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The Flash saves a helicopter full of metas and battles Cicada in the latest Flash
Just a week back from its midseason break, the latest episode of The Flash really only served to reset the board and inch the plot slowly forward — though Barry does finally come up with a new strategy for how to take down Cicada. The plan? Save his niece’s life.
Spoilers ahead for “Seeing Red,” the latest episode of The CW’s Flash, which aired Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019.
The A-story this week saw a dirty cop team up with Cicada to leak him a private list of metahumans, which the Big Bad uses to start murdering every powered person he can track down. In a clash early in the episode, Cicada actually gets the drop on Team Flash and temporarily paralyzes Nora. So to stop the murders, Barry and Cecile work out a plan to put them all into federal protection and relocation (Cecile apparently has some very, very powerful connections), to get them far enough away from Cicada that he can’t find them. It makes for a solid plan, at least until the dirty cop leaks those details to Cicada and he attacks a hangar full of metahuman targets, which is basically a murder buffet.
It made for only the latest clash between Team Flash and Cicada, and at this point, it’s getting a bit tired to have them all fight to a stalemate and retreat to set up yet another clash down the line. We get it. The show needs action, but how many times can you have them clash without tarnishing the eventual final fight to come? Looks like we’ll find out. Dibny is back in action and uses his power set to save the day and evacuate the metas, while Barry and Killer Frost give Cicada a beating that sends him off with a tail between his legs.
With Nora injured, we see Barry deal with something we’ve seen him grapple with a few times in the past, as he starts to focus on his anger and is actually on the verge of frying him with a triple lightning strike before Nora walks him back from the ledge. Again, that’s not a bad story to tell, it’s just one we’ve seen in the past on both Flash and Arrow a few times already, over the years.
The biggest revelation actually comes in the final moments of the episode, where Barry is also getting pretty tired of all these weekly clashes with Cicada. So he decides they need a new approach to appeal to him. After realizing how angry he was about his child being hurt, Barry reasons that if they save Cicada’s niece, Grace, from her coma maybe he’ll lay down his arms. The jury’s still out on if it’ll work, but hey, anything beats just repeating the same fight again for another 10 episodes, right?
Assorted musings
Whew, let’s talk about Chris Klein this episode. Oh my. He gets to spend some time outside of the suit this week, chatting with his niece’s metahuman-hating doctor and flipping through his … umm … scary Team Flash scrapbook? Klein is channeling the Batman voice with a vengeance, but it really starts to go over the top this time. Just yeah, maybe bring it down from an 11 to about an 8. Also, seriously, what was up with his Team Flash scrapbook? Cicada has time to scrapbook?
Sherloque’s investigation into Nora’s secrets also gets a break this week as he realizes her time notebook — filled with the Speed Force language she claims she invented — actually features two sets of handwriting. So who is the other? Is this Barry’s future notebook? Did she borrow it from the Future Thawne she’s been visiting on her jaunts back to that future prison? We don’t know, but Sherloque is keen to figure it out. He’ll have to be a bit sneakier, though, as Iris knows he’s sniffing around.
Caitlin and Killer Frost seem to have come to an understanding about the metahuman cure Cisco is working to create, after spending some time with metas who aren’t all that helped by their particular super powers. So it seems the cure storyline will be ramping up soon.
Next week: For real, this one looks like a ton of fun. Nora somehow becomes trapped in her memories, and Barry has to go in and try to save her. But her head is full of all kinds of future things — not to mention memories of Future Thawne — so will Barry finally figure it all out next week?
