The Flash – O Come, All Ye Thankful

By starrymag | December 4, 2018

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

Orlin (Chris Klein) is standing over Grace’s (Islie Hirvonen) hospital bed. We hear Barry in the hallway asking for her room. He gets stopped in the hallway by the doctor. He tells her he’s with CCPD and is looking for Grace’s parents. The doctor tells him that her parents are deceased. She shows him her charts and Barry looks on suspiciously, but eventually leaves.

 

We go into a flashback where a police officer is knocking on Orlin’s door. The police tells him there has been an accident with his sister and then moves to reveal a young child– Grace.

 

Barry is (Grant Gustin) intensely trying to make a pie with the help of Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), but he ultimately fails. She thanks him for the help and when he says it’ll be just the five of them for Thanksgiving this year Killer Frost pops in and says she’ll be joining them, too. This is the first time she and Caitlin have been able to communicate without the dampeners. Iris (Candice Patton) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) come through the loft laughing after getting back from the nail salon. Nora tells Iris that they should take pictures and post them on the “old-fashioned Insta thingy.” Barry mentions that she’s getting closer to Iris than she is to him and that the timing is good because it’ll be her first Thanksgiving memory with both of her parents. Nora apologizes to Iris for not giving her a chance at showing her how great she is and tells her that she’s thankful to get to know her. Nora brings up the singularity and how epic it must have been to be there. Iris disagrees and says that it was actually terrifying to be there and how they didn’t know if he would come back. She mentions some other things and Nora says that all of that wasn’t in the museum. Nora looks over at Barry in a solemn way as Iris says that Barry has a lot of tough calls that keep her up at night, but he’s always going to want to put his life on the line for others.

 

Orlin calls the doctor and asks if Barry came back to the hospital. She tells him no and that he probably should stay away for good. Things are getting too risky. We flashback to when Orilin has just started caring for Grace and he tells someone on the phone that they need to come get her because he doesn’t want her.

 

Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) are arguing about the point of Thanksgiving. Caitlin comes in wondering what’s going on and Sherloque tells her that Cisco is failing at explaining the holiday to him. She tells him it’s about getting together and celebrating family and loved ones. He says he doesn’t have any family.

 

The alarm system goes off and they see an electrical surge at the power station. Barry and Nora race down and they see a huge strike of lightning. Cisco sees an experiment that if blown up that it could take out the whole plant. Iris tells Nora to evacuate the workers and Barry runs in to grab the core. Once he has it, he passes out and his heart stops beating. Nora frantically tries to restart his heart, but after two attempts she fails. They think they’ve lost him, but Nora doesn’t stop. She shocks him continuously three more times and he finally comes back to life. Iris’ listens on with tears in her eyes as Nora hugs Barry fiercely.

 

Barry and Nora arrive back at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry’s telling Nora that he’s okay, but she still thinks that it caused more damage than needed. Iris tells her as such, but Nora says that maybe someone else should be making their decisions and leaves. Barry tells Iris to give her a minute because she did just have to bring him back to life. They try to figure out where the storm came from and mention that Weather Wizard was the one who could make that happen. Barry and Iris leave to make sure that Mark Mardon is still in Iron Heights.

 

Caitlin and Cisco try to convince Sherloque into joining them for Thanksgiving at Barry and Iris’ house. Sherloque tells Caitlin that she should sympathize with him because of her family situation. He also brings up some sad things that have happened to Cisco. After giving his spiel, he leaves the room.

 

Orlin is sitting at a table looking at a visiting hours hospital note. He gets up and slams his hand into the refrigerator. It flashes back to when Grace got in trouble at school for calling a kid something inappropriate. Orlin tells her she can’t do that and she asks why its a problem. He tells her she had to get off work to come see her, but she just says he doesn’t even like his job. When they call he yells and calls them names. She then starts screaming out “rat bastards” and he tells that he’s trying to be a good parent. She says that parents are supposed to make the world better for their kids and he’s making it worse. She tells him she hates him, and leaves the office.

 

Barry, Iris, and Nora are at Iron Heights making sure Mark Mardon is still there. They see that he is and Iris leaves to go look at the security tapes. Nora mentions that Barry died for nothing and Barry tells her to not blame Iris because they both decided on the plan. She says that she knows. A loud crash comes through the roof of the facility. They turn around to see a woman come down swinging a device around effectively blowing them back. She says she’s just there to see her dad and Barry snatches Mardon (Liam McIntyre) out and puts him in the STAR Labs chamber before returning back to Iron Heights. She tells them they have one hour to get her father to her or Central City is going to get wrecked.

 

Mardon tells Barry that he didn’t know his daughter Joss (Reina Hardesty) was going to bust him out because he hasn’t spoken to her in years. He said that he left her with the mom and the last time he spoke to the mother, she told him that the two had a broken relationship.

 

We see Orlin looking at a dollhouse in the present and then we flashback to when he showed Grace her new room. He tells her that she can decorate it however she wants to and apologizes for the rough start they’ve had. He tells her that he wants to do right by her and give her all the things a kid should have.

 

Nora asks how Barry’s interrogation is going and before she can leave Iris brings up what happened earlier. Nora tells her it’s okay and she’s not upset with her. Cisco busts in saying that Thanksgiving is a sham and now he and Caitlin are now anti-Thanksgiving. Barry enters saying he got nothing out of Mardon. They have found out though that Joss lost her grant from the Science Center because she was doing too many dangerous experiments on the weather. She’s now storm chasing and documents it as the Weather Witch. They see the staff is meta-tech and they have to get it away from her. They’ve decided they’re going to give her what she wants.

 

They’re waiting for her downtown. Sheroque detects something and Cisco realizes that he’s right. Joss appears and Barry flashes Mardon downtown. Mardon tries to get Joss to power off her staff, but instead Joss strikes Flash and XS and drops a truck on top of him. She turns to leave, but the truck turns over and the hologram of Mardon appears. We scan to the side and see that Iris is using a device to appear as Mardon in downtown. She didn’t see that hummer coming! Joss declares that the city will burn because of them and leaves. Barry gets up and says he’s going to follow her. Nora explodes and tells him that he almost just died and he doesn’t care if he loses his life or her all for his job. She flashes off leaving a confused Barry behind.

 

Barry walks up to Nora on the S.T.A.R. Labs lounge balcony. He asks her how long she’s been holding it all in and she says her whole life. Growing up, she was so angry but because he was her hero she let it go and decided it would be easier to put her anger elsewhere. Seeing him die made her realize who she was really angry at– him. Barry tells her he understands it because he felt the same when he was a child about Joe. Nora doesn’t think it’s the same because he never really had to say goodbye. She tells him to give up being The Flash because there are others who can take care of saving the city. She starts to cry and hugs him as she tells him not to make her go through the pain of losing her father again, but Barry tells her that people need The Flash. She disconnects herself from him and as she leaves she says, “I need my dad.”

 

Orlin’s sitting outside of the hospital and we flash back to the night of the Enlightenment. He and Grace are at the carnival and he gives her a gift to mark their one year anniversary of him promising to do right by her. People around them start to pass out and soon they do, too. When he wakes up, he sees things getting hit with fireballs and he and Grace get up to flee the area. One crashes down and knocks a piece of metal into his chest. He looks over to see Grace unconscious. He takes her to the hospital with the metal still lodged in him. They role him away leaving Grace with the doctors.

 

Barry and Iris are watching the monitors as Joss goes around causing weather disturbances. They haven’t located her yet, but everyone is looking. Iris tells Barry he’s going to find a way to make Nora understand him when she observes that he’s still feeling down about what happened. The alarm goes off and they see that Joss is at the airport. Barry flashes down and evacuates everyone on the tarmac. Iris tells Nora to get the weather wand from the archives and take it to Barry. She delivers it to Barry who tries to reason with Joss, but it only agitates her and she starts to create a tornado out of the lightning. Cisco tells Barry to counteract it by running around with the wand. The only problem is that it will make him a human lightning rod. With hesitation, Barry starts to circle the lightning tornado and eventually a huge beam of light takes over. They wait afraid to see if Barry is going to emerge from the aftermath. He eventually does with Joss in cuff. Nora runs to hug him while telling her mom that she sees him.

 

Barry locks the staff away and heads out of the chambers with Iris to celebrate Thanksgiving. Cisco, Caitlin, and Sherloque have decided to rebel against Thanksgiving, but with a push from Killer Frost they decide to go spend it with the West-Allen family.

 

Iris is telling a story about Grandma Esther’s yams while everyone’s gathered around the living room. Sherloque does a toast to family and friends, which quickly goes sideways. Iris then suggests they all go carve the turkey. Before Nora and Barry join them, Barry talks to Nora about what happened. He tells her that he doesn’t choose being The Flash over his family, he does it for his family. He does it for her and Iris. They head over to the table to carve the turkey after a heartwarming hug.

 

Orlin shows up at the hospital to the doctors dismay. We see a flashback of when they were first in the hospital. The doctor explains Grace’s condition. While he cries at her bedside, he sees the news reporting on the events of the Enlightenment and how they’re praising The Flash for saving the day. He starts to get angry and the metal dagger that was lodged in him shoots to his grasp. He looks at the TV angry again and declares that every meta will die.

 

Barry, Iris, and Nora get called back to S.T.A.R. Labs because Sherloque has figured out that maybe the meta has decided to spend family with his family as well. They have footage of him on the hospital security tapes and have identified Orlin Dwyer as Cicada.