Review: Things Get Creepy on This Week's Episode of THE FLASH

Nothing says welcome back to another week of The Flash like an ultra-creepy villain that BARRY describes as a stretching clown meta. To quote Iris, "that's not creepy at all." But this stretching clown meta was not the main focus of the episode. This episode was the most relationship-heavy episode we've seen this season, which isn't a bad thing considering this season has just been go, go, go

In the Barry, Iris, and Nora plot, Nora is still angry with Iris and Iris is ready to give up. BARRY urges Nora to see Iris for who she is now, and not who she is in the future. When the stretching clown meta first shows up, BARRY is on the scene with the CCPD and Iris is following the story. BARRY suggests they team up like the good old days and track down this guy together. Iris is skeptical but BARRY turns crime solving into a multi-day date while they track him down. The two of them even end up at a formal fundraising ball where Iris wears a stunning red dress and BARRY wears a tux and the two of them share a sweet dance.

Nora is still staying at the West's house and she makes it very clear to Cecile that she is fed up with her mom. Cecile doesn't tolerate the disrespect and bribes Nora with stories about her father to get her to help assemble a new coffee table. After hearing multiple stories, Nora figures out that the stories Cecile has been telling her have been about Iris, not Barry. Nora feels slightly tricked and betrayed but lets it go when Cecile gives her a scrapbook with all of her mom's accomplishments.

In the Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, and Sherloque plot, the four of them are simultaneously deciphering clues left by Caitlin's father as they try to track him down and continue their search for Cicada. For the first time this season, it actually seems like Ralph and Sherloque are getting along, which adds a nice dynamic to the team. It's nice to see that the Cicada plot hasn't been forgotten even though there's another villain in this episode.

In this episode, Cisco's arc is particularly compelling. After Cicada took his powers, he took an episode off to recover. Now, he is trying to use his powers again. However, the more he uses his powers, the weaker he becomes. Cisco wants to help Caitlin and Ralph and he wants to help Team Flash but he thinks he can't do that without his powers. Caitlin kindly reminds him that he is a brilliant engineer, hacker, mechanic, and friend and that's his real power among the team.

In the end, both plots merge and all of Team Flash works together to defeat Rag Doll, as Cisco named him. With BARRY trapped and Nora unreachable, they don't have a speedster to help them. Ralph uses his powers as Elongated Man and swings from buildings with Iris to the rooftop where Rag Doll has BARRY teetering on the edge of the building in meta cuffs, rendering him powerless. It's a team effort but everyone survives and the bad guy gets locked up, or in this case, swallowed by Elongated Man.

The episode ends with the relationships among the characters being hopeful and optimistic. After Iris jumps off a building to save BARRY and get him out of the meta cuffs, Nora realizes that maybe right now, in the present, her mom isn't so bad. The final shot of the episode is a shot of Caitlin and Cisco sharing a nice moment after Cisco successfully hacks into four satellites, allowing Team Flash to track Caitlin's father and Cicada, with just using his engineering powers, not his Vibe powers.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

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