Nora excited to see her father in action! Photo courtesy of Cosmicbooknews.com.
Please Keep In Mind That This Article Contains Potential Spoilers For “Time Bomb” and Events That Occurred Prior
Now I mentioned last week that the Grace twist was long overdue, but even so, in this week’s episode they couldn’t even stick the landing. The good thing is that at least part of her motivation comes from her experience in the dream world—something that certainly should have more of a focus. Instead, her sole motive seems to avenging the accidental death of her parents? Why is she attacking now? I don’t see a reason why she needed to wait so long to extract revenge for a meta accident years prior to our present. It just seems unnecessary. Her motives should be more closely tied with her father and Team Flash, but they seem to be only a side note at this point.
Another big issue with this episode was Orlin. It’s funny how a consistent complaint about this season is how drawn out everything has been. But in “Time Bomb”, everything about Orlin doesn’t make much sense. His changes in personality, perspective, and motive all seem forced. It feels sped up, and in this case it certainly should have had a little more time cook. Pacing issues is certainly one of the larger issues that this season has had.
Cicada getting ready for his big show down. Photo courtesy of WeGotThisCovered.com.
While most of the focus was on Grace’s new arrival, Cisco got to have a side plot with Camilla as he questioned what he wanted the future of his life to feel like. The idea of this plot was fine, but the execution was lacking. First of all, there is next to no chemistry with Cisco and Kamilla. Especially compared to Cisco’s previous relationship and dynamic with Gypsy. Kamilla simply falls flat. There is nothing between the two of them, besides a small plot line in one of the season’s weakest entries. Then there’s Ralph. Who had to make the same dumb mistakes that he has made (and learned from) countless times already in order to even start this plot thread. The only good thing to come out of it all in the end is Ralph pointing out that Cisco closing off his life with The Flash and Co. from his future significant others is like shutting down a part of who he is.
The big moment finally happened. Thanks to the forced family-keeping-secrets plot line (and Thawne’s advice), Nora finally caved. But she wasn’t actually able to vocalize her secrets—Instead Sherloque got his big moment that he had been waiting for. Finally exposing everything that Nora hiding from the start. It’s fantastic that this is all out in the air, even if it did take awhile. Barry’s reaction to it all felt very natural. Anything to do with Thawne is a sensitive subject—and finding out that his daughter was working alongside him all along would certainly be enough to him to lose his head and any reasoning. It’s certainly a strength of betrayal that won’t—or at least shouldn’t—be able to be fixed so easily.
“Time Bomb” was another lackluster of episode in Flash’s fifth season. Nearly all of it simply showcased ways in which the story could have been told tighter and more efficiency from the start. The biggest take away from this episode is that everyone finally knows about Nora’s partnership with Thawne, so the storyline we’ve all wanted to get the focus is now finally in the spotlight.
Bonus Notes:
- I guess the “Cicada Leaping Escape” is a family thing.
- There’s still so many questions to be had when it comes to the entire future Grace situation. Questions that while I have, I care way less about than Thawne and 2049.
You can catch new episodes of The Flash when they air on The CW network every Tuesday at 8pm EST
