Title:Ā The Flash: āSeeing RedāĀ Review
Release Date: January 22nd, 2019
Network:Ā The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
PlotĀ holes, hypocritical characters, and poor decision making made “Seeing Red” one of the worst episodes of The Flash season five. Honestly, it may be worse than “The Icicle Cometh”.
At times, Barry is just so annoying.Ā “Seeing Red”Ā was one of those times. He made rash decisions that were completely illogical, went against his moral code, and acted like this is the first time he’s ever been in a tough situation before. The part where he stopped beating up on Cicada to go talk to Nora was incredibly irritating, as I am in the camp that wants to see this Cicada business done with for good. Seriously. You had an extremely dangerous serial killer on the ropes and were about to take him down. Why would Nora, who has speedster abilities and was sure to heal from her injury, completely stop you from arresting him?
Yeah, I know. He was going to kill him (we’ll get to that issue in a second). But, wouldn’t it have been better for Barry to see Nora, refrain from killing Cicada and instead just arrest him? Now, we’re going to have to push through for at least another episode or two, in hopes that the Reverse-Flash/Nora story takes over.
On to my second major problem with this episode. Barry’s clash with Cicada and his desire to kill him. Look, I know his daughter was severely injured by Cicada and that could lead a parent to go into a blind rage. But, we’ve already established that Barry doesn’t kill. We did this in season two with Zoom. Season three with Savitar. And, most recently, he was the one that convinced Ralph not to kill The Thinker. To have him try to kill Cicada here felt out of left field for the character, retreaded through past arcs, and ultimately made him look like a hypocrite.
Before I get into more negatives, I want to touch on the bright spots of this episode of The Flash. Cecille (Danielle Nicolet) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) were great here. Nora’s initial reaction when she woke up was reminiscentĀ of when Barry had his back broken in season two by Zoom. This isn’t a complaint as here, the scene was far more dramatic as it probably should have been in season two.
Despite the absenceĀ of Jesse L. Martin as Joe West, The Flash has done well. I have to give a lot of credit to Nicolet’s Cecille Horton. She has taken Joe’s role as the expert law enforcement/parent/advice giver and ran with it ever since Martin took his leave of absence. I’m ecstatic to see Martin return later this season but I hope the show doesn’t throw Cecille into the background when he comes back.
This cure stuff with Cisco and Caitlin is very intriguing. Killer Frost’s hesitation towards a cure made sense, as did Ralph’s way of getting through to her. Finally, Norvock (the snake guy) was a shockingly good character. He’s was in Amunet Black’s shadow for every episode he appeared in last season. It was cool to see his character fleshed out a bit more.
Okay. That felt good. As you can see, there were some positives to talk about but unfortunately, I just couldn’t get past the big glaring problem. Cicada.
Last week, I had a revelation that I didn’t care about Cicada. This week, it’s confirmed. He can go now. Anytime.
His blue-collar backstory is fine. His powers are actually very interesting. It should have been a treat to see him go against The Flash. Instead, I just wanted to see him gone from my TV screen. I like Chris Klein. He was great in American Pie. But, he shouldn’t have played Cicada. The way he plays the character is too over-the-top to believe anything he does or says. It doesn’t help that the lines he’s been given are cheesy. All this really just sucks to write as I tried to hold out hope for this main villain to take center stage. Unfortunately, I’m now just hoping that the Reverse-Flash story gets pushed to the forefront soon so I can forget about this guy.
Almost forgot. There was a small development in Sherloque’s investigation. He found out that Nora’s speed-force book was written by two people. We know that the other person is Eobard Thawne but it seems that Nora’s big secret is about to be revealed soon. Especially now that Iris has caught onto Sherloque’s questioning. Again, there still isn’t enough here to fully judge yet, but I’m still hooked.
Verdict: “Seeing Red” sits with “The Icicle Cometh” as the worst two episodes of The Flash season five so far. Bad character decisions by Barry, mixed with a boring Cicada made for a rough time to sit through. Performances by Jessica Parker Kennedy and Danielle Nicolet, the cure sub-plot, and small moments from guest stars (Peek-a-Boo and Norvock) made this episode watchable. Still, for The Flash to succeed in delivering a spectacular finish to their season, they have to dump this Cicada stuff quick so we can get onto a better story.
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