Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Flash. This week’s episode is named “Time Bomb” and two big things happened! Let’s dive right in.
1. Thawne gives up?
At the beginning of the episode, Nora runs back to Eobard, whom is baffled with last week’s developments. He seems defeated, and despite Nora’s cries for help, he says it’s too late, he didn’t see the new Cicada coming and there’s only one thing to do: tell the truth to Barry. All along the episode Nora struggles to tell the truth, she even defends her case while debating about Vickie Bolen, the meta that accidently killed Grace’s parents.
Is Eobard really without a plan? Is this his doing and he simply is lying to Nora? What will happen at the end of the season, a standoff with him? Or does he already lost? Damn! I am intrigued about what will happen.
2. Cisco’s relationship
After a couple of episodes off, Ralph Dibny comes back only to do what he does best: mess with Cisco, this time with his newest relationship with Kamilla. Now that Cisco moved on and has a “social media official” relationship, Dibny wants to fully involucrate her with Team Flash, he even manages to get her a gig with Iris.
But Cisco is not happy with it, he doesn’t want her to know about all the bad stuff that happens, he doesn’t want to involve in the dangerous world of saving lives. At the end, Ralph understands, his friend only wants the chance of having a normal life and a normal relationship.
3. Starchives
This was a weird subplot, it turns out that, out of nowhere the team has always had “warehouses” all around the city with the stuff they have been collecting this five years from villains. One of this STARchives is robbed by someone and the team goes to investigate.
It turns out nothing is missing, but Sherloque and Cisco discover the Time Sphere that they used to send Thawne back to his time is out in the woods, and it’s from the future, this discovery triggers two events in the episode.
First, they discover the identity of the new Cicada, it’s Grace from the future, and she is more dangerous than his uncle. And second, Sherloque goes to check the plans, finds the quote “Time is Malleable” that he read in Nora’s diary, uncovers a video-diary from the first Wells explaining time travel and finally realizes: Nora’s mentor is Reverse Flash.
BONUS 1: Although it was only a little nod, they mention “Operation Shazam”: just a lighting mark in the sphere, a nice way of reminding you that Shazam! is coming to theaters April 5th, go see it!
4. New Cicada’s mission
That murderous crazy time traveler has the same mission than his uncle, to get rid of all metas. She attacks the evidence room in CCPD to find a shred from the explosion that killed her parents, which leads her to Vickie Bolen, a meta that accidently altered an ATM, which exploded and killed them.
Meanwhile, Cisco vibes an explosion stain and discovers all this information, which gives them time to save Vickie and her family. But future Grace is crazy, after years and years in a coma and dark matter inside her brain she cannot think clearly and this scares even her uncle.
At the final standoff, just before killing Flash, Orlin shows up and tries to reason with her niece, he would do everything to save Grace, but the “killing-everybody” method is not a good path, she can redeem herself, although it might be too late for him. Grace agrees, and kills Orlin! And then flees.
Wow, after a whole season being teased with the twist that Cicada is not the main villain of the season, the series made the best plot twist possible: it’s not about a new villain speedster, Cicada DO IS this season’s villain, but not the Cicada you thought.
5. Nora’s secret
The last scene of this episode finally was the revelation we have been waiting all season long. Although Nora tries to reveal her secret, Sherloque takes the lead and reveals her secret to the team. Heartbroken, Barry puts her in a cell in S.T.A.R.Labs.
Continued belowThis means that the last four episodes will focus on Nora’s betrayal, stopping a more powerful Cicada and maybe fighting a new speedster. Man, what a season finale we are having!
BONUS 2: As I said earlier, Ralph came back from a few episodes off, and in this episode Caitlin was barely present. I just want to point out that it’s funny that the show has so many stars that you don’t really notice when a character is gone for an episode or two, doesn’t really matters, there are other 10 characters that can fill your spot.
BONUS 3: Back in episode four, I briefly mentioned that the mayor of the city resigned, first I tought it was going to involve a plot about the safety of the city or politics. It didn’t, but it’s nice to see that Joe mentioned it, there’s a whole story being told offscreen.
And that’s it for this action-packed, story-packed episode, what did you think of it? Leave your comments below. The series is taking a whole month off before its last four episodes, so join us April 16 for our take on episode 518, directed by Danielle Panabaker, “Godspeed”, exactly like Rebirth’s villain.
