The Flash – All Doll’d Up

By starrymag | November 19, 2018

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

We open with Iris (Candice Patton) feeling a little frustrated because Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) still isn’t answering any of her calls. Barry (Grant Gustin) tries to ease her frustration by saying that maybe Nora’s just helping Cecille (Danielle Nicolet) and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) with the baby, but Iris isn’t trying to hear that because it’s been two weeks of the same thing. They get an alert saying someone stole a painting and Barry rushes off to catch the culprit.

 

The Flash catches him mid bike ride, but sees that he doesn’t have anything on him. Nora hops on the comms to tell them that he handed the painting off to someone and that she’s going to catch him. Before Iris can get the details on her location, Nora cuts the comms off. She ends up capturing the other thief, but almost kills an innocent couple walking across the street.

 

When they get back to S.T.A.R. Labs, Iris is fussing at Nora about how training is important and it’s not optional. Nora’s still upset and doesn’t want to listen to anything Iris has to say. She tells Iris that she’s always being condescending to her and that it hasn’t changed her whole life. Iris visibly gets hurt by those comments and storms out of the room. Barry tries to persuade Nora to see Iris for who she is today and not who she becomes in the future.

 

Sherloque (Tom Cavanaugh) is still trying to figure out the mystery of Cicada so that he can finish out his time and get back to his home. He figures out the perimeter of where the shrapnel would have fallen on Cicada. Cisco (Carlos Valdes) brings up Caitlin’s (Danielle Panabaker) dad and he offers to help her with her search. Even though he’s still injured, he vibes her dad who is sketching something in a notebook. They figure out that he’s at a university building in the vision. They all leave to go to the university and we see Cisco wince after moving his injured hands.

 

We see a man and woman getting dressed for an event. The man tells the woman that he has a pre-wedding surprise. It’s a beautiful diamond necklace that has been passed down in the man’s family. They leave and we see the lid from a box pop off. Someone who has contorted their body emerges and saunters over to the jewelry box. He smashes his fingers down until they’re flat and then slides them into the box to unlock it. He successfully steals the necklace but gets caught just as he’s at the window. The woman yells at him to stop, but he turns his head all the way around and jumps out the window as the woman screams.

 

Barry’s at the crime scene gathering fingerprints and hair. Iris is outside the house getting information from the couple that the necklace was stolen from. The woman mentions that the man moved terrifyingly and he wore a sort of clown mask. Barry walks out to see Iris interviewing the victims and joins her when they leave. She says she’s going to go follow up on it but Barry suggests that they work on it together. With some persuasion from Barry of making it like a date, the two head off to do some more investigating.

 

Nora and Cecille are at the house chatting. Nora starts to vent to Cecille about how she feels about Iris’ parenting, but Cecille shuts that down quickly. She tells her that Iris probably did the best she could with parenting and that Iris deserves respect. Cecille makes a deal with her that the more chores she does the more she’ll tell Nora about the things Barry did that didn’t make it into the Flash Museum. After hearing a snippet of one story, Nora is all in.

 

The four on the search for answers on Caitlin’s dad get into Professor Stein’s old office. Cisco vibes some formulas and Caitlin unscrambles the hidden messages. Sherloque recognizes that the term means a Greek Goddess– Child of the North Wind whose realm was of ice and snow. They match that the term means Killer Frost and that her father knew there were two of them. He was there when Killer Frost was created. Cisco vibes the paper and sees an old chem lab called Vera Chemical. After everyone walks off, Cisco looks down at his hands and sees that they’re bleeding through the bandages.

 

Barry and Iris are at analyzing the samples he found at the crime scene. Barry mentions how great it is to see Iris back out in the field doing what she loves. They don’t get a DNA match, but they do find out that it’s human. They run it again to see if they can find a match.

 

An architect is trying to seal a deal on a building in Gotham when the Ragdoll pops up behind him. Barry mentions that the box he found looked like it was opened from the inside. An alert pops on the screen for a bomb threat at Seaver Architect and Barry runs over to the scene. When he gets there, the man is tied up and he tells him the thing sliding through the vent of the building is what did this. Before it slides it’s head through the vent, it eerily says “Flash.” The building starts to shake and The Flash rushes the man out of the building as it completely crumbles on the way down. We see Ragdoll emerge from the destroyed building.

 

Barry’s recapping what happened when he realizes that the weird lines he found may be the meta’s fingerprints stretched and contorted. They figure out that he is Peter Merkel (Troy James) — the son of billionaire Theresa Merkel (Judith Maxie). Barry says that they should attend the gala she’s hosting and ask her themselves. Iris is hesitant, but Barry persuades her by flippantly saying he looks good in a tux.

 

The four are at the old chemical lab and see that it was burned down and was possibly covering his tracks. Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) finds a box with Tannhauser on it and Caitlin says that she doesn’t think her mom would be privy to something like that. Cisco snatches the box to vibe it, but instead he gets a nose bleed and faints.

 

Barry and Iris arrive to the gala clad in a tux and red dress. With a slow-motion entrance, Barry whispers to Iris that she looks amazing. They spot Theresa Merkel and head over to talk to her. Iris introduces herself and before she can finish, Mrs. Merkel tells them that she already knows who she is. She immediately realizes that they’re there on assignment and tells them to be quick. They ask her about Peter and she tells them that she last saw him two years ago. She tells them that she doesn’t care about his whereabouts.

 

Barry asks Iris for a dance, but she declines because they just hit a dead end and she isn’t feeling it anymore. Barry catches her on her way out and eases her onto the dancefloor. The two share a beautiful slow dance where Barry mentions how they never got a chance to have their first dance. After dancing for a little bit, Iris gets emotional and excuses herself. Barry chases after her and finds her on the steps. He asks if she’s okay and Iris expressed how she feels similar to Theresa Merkel because of the issues she’s having with Nora. He tries to tell her that she’ll never become the Iris from the future, but Iris says that she doesn’t have a choice at this point. The camera spans to the top of the mansion and Ragdoll is hanging off of a balcony staring down at the the couple.

 

Cisco is laid on the hospital bed at S.T.A.R. Labs. Caitlin tells him that every time he vibes he’s going to have more seizures. Cisco tells her that he can’t let Cicada win by not using his powers to help people, especially his friends. Caitlin helps him to realize that he doesn’t need his powers to be a great friend.

 

Iris is still looking over clues about Merkel when Barry joins her in the lounge. She tells him that she doesn’t know what to do about Nora. He realizes that Iris is comparing what’s going on with her and Nora now to what happened with her and Francine. She says that just because she can protect her doesn’t mean that she’s a good mom. She wants her and Nora to have a chance to connect. He tells her to make an effort to change the future and reconnect with who she is now. Something catches Iris’ eye and she tells Barry that she’ll meet him at home because she’s found another lead.

 

Cecille is telling Nora more stories about Barry. Cecille tells her about how Barry had lunch with the kid every day and when Nora notices that something Cecille said wasn’t about Barry but about Iris, she realizes that Cecille has been telling her about Iris’ childhood all along. Cecille tells Nora to stop projecting her feelings about her mom in the future on who she is now. She gives her the memory book of Iris to continue to look at.

 

Barry’s at home when he hears a strange noise, but before he can see what it is Iris calls. She realizes that Ragdoll is targeting all of his victims based off of what they love most, just like his family did to him. As Barry’s looking for something in the refrigerator, Merkel has made his way into the house and is standing behind him. He manages to hit Barry over the head and grabs the phone telling Iris to come and get him.

 

Iris runs in to tell the team that Merkel kidnapped Barry. Iris calls Nora but she doesn’t answer. They’re all out of options when Ralph walks in saying that he can help. He stretches his way through the city with Iris on his back. Barry wakes up from his unconscious state to see Ragdoll contorting himself. Barry tells him he knows what happened to him and that he can help him. He tells him that suffering can’t be stopped, “especially hers.” When Barry starts to threaten Ragdoll if he touches Iris, he tells Barry that he only wants to hear his wife’s pain. Ralph and Iris make it to the roof with the gun. Ralph tells him to let Barry go so Ragdoll pushes him off the roof still tied to the chair with the meta cuffs on. Iris jumps off the roof after him and thankfully makes it to him in time for her to unlock the meta cuffs and allow Barry to speedthem to the ground safely. As they make it to the ground Nora flashes in and tells Iris that it’s beyond “schway” that she just threw herself off the roof to save Barry. Iris realizes that Ralph is still on the roof, but he comes crashing down fully inflated with Ragdoll stuck beneath him.

 

Cisco’s congratulating Iris on her “badassery” while the team stand around admiring her for her saving Barry. Ralph mentions how he helped capture Ragdoll as well. Nora leaves, letting them know that she promises to come back.  Iris finds Nora in the speed room journaling about what Iris did. Iris spots the memory book and the two start looking through it. Nora tells her how she never talks about all of the amazing things she did when she was younger because it’s off limits. Iris tells her that she’s not that person in the future. She wants them to be a part of each other’s lives and not have any secrets or lies. The two sit and share a heartwarming moment while Barry happily listens in the hallway.

 

Sherloque and Ralph figure out where Caitlin’s dad could be hiding and that’s a black ops site. They realize that they need to use a satellite and Cisco figures out a way for them to use someone else’s satellite. They get it up and running! They can locate Caitlin’s dad now.