A Thanksgiving episode brings all sorts of families together, whether they’re families of heroes or criminals.
Previously on THE FLASH…
Earlier this season, an episode of SUPERGIRL was devoted to giving the backstory of the current big bad, and it was one of the best episodes of the series. THE FLASH attempts to do the same thing in this episode, giving its current antagonist, Cicada, some motivation while making him more of a sympathetic figure. But Cicada’s story doesn’t get the full episode here. Instead, we just get some flashbacks as a break from the main story.
As Orlin Dwyer stands vigil over the little girl we’ve assumed was his daughter, Barry Allen comes to the hospital to ask some questions about Gracie, to try and learn Cicada’s identity, but the doctor he speaks to lies, saying the girl is all alone, with no next of kin. It sets up Dwyer’s memories of the year’s worth of events that resulted in Gracie being in a coma and his getting imbued with dark matter from a piece of the satellite Flash and XS destroyed at the end of LAST SEASON.
Dwyer gets custody of his niece when her parents are killed in a metahuman situation. He’s not a very stable person and has a terrible relationship with her at first, but when he’s called in to her school after Gracie calls another kid a rat bastard, he cleans up his act. Because she learned the phrase from him, after all.
So Dwyer makes moves to clean up his act until, on the night of the Enlightenment, they get caught up in the Thinker’s plot, Gracie gets a brain bleed and he gets a piece of the satellite stuck in his chest. And when the doc starts blaming metas, Dwyer has his mission.
These scenes probably would have been better received had we not had that great SUPERGIRL episode a few weeks back, but this still provided some good insight into the character and why he’s going after metas.
While Dwyer stands watch over his niece, Team Flash is dealing with some weird weather phenomena. After Barry gets hit with some lightning and dies – requiring Nora to bring him back to life – everything gets a little dramatic. Nora starts to revert back to her earlier, more annoying self, but learns that it’s not Iris she’s been mad at this whole time; it’s her father, Barry, who died sacrificing himself to save the world instead of retiring as the Flash to spend time with his family.
The Flash family friction comes to as they investigate the Weather Wizard in Iron Heights. When they learn he never left his prison cell, he gets a visit from his daughter, who is definitely not a fan of her pops and who, it turns out, has a dark matter infused weather vane that allows her to shoot lightning.
The team decides to use Weather Wizard – or a hologram of Weather Wizard – to draw the newly-named Weather Witch out. But she tries to drop a Hummer on her dad and the whole scheme is blown to hell. When she follows up by going to an airport to kill people indiscriminately, Nora brings Barry Weather Wizard’s wand and he uses it to counter the Weather Witch’s weather vane and capture the angry young lass.
And when they come back to STAR Labs, Sherloque Wells has finally cracked the mystery of Cicada. Huzzah! Everyone gets to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together, despite Sherloque convincing Cisco and Caitlin that Thanksgiving is stupid because their biological families couldn’t be relied on. Thankfully Killer Frost tags in at the last minute and makes them realize they’re all being dumb.
Things are moving along nicely this season, and they’re doing a good job of pacing things out to hold off a confrontation with Cicada, though I’m curious to see where else this whole thing goes. Also, no Ralph Dibny this week? Lame.