The Flash Season 5 Episode 11: Seeing Red Review

For our review of the last episode of The Flash, click here.

Synopsis: During a battle with Cicada, Nora is severely injured; due to Cicada’s dampening powers, Nora’s speed healing isn’t working; Barry and Iris are scared for their daughter’s future; an enraged Flash confronts Cicada in a brutal battle. (TVGuide)

Writers: Judalina Neira and Thomas Pound

Director: Marcus Stokes

Rating: TV-PG

Running Time: 43mins

Airs: Tuesdays at 8pm on Space (Canada)/The CW (United States)

The Flash focuses on Iris and Barry’s evolution as parents this week as they nurse Nora back to health after an unfortunate encounter with Cicada. Cicada has not been worth caring about so far (as has been the case with a lot of The Flash’s villains). Whether it’s Chris Klein’s performance or just that the character is rather dull. While it isn’t exactly clear as to why, he just hasn’t connected yet.

Cicada is all over the place in this episode as the team branches out to locate him when they learn he killed three metas the night before. Joe is still M.I.A. in Tibet (as a result of Jesse L. Martin’s injury) and Cisco is also nowhere to be seen as he was off working on the metahuman cure. Barry, Nora, Ralph, and Killer Frost arrive at Cicada’s location as he is preparing to kill a meta.

In the tussle, he ends up severely injuring Nora and paralyzing her. She remains unconscious back at S.T.A.R. Labs with her healing powers not quite working. Caitlin explains that everything is slowed down but sooner or later, the healing should begin. So how is Cicada finding all these metas on his own? Sherloque and Ralph learn that there is a list that the CCPD has and somehow Cicada has gotten his hands on it.

Unfortunately, Captain Singh isn’t convinced about a mole in the department when Cecile and Barry tell him about the list. In fact, he wants them to keep away from the investigation altogether. With no help from the CCPD, Cecile decides she is going to recruit help from the Feds, while Barry asks Ralph and Killer Frost to help him rescue all the metas. First on the list is Norvok who ends up tagging along with them while Barry gathers the other metas.

Barry runs into a problem when he realizes a meta by the name of “Peek-A-Boo” is nowhere to be found (wonder why, ha). After their last encounter, she’s not too eager to go along with Barry but soon realizes he means well when Cicada shows up. Luckily, they manage to get away but it’s left Barry feeling some kind of way. The Nora situation has really rattled him up and all he can think about is killing Cicada–something Cecile senses from him immediately. Not going to lie but seeing Barry be so angsty and fierce for once is kind of nice.

Cecile realizes that the energy she’s feeling from Barry is similar to what she felt back at CCPD and figures out who leaked the list to Cicada. Meanwhile, Sherloque is still looking into Nora but when Iris finds out, she tries to shut it down ASAP. Something tells us she should let him do his thing. But hey, at least Nora is back to normal thanks to super speedy healing!

Due to the metahuman cure that Cisco is working on, it has Killer Frost a bit freaked out. She’s afraid Caitlin will take it and thereby eliminate the Killer Frost inside of her forever. But we all know that is simply not the case–Caitlin loves her chilly alter ego.

Just as the group of metahumans is about to be transferred, Cicada appears to try and take them all down. While Ralph quickly escorts them out, Barry and Killer Frost try to stop Cicada. With Frost’s chilly powers and Barry’s Flashtime ability, they make a pretty good team. Barry eventually corners Cicada and just as he is about to deliver the punch that could kill Cicada, Nora shows up to stop him. She doesn’t want her father to avenge her injuries this way and wants him to know he is better than that. Nothing like your child to bring you out of your homicidal moment.

Thanks to Cecile, Captain Singh is able to arrest the officer that has been leaking information to Cicada. He is anti-meta and voices his hatred as he is being pulled away in cuffs. Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Frost and Caitlin have an emotional moment as Caitlin promises her that she will never take the cure. And in a similar vein, Frost says that she has a surprise for Caitlin–a sample of Cicada’s DNA. This DNA, from a recent meta-human, will help Caitlin and Cisco with the cure.

Even though Iris asked him not to, Sherloque does not stop looking into Nora and gets some valuable information from her journal. Two people wrote in it–he just needs to find out who the other person is. Speaking of Nora, Barry realizes that he is overwhelmed with the love he feels for his daughter–something he never thought was possible. Really, Barry, you’re like the ultimate mushy teddy bear!

It is at this moment that Barry realizes this is how he will appeal to Cicada–they are both essentially fathers and if they want to get to him, they have to wake up his niece.

Score: 7/10

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