The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 22 - Legacy

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

The Reverse Flash has been freed thanks to his indirect manipulation of the timeline. Now, Barry Allen and his allies must face his greatest enemy once again.


Influences

The Flash comics of Geoff Johns


Goofs

Cecile's powers are now described as being emphatic rather than telepathic. (She could be both, but she's always been shown as more of a mind-reader before.)

How does Iron Heights acquire Cicada's dagger in 2049 when Cicada had never been captured or identified in the original timeline Nora came from?

Why isn't Orlin Dwyer restored to life after Cicada II is made to have never existed? Logically, if she never existed, she never could have killed him. (Come to that, killing Dwyer should have made that version of Grace Gibbons stop existing, since she said that he trained her and mentored her to become the new Cicada in her timeline.)

Why does the dagger not disappear until just before Thawne is to be executed? Logically, if the dagger was destroyed decades earlier, it never would have been there to keep Thawne imprisoned in the first place.

It isn't made precisely clear why the destruction of Cicada's dagger causes Nora to stop existing. It could be either because Nora never felt the need to come to the past to fight the one enemy her father never beat or because Thawne wasn't around to teach her how to use her powers.


Performances

Again, Jessica Parker Kennedy steals the show with her speeches and the earnestness with which she handles Nora's death scene.


Flash Facts

When Thawne escapes, he tells Barry he will see him at their next crisis. This is almost certainly a nod to the 2019 Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event.

In the closing montage, Ralph is seen in his office looking at a file labeled Dearbon. In the classic DC Comics, Ralph married an heiress named Sue Dearbon, who became Sue Dibny and eventually a member of the Justice League. She was the only non-powered person with no codename to do this.


Technobabble

Upon examining Ralph after he is shot with the mirror gun, Caitlin says that his cells have become kinetically inverted.

Caitlin says that the last time Ralph lost control of his body, they created a stabilizing enzyme that reset his body back to its original form using vulcanization and muscle memory.

Sherloque says a vibrational jolt should help Ralph to reassert himself.

Swiss Ash is one species of the flowering ash trees indigenous to Europe, but also makes up a sizable amount of the Kollins Woods - the closest forested area to Central City.

A speedster with a connection to the Negative Speed Force can use it to negate a paradox that would cause them not to exist. This is apparently how Thawne has managed to survive in some form despite being erased from existence twice.


Dialogue Triumphs

Nora: (V/O) I always wanted to be a hero, to use my extraordinary abilities to help people. That's why I came here. To meet my family, to stop Cicada, help fix the Flash's legacy, and save him from disappearing in the future. I believed I could do the impossible, but I never imagined it would turn out like this.

Barry: Sometimes in life, all we can do is just live with the consequences. So what you have to ask yourself is what kind of hero are you gonna be? One who takes a do-over after every mistake? Or one who lives with it and moves forward?

Killer Frost: What a bunch of sentimental crap. You two sound like a friggin' Hallmark movie. (This is doubly funny given Danielle Panabaker has been in a few Hallmark movies.)

(The Cicada Dagger disappears. Thawne regards the guards preparing him for execution.)
Thawne: Gentlemen. I hate to inform you... but you're all dead.

(Thawne stares down all of Team Flash)

Thawne: Isn't this nice? Team Flash, back together again with a new guy. (nods to Ralph) Ralph Dibny. Welcome. You should be dead.

Ralph: Yeah, I guess we have that in common.

Thawne: (chuckling) We'll take care of that in a moment.

Nora: Hi, Mom and Dad. If you're watching this, it means that something went wrong. But I don't want you guys to be sad. I'm not. I always wanted to be a hero, to use my extraordinary abilities to help people. That's why I came here: to meet my family, stop Cicada, help fix the Flash's legacy, and save him from disappearing in the future. I believed I could do the impossible, but I never imagined it would turn out like this. I'm glad it did. I wouldn't change anything about my time with you, my sweet parents, the most important people to me in the world. I wish I could be there to celebrate every new chapter, to witness every success. Just know that no matter where I go in my life, you'll always be my side. Because of you, I know I will never, ever, truly be alone, and I will feel your love and support like a warm hug comforting me, wishing me to be the best person I can be. Thank you for everything For making me a hero and for loving me even if I wasn't perfect. Please remember that I love you both and I always will, no matter what the future brings.

Continuity

Ralph throws himself in front of the mirror gun blast. This causes him to turn into something resembling a man-size geode.

All of the metahumans not cured in 521 are sent to a secure CCPD facility.

Barry and Nora discover a wood fragment at CCPD they think might lead them to Cicada.

Sherloque figures out what Ralph deduced - that Thawne was helping Nora to stop Cicada, because Cicada's dagger is being used in the future to negate Thawne's powers and keep him imprisoned.

Cisco reveals that he works at STAR Labs and is Vibe to Kamilla. She is cool with it and says she has no trouble with him trying to date her and be a hero.

Caitlin makes reference to 404 and the first time Ralph lost control of his body.

Cisco makes reference to how he was playing Lady Gaga when Barry first woke from his coma in the Pilot.

Ralph is left unable to speak straight for a short time after being vibrated back to normal.

The wood fragment Nora and Barry found is revealed to be Swiss Ash and is traced to Kollins Woods, which is 12 miles from Central City.

Cecile is used as an early-warning system, being able to sense Cicada's hatred.

The team breach Cicada II into Cisco's force-field at STAR Labs, giving Nora the time she needs to help the child Grace Gibbons get out of her coma and convince her to take the metahuman cure.

The shard of metal inside Grace Gibbon's head is soaked with enough dark matter it negates the metahuman cure. This means Team Flash still needs to destroy Cicada's dagger with the mirror gun in order to defeat Cicada II.

With her metahuman powers as a child neutralized, Cicada II ceases to exist.

In Iron Heights 2049, the Cicada dagger blinks out of existence just as Thawne is about to be executed.

Barry can now use his powers to briefly reverse time.

Nora vanishes from existence because with Cicada's dagger destroyed, there was no reason for her to ever come to the past.

Thawne says that Nora can save herself  by running into the Negative Speed Force, but she refuses to give herself over to it to save herself.

Sherloque returns to his Earth to be with Rene Adler.

Cisco removes his powers with the metahuman cure.

Grace Gibbons is set up with a nice foster family.

Captain Singh announces that he's been appointed the new Chief of the CCPD and is promoting Joe West to the rank of Captain.

Captain Singh reveals that he figured out that Barry was The Flash.

Cisco reveals that he made Caitlin and Killer Frost a new costume.

Nora's time diary and a video she made remain behind.

As the episode ends, time changes and the newspaper from the future which said Barry disappears in 2024 changes, with the date rolling back 5 years to show that Barry now disappears in 2019.


Location

Iron Heights - 2049


The Bottom Line

Nonsensical, painful and poorly explained on every level. Granting that the rules for time-travel have never been consistent and are driven by what is the most dramatic rather than any decent standard set of physical laws, the script for this episode needed a few rewrites.

It isn't clear, for instance, if Carlos Valdes is leaving the series or not now that he's removed his own Vibe powers. There were rumors he was leaving the show, but nothing that was confirmed with the same sense of certainty as Emily Bett Rickards leaving Arrow. We don't have a scene of him resigning his job from STAR Labs and there is no reason in the episode why he would need to do so.

Still, Nora gets a great ending to her story but the selling of it is due more toward Jessica Parker Kennedy's charisma than any craft in the writing or special effects. Both Cicadas are finally dead and gone. And it looks like we'll be getting Ralph and Sue together in Season 6, just in time for the end of the world.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 21 - The Girl with The Red Lightning

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With Cicada plotting to unleash a biological weapon that will kill every metahuman in Central City, Team Flash goes on high alert. As Joe and Cecile organize an effort to distribute the metahuman cure that Caitlin is mass-producing, Barry, Iris, Ralph, Cisco and Nora focus their efforts on trying to catch Cicada. As Sherloque tries to see to the safety of the latest love of his life, Ralph wonders... why did The Reverse Flash have such an interest in stopping Cicada in the past?


Influences

The Flash comics of Geoff Johns and Doctor Who (Ralph makes a reference to "timey wimey crap.")


Goofs

Cisco is awfully indifferent to the question of where the mirror gun sends the material it zaps. That seems like a mighty important thing to determine since their hope was that the gun would disintegrate matter - not teleport it.

Why is everyone so down on Ralph wanting to figure out what Thawne's interest in stopping Cicada is? Especially Barry, who should be more paranoid than anyone about Thawne's angle! Granting that Ralph is a bit of a goofball, he's also the one who figured out a way to track Cicada before anyone else.

Barry chews Nora out for trying to see through Cicada II's eyes, saying that Cicada II could have done the same thing and pinpointed their location. It seems a safe bet that Cicada II already knows where to find them, given that the first time they fought Cicada II was when she came to STAR Labs to save her Uncle Orlin! (What makes this even more nonsensical is that Nora says she made sure there was nothing in her eye-line that said STAR Labs!)

This also begs the question of why Cicada II hadn't just come back to STAR Labs and finished them off, given that they can't fight back against her with the dagger neutralizing their powers.

Joe suddenly feeling incapable of taking command really doesn't ring true for his character.

Barry and Iris continue to be the worst and Nora finally gives them the "I am a grown-ass woman and can make my own decisions." speech that has been coming all season.


Performances

Tom Cavanagh's chemistry with Kimberly Williams-Paisley is such that you almost forget that the romance between Sherloque and Renee has taken place almost entirely off-camera and that she only appeared in one episode before now, nearly half a season ago!


Flash Facts

Sherloque claims that the average smartphone owner checks their phone 110 times per day on average. This is a fair average between various studies, which chart the average as being somewhere between 50-150 depending on the average age of the survey takers.


Technobabble

The cryo-atomizer.was originally developed by Tannhauser to combat large fires caused by droughts. It did this by dispersing cold air particles into the atmosphere, triggering focused, heavy rainfall.

With the cold particles replaced with the metahuman cure prototype, Cicada II could infect all of Central City, painfully killing every metahuman in the city.

The second piece of equipment Cicada II steals is a Quantum Tunnel Converter - the first prototype of its kind. The converter can transform dark matter energy to practical energy, allowing her to use her dagger to supercharge the atomizer - possibly boosting it to cover the whole of the USA rather than just Central City.

To connect the Quantum Tunnel Converter and the Cryo-Atomizer, Cicada II will also need a Hyper Conduit.

Sebastian Ollins is said Looks to be renting a warehouse he retrofitted it with fiber-joules technology to test out his experiments.This includes a cutting edge Hyper Conduit.

Hacking the cryo-atomizer requires a quantum computer. Connecting three nodes to the control processor inside will override the system.

Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: Hey, you find anything? 

Cisco: (testily) Confirmation that She-cada hasn't stolen everything she needs.So we have some time. 

Barry: Finally some good news.

Cisco: Except what she did steal was a Quantum Tunnel Converter. The first working prototype of its kind.

(Both Barry and Nora look stunned.)

Ralph: Yeah, that's the same face Cisco made when he heard.

Nora: Guys, listen. I saw Grace and I almost saw where she was. Right now she is putting her pieces together and when that is done, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people are going to die.

I can't stand around and do nothing.

Barry: Yes, you can because that's what we're telling you to do.

Nora: When I first got here, I would rush in to fix things and by doing that, I always ended up making them worse. But I am not that person anymore because of you. You showed me how to use my powers. You taught me how to make the right choices. And right now, I am choosing to face this risk.

Iris: Nora, this is a terrible idea.

Nora: I know you feel that way. But I don't. I'm an adult capable of making my own decisions. I've made up my mind about this. So I am asking you, please, as my parents, stop trying to keep me away from this danger and start helping me face it.

Continuity

Eobard Thawne was incarcerated for 15 years before his death sentence was to be carried out.

The method of execution to be used on Thawne will somehow channel Thawne's own power to end his life.

Team Flash determines that Cicada II must need something else for her plan besides the cryo-atomizer - otherwise she already would have released the faulty metahuman cure.

The team elects to distribute the fully-functioning metahuman cure to as many people as possible, in case they can't stop Cicada II. That will save some people since, once cured, the anti-metahuman treatment shouldn't affect them.

It is agreed that the cure should be distributed at CCPD HQ.

Cisco tests the mirror gun on the STAR Labs satellite core, since it has a comparable level of dark matter to the gun and Cicada's dagger. It seems to either vaporize the core or send it somewhere else.

Captain Singh agrees to Joe and Cecile's plan to hand out the metahuman cure at CCPD HQ and places Joe in charge of the department and managing the distribution, while he goes to City Hall to argue in favor of the plan.

Sherloque approaches Renee Adler and tells her he knows that she's a metahuman, having seen her open a door without touching it in 513.

Cicada II arrives at Central City University while Sherloque is there.

As Nora approaches Cicada II, their psychic connection from 517 activates.

Nora's lighting turns red and purple again after her psychic connection activates.

Cicada II steals a Quantum Tunnel Converter from Central City University.

Renee Adler is revealed to be a magnokinetic - i.e. magnetism powers.

Nora says that her lightning turning red was a side-effect of Cicada II's rage channeling through her - not a sign that the Negative Speed Force is taking her over again. She says she can use that connection to find Cicada II, but Barry and Iris think it is too dangerous to risk.

Joe reopens the Cicada tip line and sets up police barricades 3 blocks around CCPD HQ.

Cicada has a psychic impression of panic and warns Joe that they are going to get slammed with panicking metahumans.

Cisco says that neither Staff Labs, Mercury Labs or Ivo Labs have a Hyper Conduit.

Ralph asks what interest Thawne has in stopping Cicada, but Barry dismisses this as unimportant.

Nora says the best place to find a Hyper Conduit in 2049 would be Ollins Laboratory.

According to Nora, Sebastian Ollins was a brilliant scientist in her time, who won a Nobel Prize for Quantum Engineering.

Sebastian Ollins was Cisco's college roommate.

Cisco claims Ollins couldn't stay awake through a single physics lecture and would have failed out of college had it not been for Cisco tutoring him.

Cicada II is able to steal the Hyper-Conduit before The Flash gets there and blows up the Ollins' warehouse.

Ralph points out there's a massive paradox involving Cicada II killing Cicada I and taking his dagger, because it doesn't explain where his dagger was in her future and how it could be used to kill future metahumans if Cicada II has it now. Again, Barry says this isn't as urgent a concern as finding Cicada II in the here and now.

Nora tries to use the Cerebral Inhibitor to block Cicada II's ability to read her mind while still being able to see through her eyes using their psychic connection.

Sherloque takes Renee Adler to CCPD HQ to get her powers removed.

Joe tells Cecile he's uncomfortable taking command in this situation, despite taking charge in the field countless times before.

Renee Adler decides that she wants to keep her powers.

Sherloque opens a portal to his Earth where friends of his can keep Renee safe while he helps Team Flash to stop Cicada II on Earth I.

Renee makes reference to the events of 515 and how the idea of multiple Earths isn't that strange compared to shark men and gorilla fighting.

Barry plans to use the Speedster-Proof Forcefield that Cisco built in Season One to contain Nora while she taps into her connection with Cicada II.

Joe stops a riot from breaking out at CCPD HQ, as the metahumans begin to panic.

Nora tracks Cicada II to the CCPD HQ.

Team Flash realizes that Cicada II is planning to use all the metahumans at CCPD HQ as a battery to super-charge the atomizer.

Barry asks Cisco to send the atomizer to Earth 15 - a dead Earth first mentioned in 410.

With the dagger plugged into the atomizer, Cisco has to disable the device rather than shooting it with the mirror gun or trying to vibe it away.

Cicada II confirms that she never had the power-negating dagger of her uncle before she came back in time to 2019.

Again, Ralph wonders what happened to the power-negating dagger if Cicada II didn't have it in her time.

Ralph realizes that the dagger must be what is being used to negate Thawne's powers while he is imprisoned and that destroying the Cicada dagger now will free him in the future.

The episode ends with Ralph shouting at Barry not to fire the mirror gun at the dagger, as Barry pulls the trigger.


Location

Iron Heights Prison - 2049


Untelevised Adventures

Most of Sherloque and Renee's romance has taken place almost entirely off camera.


The Fridge Factor

Renee Adler's entire purpose in this episode is keeping Sherloque occupied as he has to save her (and nobody else) from Cicada II. This wouldn't be that bad if she had shown up more than once before this season.


The Boomerang Factor

Honestly, the only thing saving Team Flash at this point is the fact that Cicada II didn't see fit to break into their base yet again and kill them all.


The Bottom Line

A badly-written, poorly-reasoned mess that wastes the show's best actors. The end of the season can't come fast enough, just so we can be guaranteed of never seeing Cicada ever again.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 17 - Time Bomb

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With the timeline having been changed unexpectedly and the future Eobard Thawne officially giving up hope of fixing things, Nora is urged to come clean to her parents in the past about who she's been working with. Unfortunately, Nora isn't the only time-traveler in Central City 2019, with an adult Grace Gibbons having taken up her uncle's mantle as Cicada now hunting down the metahuman responsible for killing her parents.


Influences

The Flash comics of Geoff Johns.


Goofs

Seriously, where has Ralph been for the last two weeks? Did it really take him that long to check in with all his local underworld contacts?

 The new Cicada is said to have the power to negate other metahuman's powers, but Barry and Cisco didn't seem to have any troubles last week in their first fight with the future Grace Gibbons.

Much as we hate to side with the villain, we do have to agree with future Grace Gibbons that the CCPD were rather negligent in investigating her parents murder. While putting out an APB for every woman wearing a hoodie would have been impractical, it seems like after an ATM blew up they might have checked the records to see who used the ATM immediately before it blew up on the off chance it might have been their bomber.

Vicki Bolen claims to have seen the ATM explode and money flying everywhere but says that nobody got hurt. This completely contradicts Cisco's Vibe vision. While she might be in denial about the damage she caused, it does raise the question of why Barry and Joe don't confront her over The Gibbons' deaths and arrest her for manslaughter. (Of course blinking future Cicada out of existence by having her parents' killer tried would be boring to watch...)

Vickie Bolen is somehow able to use her powers despite the presence of the new Cicada and Nora West-Allen saying she's lost her speed. (We know it can't be because Vickie is a non-dark matter meta since Cicada specifically tracked her by her dark matter signature.)

For some reason, Team Flash is still adhering to the policy of getting a person's permission before giving them the metahuman cure in the case of Grace Gibbons. While the principle is fine in theory, Grace is a minor and they already have the permission of her guardian to cure her. Legally, that should be all they need. (This is doubly vexing because after explaining that they aren't giving the cure to anyone without their permission, Barry explains that Caitlin says it isn't safe to inject a child with a cure that was designed with adults in mind and the whole thing is especially risky to chance it given Grace's particularly fragile state.)

While we're used to the rules of time travel and how quickly changes are made to the future when something in the past is changed being entirely dependent on the plot at this point, it seems like we should have seen an instant paradox take effect when Future Grace kills her uncle, whom she said trained her to become the new Cicada.

If Future Grace Gibbons was able to figure out that STAR Labs had a time machine and was able to steal it and go back in time to try and kill her parents killer... why not go back and stop her parents from using that ATM in the first place? Why not kill the killer before her parents died? (We can't even use the excuse that Future Grace is too crazy to have realized this or is too mad about killing to not want a peaceful resolution because she outright says that the fact that her parents are dead is the important thing to her - not whether or not their deaths were an accident. So why not stop those deaths?!)

Why doesn't Future Grace Gibbons kill The Flash after she kills her uncle Orlin?!


Performances

I've missed Jesse R. Martin's expressions when he deals with the madness around him.


Artistry

The effects work on the scene where Barry tries to outrun Cicada's dagger in a narrow hospital hallway while changing into costume does look fantastic.


Flash Facts

The Starchive site which Grace Gibbons breaks into is located in Kolins Woods. This is a nod to artist Scott Kolins, who was the artist that co-created Cicada along with Geoff Johns. (Kolins Woods previously appeared in 503.)

The party that the new Cicada crashes is being held at a Central City business called Crash Crawly's. This is the name of a real-world kid's party restaurant in British Columbia, similar to Chuck E. Cheese's in the United States and it uses the same logo.

Ralph makes reference to "Peter Parkering" Kamilla, getting her a job working for Iris' newspaper. This is of a course a nod to Spider-Man's secret identity and how Peter Parker paid his bills as a photographer for The Daily Bugle. Ralph goes on to say that maybe Kamilla will be bitten by something radioactive hanging around STAR Labs and become a spider-person.


Technobabble

One of the notes scribbled on the blueprints for the Time Sphere says "Neutron Flows Cannot Be Reversed." This is a reference to one of the most famous bits of technobabble ever - "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow." While used in countless works of science fiction, the line is frequently attributed to Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play The Doctor. While he did often say "reverse the polarity", he only ever specifically referred to a neutron flow twice and only once during his original run as The Doctor. (He did say the line in The Five Doctors reunion special)

Future Grace has a device in her costume that can track the unique dark matter signature of a particular metahuman, getting close to an exact real-time location.

Nora says that Vickie Bowlen hyper-accelerated the molecules in the ATM, causing a violent chain-reaction that led to it exploding.

Eobard Thawne discovered that, much like DNA gives a human body instructions on how to function, the multiverse has its own source code that cannot be altered no matter what timeline you are in. This Time Code, as he calls it, allows him to write notes in a manner that will not be changed no matter how time changes based on his travels.

Caitlin says that Grace Gibbon's dark matter has a unique binding quality that allows her to telekinetically manipulate dark matter, even that in other people. Her powers are stronger than her uncle's because her wound was in her head, allowing the dark matter to go deeper into her brain.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Nora runs into Thawne's cell in Iron Heights. She is frantic. He watches the screen on his wall, impassive, turned away from her.)
Nora: Something went wrong! We got Dwyer. We gave him the cure! This should all be over! But another Cicada showed up, took Dwyer and the dagger!
(Thawne doesn't react. He doesn't say anything or turn around.)
Nora: Thawne! Did you hear what I said? Another Cicada showed up!
Thawne: (quietly) I know.
(Thawne turns around and regards Nora sadly as the picture on his screen clarifies into a picture of Barry fighting the new Cicada.)
Thawne: I know.
Nora: Who is that?
Thawne: I have no idea.
Nora: (angrily)You said manipulating the timeline would stop Cicada! You said you knew what you were doing!
Thawne: (barely a whisper) I know what I said. I was very wrong.
Nora: What do we do?! What do we do now?!
Thawne: I can't help you anymore, little runner.
Nora:What? You have to help me!
Thawne: It's too late.
Nora:No. There's gotta be something we can do. You you have to help!
Thawne: There is only one thing left to do. Tell your father. You tell your father everything.

Barry: Hey, by the way, this might not be our only lead. Do you remember that Time Sphere that we built for Thawne?
Joe: That big hamster ball thing?
Nora: Someone stole one in the future to come here.
Cicada: For what? Our Cicada copycat?
Joe: It makes sense. (blinks)  I can't even believe I just said that.

Nora: Hey.  You were wrong, you know.
Barry: About what?
Nora: About Vickie not wanting to tell her family about her abilities. It's her choice not to tell them.
Barry: Look, keeping a secret like that from her family is It's dangerous. I mean, they might get hurt or worse.
Nora: She's just trying to protect them.
Barry: I get that, I do, but I-I used to think that keeping secrets from people for their own good was a noble decision, that it would protect them. But when you do that, you just rob those people from making their own decisions. I even did it with you.
Nora: Like when you didn't want to take me to your past.
Barry: Mm-hmm. I didn't want you to see how painful things got for me as the Flash or how bad things got for your mom. But secrets are like walls, and you can't really know someone with walls between you.

(Barry and Nora exit the party center at super-speed and return in costume as The Flash and XS.)
The Flash: I don't see Cicada anywhere. Do you?
Alice Bolen's Daughter: It's The Flash! Mom, you got Flash and XS cosplayers for the party?!
The Flash: (uncertain, eventually speaking in a forced, melodramatic tone) Yeeeeeees, I am the Flash! And I love... soccer! Do you guys love soccer?
(The kids all shout "Yeah!" and chatter excitedly.)
The Flash: Do you want to... Yeah! Awesome! Come with me! Here, let's play some soccer over here. (starts trying to lead the kids outside) This way. This way! Come on!

(Barry and Nora have just witnessed things breakdown between The Bolens. Nora is biting her lip.) 
Barry: Hey, we did the right thing. We kept this family safe.
Nora: Then why does it feel like we made everything so much worse?

(Ralph enters into Cisco's lab. Cisco is working on some device.)
Ralph: Need any help with that, uh...
Cisco: Nope. Unless you came here to break something, in which case you'd be the perfect candidate.
Ralph: I deserve that. Never should've interfered with Kamilla. Sometimes, I forget how embarrassing I can be.
Cisco: I'm not embarrassed by you, and I'm not embarrassed by anyone on Team Flash. You guys are my family. You're not the problem. This is the problem. This is the problem. Kamilla is blissfully unaware of any of the madness that goes on in S. T. A. R. Labs, or that we routinely save the city from evil metas.
Ralph: Or that you have a secret identity and dress up in leather and go all pew-pew!
Cisco:  Especially the leather. (chuckles a bit) She and I, we got a good thing. And being with somebody has never felt so so easy. And when I'm with her, for once, I just feel like a normal dude, with a normal life and a social-media-official girlfriend, who happens to be a very talented photographer and not... a Spider-Person.
Ralph: (sighs) It's... that's amazing, man. It really is. And I promise that I will respect that. But I gotta ask... how long do you think you can keep those two worlds separate? Look, my mom dated this guy, Craig, and Craig was a tax accountant and a freelance bull rider. Never let one world know about the other, and it just tore him up. More than those bulls ever did.
Cisco: Mm. I should definitely be working.
Ralph: Look, the thing is, I get why you're afraid of losing what you have with Kamilla, but if you keep her out of this world, it seems to me that you're always gonna be turning off a part of yourself. That's not right. And if Craig hadn't been crushed to death by that huge filing cabinet I know he'd feel the same way.

Thawne/Wells: And so the timeline, it can be malleable, but my knowledge will be intractable.

(As Barry walks away from the Pipeline cell in which he locked Nora.)
Nora: Dad! I'm sorry I lied to you!
Barry: (turning around, speaking bitterly) So am I.
(Barry leaves as Nora starts to sob uncontrollably.)


Continuity

When Nora goes to Thawne in the opening scene, the time in his cell is now down to 12:00 minutes.

Orlin Dwyer's lung is said to be healing following his surgery.

The older Grace Gibbons reveals her identity to Orlin by showing him the dolls he made of her and him. She says that eventually she wakes from her coma and grows up, with Orlin training her to become the new Cicada.

Grace says that after she returns from taking care of one bit of business, she will help Orlin figure out how he gets his powers back. This implies that, in the future she is from, Orlin became Cicada again after having taken the metahuman cure.

Joe and Cecile question the hospital staff about Dr. Ambres. They confirm that nobody else knows anything about Orlin Dwyer's relationship with Dr. Ambres or where to find Dwyer now.

Sherloque completes his translation of the Time Language. He notes that most of Nora's diary is boring and it does nothing to indicate who she is working with, though he's certain she's using the diary to report to someone in the future.

Sherloque is revealed to be performing STAR Labs janitorial duties as part of working off the money he charged Team Flash.

The Cortex has been remodeled in the wake of last week's attack by Cicada, with a new comm desk.

Iris wrote an article about the new Cicada, but her readers haven't reported any new sightings.

Ralph said that he checked with Earl Cos and the rest of his underworld contacts but also has no leads on Orlin Dwyer or a new Cicada.

The STAR Labs satellite is scanning Central City for dark matter flares but, as Sherloque points out, they don't know that the new Cicada is a dark-matter infused metahuman.

Caitlin is said to be at the Tannhauser arctic site, working on figuring out how the new Cicada seemed to be able to control Team Flash.

The Starchives are locations outside of STAR Labs where they keep Flash related items that might be too dangerous to keep in their relatively public base.

An alarm is triggered at the Starchives site in Kolins Woods, which previously appeared in 503.

Sherloque and Cisco find what appears to be Eobard Thawne's Time Sphere from Season 1 in the forest.

Ralph and Iris find what appears to be the same Time Sphere still in storage.

The Starchive also contains the vacuum cleaner Cisco pretended was a weapon to bluff Captain Cold in 104.

A scratch test on the sphere in storage reveals that the Time Sphere in the woods is the same Time Sphere, traveled back in time from some point in the future. This leads them to conclude that the future Cicada stole the Time Sphere.

Future Grace robs the evidence locker at CCPD headquarters. She is shown to be able to use her daggers to cut through a reinforced concrete wall.

Later, it is determined that all Future Grace took was a single cold case file that had yet to be digitized. Barry is able to figure out what is missing by sorting all the other records at super-speed.

Kamilla's full name is revealed as Kamilla Hwang.

Cisco and Kamilla are now in a relationship and change their social media status accordingly.

Cisco has still not told Kamilla about his life as a superhero or a super-scientist and he wants to keep his life compartmentalized.

Kamilla has a gig taking Easter Bunny photos.

Ralph mistakes Jason, a barista at C.C. Jitters, for a different barista named Larry.

Larry gets Ralph the wrong coffee, either because he honestly doesn't know what Ralph's usual is or to spite Ralph for not remembering his name.

Sherloque finds the original blueprints for Thawne's Time Sphere. They have the words "The Timeline Is Malleable." written on them in Thawne's handwriting.

The cold-case file that Cicada took involved two people who died in a metahuman attack at the site of an ATM.

Cisco vibes the burned concrete around the new ATM computer to see a woman touching the ATM and discharging some kind of energy from her hand just before a young couple walk up to the ATM and it blows up as we see a screaming child in a parked car nearby. The child is Grace Gibbons.

Nora recalls Grace picturing herself as Cicada in her mind in 512. This leads the team to the conclusion that the new Cicada is the future Grace Gibbons.

Future Grace rages to Orlin Dwyer that the CCPD did nothing to investigate her parents' deaths, despite three witnesses seeing a woman in a hoodie at the ATM before it exploded.

The CCPD file contains a piece of the ATM which is charred by dark matter residue.

Future Grace has a device in her costume that can track the unique dark matter signature of a particular metahuman.

Future Grace says that in her time, the number of metahumans has increased substantially. She says she came back to track the metahuman who killed her parents and then help Orlin with "the mission" (i.e. killing all metahumans.)

Joe. Barry and Nora track the last person to use the ATM before The Gibbons down at a party being held for a kids' soccer team called The Lighting Strikes. The card belonged to a Vickie and John Bolen.

The Gibbons died on May 4, 2017.

The ATM that blew up was located near the corner of Kingswell and 42nd.

Vickie Bolen says that the ATM sparked after she touched it and she felt something awaken in that moment. She was afraid the police would think she was trying to rob the bank and hoped what she did to break the ATM would just be ignored.

Vickie Bolen has kept her powers secret from her family and refuses Barry's offer of police protection after they explain that Cicada may be coming for her.

Ralph introduces Kamilla to Iris and tells her Iris is looking to hire a photographer for her newspaper. Cisco is less than thrilled about Ralph interfering in his girlfriend's life behind his back.

Sherloque finds a hidden flash drive inside of a compartment in the left arm of Eobard Thawne's old wheelchair from his days masquerading as the Harrison Wells of Earth One.

Ralph and Joe explain to Nora that there was once a time when Central City kept metahuman crimes under-wraps in the local press, by order of then Mayor Bellows, in trying to explain why Vickie Bolen might not know that she killed two people. He did this in order to cover up the activities of the metahuman thugs he had on his payroll. This was revealed in 404.

Nora has a psychic flash where her eyes glow red. She can feel the presence of the Future Grace Gibbons and her knife. She guesses that she must still have a connection from when she entered her mind with Sherloque's Memory Machine.

Vickie Bolen is able to use her energy powers to charge a soccer ball and throw it at the new Cicada. The power acts like a bomb and knocks Cicada off her feet when she tries to block it with her knife. The bomb also knocks down her daughter, Alice.

Cecile is pained by the amount of hatred for metahumans she feels inside the comatose Grace Gibbons.

Alice Bolen is hospitalized due to the injuries she squired when she is caught in her mother's bomb blast. She is now afraid of her mother.

John Bolen is furious that his wife didn't tell him that she had powers and tries to kick her out of their daughter's hospital room. Joe takes him away to try and talk to him.

Ralph promises to back off on trying to bring Kamilla into Cisco's work life but politely  suggests that Cisco's trying to compartmentalize his life and hide parts of himself from Kamilla can only end badly.

Orlin Dwyer reads the police report and notes that no mone was taken from the crime scene, despite the ATM exploding. He says it sounds like the death of Grace's parents honestly was an accident. She is not pleased by this and says he sounds like The Flash and XS.

Future Grace tells Orlin that she killed Dr. Ambres for taking away his powers.

Orlin tells Grace that all he wanted was to make her happy and safe. He tells her he fully intended to cure himself and her.

Sherloque accessess the Gideon computer in the Time Vault to play the flash drive he found. It pulls up a video file of Thawne, log 247, where he discusses the problems of  knowing when time is changed by a time-traveler and how he overcame this by discovering a time code that cannot be altered by time-travelers.

This leads Sherloque to confirm that the second handwriting sample in Nora's journal belongs to Thawne.

Vickie Bolen is able to make peace with her daughter Alice.

The new Cicada has the power to block Vibe's breaches, making him unable to pass through them by blasting them with her energy when they open.

Future Cicada kills Orlin Dwyer when he tries to talk her down and says that killing isn't the answer to dealing with metahumans and that she doesn't have to live in anger.

The Bolens are put into the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Sherloque reveals Nora's secret - that she has been working with Eobard Thawne - just as she is about to say it herself, but she can't find the words to explain.

The episode ends with Barry locking Nora in one of the pipeline cells.


Location

Iron Heights Prison - 2049

The Boomerang Factor

More of the usual nonsense with Cicada being able to have killed The Flash a while ago except for suddenly leaving at the end of the fight scene despite The Flash being helpless and it being unclear just if/when the new Cicada is capable of negating a metahuman's powers.


The Bottom Line

Quite possibly the single-worst episode of the show to date, at least from the perspective of continuity and adhering to the basic rules of the show's universe. What's weird is that there's a number of great lines and the ensemble cast does a great job of selling everything. Emotionally, the resonance of the episode is solid. Logically, not a damned thing makes sense. But at least we won't have to hear Uncle Orlin growling his way through his monologues anymore.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 16 - Failure is an Orphan

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With the meta-cure proven to work, Team Flash now faces the problem of how to subdue the murderous Cicada long enough to ask him if he'd want to take it. Nora is less than pleased with Barry's plans, though her time journal now shows that this is the day Cicada makes his final appearance before disappearing for decades. Killer Frost is on all board, however, as Joe eases back into the swing of things at the CCPD.


Flash Facts

The title of the episode comes from a proverb - "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan." The original source of the quote is unknown and has been attributed over the years to Russian folklore, Roman generals, fascist dictators and John F. Kennedy.

In discussing how he has mapped out the timeline, Eobard Thawne says that he has charted it from Anthro the First Boy to Kamandi the Last. This refers to two different "caveman" heroes from DC Comics.

Anthro the First Boy was a Cro-Magnon born to Neanderthal parents, who starred in his own six-issue mini-series in 1968. He has gone on to have cameo roles in series ranging from Crisis on Infinite Earths to Final Crisis.

Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth was the star of a short-lived series written and drawn by Jack Kirby, which was inspired by the success of Planet of the Apes. The story focused on the titular last pure-blooded human boy on Earth and his efforts to survive in the ruins of the world of before, contending with various evolved animal-men. It was never explicitly said that Kamandi lived in the future of the DC Universe, though it was eventually established that he lived in the potential future of one alternate Earth during Crisis on Infinite Earths.Since that time, Kamandi has had cameos in various mini-series, including Final Crisis.

Along with dark matter and meta-gene bursts, Nora has STAR Labs satellite searching for Element-X. Also known as The Tenth Metal and "The Fire Of The Fourth World" in the lore of DC Comics, Element X is said to be the purest form of creation itself and can be manipulated by thought alone to accomplish nearly anything. A small amount of Element X is said to be within all living beings in the universe and it is used to power all New Gods technology.

Dr. Ambres is said to have gotten her medical degree at McInder University. This is almost certainly a nod to Dr. Charles McInder - the secret identity of the JSA member Dr. Mid-Nite, who was a brilliant surgeon in his secret identity. (This is somewhat confusing in the reality of the Arrowverse, where Dr. Mid-Nite was sent forward in time and became a surgeon in the year 3000 before being killed by a brainwashed Rip Hunter in season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow!.)

Cisco dubs the acid-drinking and expelling metahuman that Flash and XS briefly fight with the name Acid Master before learning that his real name is Philip Master. We don't learn much about this metahuman and his powers or motivations, beyond his apparently having an urge to drink various strong acids, the ability to do so without being harmed and having the ability to expel those acids from his hands as if they were shot from high-pressure fire-hoses.

In the original DC Comics universe, there was a villain called Acid Master whose real name was also Philip Master. Numbering only one appearance in Action Comics #348 (March 1967), this version of Acid Master was not a metahuman, but a communist spy and master chemist whose specialty was creating weaponized acids. Clark Kent was recruited as a special FBI agent to track and subdue the Acid Master, on the grounds that no one would suspect the mild-mannered reporter of acting as a government agent. Naturally Kent was more than up to the job, secretly being Superman.


Technobabble

Sodium bicarbonate can be used to neutralize nearly any acid, according to Barry.

Prednisone, Sirolimus and Abatacept are all drugs classified as immunosuppressants.

Cisco suggests building an anti-dampening array to stop Cicada.

Cisco says he can stop Cicada by resequencing the Speed Force Bazooka to overload his body with negative tachyons.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Iris is on the phone.)
Iris: Well, it's interesting that you say that, sir, since it's your company that's denying the Robertson family's claim. Yes, of course, I have the contract right in front of me.
(Barry runs in and hands Iris a sheath of papers.)
Iris: (glancing through the papers) And it says that animal attacks do not fall under Acts of God, and that includes gorillas.

(The Flash runs into a lab to find Acid Master drinking a bottle of hydrochloric acid.)
The Flash: Been a while since high school chem, but that does not look like proper lab safety.

(Nora is running through all the times Barry was able to talk a villain into surrendering.)
Barry: Nora, all all of these times are are different. Cicada doesn't even care if he lives when this is over. What am I supposed to say that he'll care about?
Nora: (proudly) You'll know. The Flash always knows.

(Barry and Joe are discussing Barry's failure to talk down Cicada.)
Joe: Wait, what exactly did you say to him?
Barry: That he was creating a legacy of fear, one that would go down in history, but that we could work together to change that.
Joe: That sounds like something the Flash would say.
Barry: Well, I -am- the Flash.
Joe: Look, that man's a zealot. He sees you in that suit and all he sees is the thing he hates. Meta-human, superpowers, the thing that took his niece away from him. He can't see past The Flash. But what he doesn't know There's a whole lot more to you than that. Be more Barry Allen. Human.
Barry: Yeah, you're right. Thanks. I'm gonna dive back in. I'll let you get back to running down Ambres.
Joe: Actually... me and Cecile ran into a wall ourselves. We are uh, she like, working together. I mean, ever since she got her powers, it's like she's a human lie detector.
Barry: How is that a bad thing?
Joe: You know I've always prided myself on being able to read people, right? But Cecile and these powers, I mean, she puts me to shame.
Barry: Well, you just got to remember that you guys are a team. That makes her strengths your strengths and yours hers. So if you let her do what she's great at, it's only going to create more room for you to do more of what you're great at too, right?
Joe: Well, damn. You're getting real good at these pep talks, Bare.
Barry: Well, I had a pretty good teacher.
(Both men laugh.)

Cisco: Okay, one fresh serving of piping hot meta-human cure.
Dr. Ambres: I'm just supposed to trust that that thing works? Has it gone through any human testing? Cisco: It's gone through giant shark testing.


Continuity

When Nora visits Thawne as the episode opens, the timer in his cell is down to 18:53.

Thawne says that a new timeline is trying to manifest, which is undoing the set future where a newspaper article shows a photo of the final battle between Cicada and The Flash. The photo shows Cicada and Flash in an alley way, where the concrete is stained with acid burns.

Iris defends Barry's decision to try and talk sense into Cicada by pointing out he was successful in doing the same thing with The Mechanic in 423. She then admits that Barry totally failed to talk sense into Savitar in 323.

While going through the CCPD files on Cicada, Joe notices that one Dr. Vanessa Ambres treated both Grace Gibbons and Orlin Dwyer on the night of the Enlightenment and she continues to be Grace Gibbons' care provider, despite being assigned to the emergency room rather than long-term care. He also notices that the nurses reported a large number of drugs going missing from the coma ward. This leads Joe to conclude that Dr. Ambres must be working with Cicada, as he'd need a doctor's treatment to keep going with the wound Iris said he had in his chest.

Joe and Cecile agree to question Dr. Ambres together.

Barry fakes a distress call to get himself and Iris and Nora to C.C. Jitters, in order to surprise Nora with the news that a drink has been named in honor of her superhero identity - The XS-presso.

Barry and Iris' list of things they want to do with Nora before she returns to the future includes Skiing, sneaking onto the roof at Jitters, Zip-lining, eating at Sebastiano's, a Star Wars movie marathon, laser tag, teaching Nora how to drive, camping, karaoke and a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not listed, but mentioned, are going on a trip together and making Grandma Esther's famous sweet potato pie together.

Barry and Nora confront a new metahuman criminal, who is stealing and drinking acid in the chemistry lab at Central City University.

Nora explains that the acid burns left behind by the acid-drinking meta match those in a photo of the final battle between The Flash and Cicada. She says this must mean that the acid-drinking meta was Cicada's final target.

Sherloque asks why Nora didn't mention this before. Nora lies and says most of the information from her time she can remember has been unreliable but this has stayed solid so far.

Joe and Cecile don't do a good job questioning Dr. Ambres, with Joe trying to rely on his own gut instincts and police experience and Cecile overdoing it trying to signal him that she senses Dr. Ambres is lying.

Nora runs through several instances of Barry being able to talk villains down. These include Magenta in 302, Captain Cold in 203, Killer Frost in 307, Amunet Black in 421 and Plastique in 105. (The historical record may be incomplete in this case, at it was Killer Frost who bargained for Amunet Black's help, not Barry.)

Sherloque's translation of Nora's time language is 71% complete.

When Cisco asks if he is excited about almost having Cicada caught, Sherloque says he will be happy to go home, but he somehow senses his work on Earth 1 is not done yet.

Team Flash set up an ambush, with Killer Frost pretending to be Acid Master. She freezes Cicada's dagger so Barry has time to try and talk to him.

Barry tries to win Cicada over by telling him about the metahuman cure and saying that he's seen the future and Cicada's legacy is that of a monster, not a hero.

Cicada says he doesn't give a damn about his legacy and he almost kills Barry before being driven off by Killer Frost.

Joe and Cecile discover that Dr. Ambres' fiancee was killed during Zoom's rampage in Season 2. She has harbored a hatred of metahumans ever since.

Joe and Cecile tell Dr. Ambres about the meta-cure. She then agrees to help arrange a meeting with Cicada.

Joe and Cecile are told one more piece of information; Grace Gibbons is a metahuman, her powers having apparently activated in the last few weeks.

Sherloque suggests trying to incapacitate Cicada with the Memory Machine from 512.

Cisco wants to re-purpose the Speed Force Bazooka into a negative tachyon gun to stop Cicada.

Caitlin just wants to freeze Cicada from the neck down.

Barry ultimately elects to just talk to him, father to father, and tell him that Grace is a metahuman but STAR Labs can help save them both.

Nora reveals she had her own list of things she wanted to do while in the past. This included her parent's wedding, getting coffee at Jitters, being there the night of The Enlightenment and her Aunt Jenna's baby shower.

Cicada agrees to let Team Flash give him the meta-cure, but only if Dr. Ambres is there to assist with the surgery to fix the wound in his chest once he loses the powers that are keeping him alive despite it.

Cecile leaves the operating theater, unable to stand reading the rage coming from Cicada. This confirms that Cecile's powers are, like Caitlin's, not affected by Cicada's.

A new Cicada attacks STAR Labs just as Orlin Dwyer loses his powers and Killer Frost ice-sutures his chest wound shut. The new Cicada cannot negate metahuman abilities, but is able to parry bullets, The Flash's lightning, Vibe's sonic blasts and Killer Frost's ice blasts with their knives. They are also telekinetic and pin The Flash to the wall with an energy field while throwing furniture at the rest of Team Flash.

The new Cicada kills Dr. Ambres and escapes with the comatose Orlin Dwyer.

The final scene of the episode reveals the new Cicada to be an adult Grace Gibbons.


Location

Iron Heights - 2049


Untelevised Adventures

Acid Master is captured and subdued off-camera.


The Bottom Line

A serviceable but largely forgettable episode until the last five minutes, at which point it becomes much more than the sum of its parts. The new Cicada is an immediate smash and much more engaging (though that's largely because she doesn't have the laughable growly bad guy voice and isn't invincible.) A turning point for the season.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 15 - King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Cisco has completed work on the metahuman cure, but they still need a willing test subject to make sure it works. Barry suggests that King Shark - currently in the custody of ARGUS - might be just the man-shark for the job. Unfortunately, their visit coincides with Gorilla Grodd's attempt to escape custody and take over Central City with his newly honed psychic powers.


Influences

Traditional monster fighting monsters movies, The Shape of Water (subplot of woman falling in love with a fish monster) and The Flash comics of John Broome.


Goofs

Where the heck is Ralph Dibny this week? I know they probably couldn't afford two animal monsters AND the stretch guy this week, but it would have been nice if something had been said about where Ralph was.

Again, it must be noted how odd it is that Cisco - an engineer - is working on a cure for metahuman powers, while Caitlin - a medical doctor - constructs the delivery system.

It also seems strange that neither Caitlin nor Cisco had previously raised their objections to forcing their cure on metahumans who don't want to lose their powers... such as when Barry first suggested using their cure against Cicada weeks ago!

Even by the standards of comic book junk science, the idea that there is no way they'll ever be able to cure King Shark if he reverts back to his shark state is pure plot convenience. Or inconvenience in this case.


Performances

I didn't realize how much I missed Jesse L. Martin as Joe until they brought him back. While his subplot here is strictly unnecessary and is only there to make us realize how much we missed him... still good to have him back. Hopefully he'll be back in action soon.

The cast in general do a good job acting to empty air and suggesting that they believe all the various CGI beasties really are there.


Artistry

While the CGI is hardly the show's best, it is probably the best we could have hoped for given the difficulties of two CGI creatures fighting. And the effects team does a good job trying to make it look like the creatures have weight in the actual environment, even if Grodd seems way too bouncy for an 800 pound gorilla.


Flash Facts

Grodd is said to have climbed up the Broome Belfry. Located at the center of Central City, this building is doubtlessly named in honor of John Broome - a legendary Silver Age comics writer, who was probably most famous for his work on The Flash.


Technobabble

The metahuman cure works by altering a person's biology on a cellular level and suppressing the dark matter inside a metahuman's body.

Dark matter levels vary from meta-human to meta-human.

The Shay Lamden of Earth-Two developed a dark matter anomaly similar to the Shay Lamden of Earth-One. The difference is that while the Earth-One Lamden developed a mutated mass of tumors, which killed him, the Earth-Two Shay Lamden's neural pathways regressed, becoming more and more shark-like in his thinking.

Dr. Tanya Lamden was able to reverse King Shark's regression using a cerebral interface that stimulates his neural outputs, which she calls a telepathic crown.

Cisco compares the telepathic crown to the Mental Activity Dampener 2.0, even before they try using the two technologies together to increase their power and act as a lure for King Shark. The two are made to interact using a logarithmic code.

After having the metahuman cure used on him, King Shark's body still has some dark matter in his pituitary gland - the result of the first cure not being made with animal physiology in mind. A second dose, modified based on his unique biology should make his transformation to an ordinary human permanent.

A shark's amygdala triggers a huge emotional response when it feels attacked. Caitlin theorizes this is why Shay Lamden remembers very little of his early days as King Shark apart from rage.

Caitlin determines that King Shark's earlier rampage was caused by a severe brain wave disruption in his frontal lobe, resulting in a complete lack of control over emotions and judgment.The way the neurotransmitters work in the telepathic crown work never would have caused that. This leads to the revelation that Grodd was trying (and failing) to telepathically control King Shark.

Sharks only see in monochrome.

With the telepathic crown, Grodd's telepathy is powerful enough to override the anti-mind-control headsets that Cisco developed.

A vibration or jolt could be used to accelerate the cell cycle in Shay Lamden, prompting a return to the dark matter cellular form. Unfortunately,  saturating his metagene cells a second time will eliminate any possibility of the meta cure being able to ever restore him to normal.

When a shark is turned upside down, it enters tonic immobility - a state of paralysis.

Sharks have electroreceptor organs called ampullae of Lorenzini? It's how they detect electromagnetic fields and navigate. The organ can also attract electrical currents, which enables The Flash to wake up King Shark with a thrown lightning bolt.


Dialogue Triumphs

Sherloque: Monsieur Lamden, I should introduce myself. Sherloque Wells. You've probably heard of me. I have a question. I've been debating in my brain. What drives the King Shark? Is it the shark, or is it the man?
Shay Lamden: If you're asking should I be held accountable for my actions, my answer is simple. Yes, I should. I don't remember how many people I hurt, or who, but that's no excuse.

Sherloque: I see him out there and I see you in here in the shadows. Why is that, I wonder?
Tanya: Can you blame me? You saw his hand transform.
Sherloque: (chuckles) Yes, right. "Shark Week!" Not something you see every day, but no, I thought your hesitation occurred before that moment, not after. It was a slight hesitation, but it was there nonetheless. Again, why do you think that is?
Tanya: I don't know.
Sherloque: No? Well, perhaps I could be so bold as to offer a suggestion that it is not the hand of which you were frightened, but rather, it was seeing the face of the man that you love.
Tanya: I don't love Shay. We're friends.
Sherloque: All right, well, let's take a look at that too, shall we? So this is a friend from another Earth, for whom you left a high-paying job and for whom you have dedicated every waking moment of your life trying to help. It doesn't quite add up.
Tanya: I can't love Shay. He's my dead husband's doppelganger from Earth-2. How crazy would I have to be to fall in love with him?
Sherloque: No crazier than marrying the same woman from five different Earths. (laughs quietly) I know. I'm very good at marrying people, but not so great at staying married. Along the way, though, on these countless Earths and countless doppelgangers, I learned there is one thing that makes all of us unique. And if that is what you fell in love with, well then, perhaps a face doesn't matter that much.

Grodd: Hear your master, Humans. Soon, you will only know my will...The will of Grodd!

King Shark: Tanya, you look sad. Why?
Tanya: We found each other today, and now that connection is -
King Shark: Still here.
Tanya: Shay... What you did...
King Shark: I would do it again for you, my love.
(King Shark puts his hand against the glass of the tank. Tanya does the same.)


Continuity

Grodd was last seen in L317 as part of Damien Darhk's team. Before that, he was last seen on The Flash in 314.

King Shark and Dr. Tanya Lamden were last seen in 215.

ARGUS Director Lyla Michaels makes an appearance. She is informed of Nora's status as Barry's daughter from the future and comments that this is no stranger than finding out your son used to be your daughter - a reference to how Barry's time-traveling somehow caused Sara Diggle to become John Diggle Jr.

Joe West returns from his trip visiting Wally West in Tibet.

Joe suggests that someone besides Officer Jones might be helping Cicada out.

ARGUS hired Dr. Tanya Lamden to work with King Shark to try and find a way to improve his condition.

King Shark is agreeable to trying the cure, before he suddenly goes on a rampage.

Joe is allergic to Szechuan peppers.

Iris seems to have developed a fear of her new office, after hearing about all the times she died there after the events of 514.

Barry injects King Shark with the metacure after he grapples Cisco. The cure works, transforming him back into an ordinary human.

Shay Lamden says he only remembers fragments of his time as King Shark before Tanya began working with him.

It is revealed that Grodd escaped his cell at ARGUS by planting a psychic suggestion in his guard's mind when the power was knocked out and the power dampeners in his cell turned off during The Enlightenment. The suggestion was to keep the power dampeners powered down while Grodd bid his time and gathered the information he needed for a new plan to take over Central City.

This led to Grodd's discovery of King Shark's telepathic crown and the realization he could use that to augment his telepathy to rule a whole city.

Sunset is Shay Lamden and Tanya Lamden's favorite time of day.

Joe reveals to Iris that the reason he stayed in Tibet for so long was so that he could heal himself after his confrontation with Cicada in 503.

Joe tried to help Iris work through her fears by having her punch them out on a punching bag.

The Flash Museum wrongly says that speedsters are immune to Gorilla Grodd's telepathy.

Shay Lamden elects to become King Shark again, since Grodd can't control his half-shark brain.

King Shark beats Gorilla Grodd.

Grodd is placed in a medically induced coma to prevent him from telepathically controlling his guards ever again.

Ever since being exposed to the telepathic crown, Grodd's telepathic powers are now growing without any outside stimuli. A coma was the only thing Caitlin could think of that would keep him alive without endangering his life.

Cisco also develops a new set of AI-enhanced power dampeners for Grodd's cell at ARGUS that continually upgrade to match Grodd's power level.

Cisco's favorite comfort food is Swedish Fish candy.

Barry thinks the team should approach Cicada and offer to let him take the metahuman cure.


Untelevised Adventures

It is never explained just how Grodd was returned to ARGUS custody after having become unstuck in time during Legends of Tomorrow Season 3. Presumably the Time Bureau returned him to his cell after Grodd's attack on Amaya Jiwe's village in 1992.


The Boomerang Factor.

The chief fight of the episode could have been avoided had Barry not very slowly worked his way to the downed Grodd and removed his crown at super-speed.


The Bottom Line

The episode takes its time in delivering its promised fight, but once we get it... it's there. It's not that the fight is dissatisfying, but it takes forever for Grodd to be revealed and there's something awfully strange about an episode where the main characters are acting like cardboard cut-outs while the most satisfying emotional subplot involves two characters we haven't seen in three years. The bits with Joe and Iris are okay, but feel completely disconnected from everything else.

For a filler episode based around a ludicrous comic-book idea though, this episode is oddly satisfying. But it would have been better had the premise been given two episodes for Grodd's plan to be better fleshed out, like the last time he attacked Central City and for us to have had more time to develop the conflict between Barry's desire to use the cure to save lives and Cisco and Caitlin not wanting to turn it into a weapon against every metahuman some other authority decides shouldn't have powers. There was a time and a place for this argument and it was several episodes ago when Barry first suggested using the cure against Cicada. Again, more time (and a second episode) might have helped with this. All in all, though... not a bad bit of filler.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 14 - Cause and XS

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

After Iris is endangered by Cicada, Nora starts using time-travel to try and save the day, only to progressively make the situation even worse. Meanwhile, with the metahuman cure nearly complete, Cisco takes a night off for a date with his new friend, the bartender Kamilla.


Influences

The movies Groundhog Day (the character keeps relieving the same day over and over trying to find a way to break the loop) and Run, Lola, Run (a woman running to save her boyfriend causes slight variations in the chain of events as we see the same sequence play out multiple times)


Goofs

If Ralph was at his office when Cicada attacked Iris the first time, why wasn't he the first one there when Iris' panic alarm was activated?

Really, how many more times is the team going to take down Cicada and then just stand there as he gets away?  Just dog-pile him and put the meta-blockers on him!

Honestly, the most unforgivable aspect of this episode is they didn't go with the much better title of Run, Nora, Run.


Artistry

The effects work and transitions as Nora runs back in time is rather nice.


Flash Facts

Nora attempts to change the past 52 times. This is yet another repeated use of the number 52, which, as has been noted before, is a number of some significance in the DC Comics Universe.

Cisco says that he doesn't have to dress like Ozone to impress Kamilla. This is a reference to the movie Breakin'.


Technobabble

The metahuman cure requires one month to fully synthesize.

Sherloque suggests the Speed Force might be used to enhance the synthesis process. All compounds are formed by a catalyst and the most efficient catalyst for a compound that negates dark matter is super-luminal particles like tachyons. Since the densest tachyons in existence lie inside The Speed Force, a trip with the metahuman cure through the heart of the Speed Force should prepare it in the span of an hour.

Cicada's dagger is revealed to allow him to detect nearby metahumans. This allows him to find Ralph in the office across the hall from Iris' office, when Cicada goes looking for Iris and she isn't there.

When Cisco is lying about what kind of workouts he indulges in, he mentions pilates for the core, plyometrics for the quads and circuit training along with finger push-ups.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Nora, having just traveled back in time, runs into Ralph, who asks if Cisco has left for his date yet.)
Nora: I don't think so.
Ralph: Great! I get another chance at this.
(Ralph walks into the main lab. Nora looks into the room and sees everyone else, realizing where.. and when... she is.)
Nora: ... we do.

(On the third time through the loop.)
Barista 1: One Zoom and one decaf Flash.
Kamilla: Thank you.
(Cisco is about to reach for one of the cups then stops himself.)
Cisco: Something's wrong.
(Barista 1 gives him the side-eye.)
Cisco: And I think I have to go.
Kamilla: Right now?
Cisco: No. (pointing to his phone on the table) Right... now.
(The trouble alert on Cisco's phone goes off.)
Cisco: (sadly) Yep. Gotta go. (getting up) Umm - I'd ask if we could have a do-over, but, um, something tells me we already have.
(Cisco exits, leaving a stunned Kamilla behind, stammering in shock.)
Barista 1: The men in this city.
Barista 2: Tell me about it.

Cisco: Nora, sometimes we fail because all we worry about is not failing.


Dialogue Disasters

Cicada: You said you were going to beat me, but tonight... (growling) I'm going to beat you.  All of you.


Continuity

Cisco has started looking at Kamilla's photos on-line in anticipation of their date. He worries she might be too good for him.

Nora refers to Barry having to stay in the Pipeline for 24 houirs in 510 and Iris' encounter with Cicada in 513 to persuade Barry not to go into the Speed Force alone right now.

Ralph has written a companion book to The Book of Ralph from 502 called The Book Of Love. It follows up his 27-step plan for getting over a bad-breakup with a blueprint for approaching a first date. The book includes chapters on Initial Planning (Chapter One), Knowing Your Terrain (Chapter Six) and Intelligence and Reconnaissance (Chapter Thirteen). This last step involves looking at her public profile on social media and determining what kind of men she has been interested in in the past.

Caitlin and Sherloque excuse themselves to finish working on the injection device for the metahuman cure.

Iris goes back to her office to work on a story.

At 8:27 PM, Iris is knocked out by Cicada.

There is a drink called The Cicada at C.C. Jitters.

Based on a picture of Kamilla with some guy in a suit and slicked-back hair, Cisco shows up for the date in a suit with slicked back hair.

Cisco tries to play the suave businessman but only comes off as a conceited prick who profits off of other people's work after Kamilla asks why he wears a business suit in the lab (remembering his using science terms when they first met in 512) and he lies about working for Ramon Industries.

Kamilla's drink of choice is a Decaf Flash.

Cisco's drink of choice is the Zoom.

When Cisco gets Iris' alarm warning, he asks Kamilla for a raincheck. She doesn't even say goodbye as she leaves.

Iris' alarm sounds at 8:52 PM.

Cicada throws his dagger in a long arc and commands it to hit Killer Frost in the back when it comes back to him, having seen XS and Killer Frost coming.

Nora runs back in time to just as Ralph was arriving at STAR Labs with The Book of Love.

Sherloque seems to recognize something is wrong when Nora comes back the second time.

Nora persuades Iris to stay at STAR Labs on her second time around.

This time, without Nora in the lab to watch Cisco as he is looking through Ralph's photos of Kamilla, this time he sees one of her being lifted up by a large, sporty-looking fellow.

Cicada goes to Iris' office but she isn't there. This leads to him sensing Ralph, who is across the hall in his detective agency, and Cicada knocking Ralph out. This time, he recognizes Ralph as Elongated Man but otherwise gives the same speech about beating all of Team Flash tonight.

The second time, Cisco shows up for his date in a t-shirt and ball-cap. He tries to play the part of a gym rat, but Kamilla said she thought he was the kind of guy more concerned with flexing his mental muscles than his physical ones.

This second time, Cisco touches Kamilla's hand as they reach for the same drink instead of being stopped by the barista. He vibes the baristas making derisive comments about his not knowing a decaf from his own drink by looking and how the men in Central City are idiots.

Once again, Kamilla leaves when Cisco asks for a do-over date, without saying a word.

The second time, Raph shouts a warning about Cicada's dagger and Nora moves Killer Frost out of the way, only for Ralph to be stabbed by Cicada's dagger.

The third time, Sherloque definitely seems to think something is up with Nora but says nothing. 

Nora convinces Iris to stay and write her article at STAR Labs and convinces Ralph to stay and try some of the brownies she has in the lounge.

Nora encourages Cisco to look at Ralph's collection of pictures of Kamilla. This time, when he handles them, he vibes Kamilla saying that she thought he was a man who flexes his brain rather than his muscles from the second time Nora time-traveled.

Sherloque also seems to notice Cisco's odd reaction, which Cisco describes as deja vu.

It is 8:07 PM when Cisco leaves for his date the third time.

The third time, Sherloque goes to Iris' office and is ambushed by Cicada at 8:27 PM.

The third time, Cisco shows up for his date looking like a male model and claiming to be a social media influencer. He gives Kamilla a business card. This time, when he touches her hand, he vibes her saying that the last time they spoke he was talking about genomes and DNA so she assumed he was a scientist.

The third time, Kamilla orders their drinks instead of Cisco.

This time, Nora goes in to face Cicada alone, not taking Caitlin with her. Unfortunately, being Cisco left his date earlier, he gets there just in time to get stabbed in the back by Cicada before Nora gets there.

The fourth time, Nora takes everyone into the lounge and tells them they have to stay there for one hour.

The fourth time, Cisco vibes Ralph showing him the photos he took from Kamilla's profile and the details from his previous dates about what kind of man she thought Cisco was.

The fourth time, Cicada breaks into Iris' office and finds a picture of Iris with Joe and Cecile.

The fourth time, Cisco texts Kamilla and says he won't be able to make their date because of a problem at work.

The fourth time, Cicada takes Cecile Horton hostage and she is stabbed with the dagger before Nora arrives.

This leads into a rapid fire montage where everyone dies again, several times, in different ways, with Ralph in costume as Elongated Man dying at one point.

Nora tries entering into the Speed Force to find her dad and get his help, but she can't do it for some reason. She also can't go back to before Barry entered the Speed Force.

After 52 attempts, everyone figures out that Nora is reversing time.

Ralph says this may be one of the fixed points that The Legends theorized and that there's no way to alter things so that nobody dies.

Cisco tells Nora about how he once died in an alternate timeline in 115.

Nora has seen both Breakin' movies.

Team Flash finally breaks the chain by having Iris lure Cicada to the roof. He throws the dagger as he sees XS approaching, at which point Vibe, Elongated Man and Killer Frost arrive.  Vibe creates two portals as Elongated Man stretches his arm and Killer Frost ice blasts toward Cicada.  The dagger almost hits Ralph, but it goes backward as Nora reverses time. She uses Elongated Man's arm as a dragline and runs through Killer Frost's blast, which slows her down enough to steer her way throubh one Vibe portal and out the other. This lets Nora push Cicada into the path of his own dagger. He is still somehow able to super-jump away.

This time, when Cisco goes on the date, he is himself, doesn't lie, is honest about being a tech guy more than a scientist but the passion with which he speaks about helping people with his new project hooks Kamilla's interest instantly. He also calls their orders ahead and says he just had a feeling about what Kamilla would like. This time the baristas speak of him with approval, saying he's not like most of the men in the city. This time, Cisco asks for a do-over and Kamilla agrees.

Barry is stunned when Nora tells him about how she traveled in time 53 times trying to fix the situation. He gives her the same speech Jay Garrick did in 302 using a broken coffee cup as a metaphor for time. He also tells her that no one can account for how things can be changed by a trip through time. This stuns Nora, who seems to have been told differently.

Sherloque is seen working on translating the time-code again

Nora goes back to 2049 and asks Thawne is he is sure he knows what he is doing. He angrily insists he is the only speedster who knows what they are doing before assuring Nora that if she follows his instructions, they can defeat Cicada, destroy his dagger and save her father.


Location

Iron Heights Prison - 2049


The Bottom Line

A decent enough filler episode, though Cisco's attempts at playing someone else to impress his date reek of the Idiot Ball and don't jibe with Cisco's usual empowered nerdiness. Still, the effects work is great though Legends of Tomorrow really did this storyline better twice with Here I Go Again and Legends of To-Meow-Meow.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 13 - Goldfaced

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Barry and Ralph go undercover to explore the black market of Central City's metahuman criminal underworld. Unfortunately, the two heroes quickly find themselves in a position where they may have to commit a crime to get what they need to defeat Cicada. Meanwhile, Iris' investigation into Cicada's whereabouts gets her into a sticky situation.


Influences

Every cop movie where the straight-arrow cop goes undercover and immediately blows their cover because of a crime they can't ignore.


Goofs

Granting that Team Flash is supposed to be all about not killing, that didn't stop Iris from killing Savitar. So why doesn't she finish the job when she has Cicada down and in pain? (Apart from ending the chief battle of the season about ten episodes early, of course...)


Artistry

The sequence of Barry and Ralph going all Call of Duty on Goldface's men to Rob Zombie's Dragula is a perfect balance of music, lighting and stunt-work blending together into a glorious whole.


Flash Facts

First appearing in Green Lantern #38 in July 1965, Goldface was originally designed as a foil for the Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan, whose power ring could not affect anything that was yellow. A criminal scientist named Keith Kenyon, Goldface developed a serum based on gold that gave him super-strength, invulnerability and a golden glow. He also utilized a gold-gun that sprayed liquid gold and wore golden armor. In time,Goldface changed from a simple bank robber to a crime boss and tried to use his powers to muscle in on existing criminal empires. This brought him into conflict with The Flash. Eventually, his elixir turned his skin into organic metal.

Goldface's background was retconned significantly Post-Crisis. Now, Goldface was the son of a union leader in Central City, who turned to crime to rebel against his family. He also acquired his powers after being exposed to a sunken chest full of gold that had been altered by toxic waste. Otherwise his career as a criminal was largely the same, except that he moved to Keystone City after his release and followed in his father's footsteps to become the Commissioner of Union 242. He teamed up with The Flash to save the city after his ex-wife, the villain Blacksmith, attempted to form a new Rogues' Gallery to take over the city's underworld. Unfortunately, his reformation didn't stick and he later died in prison, killed by the Darkstar Tomar Tu, who was trying to avenge the death of his father (the Green Lantern Tomar Re) at Goldface's hands.

The Arrowverse version of Goldface is Blacksmith's ex-boyfriend. He's said to have stolen more weaponized technology than any criminal in Central City. He's been said to have been running a black market in Central City for years and is now running Blacksmith's territory as well. He has the metahuman power to change his skin to gold, much like how Citizen Steel becomes organic steel. This makes him stronger and more durable than an average person but does make him more conductive to electricity, as Barry is able to disable him by tricking him into using his gold chain whip on a power box.

The character of Renee Adler seems to be inspired by Irene Adler in the same way that Sherloque Wells is a tribute to Sherlock Holmes. In the classic Sherlock Holmes stories, Irene Adler was a career criminal in the story "A Scandal in Bohemia" who managed to get the better of Holmes. She is often presented as a romantic interest for Holmes in the stories inspired by the original tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but many Doyle purists believe that Sherlock only admired her for her wit and there was no romantic intention at all.

Barry goes by the name The Chemist while posing as a criminal in the black market. There was a criminal known as The Chemist in Batman: The Animated Series, who appeared in the episode "Batgirl Returns." An expert on acids, explosives and poisons, he claimed to be able to identify any chemical by appearance or scent.

The maker of the 3-D printer Goldface wants to steal is Ivo Labs. This is the same company that made the Amazo robot from Elseworlds, which was named in honor of Professor Anthony Ivo - a mad scientist who was a frequent enemy of the Justice League.


Technobabble

Unfortunately, the metagene cure that Cisco and Caitlin have developed is not as simply administered as loading a chemical into a tranquilizer dart and shoot someone with a sniper rifle.

Cisco developed his cure by analyzing identical twins - one of whom became a metahuman and the other didn't. The key difference in all cases was the pituitary gland.

It seems that the pituitary gland metabolizes dark matter through the body, which results in the development of metahuman powers. Turning a metahuman into a regular human requires that the the dark matter in the pituitary gland be neutralized.

The cure does not work instantaneously. The subject has to be immobilized for one minute for the cure to take effect.

Van Horn industries created a peaceful anti-riot device called a Neuro-Stasis Field Generator.  Basically, it's a biological EMP that can immobilize any living organism within a confined radius.

Barry makes reference to a museum heist in Star City where atomized lorazepam was used to knock out the guards.

Goldface asks Barry and Ralph to help him steal a cutting-edge 3-D printer that can create artificial organs.


Dialogue Triumphs

Thawne: A man does not wear another man's face unless he understands his mind. Not just through time, but across Infinite Earths. This Sherloque... yes, he's brilliant, but.. to redirect his gaze, one only has to nudge him towards his weakness.  Love.

Ralph: I know what you're thinking.
Barry: We're supposed to pay Goldface and then just let him get away?
Ralph: Come on. You said we need to think outside the box.
Barry: This is making a deal with the devil.
Ralph: No, this is stopping Cicada. Look, I don't like this anymore than you do, but in some cases the ends justify the means. And stopping a psychotic meta-killer who we are literally powerless against? That's one of those cases.

Barry: Dude. if we make the wrong move in here, these cuffs are going to be the least of our worries.
Ralph: New game plan. The antihero of our dynamic duo will find the Field Generator. And you're just going to stay here and try not to look like a cop. Or a superhero.
Barry: Okay.
Ralph: Or really anything you actually are.
Barry: (annoyed) Just go! I'm fine!

Goldface: I'm going to ask once more. Who. Are. You?
Barry: I'm nobody. No arrests. No convictions. Not for the Star City Museum heist where atomized lorazepam knocked the guards out. Or the acid bomb that blew open the Federal Reseve vault last month.
Goldface: That was you?
Barry: Not according to the police reports. Because the only evidence I leave behind are red herrings for idiot cops to chase down. You want to know who I am? You can call me The Chemist. But I really don't care what you call me. Just stop wasting my time.
(There is a long tense moment as Goldface's henchmen look to him. He nods and smiles.)
Goldface: (To Ralph) You should let him do the talking.
Ralph: Yeah. I get that a lot.

(Goldface explains that he wants Barry to steal a 3-D printer that prints artificial organs.)
Barry: You want us to rob a hospital?
Goldface: Of course not! I'm not a monster. I want you to rob the lab before it ever gets to the hospital.

(Four of Sherloque's ex-wives are talking over each other demanding money.)
Sherloque: Ladies -
Ex-Wife #3: We know you had Superman deliver your alimony to your ex on Earth-38.
Sherloque (laughs nervously) What?
Ex-Wife #3: You think we don't all talk?
Sherloque: (To Nora) I was hoping they don't all talk.

(Ralph is struggling on the groundwith one of Goldface's men. Barry is standing there, holding a brick.)
Ralph: Brick!
Barry (nodding) Ralph!
(Barry throws the brick and hits the henchman in the head. He is out instantly and Ralph gets up.)
Ralph: Well, thank you, but for the record I meant throw the brick to me.
Barry: I was trying to throw it to you.

(Ralph and Barry walk out to see Goldface with their hands up.)
Goldface: Good boys. I was hoping you wouldn't make daddy use his belt. Since you obeyed me, I'm not going to blow your arms off.
(Goldface begins to shrug out of his jacket and turns his back on Barry and Ralph.)
Goldface: I'm going to kill you in a more traditional way. And I promise-
(As he turns back around Barry and Ralph have drawn their stun guns and open fire.)
Ralph: He really should have frisked us first.
(Goldface groans and starts to pull himself up.His skin is cut, revealing gold metal underneath.)
Goldface: See, that's the thing. My gold?  Don't just make me look pretty.


Dialogue Disasters

The whole of the Cicada vs. Iris fight.


Continuity

As the episode opens, Sherloque is still trying to translate the Time Language and wondering who Nora is working with.

Thawne is working with Nora to stop Cicada, though why he's doing so is unclear.

According to Eobard Thawne, there's always a Wells helping Team Flash. He says that every version of Harrison Wells across the multiverse is weakened by love in some form or fashion.

After one week, the Central City Citizen is failing to pick up readers and Iris is feeling depressed after reading a review that says her news site is boring. Worse yet, it is compared unfavorably to Spyn's site from 504.

Caitlin says she and Cisco have almost finished their metagene cure but it requires the subject to be immobilized for one minute to start working.

Caitlin knows that a new technology by Van Horn industries might be able to stop Cicada for that long, but all the prototypes were stolen.

Ralph has a connection who knows something about the stolen technology black market in Central City. This contact, Earl Cox, previously appeared in 413.

Amunet Black (aka Blacksmith) is still said to be at large.

Earl Cox says that the way Goldface's black market works is that he teleports the goods to an abandoned warehouse a day after the sale is arranged. That way nobody knows where his operation is being run from. He tells Barry to tell Goldface's people that Big Raf sent them.

Thawne helps Nora figure out a way to plan a "meet-cute" between Sherloque and a woman named Renee Adler.

Sherloque determines at a glance that Renee Adler is a trained ballet dancer (she says she has studied since she was four), is from the East Coast of the United States, grew up in a small village by a bay, works as a librarian at a university, lives by a train station in a small, split-level pad and that she has an old Corgi dog as a pet. It's about the time that he gets to the train station that Renee becomes creeped out and calls him a stalker.

Nora offers to help Sherloque with wooing Renee.

The password to enter Goldface's market is "The streets are paved with gold,"

When Barry and Ralph enter Goldface's market, they are teleported to somewhere Caitlin's GPS cannot find them.

Everyone who enters Goldface's market is fitted with a power-dampening cuff. It is rigged to explode if a metahuman tries to use their powers anyway.

One of the weapon's dealers in the black market sells an energy weapon he calls a Toastmaster. It fires a bolt of energy that can burn through police-issue body armor in seconds.

Barry gets Goldface's attention after he asks about buying all the Toastmasters.

Brent Osmack is Orlin Dwyer's manager at the plant he used to work at. Iris arranges an interview, nominally about union reform, but starts asking questions about Dwyer. Sheis told that Dwyer had his checks sent to a P.O. Box but he once had to forward it to a cousin's house. The cousin's name was Robbie Byrne.

Barry takes credit for a museum heist in Star City and blowing a vault at the Federal Reserve with an acid bomb.

Goldface agrees to give Ralph and Barry the tech they need in exchange for helping him with a heist that night. Goldface wants to steal a new 3-D printer that is capable of printing artificial organs before it is delivered to the local hospital

Ralph gave Iris some sort of burglar's tool for a birthday persent, which she uses to break into Robbie Byrne's house and confirm that Cicada is there.

The sketch Nora made of Cicada's home in Grace Gibbon's mind looks just like the home Iris breaks into.

All of Sherloque's five ex-wives are revealed to be alternate Earth versions of the same woman - Renee Adler. Four of them answer Nora's request to help Sherloque figure out what attracted them to him... but only so they know what Earth he is on now so that they can demand their alimony.

The one ex-wife we don't see is the one from Earth-38, to whom Superman delivered an alimony check in S409. 

All of Sherloque's ex-wives talk to each other on a regular basis.

One of Sherloque's ex-wives claims he released fruit bats at their wedding instead of doves because he thought it was romantic. (Sherloque knew she loved endangered animals and thought it would be a unique gesture.)

Another of Sherloque's ex-wives is allergic to dogs. He got her a puppy as an anniversary gift thinking she could slowly build up an immunity.

Sherloque attempted to fake his death to get away from one ex-wife. Twice. She fell for it both times.

Iris becomes stuck in Cicada's home while he is there. She is able to get to the front door and pretend that she was coming in when the door squeaks. She asks if he is Robbie Byrne and he says he is.

Iris claims she is writing a story about lead leaking into the water through old pipes in Cicada's neighborhood.

Iris asks if he has a daughter, looking at the dollhouse Nora saw in her time in Grace Gibbon's head. He says he used to.

Nora suggests that Sherloque's problem is he treats love like a mystery to be solved rather than something to be savored.

Ralph locks Barry up in one of Goldface's trucks so that he doesn't have to get his hands dirty with the robbery.

Barry is able to get out of the truck by using a slither of metal as a screwdriver to disassemble the grating on the window on the truck door.

Ralph decides to fight Goldface's men after finding a list of children approved for the donor organs the 3-D printer can me on top of the box containing the printer.

Goldface is beaten after Barry tricks him into whipping a power box with his gold chain.

Cicada notices Iris' purse that she left in his living room when she broke in. This leads to Iris desperately having to fight her way out of his house, stabbing him in the chest.

Barry says he and Ralph can be proud that they took down a metahuman with no powers.

Iris says she thinks she figured out Cicada's weakness.

Sherloque approaches Renee Adler and apologizes for creeping her out. He proves he is a detective and not a talker by observing that a random man at the coffee shop is lactose intolerant and predicting when he's about to react badly to his latte.

Sherloque realizes the Earth-One version of Renee Adler is a metahuman when a door opens for her as she is leaving the coffee shop.

With Sherloque realizing his new love is a metahuman, he throws himself back into the Cicada case instead of working on translating Nora's time language.


Location

Iron Heights - 2049


The Bottom Line

An episode so that is so fun you won't mind that it's all a gigantic shaggy dog story.