Caitlin finally finds her father… or does she?
Previously on THE FLASH…
This is the second episode in a row where THE FLASH just perfectly nails the depiction of a classic DC Comics villain. Last week, it was Rag Doll. And now, we get The Icicle.
The depiction strays a little further away from the origins of the character than they did with Rag Doll last week. Instead of the European physicist Joar Mahkent – or his son, Cameron – the Icicle in question is Caitlin’s father, Dr. Thomas Snow. Caitlin has been seeking out her dad to find some answers all season, and some of the smartest minds on this Earth manage to track him down relatively quickly to a research bunker in the North Pole, where he had been trapped for years.
(Side note, the doctor who signed Thomas Snow’s death certificate from back in the FIRST EPISODE of the fifth season was named Cameron Mahkent.)
Barry, Cisco and Caitlin bring him back to STAR Labs in Central City and start to develop a cure for the cryokinesis that’s affecting him. He tells the trio that he knows of them because he consulted with Harrison Wells before coming up to the bunker. He also talked to Victor Fries (yet another Gotham reference, building to the Elseworlds crossover) and Louise Lincoln (in the comics, the first Killer Frost). This episode is just chock-full of DC Comics references!
Caitlin develops a cure, but Cisco and Barry’s questions about whether Thomas Snow was telling them all the truth come to the forefront, and of course it isn’t Thomas that wants the cure – it’s The Icicle, because the cure will completely eliminate Thomas’ personality, leaving The Icicle in charge. When the villain takes out Flash, Vibe and Elongated Man in a frozen hellscape approaching absolute zero, Caitlin is the only one immune, and she manages to bring back her alter ego of Killer Frost to keep Icicle from taking the serum. Alas, he gets away, but the heroes live to fight another day and we move toward the team getting Killer Frost back.
Meanwhile, Iris, Nora and Sherloque Wells are off investigating construction sites to find out more information about Cicada. After weeks of Nora being stand-offish with her mother, her attempt to rescue Barry last week by throwing herself off a building seems to have finally turned Nora around. Amazingly, she went from obnoxiously rude to her mom to obnoxiously fan-girlish, and neither look is all that appealing.
Thankfully, the Iris-Nora-Sherloque stuff was kept to a minimum. The usage of Tom Cavanagh especially this season has been overall disappointing. I’m not really a fan of Sherloque Wells. It may be the accent, but it’s not the best use of such a great actor.
Other than that, though, this was probably the best episode of Season 5 so far, and it gives me a lot of hope for the season as it continues.