Posted in: CW, Review, TV | Tagged: The Flash

'The Flash' Season 5, Episode 13 "Cause and XS" Review: Teamwork, not Time Travel, makes the Dream Work [SPOILERS]

Will members of the Allen family please stop messing with the timeline?!?! This week Nora runs into the past over and over to prevent a vengeful Cicada from murdering one or more members of Team Flash, which also has hilarious butterfly-effect consequences for Cisco's date.

Great news! The metahuman cure is complete. Bad news? It will take a month to be ready, unless Barry (Grant Gustin) takes it into the speed force for an hour, like a tachyon-fueled microwave. Unfortunately, it is during that hour when Cicada (Chris Klein) strikes, first kidnapping Iris (Candice Patton) to lure the rest of the team to a rooftop, where he summarily executes Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker).

Nora, horrified, runs an hour into the past to try to prevent it from happening, but every time someone else gets killed. After 52 separate attempts (52? Get it? Like The New 52? Which happened because of Flashpoint, which was Barry messing with the timeline?), Nora finally is confronted by mama Iris, "You're messing with the timeline, aren't you?"

What's great here is Nora's biggest flaw is (West-Allen family trait) thinking you're the only one who can hold the weight of the world and consequences of your decision. It's only by opening up, talking with your team, making a plan that harnesses everyone's talents together, that they can win. It's a little trite, but it's so true. And it's also great to see Iris get to play Team Boss every once in a while. We almost forget that on a team of supergeniuses, she's actually the smartest one there– at least in terms of emotional intelligence and strategic thinking.

The other best part of this episode was seeing Cisco (Carlos Valdez) going on his first date with Kamilla over and over again. Somehow Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) gets into Cisco's head that he needs to put on some sort of act to woo her, resulting in him showing up as several different "personas" and utterly wrecking his date. When things turn out right? Cisco is just being himself. He's honest, he's vulnerable, he's kind. It's a nice commentary on the world of pick-up-artist culture. One of the worst facets of this subset of toxic masculinity is guys pretending relationships are like some sort of video game, and if you just input the right Konami code, then something is somehow unlocked for you. Nah, just be yourself. We humans like authenticity and honesty in the people we have intimate relationships with.

But then there's that ending, where Nora once again runs into the future to confer with Eobard Thawne. Now faced with the reality that changing the timeline has consequences (a nice piece of fatherly advice which Barry passes to Nora– the same advice Jay Garrick/Barry's father passed to him about Flashpoint), Nora asks if what they're doing is actually ok. Thawne freaks out saying he is the only speedster who can fix the timeline (classic Thawne!), and it's a great reminder that Nora's mentor is a psychopath.

All of Team Flash will be back Tuesday, March 5 as they face off against two big baddies at once: "King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd."

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