Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Flash. This week’s episode is named “Seeing Red” and we have a lot to unpack. In this episode, thanks to the nurse, who gets a list of previously arrested metas, Orlin/Cicada goes on a killing spree and only Team Flash can stop him… They can do it, right? Let’s dive right in.
1. Sherloque and Iris
Sherloque keeps making slow but steady findings on his investigation on Nora, this week, after asking her for the future archives of Flash Museum, or even better, bringing him to the future, Iris confronts him.
As a caring mother of a daughter she doesn’t give birth to yet, she mistrusts Sherloque, and complaints that he has no reason to doubt Nora. He explains that he is only following his always-inquiring- heart, and he has no reason but detective curiosity. This is important because now Iris knows Sherloque’s crusade and is going to be especially affected by his eventual revelation: She has a mentor, and it’s Thawne.
2. Caitlin/Killer Frost
This week, we got to enjoy the development of Caitlin’s relationship with her alter ego, in three parts: first, they are fighting because of the search of a meta-cure, which may complicate their relationship a little.
Second, on Killer Frost’s side, she is scared for the possibility of Caitlin taking the cure, after a while Ralph convinces her that such thing won’t happen, ever, because she is a fundamental part of the doctor.
And third, apparently unbeknownst to Killer Frost, Caitlin have been showing a lot of self-confidence and alter-ego-confidence, she trusts her other half and even embraces her roll as the only meta immune to Cicada’s dagger. At the end of the episode they make peace with each other and their relationship is better than ever, which I like, because after four and a half years suffering, Caitlin is finally getting the happiness she deserves.
3. Cecile
With Joe’s absence from the series, Danielle Nicolet is getting a whole lot more involvement on Team Flash. Her character is finally understanding her powers, which seemingly are evolving from reading minds to just feeling other people’s sentiments. She got to do important stuff today, like convincing captain Sinhg that there’s a mole in the department and catching him at the end of the episode. I’m liking that the is being more active on everything that happens, to me she is an enjoyable character and deserves the spotlight.
3. Norvok
This episode was so packed that even Amunet’s forgettable henchman, Matthew Norvock, got a b-plot. After Team Flash discover Cicada’s plan to kill a whole lot of metas, they go to Norvok to ask for help gathering every person on the list.
While talking to Killer Frost, he tells his story, and how the hell he got a friggin’ snake in his head, and how he is going to help himself first and then everybody else. Ralph convinces him of having a Leap of Faith (just like Miles!), and for second week in a row a villain redeems himself, by helping every other meta get on the helicopter.
Maybe this is a purely economical decision on the production team, having recurring villains is cheaper than making a casting call every other week. But I am enjoying this character developments, as I have been saying all this season, having meaningful villains and not just a “monster of the week” is great writing, it shows that the writers are committed to their characters.
5. Barry
In their first fight with Cicada after discovering he is going after previously arrested metahumans (poor Bork, didn’t even got to enjoy his loot), Cicada takes Nora and breaks her back, so she can’t walk, and with her power dampened by the dagger, her recovery is going to be slow, like, wait until the final fight-slow.
This makes Barry really angry, and takes the worst of him, he even gets close to killing Cicada before XS appears right before the final blow. At the end of the episode, Barry declares that he is changed forever, and his darkest feelings won’t dictate how he acts ever again.
At first, I was thinking about how Barry got extremely powerful when he was driven by anger, as something that can be explored later, then I remembered how he embraced Green Arrow’s dark traits back in Elseworlds (part one, two, and three) and how it could be explored later.
Continued belowBut after some time thinking, I just want to point out that this was another example of the Women in Refrigerators phenomenon. Nora was seriously injured so that Flash could feel anger and then change his ways, that’s the only reason they did that. It may not be as bad as in “Green Lantern” #54, or other examples where the feminine character gets permanently affected (or worse, permanently dead). I think we must be aware and avoid that kind of tropes, where a person –often in a minoryty status– gets hurt for the sake of an emotional response of the main male character.
BONUS: Sherloque says that prison wine in his earth is called Porat, which is called Pruno in this earth. Someone had that thought and put the Baron Cohen reference it in a TV show, let that sink in.
And that’s it for today, overall and despite Nora’s story, this was a great episode, I like this kind of weeks where the story around Flash is more important than Barry himself. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 512, “Memorabilia”.
