It’s back to reality for Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and the gang on The Flash in “The Flash & The Furious”!
Before all of the chaos of Elseworlds, Team Flash discovered Cicada’s true identity is Orlin Dwyer (Chris Kline). They confronted him, hoping to disable his powers. Cicada disabled all of Team Flash, except Caitlin/Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker). Frostie is not a meta like everyone else. Her gene was created by her father and the icy powers were a result. Cicada got away, but now the team knows they have a weapon to stop him.
Nora West Allen (Jessica Kennedy Parker) is still around, and up to no good…I think. Every night, she writes in her journal in secret code. She transmits her notes to the future and to the Reverse Flash Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh). But why?
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Eobard showed Nora how to time travel so she could meet her father, Barry Allen. However, he didn’t tell her that he is the one who killed her grandmother. Thawne admits to wanting to be the Flash, but when he realized that would never happen, he started doing horrible things. He doesn’t want that to be his legacy. He is helping Nora to change all of that, but Nora doesn’t want his help anymore and leaves him in the future.
Nora returns to the present to join Team Flash in their continued search for Cicada. They have no way to track him or his dagger unless he uses it. For now, they have to focus on Joce Marden (Reina Hardesty), the Weather Witch. Her trial is beginning and Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet) is prosecuting the case. As for Joe (Jesse L. Martin), he took Jenna to visit Wally in Tibet.
Return To Work
Cecile begins her opening argument but is distracted by Joce. Joce looks worried about her fate and Cecile is reading her emotions. During the trial, Barry gets an alert about a stolen Lamborghini. He leaves with Nora to catch the thief. When he catches up to the Lambo, the driver activates dark matter into the car and it blasts Flash backward. Flash was phasing into the car when the blast occurs. When he stands up, he can’t stop phasing.
Nora takes Barry back to STAR Labs. They have to put him in the pipeline or he will phase through the Earth. Caitlin says there is unstable dark matter in Barry’s system and it won’t stabilize for at least 24 hours. That’s a problem because Barry is supposed to testify. Nora volunteers to take his place.
Cecile is frustrated, but it’s better than nothing. She tells (Candice Patton) that she plans to ask for a lesser sentence for Joce. The emotional readings are getting to Cecile and she sincerely thinks Joce just needs a second chance. So when Nora takes the stand, Cecile only asks a few questions. The defense tries to say the weather vane made Joce do what she did. Nora refuses to let that stand. She argues that Joce was fully aware of what she was doing and the danger she imposed on everyone. Joce gets upset and admits to everything, sealing her fate.
Possible Normal Life
Cisco (Carlos Valdes) still has some tiny pieces of shards from Cicada’s dagger and Caitlin finally removes them. Cisco comments on how nice it was not to have powers for a while. Caitlin says they need a fully powered Vibe to defeat Cicada, so it’s good that he’s healing well. Cisco takes the shards and scans them. He compares the scan to the first scan of his wounds. The shards weren’t just dampening his powers, they were removing the powers.
Cisco shows Caitlin, saying the shards have anti-dark matter properties. Caitlin thinks they can synthesize the shards into a serum to stop Cicada. Cisco thinks they can make a meta cure out of it. Caitlin is a little concerned about his suggestion. He says they can finally have a normal life, but Caitlin doesn’t want a normal life.
Cisco continues his research, trying to find a way to synthesize the shards. Killer Frost comes in and stops him, destroying his progress. She tells him to stop being afraid of Cicada. Cisco argues that he wants a normal life where people aren’t trying to kill him and he can have a family to go home to. Killer Frost says he doesn’t have to choose between powers and a family. Cisco doesn’t think his life is as easy as the Flash’s. He doesn’t want to be the Flash, he wants to be himself. And a cure is the only way he will have that.
Choice Between Good and Bad
The car thief, a young woman tracks down Joce’s police transport. She disables the vehicle and releases Joce from the van. Team Flash hears about the escape and checks the surveillance video. They find out the thief has a car fob, infected with dark matter. The thief is named Raya Van Zandt (Gabrielle Walsh). She is a former Air Force pilot, code name Silver Ghost. And she was dishonorably discharged with a sealed file.
Iris can get that file while the Team tries to track them down. Nora is positive that Joce is working with Raya. Iris disagrees, remembering what Cecile said. She thinks what they see isn’t always as clear as they think it is. Nora argues that bad people don’t change.
Raya takes Joce to the home base of the Young Rogues. She needs Joce to use her weather powers to disable the security at ARGUS. Raya says there’s a weapon inside that will make them unstoppable. Joce doesn’t want to help and asks Raya to take her back to jail. Raya says Joce is a criminal, like her dad. And that’s all anyone will ever see in her.
Joce sets off an alarm so the Flash can find her, but XS turns up instead. Joce tries to tell her that she didn’t escape, but XS doesn’t believe her. She offers to show XS where Raya is hiding and to tell her about Raya’s plans. XS takes her to the CCPD instead. She says she doesn’t trust criminals and leaves. Iris is at the station to retrieve Raya’s file and sees the whole exchange.
Parenthood
Sherloque (Cavanagh) takes food to Barry. He asks about the symbolic language that Barry got from the speed force. Barry thinks its some kind of chrono-linguistics. The team was only able to translate one word; even Gideon couldn’t crack the code. Barry asks what this has to do with Cicada, but Sherloque says it’s just another mystery for him to solve. In the meantime, Legend Mick Rory sent his book for Barry to read to pass the time.
Iris tells Nora that she wasn’t to link Raya and Joce. Nora is sure that they are working together, but Iris tells her…again…things aren’t always what they seem. She is a big believer in second chances. So is Barry. He’s given lots of people a second chance. Maybe Nora should give Joce one too.
Nora interrupts Barry’s enjoyment of Mick’s book to talk. She is having a hard time believing that bad people can change. Barry tells her about Leonard Snart. He was one of the worse bad guys in the beginning. Eventually, he changed and became a Legend…then died a hero. Nora asks if Eobard Thawne can change. Barry says being a hero means seeing the good in people…even Eobard. If they don’t believe there’s good in people, who will?
The Flash & The Furious
Raya distracts the cops to rescue Joce again. This time she brings Joce’s weather staff. They head to ARGUS and disable the security system. Raya is after a custom built car, made with Wayne tech. They take the car, but it doesn’t take long for Team Flash to track them down.
The team tracks the duo through the dark matter in Joce’s weather staff. XS and Killer Frost leave to stop them. XS finds the car and chases it down, but Raya uses the car’s defense to knock XS out of the way. Killer Frost sets up a wall of ice to stop the car, but Raya uses a phasing feature to go through the ice. Raya then uses a cloaking feature to turn the car invisible.
XS can’t find the car, so she asks Cisco to open a channel. XS reaches out to Joce saying she can be better and do the right thing. She doesn’t have to be a criminal like her father. XS believes in her and she deserves a second chance.
Raya spots XS and speeds up to hit her. She loses control when she hits a patch of ice. Joce takes Raya and they escape via the weather staff. Killer Frost catches up to XS. XS thanks her for making the road icy, but it wasn’t Killer Frost. It was Joce.
Reteam and Regroup
The unstable dark matter in Barry’s system has stabilized so he can leave the pipeline. The team updates him on Raya and Joce. There’s no sign of them, but it shouldn’t take long to find them again.
Caitlin makes up with Cisco and they agree to work together on the cure. Caitlin takes Cisco to her father’s lab in the North Pole. Her dad was able to create a meta gene so the research should be able to reverse it. Caitlin says they need ground rules before they continue. The first one being, they will not force anyone to take the cure. Cisco agrees they will give people a choice.
Nora goes back to the future to see Eobard. She still doesn’t trust him, but she wants to give him the benefit of the doubt. Eobard is running out of time though. He doesn’t say why or what will happen. He just asks to prove that there’s still good in him.
Sherloque visits Gideon asking for files on Nora. Gideon informs him that Nora has deleted all of her files.
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Thoughts
This episode was about giving second chances. And even though Barry believes that there is still some good in Eobard, there’s no way this is going to turn out good. Some people use up their chances and no good ever comes of it. Eobard is one of those people. He’s after something…probably something that will save his life. And he’s using Nora’s sentimentality to get it. I hope we find out sooner than later what he’s up to.
All of the secrecy is going to create a major rift between Nora and her parents. Barry and Iris have pretty much mastered trust in their relationship. And you know they expect the same from their daughter. I still have to question if Nora is actually their offspring.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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