I wanted to choose other titles for this article such as “Will This Week Be Better?” or “Will The Stories Make Sense?” but I think those go without saying lately for The Flash. Honestly, last week’s episode wasn’t good.  Too much was going on and none of it blended together.  Maybe this week?  The team looks to take on the Weather Witch.  How will it all unfold?  Read on to find out!

Cicada’s Story — Viewers get a little more of a backstory for Cicada.  The girl in the hospital, Grace, isn’t actually his daughter, but his niece.  His sister was apparently killed during a meta attack, which has resulted in Cicada being her closest living relative.  This also explains some of his hatred for metas. Initially, he didn’t want to have custody of Grace, which has completely changed in the present.

Cicada’s backstory has actually been the most interesting part of this episode, and maybe even the season.  The focus is the parent dynamics this season, and Cicada’s niece during a flashback shows him how difficult of a task it is and even tells him that she not only hates him, but that he hates himself.  Pretty powerful stuff.

Cicada tries to change for his Grace, which really humanizes the “villain”.  He comes to a realization and wants the best for Grace, and himself.  Now his motivation makes sense, which honestly hasn’t happened in a while with some of the villains.  I do respect what they are doing with this part of the episode.

We finally find out not only what happened to Grace, but how Cicada got his meta tech, and injury.  The shrapnel from the satellite The Flash and Nora destroyed at the end of last season is the culprit.  Cicada’s meta tech was lodged into his chest, while the explosion put Grace in her coma.  So he hates metas because they resulted in killing his sister as well as the destruction of the satellite resulted in his injury and the brain hemorrhaging of his niece.  That all actually makes complete sense.  The writers actually did something interesting here.  So, is Cicada a villain or an anti-hero?

Thankfulness — Iris and Nora have mended their relationship, and in doing so, Iris shares all of the close-calls Barry has had when sacrificing his life.  This may shed some light on why future Iris sheltered Nora the way she did.

On the plus side, we have already seen The Flash more in the first 10 minutes of this episode than in the entirety of last week’s.  The negative?  Barry knows lightning is striking, yet can’t move fast enough to avoid it. This is (again) where the writers backed themselves into a corner last season.  Barry moving faster than sight and now not being able to have quick reactions to match doesn’t make sense.  How did he go from faster than sight to the slowest reaction time to the elements around him? Yes, they are trying to play-up Nora’s role, but Barry has constantly been injured this season.  Not only does Barry not portray his detective skills from the comics, he also hasn’t been the leader, scientist, and has seemingly taken the usual “damsel in distress” role at times.  Why?

Nora realizes that she has been taking out her anger on Iris when she actually has been mad at Barry for leaving her.  She wants him to give up being The Flash. Is she selfish, or justified?

Supporting Characters — Sherloque Wells: This is by far the worst version of Wells yet.  Love the actor, not a fan of the writing.  Meanwhile, Cisco and Caitlin argue about the meaning of Thanksgiving.  The supporting cast doesn’t bring any sustenance to the plot…at all.  What used to be natural humor has now been completely forced through characters who seem like little more than comic relief, yet used to be tremendous assets. The team all share Thanksgiving dinner at the end of the episode sans Ralph.  Where was he?

Weather Wizard? — Not quite. Nora and Barry go to see the Weather Wizard, and find that he is still in captivity.  Of course, Iris tags along and somehow gets access to video footage since she is “a friend of the press”.  Really?  Since it wasn’t the Weather Wizard behind the lightning attacks then who was it?  His daughter, Weather Witch…of course.  Alright, I get the focus on parents/children this season, and while some of it is good (Barry/Nora/Cicada/Grace) they are going somewhat overboard.  First Caitlin and her father (Icicle) now Weather Wizard and his daughter?

Weather Witch has meta tech just like Cicada, and wants revenge on her father.  (She reminded me of Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers with her staff.) Also, her “footage” they found looked like an 8-year-old using photoshop. Weather Witch has some clear daddy-issues and tries dropping a car on him, and now wants to take revenge on the city because of him.  A bit extreme.  Also, isn’t it ironic that her meta tech has the same power that he father has?  Maybe she has a meta gene or some other connection.

Nora gives Barry the go-ahead to take down Weather Witch in order to help the innocent civilians, which he does.

Next week they have to go back to the past to stop Cicada in the future.  While some of this is exciting because we will get to see many former villains again, wasn’t rule #1  to NOT change the past?  Isn’t that what created Flashpoint?  Could this lead to the crisis that makes Barry disappear?

There were definitely some good takeaways from this week’s episode.  Cicada’s backstory was definitely a positive step, which I was honestly interested in and that made sense.  The supporting cast still doesn’t bring anything to the table, and there are still other issues, but is the show moving in the right direction? What did you think of this week’s episode?  Leave your thoughts in the usual spot, and thanks for reading!

The Flash returns next Tuesday at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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