THE FLASH - Season 5.11

REVIEW:  THE FLASH - SEASON 5, EP. 11:  "Seeing Red"

The Scarlet Speedster has got a mad on this week, as he engages in a brutal battle with Cicada, trying to end his reign of terror on the metahuman community in Central City.  Meanwhile, Caitlin runs into a cold shoulder when she continues to help Cisco find a metahuman cure.  

We begin at Orlen’s house, and our good friend the Doctor arrives.  He asks if she was followed, and she says that since he’s been on the downlow, they’ve not been able to find him.  He wants to see Grace, but she says he can’t right now.  He’s not happy about that.  She knows he’s angry, and says that’s good, and gives him a list from the police department of metahumans, and says they have a mutual friend who wants the metas dead.  It’s time for him to go back to work.

We cut to two guys breaking into a building, using metahuman powers.  One of them is Amunet Black’s old snake eyed friend.  Cicada confronts them, and after a brief battle with one named Bork, he’s killed while his partner escapes.  We later see Barry & Nora at the crime scene, and getting another call about another meta death.  They realize that Cicada’s on a killing spree.  And he needs to be stopped…fast.

Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin is frustrated that she can’t help Cisco with his equations to help find a meta cure, because Killer Frost is disrupting her thoughts.  Ralph asks her what’s wrong, and Caitlin informs him of Killer Frost’s resistance, and that she needs the DNA of a metahuman that’s only been active over the last 8 months.  Ralph wonders where they can find one.  Barry, Iris, and Nora are trying to pinpoint Cicada and prevent him from administering more death to the metas roaming about the city. They want to get Joe, but he’s still in Tibet with Wally and Jenna. They get a hit, and they’re off and running.

Cicada is battling a female metahuman when Team Flash arrives.  They manage to get to the metahuman before she’s killed, and Killer Frost manages to hold Cicada at bay, with Ralph’s help.  But when Killer Frost turns to Caitlin again to help the metahuman, Cicada makes his move.  He attacks Nora, and hits her in the back, causing severe damage. 

At the lab, Caitlin informs Barry and Iris that Nora’s spine is severely damaged, and she’s paralyzed.  Nora freaks out, and her parents console her.  Barry is upset, and calls upon the team to start finding Cicada at all costs.  They come across a file that came from the CCPD…the very one that our friend the Doctor gave Cicada.  They figure out that all of the people on the list are former criminals that had served their time.  Barry and Cecile head to the CCPD, where Captain Singh is putting the screws to the officers to get this guy, and quickly.  Barry and Cecile then inform Singh as to where Cicada is getting his victims from, and they feel it’s an inside job.  They leave Singh to investigate the matter on his own.  

Cecile says that the only way to protect the criminal methahumans is to get them OUT of the city.  She starts calling the Feds to pull some favors.  Meanwhile, Barry goes to work on how they can get that done on his end.

In the lab, Killer Frost destroys the board that Caitlin was working on to make sure she can’t make the cure that Cisco wants.  Ralph confronts Frost about it, and says it’s a “sibling squabble”.  Just then, Barry enters, and asks for Frost’s help in getting the criminal metahumans on the list out of the city, and she knows where to start.  They find an apartment in a slum part of town, where they come across their first…Black’s snake eyed friend.

They talk with him, and tell him that they have made arrangements to get the remaining metas on the list into witness protection.  He’s resistant at first, but Flash is adamant with him that he will die.  He’s convinced and decides to help.  They head to a location where the rest of the metas are, and try to convince them that they’re in danger.  They want to fight, but again, Flash tells them if they want to stay, they can die, but he’s going to save as many as he can.  They are convinced by Snakey to leave town.  While he’s letting them know what’s going to happen, Ralph and Frost chat about Snakey’s fear.  Ralph brings up Frost’s fear Caitlin finding a cure.  

Cecile is back at CCPD, asking Singh for help in transferring the metas tonight before Cicada attacks.  She informs him that they’re going into FBI Witness Protection.  He agrees to help.  She sees a cop walk out of the elevator and greets him, asking if he’s okay.  He says he’s fine, but Cecile knows better.

Once all the metas are rounded up, only one on the list is missing---Peek-A-Boo.  Flash races off to get her, and she’s not willing to go with him, thinking he’s looking to capture her and put her in the pipeline again.  When she tries to disappear, her powers don’t work, and neither does Barry’s.  They do what they can to avoid Cicada, and just managed to use a breach to get through and escape. 

At the lab, they have the metas rounded up.  Barry and Cecile talk, and she can hear and feel the anger in him.  She begs him not to let it consume him.  She then realizes she felt that same sensation when she saw the cop.  She knows who the leak is, and goes to resolve it, meanwhile, Flash gets ready to load everyone up for their trip out of town. 

Ralph and Frost chat yet again, and again, he brings up her fear of Caitlin finding a cure.  She says that if Caitlin finds a cure, then she’d be tempted to use it, and then Killer Frost will be gone, and that means that she can’t protect Caitlin. Ralph is all for the cure, even as a metahuman, and says that when Devoe took Frost away from Caitlin, all Caitlin talked about was getting her back.  So, as much as Frost has wanted to protect Caitlin, Caitlin has wanted to protect Frost, as Ralph lets her know. 

Sherloque has a chat with Nora, asking her for help in getting more info from The Flash Museum, and wonders if he can travel to the future without super speed.  Nora’s a little taken aback, and just at that time, Iris walks in, pulls Sherloque aside, and warns him about investigating Nora.

Cicada is upset that he can’t find the metas, but the cop who leaked the info lets him know where they’re being transferred.  It’s time to travel, as Flash, Ralph, and Frost ready the former convicts for transfer.  Cicada then arrives on the scene, ready to kill them all.  Flash and Cicada battle, while Ralph aids in getting the metas on a chopper.  Ralph manages to use his powers to grab the metas and get them aboard the copter with the help of Frost’s friend.  As the battle ensues, Frost joins in, and manages to do some damage to Cicada.  He tosses his knife, and Caitlin’s voice warns Frost to look out, and Frost moves, while the knife goes out of a hole, and almost hits Frosts friend, but Ralph saves him.  Frost then handles the knife while Barry goes off on Cicada, pounding him to the point where he’s ready to kill him.  Everyone at the lab knows it, and Nora, who’s now healed, goes to stop Flash from killing him. 

With the mission over, everyone is back at the lab, having accomplished the mission of getting the meta into witness protection, and off Cicada’s radar.  They know that the cop who was controlled by the meta tech will soon be in trouble as Cecile informs Barry of such.  At the station, Singh and Cecile confront the officer, whom Cecile mind reads, and reiterates his intentions to him.  The cop confesses that all the metas don’t deserve to live, and he tries to escape, but he’s captured by two other officers and taken away.  Singh jokes to Cecile about knowing what he was going to do, and seemed like he read the officer’s mind.  Cecile laughs, and chalks it up to being a new mother, and she’s more in tune with her feelings.  Singh jokes that when Joe gets back, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with---Cecile says they already are.

At the lab, Caitlin and Frost talk, promising to protect each other.  Frost gave Caitlin a new board to work on, and also left her a gift----a blood sample.  Ralph comes in, and asks if everything’s good between the two, and Caitlin says yes.  She then shows Ralph the blood sample that Frost got from Cicada.  They now have a DNA sample of a recent metahuman!

At the Allen home, they’re finishing dinner, when Barry let’s Nora know how happy he is that he has her, and thanks her again for bringing him back from the brink.  They all embrace in a family hug, and she’s off for the night.  Barry tells Iris that he’s changed, and that being a father makes him see things differently.  He then realizes that maybe the way to stop Cicada is through his heart.  He says they have to wake up Grace.

Sherloque is back in his lab space, running programs to find out about Nora’s writing.  He then discovers that there’s another person involved…someone pulling the strings.  But isn’t sure who.

The show ends with Cicada nursing his wounds and looking through a scrapbook.  A scrapbook with news clippings of Nora.  He continues to seethe. 

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This episode was great!  It packed a lot of emotion on many fronts, and allowed us to see the sides of people and a different range of emotions. 

Cicada’s anger is still there, if not increasing.  His dear doctor friend isn’t much better, feeding into that hatred by having made connections with a cop at the department, and being able to procure the list of recently released metahumans from prison.  This cop and his fear of being controlled from one of the metahumans from a couple of episodes back, has now fed into anger.  An anger that has led him to defy all that he took his oath for, in order to rid the city of them.  Fear and paranoia are strong motivators.  And this cop let his fear consume him to the point of becoming angry, and thus betraying all that he swore to uphold and protect---bringing shame to his badge.  Cicada not being able to see Grace because the CCPD is all over the hospital looking for him to make a move coming there is only feeding his anger more.  He wants to end them all…so he could end himself.  This is a suicide mission for him.  For without Grace to be resurrected….he’s got nothing to live for.  And the pain he experiences is slowly killing him.  So, he’s working on borrowed time.  At least from MY point of view.  But NOW...he has a new focus of his anger---Nora.  Knowing that she is Flash's daughter---only heightens his hate.

Our snake eyed friend’s fear of dying, and his fear for self preservation.  Amunet Black’s snaked eyed friend is on the run, fearing for his life, and only thinking of himself….as one involved in the underworld tends to be.  But listening to Barry blister him about not caring if he lives or dies, hearing that same speech again later, and being convinced by Killer Frost to help out, we see that he’s not a total bad guy.  Just a man given a bad break, who felt the world abandoned him….so he turned to the dark side to survive with his new abilities.  But as they’re trying to board the helicopter to escape Cicada, he finds his inner strength to be the hero of the day…and Ralph lets him know it.  It was nice to see A LITTLE redemption here for someone---even if it may not last. 

We get an appearance from Peek-A-Boo….whom we’ve not seen in awhile.  Was nice to see her trying to rebuild her life---though it got immediately put in danger when Cicada came calling.  Thankfully, she lives to see another day…thanks to Flash.

Nora’s brief paralysis left her feeling scared.  Again, a fear of never being able to walk or run again.  The emotions played here with her and her parents were strong, and is what motivates Barry to kick things into high gear.  Iris lending her strength and belief that Nora will heal gives the young woman hope.  Irish is determined to be there for Nora at all costs…even chastising Sherloque for sticking his nose in Nora’s life.  She’s every bit the den mother for Team Flash---and even MORESO when it comes to her daughter.  She keeps herself even keeled for the whole episode, for the most part.

Barry, however, is another story.  It’s not often we’ve seen Barry pissed off to the point where he sees red and goes into a rage…but he hits that wall in this episode.  He runs the gamut:  fear, shock, anger, bloodlust, and eventually happy again.  Watching Nora take the beating she got, and getting “Knightfalle’d” a la getting her back broken by Cicada in a somewhat similar way that Bane broke the Batman, sends Barry into fear and shock at the same time.  Being sad and upset when she’s laid up, paralyzed, and eventually anger, in wanting to find Cicada quickly.  But him throwing down in front of Black’s snaked eyed friend, and to the other meta convicts about them dealing with Cicada, show that even Barry has a breaking point.  And when confronting Cicada when he had his powers, showing yet a new wrinkle in them---being able to pound Cicada with brute force at high speed---nothing ANYONE saw before---it was pure hate and bloodlust.  Thankfully for him, Nora recovered just in time to race to him, and put and calm him down before he killed Cicada.  It was his daughter that pulled him back to the brink.  It was at the end of the episode that Barry is changed yet again---realizing now that he’s more ready to be a father than ever.  Him and Iris both realize that they can handle being parents.

Glad we got another update on Joe and Jenna.  Hanging out in Tibet with Wally.  Wonder if this means Joe will want a Zen garden when he gets back home?  Looking forward to having our patriarch back soon.

No Cisco this week, as he’s still working on a cure.  Wonder if this means it will be a multi episode arc where he’s not with the team?

Caitlin and Frost.  This has become a fun dynamic, but also a sweet one in a way.  Caitlin is looking to help find a cure, but Frost is reluctant to help.  And their bickering is like watching two sisters argue over clothing.  But once again, fear becomes one of the primary emotions this episode, as Frost does what she can to derail Caitlin’s research at all costs.  As Ralph---and kudos to him this episode---pointed out to Frost---fear is what’s keeping her from helping Caitlin.  Frost simply does NOT want Caitlin to take the cure….she’d be gone forever, and thus not able to protect Caitlin.  Ralph assures Frost that is not the case.  Caitlin felt lost without Frost.  Frost being immune to Cicada, and doing damage to him proved to be huge, in the fact she was able to cut him, and thus get Caitlin the much needed DNA sample to complete the research.  They both realize that they need each other, and together they feel complete. 

Three cheers for Cecile for holding it all together, and being the matriarch of the team and family, and trying to keep Barry in check while he was boiling over.  Her being able to read minds came in handy, but she also used her legal influence to help save the day.  She is a much bigger asset than anyone realizes.  Credit so much to actress Danielle Nicolet for providing that guiding parental voice, and savvy as her role as the lead parental figure on the show in Jesse L. Martin’s absence.  She truly has become one of the lynchpins of the show.

That’s it for this week.  As usual, subscribe, leave a comment if you have one, and pass the blog around, so that others can read it as well.  I appreciate all of you who HAVE subscribed and read this blog regularly.  I’ll keep doing my best with the reviews, and everything else I can come up with to provide you some interesting reading content. 

Until next week….keep on running!