THE FLASH - Season 5.12

REVIEW:  THE FLASH – SEASON 5, EP. 12: “Memorabilia”

Our Scarlet Speedster has a huge problem on his hands this week---entering Nora’s mind to help save her before she dies…but there are secrets she’s keeping from Mom and Dad…and what will be the consequence once Barry discovers what those secrets are?

We start with Nora confessing her secret about the closer she gets to her parents, she’s harming them.  She’s tried to keep a little distance, erase everything recorded up to this point.  She then has Gideon send the message to Eobard….reminding her it’s urgent.

We’re at the ice rink where Team Flash is enjoying of themselves, and teaching Nora how to skate. Ralph and Iris find out there’s a space next to his apartment where they might be able to open up a newspaper. They’re enjoying themselves until Sherloque gets a message saying that what he has been looking for has arrived.  Back at STAR Labs, Sherloque unveils this machine that can tap into people’s memories, and find a way to bring them out of a coma---in THIS case, Gracie.  There’s a big technical explanation about how it works, but they all decide the next day that they’ll get to work on getting Gracie out of her coma.  Barry volunteers to go in and get her. After everyone bails for the night, Nora goes back in and asks Gideon on how to hack the machine, and use it to get Gracie out of her coma before the team comes back, and that way, her memories won’t be exposed.  Sherloque activates the machine by putting one of the recievers on Gracie at the hospital.  Nora then goes in.

Nora finds herself in Gracie’s consciousness…and it’s set at the CCPD, where Captain Singh and some of the other officers discuss Gracie’s parents, who apparently died in their car due to a metahuman attack.  Gracie is sitting down where Nora finds her.  Nora asks her how they can get out.  They see the portal Nora came in, and try to get out, but it closes.  Nora is trapped. Somehow, she convinces Gracie to go to another memory.  They find another memory, and they’re at Orlen’s house.

Barry gets a call from Sherloque saying that Nora went into rescue Gracie by herself.  Caitlin realizes that Gracie’s brain is acting like a defense mechanism, thinking Nora is a pathogen.  Caitlin says that Nora should’ve come out, but hasn’t.  Barry and Iris agree they need to go in.

Ralph and Cisco follow up on one of Ralph’s informants about possibly knowing Cicada.  Ralph asks Cisco for his vibing ability.  Cisco tags along to a bar, where they meet a guy talking about how Cicada comes in and assaults people.  Cisco vibes the man’s broken mug, and finds out he’s thinking of a BAND called “Sickada”.  The lead is a waste, but Ralph offers to buy Cisco a drink…for once, Cisco wonders what hell frozen over is like since Ralph is buying.

Back at the lab, Barry and Iris go in to rescue Nora and Gracie…understanding the risks from when Barry took on Devoe.  They enter into the mindscape, and see the same CCPD setting that Nora did.  There on the bench is a young girl…but not Gracie.  Barry and Iris realize they’re not in Gracie’s mind…but Nora’s.  The portal closes, and they too, are trapped.

In reality, Caitlin and Sherloque realize that  Barry and Iris are in Nora’s memory.  In her mind, they both try to find the portal.  She goes into another memory, and they follow her.  They arrive at the Flash Museum.  Barry realizes the museum is the old STAR Labs.  They look around enamored.  Iris wonders if they could talk to her, but Barry advises her that these are fixed memories, and can’t interfere.  They end up following her into the “Hall of Villains”.  There, young Nora is watching the report about Cicada and having come back and made the Flash disappear.  He never stopped killing.  Just then, the older Iris shows up to scold Nora. 

Over in Gracie’s memory, Nora is trying to get Gracie to lead them to the portal.  She’s in the memory where she’s with her uncle, and he’s planning their day.  Turns out, it’s the day of the Enlightenment.  Nora has Gracie head to a new memory, and it’s in the hospital.  Nora sees Orlen confess to Gracie that he’ll kill all the metas, and that he found out that Nora is the Flash’s daughter.  Gracie says she’s been listnening the whole time.

Ralph and Cisco are still at the bar, and Cisco realizes that Ralph played him.  He’s about ready to take off, and Ralph tries to convince him to stay.

Back in Nora’s memory, the elder Iris chides Nora for being at the museum, and tells her they’re never coming back.  Iris also tells her to let go of the Flash toy she got.  It falls and breaks, and Iris ushers her off.  Current Iris is distraught, and feels that she will become that version of herself regardless, because this is a memory AFTER Nora came back in time.  Barry tries to tell her otherwise, and Iris confesses the reason she didn’t want to start the newspaper she was thinking about because the only name available was the Central City Citizen…the name of the same paper they’ve been staring at the Flash headline for 4 years.  She had hoped that if she DIDN’T start the paper, she’d change the timeline.  Just then, an alarm goes off, meaning Nora’s protection of her mind is coming, Barry and Iris hide, and realize her defense mechanism is Eobard Thawne.

In Gracie’s memory, she knows Nora is a metahuman, and believes that Nora is there to kill her uncle, and as much as Nora tries to convince her otherwise, Gracie’s defense mechanism kicks in, and Cicada comes after her.  In Gracie’s mind, she has no speed, so she’s on the run.

Nora is still on the run, and just gets away from Cicada in an elevator.  She hears a phone ring, and it’s Caitlin and Sherloque, who then connects her with Barry and Iris.  They find out that the portals are part of a figment of their memories…by using the false memories to get to the portal.  Barry tells Iris that they can change everything, that the memories are only what they make of them.  The costume of the Reverse Flash pops back up and battles Barry.  Just as he’s got the edge on Barry, Iris manages to stop him. They then see future Iris consoling young Nora…the dynamic of their relationship changed.  They then head off to save Nora.

Nora is fighting for her life against Cicada, and trying to plead to Gracie that they’re trying to save her AND her uncle.  Gracie doesn’t believe her, and just as Cicada is about to kill Nora, Barry and Iris come in and stop him.  The Allen Family manages to escape before Cicada attacks again.  They wake up in the lab, unsuccessful in their attempt to wake up Gracie.  They find out that there’s dark matter in Gracie’s head that they can’t remove because it’s too dangerous.  And they can’t go back into her mind to wake her.  As they try to figure out what to do, Nora speed draws a picture of Orlen’s house that she got from Gracie’s memory.  They now have another way to try and stop Cicada.

They talk about Nora’s memories, and Sherloque says that she was trying to protect her parents (he was covering up for her), as she didn’t give an immediate answer to everyone.  After most of the team heads out, Sherloque asks Barry what Nora’s defense mechanism was…he says it was the costume of the Reverse Flash.  Sherloque’s deduction was right.

We see Nora talking to Gideon again, saying that her parents can’t know she’s come back to take down Cicada, and that she will do what she has to in order to save her family…even lie. 

Iris walks down the hall of the building Ralph has his office in, and she opens it to see Barry and Nora have a surprise party for her, as she opens her paper.  Nora shows her that the paper was started in 2021 originally, but Iris changed that.  After Barry goes off to see Cisco, Nora and Iris bond.  Nora apologizes for deflecting her anger of losing her Dad onto her Mom…forgetting how hard it was for her Mom as well.  Iris assures her that she will love her now, tomorrow, and forever.  They start unpacking to set up the paper.

Ralph and Cisco talk back at the Lab, and Ralph just thought that if Cisco got out and relaxed, he’d enjoy his life more.  It paid off as Cisco managed to get the number of the bartender he talked to the night he figured out how to make the cure.  Barry comes in and asks Cisco the progress of the cure, and Cisco lets him know that it’s ready.  Barry says he wants to use it on Cicada.

We’re back in Gracie’s mind, and she says that Nora lied to her, and that Nora must die.  In her mind, Cicada will rise again.

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Whoa!  What an episode THIS was!  Lots of drama here, as well as A LOT more answers to some questions.

First off...no Joe (yet), and it seems Cecile gets a week off from the show.  But it's good they're keeping the cast rotating around, so that the supporting cast doesn't get overexposed and boring.

Let's discuss Gracie for a minute.  Wow!  This little girl knows more than we were led to believe.  She's been conscious the whole time...at least MENTALLY.  But that's because the dark matter in her head, is keeping her alive.  She shares the sentiment of her uncle, and she plans on saving him and keeping him alive at all costs...and now Nora has become her target.  A theory from my friend had suggested that maybe the KNIFE of Cicada is really HER power and under HER control.  It's a nice theory, considering both her AND Orlen were hit at once, and within proximity of each other to have some kind of metahuman thing happen to both of them that bonded them.  However...I wouldn't be surprised that while he's around her, she's feeding him HER powers that she's now gotten because of the dark matter (and let's face it...mind machine or not, that girl is a META).  Something else that's a possibility is that SHE is the future Cicada, and picking up where her Uncle Orlen left off, because he probably died.  We can draw quite a few conclusions from this all we want, but we know she's aware of what's happening, and she ISN'T a happy camper....especially now with Nora having been in her head.  We look at Orlen being the big threat...but it looks like the real threat is Gracie herself.

Nora....well, well, well.  We see that she's been doing more covering of her tracks, as to make sure not to leave a "footprint" on the past too much.  She talks to Gideon to send the message to Eobard quickly.  Maybe she feels time is starting to run out for her to stop Cicada---as we find out later what her MAIN mission is--before her father disappears.  We also get a glimpse of the memories she created in how Iris came off in them.  Turns out they were just her way of coping with the loss of her Dad....and since her Mom was there, she took out all her anger and frustration out on Iris...because she was there.  But it turns out Iris was nothing like Nora made her out to be.  Nora apologizing to her Mom went a long way to help solidify that relationship...and it shows Iris that she wasn't the horrible Mom she was made out to be.  Lots of healing here.

We FINALLY get the answer about the Central City Citizen---it's Iris' newspaper!  Back on the beat, but now with her OWN paper!  That's pretty sweet.  Was wondering where that paper came from.

Was awesome to see some Cisco/Ralph interaction this episode,  Cisco NEEDED a break from the research, and just get his mind right.  Ralph had to do his share of work to get Cisco out, but it paid off in the end.  And HEY...Cisco got a new girl in his life!  Gets HIS healing of the heart mended.  But that night out also allowed him to come up with a solution to the metahuman cure problem.  Just in time, because Barry's got another idea to stop Cicada.

Barry being in Nora's mind...seeing her memories of the Flash Museum (which, wow, is actually STAR Labs in the future), and looking around in wonderment at this shrine to him.  Iris joked about letting it go to his head, which was too late,  he was all into it...and even surprised that even his enemies get a wing.  But most of all...just looking at Nora as a child...something he feels he may never see.  As much as Iris wanted to comfort her earlier, Barry was smart in saying that these events are set, and they have to play out.

Barry revealing to Sherloque that Nora's defense mechanism was Reverse Flash confirms his suspicions of a "mastermind" at work in regards to Nora.  Barry and Iris are confused about it as well, but we never did get them to ask about it.  But I have a feeling that WILL come up again before the season is over.  Nora, Barry, and Iris will find out the truth is going to come out...and it WILL be painful.

This was a really good episode that gave us a lot of explanations for Nora's actions, as well as what's REALLY going on with Gracie.  Ralph and Cisco are a fun combo, and it was nice to see Cisco lighten up...even a little.  Sherloque is his usual inquisitive self, and was a BIG help this episode, with the mind machine to help the team out.  He's starting to earn his pay.  Things are picking up a little, and we get another classic DC villain next week!  

Okay guys, glad you stopped by to check this out!  If you like this and more, PLEASE subscribe and pass it around!  Also, I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts on tonight's show.

Until next week....keep on running!