Jessie Robertson reviews the sixth episode of The Flash season 5…
The Snow Family Tree Episode
The Good:
– You guys will roast me alive for this, but my favorite character to watch this week was Cecile; I loved the loyal friend angle Cisco took for Caitlin in these crazy circumstances but Danielle Nicolet plays her with so much spunk and so much life, how can you not love watching her? With Joe not around (see The Bad), Ralph draws the Cecile straw to do their own investigating. The plot is flimsy but their chemistry is on fire with Ralph being scared of her, quite a lot, but knowing how to draw that out works great for them. Also, Ralph takes a box of evidence from a douche and knocks everything off his desk with it; Bravo, sir, bravo.
– Killer Frost is back! It’s about time. This is a Caitlin episode, which comes around about half the time as the icky McRib so treasure them, folks. Danielle Panabaker applies the same straight forward likeability and level headness she normally does so it’s always a knockback to see her in an emotionally charged situation. This time, it’s finding her Dad after 20 years. What we get from their relationship makes perfect sense and I love the return of Frost about a million times more than this father-daughter reunion; you have to be pretty cold for that not to hit me in the feels (All puns from here on out, intentional.)
– I also like the simple choreography of the fight scene at the end, even if there isn’t much of one there. The team instantly falling down due to the temp and Caitlin not being affected was a nice foreshadowing moment; the cold never bothered her anyways, I guess you could say.
– Nose Twitch! (Comic shout out)
– Another delightful Easter Egg is Snow Sr. mentioning the three scientists who helped him set up the Cryo Lab they find him in – Harrison Wells (kinda familiar with him), Louise Lincoln (a different version of Killer Frost in the comics) and Victor Fries (That’s Mr., to you!)
– “Sorry for the language, Mom” Nora, after saying the word “crap”
The Bad:
– The Villains; Woof. Snow Sr, as is deduced by Cisco, if he carries the same gene he implanted into Caitlin as a child, giving her the Killer Frost powers/persona, must also have his own. He does; it’s Icicle and he looks like the trailer park version of Jack Frost from The Santa Clause 3. This plot was woefully bad and rushed. They pick him up in the North Pole, where he’s lived for 20 years, surviving off water and rations (how does he continually restock the rations?) and being an evil supervillain who immediately plots against the team. There are so many holes in this story (as Cisco rightfully points out), it should be the Arctic Circle (YES, Ozone Depletion is real, fools.) Icicle escapes and I sigh; that means he’ll return. I hope King Shark eats him as an appetizer.
– Equally as dull is Cicada; it’s going to take more than a hurt child in the hospital for me to find something to like about him. I’ll be honest; Chris Klein’s performance isn’t good; the delivery of his lines in the hospital supply room was awful. Not interested.
– And the FEMA worker Cecile and Ralph shake down? Hold on, this doof has been scamming Central City citizens out of money? Where is the rest of his crew? Is he literally the only one there? This plot seems highly far-fetched; in the words of a show doing comedy much better, “Ya Basic!”
– Miss you Joe! Jesse L. Martin on hiatus.
– I just don’t like “reintroductions” on this show; Caitlin and her Dad seemed so stiff together and nothing about it worked for me. Icicle tricking Team Flash and how it all went down has got to be one of the most obvious and yet improbably setups I’ve seen in a long while here.
I can’t grade this too highly as there wasn’t much I liked, I’m sorry Caitlin, you deserve better.
Rating: 5.5/10
Jessie Robertson
