An episode of fallout, both figuratively and literally.
After LAST WEEK, Team Flash is still reeling from Ralph’s death. Barry and Iris are back at therapy. Cisco is convinced that they should create a second thinking cap for him, to gain some ground on DeVoe. And Caitlin is mourning the loss of Killer Frost as well. But for our titular hero, he just wants to get back to work at stopping DeVoe, not taking any time to mourn or grieve his teammate’s death.
When a pocket dimension opens for a second, the team deduces that DeVoe is going after Fallout. The nuclear meta has been contained for the moment, but barely. Our heroes need to get Fallout somewhere safe, out of town, keeping him cool enough to transport, but without Killer Frost. Plus, it needs to be unexpected to get a head start on The Thinker.
In a pretty smart move, Barry and Cisco visit EARTH-X, with the rebellion fighting the last remnants of the dismantled Nazi regime. And they grab Leo Snart to help them out! Yes, Wentworth Miller is back! His performance is excellent as always. But they’re followed back to Earth 1 by Nazi Black Canary. This is now the third version of Dinah Laurel Lance to appear onscreen. Katie Cassidy must be competing with Tom Cavanagh for most versions of a character.
Barry is dealing with Ralph’s death by not dealing with it at all and staying on task. Leo tries to knock some sense into him, as we learn that he felt the weight of more than 3,000 rebels that died under his command on Earth-X. Of course, because it’s Barry, he insists that he’s fine. And it bites him in the ass, as is tradition. While transporting Fallout by truck, the team is attacked by The Thinker. Barry uses the tuning fork against him, but Ralph’s elasticity makes it ineffective. Just when it seems DeVoe is going to win again, Siren-X attacks all three of them. DeVoe retreats and the Nazi villain makes off with Fallout, Caitlin, Joe and the truck.
As expected, Barry finally admits that this loss is hitting him differently because Ralph was his responsibility and he feels that he failed him. He starts to process his grief, as does the rest of the team try to find new paths forward. They’ll all need to work through their pain and embrace their humanity to have a chance at stopping The Thinker.
Show Notes:
- Some additional fallout takes place with Harry, who fried his brain with his overloaded thinking cap last week. As a result, he is gradually losing his intelligence. After Cisco wants to use the cap, he destroys it, admitting his damage. The reason he so obsessively used the cap was that he felt his only contribution to the team was his intelligence, which DeVoe exceeds. Cisco tells him this is nonsense though, given how well he raised Jessie, and vows to help reverse Harry’s brain degradation.
- DeVoe’s first real, if temporary, setback drives him up the wall. He has no clue how he could have miscalculated. He accounted for the truck, Leo, even Siren-X. But he thought Flash would defeat her. He didn’t think that Barry’s grief would make him freeze up. It lends credence to his thoughts that human emotion is a weakness, a sentiment that fractures Marlize’s faith in her husband.
- Although Caitlin has no dark matter in her DNA, she discovers some cryogenic markers. Killer Frost is still there somewhere, beneath the surface.
- As far as we know, this was Wentworth Miller’s last appearance as Leo Snart in the Arrowverse. His performance was always a highlight, no matter which version of Captain Cold he played. To close the episode, he’s given Leonard Snart’s old winter coat and says goodbye to each of the cast members that have been there since the beginning. If this is his last bow, he went out on a strong note.