Jessie Robertson reviews the fifteenth episode of The Flash season 5…
To quote Cisco, “That Kaiju battle was sweet!”
The Good:
Obviously, the fight. I’ve been waiting for this since the season premiere this year. There’s one truth we knew going into this episode: this one was going to cost the CW a LOT of money. So, we didn’t expect the fight to be long. The series coincides perfectly with “the Cure”, and highlighted a very interesting conversation where Barry forcibly administered the Cure to King Shark without his consent. He was read the riot act from Cisco and Caitlin over such an abuse of power, or as she said “you weren’t supposed to wield it as a weapon.”
When Grodd shows up, he comes in hot!! Using Cisco and Caitlin against Barry to retrieve the telepathic crown they were using to communicate with King Shark was pretty brilliant. When these two titans clashed though, holy cow! I know this was pricey but very, very worth it. They went through buildings, threw cars at each other, this thing got nuts and that’s exactly what most fans were hoping for. It wasn’t long, but it lived up to the hype we wanted.
And Joe’s back!! This show sorely missed Jesse L. Martin and he comes back with a vengeance (no crying scene) but he does snap Iris back into the right frame of mind as the season seems to dictate she’s got a big part to play in putting a stop to Cicada, perhaps even being the one that stops him. And her getting texts about missing the ultimate grudge match were perfect as well!
The water effects with King Shark were also spot on.
And I enjoy Sherloque: I get the sense he’s the least popular Wells but I get a kick out of the way he saunters around the office making observations and as corny as the accent is, it’s really grown on me. It feels like a Wells that doesn’t have nefarious means (joining Harry in that club.)
The Not as Good:
The tech babble was at an all time high this week: we had the oceanographer creating tech to speak with King Shark, then Cisco jumped in and helped modify/ amplify it, all while everyone was spouting out theories why it would or would not work. Then, once the cure was injected, more scientific reasoning on why it worked, or didn’t work permanently and how it wouldn’t keep. It was too much. I have to say, I wasn’t a huge fan of the actor playing human King Shark. The dialogue was delivered very monotone and the storyline felt fairly generic. I understand in these scenarios you have to make someone the good guy, and with his back story it made the most sense but I really had Godzilla 2014 syndrome as in “Just get to the fight!!”
Rating: 8/10: The fight was everything, Joe returning only sets the show back on course, and best of all – no Cicada!!!
Jessie Robertson