The Flash S5 E3 Recap

"Hello baby giraffe."

What started as a promising premiere to a new season has inevitably divulged into the status quo that was last season, by which I mean pointless subplots that run circles around the cast and the main villain being drawn out far too much. Between depressed Cisco last episode and Caitlin's family issues this episode, I'm starting to worry about the future of this season.

This episode starts off with team Flash brainstorming who Cicada is...wait, stop. Before even that the episode opens on a beautiful inside, and outside, shot of the Flash Museum of the future. Little Nora is walking inside it, and it's every fan's dream. The show perfectly captures the awe that the museum should give off, and nods to previous seasons were littered throughout. Marvelously done. Unfortunately, we're back to the present lickety-split.

Nora, being burdened with changing the timeline so often three episodes into the new season, advises that team Flash should get the help from a Wells of another Earth. We are met with Herr Wells again, whom fanboys over the Flash family, before he says he's too busy and directs them to...Sherloque Wells. Cause "Sherlock Holmes," get it? Sigh. I love Tom Cavanagh in the first season as Reverse Flash, I liked his different takes on Wells from other Earths, but five seasons into a show and he's still playing a knock-off of a knock-off of himself, and not only that but he's turned out to be yet another fraud by the end of the episode...sigh. I'm done. I don't care about this character even though it's obvious he'll be the season 5 Wells and will inevitably bond with Cisco.

Anywho, they capture the wrong Cicada. Because Nora is changing the timeline the guy who is always Cicada on every other Earth is not Cicada on this Earth. The real Cicada is actually threatening Joe in his own house where Cecile happens upon Joe almost being tortured and calls for the cavalry. Cicada and Vibe are separated from everyone else and Cisco is being hunted, about to die. Sherloque Wells comes to the rescue and deduces which forest Cisco is fighting in, and then Flash comes in and is quickly stricken powerless, like last episode, but then Nora comes to the rescue to help Vibe fake kill himself so that Cicada could leave happy. To say a lot happens in this episode is both an understatement, and an overstatement.

In between all the Cicada stuff we have the Caitlin subplot, that I really don't care about, in full effect as we get more whimsy bonding scenes between Caitlin and Ralph. They know her dad is alive, her mom is covering something up, and by the end of the episode Caitlin deciphers a hidden message from her father stating for her to "come find me." My biggest problem with this subplot is that I don't see anything new for audiences to get out of this. We already had her conflicting with her mother before, this will all end with Killer Frost coming back, and all it really is doing for Caitlin's character is moving her one step back and resolving it one step forward.

Nora continues to be the shining light of this show while everyone else reverts. Three episodes in and the writers have already gone back to their routine;  Barry uses the same tactics against the villain multiple episodes in a row without learning anything, Cisco is reduced to a background character at best, Caitlin gets a boring subplot, we get another annoying Wells, etc. The only difference I see this time around is that the characters are quickly finding out who Cicada is, Cicada is definitely not a strong enough villain to stretch over the whole season, and Nora has a deadly secret. This episode is not bad, far from it, but it shows the comfortable formula that The Flash has had in the last two to three seasons, and it frustrates me to no end to see this show and its characters not grow out of it after all this time.

Key Points

• Flash Museum
• Nora keeps changing the timeline
• Caitlin and Ralph uncover more clues to her dad
• Vibe fakes his own death
• Cicada is a father
• Nora is keeping something else from everyone

How did you feel about this episode of The Flash? Am I being too harsh on it? Leave a comment down below.