After a lot of very interesting non-Cicada threads, we return tonight to the big bad of the season. Cicada is back in business in a very big way, and he has intel that could lead to a LOT of carnage. Cicada is in this because of what happened to his daughter, and he carries the anger a father might feel in that situation to an extreme. What if someone else went through that? We get the answer to that…and more on the research for the “metahuman cure” in tonight’s episode of THE FLASH! Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
NOTE: This review is posting prior to the airing of THE FLASH in the Pacific Time Zone USA. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, STOP HERE and come back after watching the show. You’ll be glad you did!
We start with a couple of metas from earlier shows, Norvok and Bork, as they get ready to commit their latest crime. They are stopped by…
…not the Flash…
…but by Cicada! Their powers drained, Cicada goes on the attack. Norvok gets away, but Bork is murdered by Cicada.
As Cicada meets up with his favorite meta-hating doctor, she has a present from him, courtesy of a mysterious friend in the CCPD. It’s a listing of every meta who has ever been arrested, along with their current address, places of work, you name it. Cicada goes on a killing spree with this information. Flash and Nora go after Cicada, but in the attack Nora’s back is broken, temporarily paralyzing her! How long will she be this way? It may take a while…like most of the episode, but we’ll come back to that.
Meanwhile, the team finally figures out that Cicada has that list. They know who Cicada is going after, but how to save them? Cecile has a great idea – the witness protection program!
That program provides new identities, jobs, places to live – and though it’s never been used for metas before, Cecile is able to pull the right strings to set this up. All Barry has to do is convince every meta he has ever captured before to trust him…easy, right? Not so easy.
They start with a visit to Norvok, who eventually agrees to help round the group up. While that is happening, that “friend” in the CCPD passes along the plan to Cicada himself, along with the location of the group. Before they can get on the helicopter to leave, Cicada attacks!
Cicada drains the powers of EVERY meta there, except of course for Killer Frost (whose powers are not dark matter related, so the dagger doesn’t drain her abilities). Barry sends the rest of the metas away to get on the copter while he fights Cicada.
It isn’t going well at first, until Killer Frost steps in. When Cicada throws his now-infamous dagger, she uses her powers to stop the dagger from returning. That gives Barry a chance to regain his powers…
…and the anger Barry feels over what happened to Nora drives him to a level of power he hasn’t experienced before. He beats Cicada to a pulp, and is ready to deliver a killing blow, when Nora (who has regained her health and speed) arrives just in time to convince him to stop. Cicada gets away, but Barry is relieved that he didn’t go too far in his anger.
That eventually gives Barry an idea – maybe they can stop Cicada in a different way. What if they can cure Grace? Would that convince Cicada to stop? We’ll have to wait for a future episode for that.
Meanwhile, Cicada’s attention is now turned to two people…he’s going to go after Vibe and Nora!
NOTES:
- In an important secondary story line, Caitlin and Killer Frost finally come to an agreement over the “metahuman cure”. Frost had been sabotaging all of Caitlin’s research until Ralph convinces Frost that Caitlin would never use the cure to get rid of her Frost persona. Frost even delivers the one element missing from the research – a bit of Cicada’s blood! That sample, from a meta who was formed less than 6 months ago, may be the key to finding the genetic marker for the “cure”.
- Cecile is the one who tracks down Cicada’s mole in the police department. Officer Jones was manipulated by meta tech in episode 4 of this season, forced to carry a backback bomb to a softball game. He was so angered at the incident that it drove him to work with Cicada to take down all metas. By the end of the episode, Officer Jones is discovered and arrested.
- Sherloque continues his investigation of Nora, even after Iris tells him to back off. His big discovery this episode is that there are TWO sets of handwriting in Nora’s journal. He knows there is a mastermind behind Nora…but who? (Okay, we know who it is, but Sherloque doesn’t know quite yet).
- The metas were saved by Ralph, using his Elongated Man powers to pull them up to the helicopter after Cicada kept it from being able to land. The other key? Norvok actually decided to help someone else for once…is there hope for him? Probably, though I don’t know if we will see him again soon since he and the rest of the group are now in witness protection.
- This episode was missing Cisco and Joe, both of whom were written as being elsewhere. Hopefully we will see both again soon. We certainly will see Cisco, given Cicada’s new obsession with him and with Nora.
SUMMARY: This was a solid episode. We got back to the main story line with a LOT of action, we get some hope of stopping Cicada, and we see movement on a couple of key side story lines as well. While there were no jaw dropping revelations, it was still a good episode that drives the overall story forward. I’ll give it an 8/10 – but that’s just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!