THE FLASH - Season 5.6

REVIEW:  THE FLASH - SEASON 5, EP. 6:  "The Icicle Cometh"

We have wondered for so long about the origins of Dr. Caitlin Snow...especially her alter ego of Killer Frost.  We know about her mother, and what kind of work she's involved in.  Moreso, we know that her mother hasn't exactly been overly maternal, and thus has had a.....shall we say...."icy" relationship with Caitlin, especially in the wake of finding out about Caitlin's powers.  So, with this installment of the Monarch of Motion, we get to dive into the story of Dr. Thomas Snow, and the mystery surrounding HIS disappearance.  Also:  we have Ralph and Cecile tracking down information on people effected by the Enlightenment to get a clue on Cicada's origins, as well as some awkward bonding between Iris and Nora.  

We see a young lady grabbing an order to go at Jitters, and as she walks by, we see the familiar dagger of Cicada's glow, indicating a metahuman in the area.  Cicada then proceeds to follow the lady, all garbed up, and she's ready to do battle.  Out come the sword like powers she has, and they fight.  She looks like she gets the upper hand on Cicada by slicing him one, but in the end, it's all for naught as he steals her powers, and does her in.

Back at STAR Labs, the team has finally been able to adapt Devoe's satellites to their advantage.  They figure out the core of one of the satellites fell during the Enlightenment, and injured people, and the core was never found.  Ralph suggests he grab Joe and check FEMA for a list of people injured by the debris, while Sherloque and Irish search for the core itself----and Nora asks to tag along, and Iris agrees.  While the rest of the team is out doing the investigation legwork, the core trio of the team look into Caitlin's dad (since they felt they had nothing else better to do...must be nice for Barry to have all this down time from his actual JOB at CCPD as a CSI.  But I guess that's an "on call" thing, since---with HIS powers---he can do all the lab work in minutes).

They manage to use the satellites to track down Thomas to a Tannehauser lab up North.  They use a breacher apparatus to head there, where they do, in fact, find Thomas Snow.  He talks about how he has ALS and had used cryogenics with the help of Dr. Louise Lincoln, Dr. Victor Fries, and Harrison Wells (seriously...WHO in the known Arrowverse that belongs to the science community HASN'T worked with Harrison?!).  You see a cryochamber as well as as a bio type of container.  Wells had set up a camera, where he could see Caitlin, but couldn't communicate.  I think when he mentioned the camera, it made Barry A LITTLE unsettled (secret ID and all).  

We then check in with Ralph as he's looking for Joe, but Joe's out with baby Jenna for the day (we miss you Jesse L. Martin---get better soon!).  Cecile, however, is willing to help out with Ralph's investigation at FEMA (nice to know that as a DA, she's got some clout).  Ralph was hoping for Joe, since Cecile isn't coming off as intimidating.  She manages to be intimidating enough for Ralph to have her help out---once she pumps breastmilk out (gotta love the humor in this show---keeps things a little more lighthearted, and not quite so serious like on Arrow).  At the FEMA site, Cecile and Ralph happen upon one of the workers, where Cecile attempts to come off as intimidating...but fails.  The employee says that if they want information, they need a warrant.  

Back at STAR, Caitlin is running tests, trying to see how to help her Dad, but Cisco has reservations.  It's here that we find out that not only did Thomas have ALS and used cryogenics to help cure him, but that he also did the same to Caitlin, because she had the same genetic markers for ALS.  Thomas admitted using the same experiments on her, and that's when we find out how she developed her dual personality.  Cisco noted that if that is the case, where was HIS dual personality, to which Thomas noted he didn't have one.  Cisco heads off to do some satellite hacking to get into the DoD, and Caitlin and her Dad continue to bond.

On the satellite investigation front, we have Sherloque, Iris, and Nora looking around near the crash site to find the missing satellite core, but no luck.  Nora wants to help Iris investigate, but is having no luck.  She looks to head back to the lab, and Sherloque holds her up, having her admit that she just wanted to spend time with her Mom, but it's not going so well.  He says not to fret, they will find something for her to do.  

While trying to find a DoD site to help out with Thomas' cause (he needs to be in a containment area that the temperature can be at absolute zero), and that they can use Caitlin's blood to help him get better, Cisco gets frustrated, and breaches back to the lab up North to do some snooping.  While looking around he bumps into the lab table and he vibes to see Thomas working on something, and while in shock, he stumbles back into the canister we had seen earlier, and he vibes that, finding out that Thomas had put something in there.

Earlier on, as Caitlin and Thomas were re bonding with each other, he had a seizure, which led to them figuring out that the croyogenics he used is rewriting his DNA, and that's when they figured that if he had Caitlin's blood, it would help.  There is a laser at the DoD that would initiate absolute zero, that could help Thomas from dying.

We check in on Cicada again,and he looks in bad shape.  Aside from  the glowing wound he already has, he's now got the fresh wound from the sword wound from the meta he killed.  The Doctor taking care of his daughter is frustrated that he's killing all these metas, but it's not saving his daughter.  He brushes her off and leaves.  She's growing more and more concerned.

Back with Cecile and Ralph, she is frustrated that she's lost her mojo, and can't be the Cecile Horton that she was.  Ralph said a lot of the cops he used to work with had a nickname for her because she was so tough, and she quickly gets in his grill and tells him NEVER to call her that again.  Ralph surmises that she can be that person, and that maybe her powers were making her empathetic, reading on their emotions, and she's experiencing them herself.  She says they need info on that employee, and Ralph's nose twitches, which he says happens when he smells a mystery.  Cecile isn't impressed.

The satellite core investigation has hit a snag, and both Iris and Nora are frustrated, as Sherloque feels it's tea time (for a French guy, didn't know tea time was their thing, only the British---but what do I know....I'm not European).  It is here that Iris and Nora put their heads together and see a sign for a carnival on a billboard, where they figure out the core is in the lake.  Using the techniques Iris told her, Nora uses the same situation Iris used last year to fight off the fire guy, and get the core out of the lake.

Ralph manages to get the dirt on the FEMA employee using some unscrupulous contacts that Cecile doesn't want  to know about, and the head back to he FEMA facility to obtain the information, once they find out he's been scamming the victims out of their money.  They bring the information back to STAR labs.

Once Cisco returns, he calls Thomas out for lying to them.  He said that Thomas was using Caitlin, and that he'd keeping skin grafts and more in an incubator.  He said that Thomas WAS the alter ego, but Caitlin, offended, wanted NONE of it.  She sends Cisco off, and Barry follows to talk to him.  Cisco says that Barry's not seeing clearly, because he himself has been involved with his daughter from the future.  Cisco worries about Caitlin, and asks Barry to see things as a CSI.  Once Barry talks to Caitlin about it, it's then that Caitlin realizes that her Dad was using her.  That if he injects her blood into him at absolute zero, her father will be gone, and all that will be left is the alter.  Once she confronts him on this, he attacks, leaving them downed by his cold powers.  He grabs the vial with her blood, and heads to the DoD.

Meanwhile, Cicada's not looking all that hot.  He's at home, the wounds look worse, and he feelin' pretty weak.  Just as he's reaching for the vial of medicine, he collapses.

Team Flash makes it to the DoD to try and stop the Icicle from taking over Thomas Snow completely, and causing who knows what kind of trouble.  He manages to subdue the team with his powers, and with the overall temperature in the containment area dropping fast towards absolute zero.  Everyone's temps are falling, and hypothermia is about to set in, when Sherloque sees that Caitlin is unaffected by the drop in temperature.  She is the only hope to save the day.  Just as the Icicle is looking to put the finishing touches on Team Flash, and fulfill his plan, Caitlin's Killer Frost powers activate in a moment of anger and panic, and blasts her Dad out of the way.  She goes on to say that she has a family that loves her, and it's the team.  He tries to sway her, and say hat the can do anything together, but she blasts him again.  As she heads towards him to finish him off, she steps on the vial, destroying the sample.  She comes in and bashes him a few times, and just as she's about to put his lights out, her father re-emerges just long enough to distract her.  Icicle blasts her away, and he takes off.  Caitlin then hits the thermostat to knock it out and get the room back to normal temperature, thus saving the day.  Cisco vows to Caitlin that they will find her Dad and save him.

At STAR labs, the team assembles, and we see them examining the core, where they find the piece of metal missing from it that's in the shape of Cicada's knife.  Cecile and Ralph also come forth with the info that no one fitting Cicada's description was treated, but there were 3 kids...one of them a 10 year old girl by the last name of Hersh.  They now feel they found his daughter.  Later on, we see Caitlin realize that perhaps her Mom was just trying to protect her, and wasn't the bad guy after all.  Cisco and Barry also come to the conclusion that Devoe didn't, in fact, take away Caitlin's powers, but used a different set of powers to put a mental block on Caitlin, making it impossible for her to call up Killer Frost.  Cisco hands her Wells' mental activity dampner, so that she can connect with Killer Frost again.

At the end of the episode, we see the Doctor over at Cicada's home, where she finds him on the floor.  She looks to address his wounds, but he gets up, and says he's getting stronger.

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This was a really good episode...and one where we got to go deeper into the life of Caitlin Snow, to see what makes her tick, and why her family is the way it is.  It was heartwarming to see her finally bond with her Dad all these years, but heartbreaking to know that he betrayed her on so many levels.  Using suspect experiments on her to cure her of the same disease that ailed him is criminal in and of itself...that's child endangerment, no matter HOW noble and loving the cause.  Causing her to have a split personality and super powers to boot only made it that much worse.  Caitlin is an interesting case, considering she's the one metahuman thus far that was NOT effected by the particle accelerator, and who knows how many more are out there on Earth 1 (I say that because we haven't explored all of Earth 1's denizens yet).  But in the end, it was great to see Caitlin come full circle, and it's great to have Killer Frost back---she makes Caitlin much more entertaining.  Credit to Danielle Panabaker for her performance this week.  And kudos to Carlos Valdes, who's Cisco Ramon continues to show a big heart for his friends, especially his BFF Caitlin.

For all the goofiness Sherloque is...he is still very shrewed, and notices the little details, as he did with Nora.  He understands her desire to bond with her mother, and kept her around so that she could do so.  It was also nice to see the relationship between Iris and Nora "thawed out" to borrow a pun, and that they CAN work together.  Iris encouraging Nora in using her powers the same way that she did when she had them was a nice touch.  You can see a proud look on Mom's face.  If anyone had paid any attention, when Nora had insisted on joining Iris on their investigation, and Iris agreed, you could see they cut to Barry, with that happy smile on his face---finally seeing Mother and Daughter begin to bond.  It also goes a long way to changing the future to HOPEFULLY a better one for Iris and Nora.  

The laughs this week belong to Cecile and Ralph.  We know Ralph is funny, but it was nice to see Cecile back in action, helping out the team with the Cicada problem.  For a new Mom getting back out into the workforce, it's difficult.  And Cecile, still overjoyed with her bundle of joy, is not in "work" mode as the DA.  It takes Ralph's encouragement and her brush with the FEMA employee to get herself back on track.  But she cracked me up this week.  

It's a bummer that we've not seen Joe lately, but actor Jesse L. Martin has been dealing with a back injury since the hiatus, and thus why we've seen most of his scenes in the first few episodes he's been in either sitting down, or standing for short periods of time.  Hopefully, he'll heal quick and be back on set----Joe's presence and wisdom is sorely missed on the show, and it shows.  It feels empty without Joe. Get better, Jesse!

Okay...a couple of quick Flash Facts for you this week:  When Thomas mentioned a few of the people he'd been working with, TWO of them:  Dr. Victor Fries, and Dr. Louise Lincoln, were nice little easter eggs that the show throws at you.  Hardcore DC fans will pick up on the fact that Victor Fries is, in fact, Mr. Freeze...one of Batman's many villains, and Louise Lincoln, who was, in fact the ACTUAL Killer Frost in the DC comic Firestorm: The Nuclear Man.  Also...when Ralph did his nose twitch in the episode, saying that it happens when he smells a mystery, that is an actual twitch the comics version of Ralph Dibny does when he smells a mystery.  I kept waiting for them to pull that one out.  I'm just waiting for one more thing...and hoping they'll bring THAT little tidbit in before the end of the season....Sue Dearborn.  

As always, gang, I SO do appreciate you checking this blog out---a lot BETTER if you subscribe, and pass the word along.  Comments, of course, are encouraged.  I hope ALL of you have a Happy Thanksgiving, the best to your families, and we'll reconvene here next week for another exciting chapter.  Oh, before I forget...wanna promote my friend Jocelyn here:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBvUpMcZiuEvQq6giR-T_wg/featured, she does reaction/reviews of the shows on her page, so kindly check her out!  

Until next week....keep on running (but this time around..do it about a couple hours AFTER you eat....or preferentially BEFORE---work up that appetite!)