. After Iris stormed off, Ralph remained for a moment just looking at Thawne who looked back, then he left without either of them saying anything. I'm not sure why, but that short scene stood out to me. Ralph was seeing his team's arch nemesis that he has heard about but never seen himself, and when he did finally meet him, the man who usually has seven smart remarks up his sleeve had nothing to say.
Caitlin took off to face Icicle while Barry learned how to hold lightning, run, and phase at the same time, allowing him to retrieve Caitlin's mother from the cyrofreezing chamber. At the same time, Caitlin's father managed to resurface to keep Icicle from killing Caitlin, and the father and daughter duo reunited with Caitlin's mother and the others. It wasn't all happiness though, as Cicada showed up literally out of nowhere. It was some off site, hidden facility in the mountains somewhere but future Grace managed to somehow find them, then immediately incapacitated Barry. A short fight between her and Caitlin ensued, resulting in Caitlin's father taking a fatal blow meant for his daughter, and Grace left with the device Icicle was using to freeze Caitlin's mother. Why did Cicada leave without killing Barry or Caitlin? Who knows. Caitlin's dad ended up dying, in what felt kind of like a cheap death. He was last in episode 7 of the season, and we're now on episode 19 which had several things going on and randomly at the end her father is just killed off because Cicada randomly showed up. It seemed like the writers didn't know what to do with Caitlin's father as a character and decided to kill him off, which is a shame, and really proves that Caitlin's life is the worst as now season 5 is marked by her losing her father. I don't think she's too broken up about it though, as the end of the episode saw Caitlin and her mom leave to go get drinks together, rather than planning a funeral of any kind. Where did they put his body? Will they even mention her father again or reference any kind of funeral? I bet now, seems like the writers want to put the story line behind them which is a REAL SHAME, because it was one of the most compelling parts of the first several episodes of the season.
Barry and Iris made up, agreeing not to fight any longer, and agreed to bring Nora back as a family. Which is great, but Iris watched as Nora disappeared into the negative speed force and Thawne then told Iris to go back to 2019 and find her. Well Iris went back, but seemingly forgot about Nora because she was sitting down in the apartment talking to Barry and eating dinner, without mentioning that Nora went into literally an evil speed force! The end of the episode saw Nora finally emerging from the negative speed force, with her suit noticeably darker and her eyes glowing red! I like that the show finally decided to explain Thawne's red eyes from season 1, which happen to be a byproduct of the negative speed force. And the black on his arms and legs, those seem to have been from the negative speed force as well, meaning that in the future his suit was probably the entire yellow from the comics! The finale scene of the episode saw future Grace telling coma Grace that something would be soon, and looked at the glowing ball she had taken from Icicle.
So this episode had a lot going on, and I feel as though it was a few episodes crammed into one. The Thawne, Nora plot line should have been enough to suffice for an episode but instead it was forced to coexist with the Icicle plotline which reappeared and melted way too fast, resulting in Caitlin's storyline feeling forgotten as soon as the credits rolled. The impact of Nora's storyline also felt lessened because it wasn't the main focused and no one seemed concerned by the end! Cicada also felt very random, and at this point I'm unsure how I feel about her as the big bad, Dwyer's season of characterization really helped his Cicada stand out, and at this point I mostly just want the focus on Thawne and Nora's story. Next episode looks like the Rogue team up we always wanted, but with none of the characters. I'm excited to have Ragdoll back, but Weather Witch as been living in the shadow of Weather Wizard's legacy, I never really liked Bug Eyed Bandit, and Nora being on the team seems like it will be very cringey as she attempts to be evil. Where is Silver Ghost? She's still on the run, right? Why isn't she in this team up? The closest we got to Rogues team up was Heatwave/Captain Cold, then Trickster/Weather Wizard, then Top/Mirror Master, and the prison break scene at the end of season 1 which wasn't really a team up. Our first real team up is with random villains, instead of being the likes of Trickster, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and Top who I think could work well as a Rogue team.
One last side note: With Dwyer dead, what is Grace going to wake up to from her coma? Just straight orphanage, what will be the point? How will that story line have any kind of happy ending? I have no idea what they'll do, seems like a mistake to have killed Dwyer off.
Comments
Post a Comment