The Flash is back again with another episode after a semi-massive cliffhanger ending in last week’s episode. Hear No Evil wastes no time in getting to the bottom of who and what this mysterious Caitlin-like person is. This person who revealed themselves to not be neither Frost nor Caitlin reveals themselves to just be Snow. A new alter, a new being of sorts if you will. Enter Mark and his full breakdown as to what happened with Caitlin and their failed attempt to bring back Frost and his plan to convince Barry and the rest of Team Flash to help him bring Caitlin and Frost back.
As Mark and Team Flash discuss how to approach bringing Caitlin and Frost back, a plan they all unanimously agree to help with we switch focus to Joe and Cecile. In last week’s episode, Joe told Cecile that they need to leave Central City and leave the superhero life behind because he is essentially tired of it, and after a near-decade-long metahuman fighting career who can blame him? More so when he reveals to Cecile the actual reasoning behind his decision. It’s not just simply Joe not wanting to fight crime and save day, he now has more to lose than ever before.
Yes, he’s always had Barry and Iris to worry about but they’re both in a place where neither of them really needs his protection. Barry is The Flash and Iris…she’s Iris and also The Flash if you’re catching my drift. Now Joe has another daughter and also has Cecile to worry about. Cecile is now also a metahuman who for the most part can fend for herself but just the thought of losing the family he created with Cecile is what is pushing him towards leaving Central City. Cecile does put things in perspective for him and for the time being quells his urges to up and leave. The question is will this be a plot point we revisit as the season develops?
This week we also see the return of Hartley Rathaway aka Pied Piper. We all know that he is a reformed villain, living a life of good with his boyfriend Roderick. While leaving his club, Hartley is attacked by The Fiddler. Now, this version of The Fiddler isn’t our Izzy Bowen Fiddler, this is another person entirely who just so happens to be working with Red Death. During her battle with Hartley, Fiddler leaves him with a heart arrhythmia bringing him close to the brink of death until he arrives at STAR Labs.
Barry is now feeling a sense of guilt which stems from a bit of the gaslighting Mark did earlier in the episode. Essentially blaming Barry for what happened to Caitlin. A recurring theme throughout the episode is choice and how everyone involved in this episode has had or will be given the freedom to choose what they want to do for themselves. This becomes more evident as we learn more about Snow and Caitlin’s father, Thomas Snow. Team Flash is looking to reverse engineer his experiment on Caitlin from when she was a little girl which caused the birth of Frost. However, as Iris and Barry discuss this they realize that following through with the experiment will cause Snow to die whether they choose to bring back Caitlin or bring back Frost.
After a brief 1:1 between Barry and Mark, Barry recruits Mark as a new member of Team Flash and they head back to STAR Labs to begin the team vote on who to bring back once Snow re-enters the CRC. Everyone on Team Flash places their votes with the exception of Barry who says he needs more time to think about this decision. Here we begin to get a more sense of how Snow is feeling and dealing with everything that is going on.
This is a woman who was literally born yesterday with no memory or recollection of her other alters and no real connection to anyone on Team Flash or even Mark for that matter. But she sees that her being is brewing some unnecessary tension and she doesn’t really want to deal with that. Ultimately the team comes to the decision that Snow needs to make her own decision. That she will choose whether to live or die and have either Caitlin or Frost take her place instead.
Back at the club The Fiddler has taken it over and has placed Hartley’s employees in a vibrational vacuum, including Hartley’s boyfriend Roderick. Just went Hartley is on the brink of tipping the scale back his evil ways, The Flash arrives to help him. However, their victory is short-lived as Captain Boomerang enters the fray, saves The Fiddler, and steals Hartley’s gauntlets…turns out Red Death needed them to be released from what appears to be a Negative Speed Force coccoon.
While The Flash and Hartley take their hollow victory in stride, they head back to STAR Labs to see what is Snow’s final decision. She decides that she does not want to back in the CRC and she wants to remain who she is now despite how anyone else feels about it, especially Mark. Mark doesn’t take this lighlty and is thrown over the edge when Hartley enters the room and destroys the CRC causing Mark to leave the room.
Snow further explains her reasoning for not wanting to go back in the CRC and reveals her actual name, Khione. She explains the meaning behind the name which is the name of a flower Thomas Snow used to study when Caitlin was a child. As Team Flash welcomes Khione to the team and head for a night out, we finally get our first full look at Red Death’s costume which turned out to look pretty good.
The Flash – Hear No Evil Verdict:
This week’s episode of The Flash stumbled and stumbled hard. A lot of what happened in this episode felt rushed and given the short episode count this season it is very evident that a lot of fat was trimmed in order to get the ball rolling and the Speed Force running much quicker than the writer’s probably wanted to. The revelation of Khione, while the name is cute and all, falls a flat. It’s evident the writers still aren’t dedicated to getting rid of Caitlin Snow as they keep creating alters new alters for her and were so keen on bringing back Frost after killing her for the umpteenth time.
We’ve hit a little rough patch already with Chester and Allegra’s romance as they shared their first kiss in last week’s episode but aren’t keen on speaking about the topic just yet. As I mentioned last week, we’ve been building up to this for quite some time and to see it finally happen but not fully take off is a bit jarring and the way they both kind of kill the awkwardness, while relatable, once again feels lazy. The whole episode feels quite lazy to be quite honest with you.
My biggest gripe with this week’s episode however, is Red Death. I don’t understand why the writers have Red Death hiring other villains to do her bidding when she’s perfectedly capable of getting the job done herself even while she’s in her Speed Force coccoon. Two epsiodes in and we still do not know what and when Barry birthed the creation of Red Death and from what Earth Red Death. How and what did Barry do to cross this presummed Ryan Wilder to cause her to become an evil Speedster?
Given the season’s short episode count, having Red Death torment Barry for the beginning of the season would’ve been the ideal choice. Plus the proper build-up to Red Death is not present. Now, I’m all for new rogues and putting together a new rogues team to faceoff against The Flash as we’ll see in next week’s episode but nothing in this episode truly worked for me. Overall it’s a rushed and lazy episode that needed a little ump from the Speed Force to truly get the ball rolling here.
The Flash Season 9 airs Wednesdays at 9 pm EST on The CW.
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