Just as we’re complaining about how stale Cicada has become but Grace’s possible involvement makes him more interesting, we get an episode with just Cicada. Sigh. At least we got to see Iris in action as a reporter, although she might want to leave word with someone about where she’s going before entering a dangerous situation. In her defense, she was following a lead and didn’t expect to encounter the Big Bad himself.
Meanwhile Barry and Ralph go off chasing a red herring. How did they manage to take out an entire hive full of bad guys, just the two of them? I don’t think Barry has had any firearms training, even.
Funny bit with the revelation that Sherloque has married Irene Adler multiple times in various universes. He seems easily distracted.
It seemed as if Barry was channeling Oliver Queen, to a certain extent. Maybe he still has some instincts left over from being the Green Arrow, briefly.
There was at least one explicit callback to the crossover that I’ve been made aware of. Sherloque asked Superman to give his wife on Earth-38 his alimony payment. Here Ms. Adler-38 reveals that she did get some money from Superman.
Iris - stabs cicada with a pen (the mighty journalist) - has him down - and scours at him “we’re going to beat you” - before running away.
Seriously? YOU JUST DID - stab him a couple more times - call in the rest of the crew - and put the guy away - or atleast something more than just that…
Barry - “see - even without powers we can win” - Iris - yeah - I just took down Cicada with my PEN!
That whole episode was so stupid.
Ralph: “We’d better be careful in this underground black weapons market. Don’t do or say anything suspicious.”
Barry: (turns around) “I DEMAND YOU SELL ME ALL YOUR COP-KILLER GUNS! ALL OF THEM! NOW!”
And, yeah, pretty dumb for Iris not to realize chasing down a lead on Cicada might put her face-to-face with Cicada.
It’s no wonder Nora makes terrible decisions all the time. It’s in her genes!
On a different note, when Barry and Caitlin were talking about using the meta “cure” on Cicada, I was expecting her to object but she seemed totally on board. Cisco (who was absent here) had agreed with Killer Frost that the meta cure would not be forced on anyone. I guess Caitlin didn’t get the memo? Seems like something her alter-ego would have considered important enough to share.
IRIS’S LIFE IS THREATENED - After Iris lands in serious danger, Nora races to save her mother. Barry puts the finishing touches on the metahuman cure, leaving Cisco with a rare night off so he decides to take Kamilla (guest star Victoria Park) on a date.
Nora demonstrates that she’s just a chip off the old speedster block by demonstrating that (a) she can mess up the timeline again and again and again and (b) she let Cicada go again. Barry used the coffee cup example he learned from Jay Garrick. I don’t think Nora really took it to heart.
I thought Kamilla would become Iris’s first hire at her “paper” but she turned out to be just someone Cisco had asked out. Disappointing.
Telling the truth shouldn’t be the last resort for Nora (and Barry, and all the rest). If messing with the timeline is that dangerous, but circumstances are serious enough that it must be tried, getting the whole group onboard is vital so that the problem can be fixed after one or two rewrites of history, not 50-some.
and here again, our hapless crew has Cicada defeated - they even have time for a “told ya so” moment - and they let him go, again.
I’m beginning to think they just aren’t very good at all of this super heroing stuff.
That being said - I enjoyed this episode alot - I am a sucker for a good groundhog day theme when done right - we even got a shoutout to the legends - and happy death day 2u is this weekend.
Since she’s getting advice from Eobard Thawne, I’m not surprised that she tried to fix history on her own. That’s essentially what Thawne did, repeatedly going back and trying to fix things he thought were broken, that his own personal timeline looks like spaghetti. I’m sure he appreciates having a student, especially as she’s his arch-enemy’s daughter.
Good point Terminus Est. That is probably Thawne’s influence, combined with general teenage “I can do anything, I don’t need anyone’s help”. Imagine if people on superhero shows actually made intelligent decisions. We’d have BBC length seasons - 6 episodes and done, see ya soon!
It occurs to me that Thawne might be the root cause of a lot of Team Flash’s problems. He was a mentor to Cisco and Caitlin for several years, and Barry for the better part of a year, and even after they learned he was evil, the lessons that they learned while working for him (and deeply admiring him) probably have stuck.
What surprised me was that this episode didn’t end with a reveal that something was different. I thought that the final scene would be Grace’s eyes opening dramatically.
He’s the Reverse Flash. Of course he’s the root cause of a lot of their problems. He’ll always be a thorn in Barry’s side.
First I’ve heard of this. He’s been with Team Flash since before the Flash ever came into existence. He and Caitlin were introduced in an episode of Arrow before The Flash premiered. His leaving would be the end of an era. If he really does leave I hope he at least comes back for “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
Usually, though, you think of the villain causing problems for the heroes by attacking them (or attacking people they love) - I’m talking about Thawne causing problems by modeling sub-optimal behavior over the long term, while acting as an apparent mentor.
But she’s not a teenager. She’s supposed to be in her mid-to-late-20s with a graduate degree and a responsible job!
I don’t know if I can’t stand the character (the “bad mommy” scene was the latest thing I hated*) or I can’t stand the actress (the baby voice and mugging) or the combination of the two. But she’s really just awful. I am very much looking forward to her getting off my screen and going back to her own timeline where she can annoy people 30 years in the future.
And they need a plan to deal with Cicada other than throwing quips at him.
*Also, the Flash writers have highly different standards for parenting than I do. When they showed what Iris did in the “bad timeline.” I couldn’t actually tell what the issue was. As far as I could tell that was not inappropriate parenting and not at all something that anyone should feel bad about possibly doing in the future (nor should any kid be traumatized by that scene).
THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN - When Gorilla Grodd (voiced by David Sobolov) attacks Central City, Barry and Team Flash find themselves teaming up with an unexpected ally to defeat - King Shark (voiced by David Hayter). However, when they hit a snag, they bring in Dr. Tanya Lamden (guest star Zibby Allen) to try to reach the man behind the shark, Shay Lamden (guest star Dan Payne).