Barry and Nora confront Thawn. Photo courtesy of WeGotThisCovered.com.
Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Potential Spoilers For “What’s Past Is Prologue” and Events That Occurred Prior
THAWNE IS BACK BABY! Words can’t properly express my happiness about this. It’s so good to see him thrust back in the spotlight. Thawne is the thorn in Barry’s side that he can never rid himself of—and I’m glad the show is keeping that idea alive. Aside from the reveal of Nora having been communicating with Thawne in the future, just seeing the past version on Wells again was fantastic. Everyone’s performance was golden, and the show reminded us just how scary Thawne/Wells can be. Easily the best part when it came to them was Barry’s hard hitting claim that Thawne never makes it home.
Besides Thawne himself, we were sent all throughout the show’s history. We got to see everyone in their places during the particle accelerator explosion (including villains like Weather Wizard which was a nice touch), and even revisit both the Zoom & Savatar timelines. It was a nice run down memory lane that wasn’t overly done. I really enjoyed the fact that we got some new Zoom confrontations—but boy, the show really missed out on the opportunity to bring him back into the fold somehow.
Barry and Iris have a moment. Photo courtesy of WeGotThisCovered.com.
Now this episode did a fantastic job when it came to subtly leading to a pay off. We never thought much of Nora’s focus on Reverse Flash, and the hatred that her dad has for him. We never questioned the curiosity she expressed—to us it seemed like she was simply being overloaded with so much information she didn’t know about Barry’s past. She was just trying to understand. That made the payoff of Nora being in cahoots with Thawne in the future that much more satisfying, because it wasn’t so clearly projected to us. This whole time, Nora was (presumably) realizing how much information was left out by Thawne in their dealings—particularly where it came to his involvement. I’m extremely excited to see more of the dynamic between the two of them, and why the two are together in the first place.
Now while we have Thawne as a main villain for the series, as great as he is, there’s no denying that his return immediately overshadows anything and everything to do with Cicada. It’s hard to be excited for an okay villain, when the show just put one of Arrowverse’s best enemies back into the spotlight. As for Cicada’s part in the episode, well it was the least interesting part—but I wouldn’t say that it was bad…it just existed. I mean it was exciting to see the teams plan come to fruition, even if it did end up essentially powering up Cicada in the end. The one twist I actually really enjoyed however, is that Killer Frost is the only one unaffected by his dagger. It’s a neat detail to acknowledge, and something that I hope will bring importance to Killer Frost’s presence.
Cicada getting ready for his big show down. Photo courtesy of WeGotThisCovered.com.
When it came to the rest of the cast, well they didn’t have much to do besides fighting Cicada at the end. I did find it slightly amusing how they played up the weirdness of time traveling—and that to Team Flash, Barry and Nora basically never left. Now the member who had the most to do this time around was Sherloque. We are shown just how curious and nosey he can be. Little did we know that that curiosity is probably what will lead to Sherloque exposing Nora to the team.
For The Flash’s 100th outing, we were given a great, game changing episode. Complete with nostalgic moments, great scenes, and game changing plot twists. In a way it’s a shame that all the momentum behind Cicada has been set back so hard—because let’s be real. Cicada can’t hold a candle to Thawne, let alone what mysterious things may really be going on with Nora. It seems like we might have to wait until the new year for any more information on the big twist, because this years midseason finale is the big crossover event. But to be fair—Elseworlds looks fantastic.
Bonus Notes:
- I was really hoping to see that yellow suit in action again. But it’s looking like it’s only a matter of time.
- They missed a perfect opportunity to bring Zoom back in some manner.
You can catch new episodes of The Flash when they air on The CW network every Tuesday at 8pm EST
