“Girls Night Out” Review of S4 Ep5 of THE FLASH

The nuptials are getting closer for Barry and Iris, so of course it’s time for the bachelor…and bachelorette parties. Nothing to worry about, just a couple of tame parties and a little good natured…aw, who am I kidding? This is an episode that takes the Flash out of action (that uni doesn’t leave the dummy at S.T.A.R.), as the women of Team Flash (and more) meet a serious threat on their own. Parties were meant to be crashed…just not this way for any of my parties anytime soon…Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

NOTE: This review is posting before THE FLASH airs in the Pacific Time Zone USA. If you haven’t seen the show yet, STOP HERE and come back later.

From the beginning there are minor problems with each party. Caitlin tries to bow out of the bachelorette party, planning at first to simply leave town. She’s losing control of Killer Frost, and she wants to just leave Earth 1 entirely…but that move isn’t in the cards as we will find out.  She reluctantly agrees to go with Iris, Cecile…and Felicity Smoak, who has come into town to join the celebration. Unfortunately, they get a visit at the restaurant from one of Amunet’s meta-powered associates, Norvok. This brings out Killer Frost, and sends Frost after Amunet herself.

Meanwhile, the guys aren’t fairing as badly…but their party is a little too tame for the guy-who-wasn’t-invited-but-showed-up-anyway, Ralph Dibny. He convinces the guys to follow him to a “great” place for steak and wings…which turns out to be Ralph’s favorite strip club. There, Cisco produced a special drink that could get even Barry’s super-speed metabolism to turn drunk…and it works…exceptionally well. This is what gets Barry out of action for most of the episode.

This leads to some interesting moments for the episode, although the “buzzed Barry” bit may have been a bit overdone. The guys eventually end up in a fight with all but Harry arrested…and all the events at the strip club result in them being out of communication at the very time Iris and her entourage are desperately trying to reach them.

This means the real action of the episode centers on Iris, Felicity, Cecile, and Caitlin/Killer Frost. We finally learn the full backstory of Caitlin’s time since Barry disappeared into the Speed Force. She went to Amunet for tech to help her control her Frost side…and Amunet agreed under condition that Frost serve as muscle for her operation. Caitlin wants nothing to do with this anymore…and neither does Frost, but while Caitlin wants to run away, Frost wants to kill Amunet.

That’s a hard thing to do. Amunet has control of a special metal alloy, using it alternately as a shield and as an offensive weapon. Since she has been operating for 3 years, she is more likely than not a meta as a result of the original particle accelerator accident (someone correct me if I’m wrong).  She comes across as a pretty formidable foe.  Amunet has managed to capture a new meta from that now-infamous bus called the Weeper. This meta’s tears are a powerful addictive “love drug” that Amunet wants to weaponize to create an entire city of addicts.

Eventually, Iris and Felicity are captured when they try to stop Amunet…only to be saved by none other than the…

No, not the Flash…told you he is out of action this episode…

Caitlin Snow, turning into Killer Frost to stop the threat and free the Weeper!

The real key is that Iris and Caitlin are now bonding as true friends, not just as co-workers on Team Flash. Iris talks Frost out of killing Amunet, who escapes and who will likely be seen again before too long (that would be a good thing based on tonight’s episode).

Iris brings Caitlin back to S.T.A.R. to tell the rest of the team her story. Not the story of the evening – no one is telling anyone what their “parties” turned into. But rather, the story of why she has been hiding the fact that the “cure” for Killer Frost didn’t quite take.

Iris asks Caitlin to be her Maid of Honor – and she accepts.  That leads us to the…

EPILOGUE – where the Thinker captures the recently freed Weeper. The Thinker has plans for him…

NOTES: There is a lot to discuss here. In some ways, the “drunk Barry” bit was overplayed. Yes, it gave the reason for the Flash’s non-appearance, but this was old-school isn’t-it-funny-being-drunk, at times funny but more often a bit overdone. Add the “be careful if you go to a bad place because you might see someone you know” element with Cecile’s daughter working at the strip club and you have a whole lot of old school tropes that we could have done well without. That detracted from an otherwise good episode…and I’ll leave it there.  One thing I WAS glad to see is that they didn’t suddenly sober Barry up to save the day, especially after making a big deal about #feminism earlier in the episode. If the women of Team Flash (plus Felicity) were going to take on the threat, it was a good thing that they finished what they started. This was an important episode for the development of Caitlin/Frost, giving us some needed backstory on her missing 6 months and setting up a villain who is geared up for her. And, the team up of Iris, Felicity, Cecile and Caitlin was something I’d enjoy seeing again – they had good chemistry as a team and showed they could get into AND out of danger admirably well.

SUMMARY: I’ll give this one an 7/10 (9/10 for the women of Team Flash but points off for the overdone “buzzed Barry” bits) – but that’s just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!

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