There’s another new Rogue in Central City, a new Fiddler, and she faces off against Hartley Rathaway, aka Pied Piper in tonight’s episode. So, “Hear No Evil” is an apt title for the episode. But, just as important tonight – what will happen to Caitlin/Frost/Snow? It’s a difficult question, and the answer is guaranteed to be heartbreaking. Wanna know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Who do you want to be? I mean, out of all the choices you have in life, who do you really want to be? That seems to be the them of this episode. Snow (formerly Caitlin/Frost) is basically a blank slate, trying to figure out her place in the universe. Does she want to be Caitlin? Frost? Something entirely different? While she thinks about it, a whole lot of others in Team Flash are trying to make that decision for her. And yes, I know how that sounds.
Mark has moved the CRC to S.T.A.R. Labs, hoping to make it work better there. He doesn’t tell the rest of Team Flash, but he’s hoping to bring both Caitlin AND Frost back…and that’s the problem. The CRC can’t bring both back, and eventually the team tries to choose who they want to return.
In the end, they choose Frost…but their choice won’t matter. This new persona, known as Snow up to now, has made her own choice. She won’t go back in the CRC at all. She wants to stay, and she has a new name – Khione. Mark does NOT want to accept that…but we’ll come back to that in a moment. First, let’s go to the other main thread…
The Fiddler is after Hartley, but for what we aren’t sure at first. Their initial battle ends in a draw, and that doesn’t bode well for Fiddler when she meets up with Red Death again. For his part, Hartley has been thrown into heart arrhythmia, controlled only with a sonic cuff found at S.T.A.R. Labs. As he recovers…and, as he fears for his partner, Hartley tries to set his gauntlets to 400% efficiency – to be able to kill Fiddler! This is where that theme comes in again – Snow asks Hartley if he has really decided who he is. Is he a killer? Can he really do that?
In the next battle, it appears at first that Fiddler has killed the staff of Hartley’s club Krakatoa, including his partner Roderick. But, just before he can deliver a fatal blow, Flash shows him that they are actually alive, just trapped in a “vibrational phase”. Hartley is able to save them all – he isn’t a killer, he’s a hero!
Just then Captain Boomerang appears and takes Fiddler away, along with Hartley’s gauntlets. We’ll see what that is used for in just a moment. But first…
Picking back up on the Snow story thread, Khione refuses to go back into the CRC. Mark isn’t having it…but Hartley steps in and destroys the CRC so it cannot be used again. Mark storms off – will he go back to the bad side? Will he be able to rejoin Team Flash? That’s for a future episode.
As for Hartley’s gauntlets, that’s what was needed to bring Red Death fully into view. We finally get the reveal of the suit…along with a threat to Flash and all of Central City! That’s where we leave it for now…
NOTES:
- Snow/Khione is meant to be an innocent, with a wide-eyed view of the world. There are moments where this works…and unfortunately a lot of moments where it seems forced. Hopefully that will smooth out over the next episode or two.
- Chester and Allegra are once again awkward…at least until the latter scenes in the disco. I’m hoping we are finally past this. They should make a great couple – let’s just get to their being together and get past this far-too-long awkward phase of their relationship
- I like what they are doing with Cecile. She is torn between her love for Joe and her obligations as a meta to Central City. The tone is perfect in how they are playing this out.
SUMMARY:
I’m hoping we are finally ready to get into high gear with the Red Death storyline. This episode was stretched out just a bit thin for my liking, and I hate saying that about any episode of my favorite superhero series. It’s an okay episode, but after the amazing Season 8 I’m hoping we can get back to that standard soon. I’ll give this a 7/10 – an okay episode but not their best. Of course, that’s just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!