Jessie Robertson reviews the season 5 finale of The Flash…
There was a really interesting dichotomy between last night’s Arrow season finale and tonight’s Flash episode. Both had lackluster villains heading into a finale that kept the most interesting aspect tightly focused on one thing: family. In both shows, you have these familial groups, sticking together, in the face of utmost danger and not the villain they were facing, but how they come together and the dynamics they have are what were the strongest elements of each.
Last week’s cliffhanger revealing that Thawne HAD been manipulating Nora was deliciously evil from a character who it seemed had been all used up in 5 seasons of this show. Having Ralph solve this mystery and jump in front of the mirror gun blast that would have given Thawne his escape (which inevitably happened regardless) was a great conclusion to the competing detectives thread moving through the season and actually gave Ralph some worth. Having Sherloque acknowledge that, and conclude his work was also a nice nod. Other threads weaved into the story were Cisco’s struggle with his identity as a meta. He seemed to feel it had come to define him, and we saw this trope play itself over and over again throughout the season, even going as far as him feeling a cure for metas was necessary. As his relationship with Kamilla takes the next step (telling someone you’re a meta, obviously) and Thawne’s perception of him late in the episode, his choice seemed logical to him (unlike Dany’s on Game of Thrones, sorry, not sorry!). I’d be remised to not mention Carlos Valdes beautiful moment as he was given the cure by Caitlin; not necessarily the tear that dropped from his eye but the wide smile he carried on his way out of the lab.
The bigger storyline was the Flash family itself and what this episode had in store for them. Using teamwork, and Nora’s connection to Grace’s mind, the team (along with Uncle Orin’s good self) was able to convince Grace to take the meta cure. This didn’t fully work until the dagger was destroyed, a gambit they had to take. Once Grace was cured, and the evil version gone poof!, the team had a backup plan in store for Thawne and, honestly, it was pretty brilliant. They managed not to really have much trouble out of him (except for the wonderful Speed Clone he produced, which I don’t think has been used yet in the show.) Again, you have the team coming together and showing that’s how they work best. It was a bit aggravating that we’d seen this situation so many times this season, with everyone coming together to try and stop Cicada and it not working yet here, they quickly have a complex plan in place and executed flawlessly to stop Thawne, mostly. Nora started basically disintegrating, having caused a branch off of time, changing her destiny. This was a fairly surprising development honestly and once she made the choice not to dwell inside the Negative Speed Force, but rather embrace this legacy as a hero who wants to be remembered for the sacrifice they made, a family hug was the only natural reaction as Nora floated away on particles.
You could say her taped goodbye came off a cheesy, but Sarah Parker Kennedy (Nora) is such a darling, such a delight, she pulls it off. I liked the subtle background music here (as opposed to wanting no sad pop song over Oliver and Felicity’s goodbye last night) as light piano keys ring quiet tones as her parents sit and weep at the sight of her, and are overcome with pride with the woman they hope they will see again. No large “Crisis” interlude but we do see time tick backwards on Barry’s crisis headline, a small clue as to where they’re going in Season 6.
Overall, I really think they wrapped up a painful storyline (Cicada) as well as possible, gave us that interesting Thawne storyline (looking to be next season’s version of Wells) and those other wonderful endings as next season opens up. For eagle-eyed DC fans, Ralph was in his office looking through a file named “Dearborn” which is the maiden name of one Sue Dibny, aka, Ralph’s future wife in DC lore. All in all, this episode, as a whole, I think was more successful than Arrow’s finale last night, even if Oliver and Felicity’s departure into the unknown hit a harder note than Nora’s exit, surprisingly.
Rating – 9/10: Team Flash proves that teamwork makes the dream work (Thanks Cisco…you will be missed) in a satisfying, if not a bit routine, finale where Nora Allen moves on, having changed the team’s life forever.
Jessie Robertson
