Review: Team Flash Goes Undercover to Defeat Cicada on THE FLASH

Cicada is still a looming threat in Central City. This week, Team Flash goes undercover and plays to their individual strengths and tries a couple of different, unconventional approaches to taking him down.

The episode starts with Nora talking to Thawne in 2049. Nora knows that Sherloque has been spying on her and needs to distract him. Thawne points out that his weakness is love. So after a carefully orchestrated series of events, he runs into Rene Adler, the same woman he married on five other Earths. However, he accidentally reveals too much information about her and scares her off. Nora vows to help Sherloque with his love life and invites his other wives from other Earths to Earth-1. This proves to be a bad idea when one of Sherloque's wives tells him he is destined to be alone. This week, Nora gets to be THE ONE to give the motivational pep talk and helps Sherloque focus on his love life rather than her.

Last week, Iris started the Central City Citizen Newspaper. However, it's not quite getting the traction she was hoping for and gets discouraged after an article says Spencer Young's Spinzone blog is better. She wants to write about Cicada like she did with Devoe and that's what she does. She uses the drawing of Cicada's home that Nora drew last week and actually manages to find it. She breaks in. Of course, Cicada comes home moments later. As she tries to make a quiet exit, Cicada finds her. She lies and tells him that she is reporting on lead in the water but Cicada doesn't quite believe her. He figures out that Iris did break in and has an ulterior motive and tries to kill her with his dagger. But Iris manages to stab him with her pen, right where his DARK MATTER wound is, and escapes.

That leaves BARRY and Ralph. BARRY and Ralph go undercover as criminals in the BLACK MARKET of stolen tech somewhere under Central City to get a field generator. They are welcomed to the BLACK MARKET and greeted with meta-cuffs. Ralph warns BARRY to be cool and keep his head during this mission. BARRY discovers CCPD killing assault rifles and tries to purchase them all (to keep them off Central City streets, obviously), catching Goldface's attention. Goldface doesn't believe BARRY is a criminal so BARRY quickly makes up a tale about how he is known as The Chemist and is an expert at covering his tracks. Goldface seems to buy the tale but sends Ralph and BARRY to steal a 3D printer that prints organs from Ivo Labs. This goes against absolutely everything BARRY believes in but he accepts that THE FLASH might have to get his hands dirty to defeat Cicada.

Ralph isn't going to let BARRY compromise his morals so easily. When they arrive at Ivo, Ralph locks BARRY in the van. But when things go sideways, as they always do, Ralph and Barry, who are armed with rifles with a stun setting (Team Flash doesn't kill), regroup and take out Goldface's gang in an epic action movie-esque showdown. Goldface himself meets them after the fight and tells them he won't blow them up. Ralph and BARRY fight Goldface and manage to take him down, even without their powers.

All in all, it was a modest success for Team Flash this week in their battle against Cicada. Even though Ralph and Barry's mission for the field generator failed, Nora's secret is safe and Iris discovered Cicada's weakness.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

To post a comment, you must register and login.