Post — Aaron Ngo

Watching this episode last night was a lot of fun because my favorite actor / character returned. Well, his doppelganger did, close enough.

The Flash's newest episode featured Wentworth Miller's last appearance on the Arrowverse. There are no future plans for the character(s), but they left the possibility open if Miller decides he wants to return. I love Miller since I began Prison Break and his characters Leonard Snart and Earth-X Leo are a joy to have around. I hope to see them again someday.

Spoilers ahead:

Barry and the rest of Team Flash are dealing with the aftermath of their confrontation with DeVoe. Everyone is suffering: Iris has a broken arm, Caitlin lost Killer Frost, Harry is losing his knowledge and Cisco is trying to help him through that, and Ralph was lost to them. WestAllen are seeing the therapist about Ralph's death, but Barry refuses to grieve.

He thinks he's fine and continues to focus on defeating DeVoe. Once the team realizes DeVoe is after Fallout, the Nuclear Bus Meta, they decide to recruit Leo Snart from Earth-X to help outsmart The Thinker. I had forgotten about this meta, so my last review was inaccurate when I believed DeVoe got all the bus metas.

Quick update on what Leo Snart's been up to since we last seen him. If you don't watch Legends of Tomorrow, he was on the team for a short time to help the Legends work through Martin Stein's death. Once he had his adventure and everyone properly grieved, he parted ways to propose to his love, Ray back on Earth-X.

Back to the review:

Leo Snart is in the middle of trying to capture an unexpected doppelganger, the last of the Nazi Regime, when Barry and Cisco arrive to recruit him. He accepts and heads back to Earth-1 with them. This doppelganger is Laurel Lance (Siren-X) who uses her scream to keep the breach open and to arrive on the other side.

A nice twist because I had no prior knowledge about this specific arrival, but her character was definitely too similar to Black Siren. She displayed different usages of the Canary Cry like being able to use it for super hearing, but personality-wise, she was one-dimensional. She wants revenge on Earth-1 for what happened in the crossover event, especially for the death of her unrequited love, Evil Oliver Queen.

During his 24-hour stay, Leo notices Barry is not properly grieving Ralph's death. Like he did during his short stay on Legends, Leo helps him work through it, telling him about all the people he lost on Earth-X. How he grieved every single one of those men and women.

Leo warns Barry if he does not confront his feelings, his feelings will confront him. And if Leo dies before he can marry Ray... Ray will kill him. So don't mess this up, Barry! Deal with your feelings!

The team decides to transport Fallout to ARGUS to protect him from DeVoe. Joe is the driver, Caitlin is checking vitals, Barry runs around perimeter, and Cold is on standby ready to use his Cold Gun if Fallout goes nuclear. It seems like the perfect plan. One DeVoe predicted, but we'll get to that later.

This is like a callback to the first season episode "Rogue Air", when Barry requested Captain Cold's help in transporting a truckload of metahumans to Lian Yu. It had a few parallelisms which I enjoyed. Except Citizen Cold will not betray him and take the metahuman for his own personal use.

Once DeVoe arrives and stops the truck, ready to claim the last bus meta for his unknown plan, Barry freezes up. He flashes back to Ralph's death and stands there. Snart tries to knock some sense into him. DeVoe did not predict Barry would behave this way, throwing his perfect plan off-balance.

This is when Siren-X arrives, catching them off-guard, including DeVoe. She takes Fallout, Joe, and Caitlin plus the Cold Gun to CCPD. DeVoe escapes frustrated for the unexpected development. Snart pushes Barry at this point to grieve, asking him the hard questions on why this specific death is so difficult for him to process.

This advice is instrumental in defeating Siren-X. Snart, armed with another Cold Gun by Iris, and Barry go confront her at CCPD, who uses her Canary Cry to make Fallout explode. Caitlin and Snart use their Cold Guns to cool him down, but she keeps running interference. It takes Barry working through his grief to knock Siren-X out cold, letting Caitlin and Snart safely contain Fallout.

Barry runs off to his old lab space. Joe steps in as father and comforts his son who is finally grieving for Ralph. Barry blames himself for what happened to Ralph in this emotional scene and how he let the guy down. I felt for Barry, and so did Caitlin and Snart.

With the threat neutralized, Snart heads back to Earth-X. He is getting married to Ray the next day. Thus, the reason for the 24 hour time limit. He wants what Cisco and Barry have. Miller plays Citizen Cold in such an adorable way, I hate to see him go. Cisco makes him a breach device like the one he made Kara/Supergirl, so Leo can come back whenever he wants.

Leo appreciates the gift and hugs Barry goodbye. The guy loves hugging, a sharp contrast to the original Snart. I prefer the original Snart, but this doppelganger is fantastic too. He jumps through the breach, and for now, this is goodbye. Hopefully, it doesn't last forever.

Siren-X's fate is left unknown. I assumed they put her somewhere on Earth-1, hopefully not the pipeline. The last time they put a Laurel there, it did not end well for Team Arrow. Let's see if they plan to use her in the foreseeable future.

Caitlin has been dealing with the lost of Killer Frost this entire episode. Iris checks in throughout the episode. They need to develop this friendship beyond the girls night out episode. They need to develop Iris more, but I'm getting off track. The girls discover a part of Caitlin's DNA has Killer Frost there; she may still exist. Interesting...

Leo also checks in with Caitlin and assures her Killer Frost would be proud of what she did today. He also mentions the weirdness, but he does not judge.

Harry is angry at himself for what happened to him. Both Gideon and Cisco warned him about the dangers of the thinking cap, but he let his hubris get in the way. Cisco wants to make another thinking cap for himself, but Harry destroys the one he worked on to protect him. Once Cisco finds out about Harry's condition, he vows to help him.

DeVoe is spiraling. He is too consumed with his plans to see why he began them in the first place. Marlize tries to celebrate with him as husband and wife, but DeVoe has no interest in love anymore. The one blind spot he has when he makes plans.

Believing love and emotions are weakness, he decides to treat his wife merely as his assistant and to put their love on hold until the work is done. Marlize cries but continues to stand by her husband, seeing how far he's fallen.

Wentworth Miller and Katie Cassidy performed fantastically in this episode. I was blown away at how they fit into the narrative. I just wish Siren-X was more developed or made distinctively different from Black Siren.

Plus having the original DeVoe back put things in perspective for his endgame. I wonder what will happen to Harry, if his brain can be fixed. Will Caitlin reunite with Killer Frost? Can Iris become useful again? On the other hand, Joe is doing less than her at the moment.

Comment below and let me know your latest thoughts. I forgot The 100 returned last night too, so keep a lookout for that review later today if you watch that show as well. Gotta run! Yes puns!

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