The CW superhero shows can sometimes feel lacking in the special effects department. Good CGI is expensive, and these shows don’t always have the budget for it. This episode found a solution: Hire a guy who can actually do creepy contortions with his body to play the villain. It’s definitely effective. Before we get there though, The Flash has some family drama to take care of. Just as in the last few episodes this season, it all works together surprisingly well.The show may have skipped a week, but XS is still mad. After both Barry and Iris agreed that there must have been a good reason to suppress her powers in the future, she’s not answering her parents calls. It has an effect on her crimefighting work too. When The Flash responds to an early morning robbery, she helps, but hangs up on both her parents. She catches the robber’s accomplice by yanking him off his motorcycle. Unfortunately, she didn’t secure the bike, which almost hits an old couple crossing the street. Fortunately, The Flash arrives to run them out of the way, leading to another parental scolding. It’s still funny how easily Barry and Iris fall into their mom and dad roles around her. And it’s still fresh enough that the can-I-talk-to-you scenes don’t feel like the show’s repeating itself.Rag Doll (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher/The CW)The future family drama will have to wait at least a little bit, though. There’s a new metahuman this week, and it’s a real creepy one. Rag Doll has the power to fold and shape his body any way he wants. If you thought Elongated Man’s power lent itself to body horror, it’s got nothing on Rag Doll’s. The creepy mask only makes the contortions and finger-flattening all the creepier. His crimes are escalating too. At first, he sneaks into a rich woman’s wedding presents to steal a tiara. Next, he blows up an architect’s building. He would have killed the architect too, if the Flash hadn’t shown up. By the second time we see him (folding himself through a vent), I’m convinced that this power never won’t freak me the F out.The case gives Barry and Iris some much-needed alone time as they try to investigate the identity of this scary masked figure. So much of the show has focused on them keeping secrets from each other or having to save each other, it’s a nice reminder that they really are partners. It’s important that we see them working together every so often like this. It makes us believe in their marriage, letting us see why they side with each other so easily and naturally. Grant Gustin and Candice Patton work really well together after all these years too, which only helps sell the romance more. Through their investigations, they figure out Rag Doll’s identity. His name is Peter Merkel, the son of a wealthy socialite and philanthropist who maybe wasn’t the most attentive parent. Suffice it to say, he’s got some issues, which are at the core of his targets. He’s all sad, so he wants to hit his targets where it really hurts.Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher/The CW)Of course a case as steeped in mommy issues as this is brings up a whole mess of feelings for Iris. Seeing just how bad a mother-child relationship can turn causes Iris to re-think her future self. She starts to realize she doesn’t like the person she apparently turns into. She comes to realize that future-her hurts Nora in the same way her own parents hurt her. She doesn’t want to be that person. By now, we know it’s not that simple. Often, the more you try to change the future, the more you cement it. Even Iris doesn’t know how much of her future choices she’ll be able to change, but she’s going to try. Hopefully, she can at least be more honest with her daughter in the future.What’s especially promising is how quickly this season is moving this particular story along. If this were either of the last two, it’d be easy to see the show drag the mother-daughter drama out past midseason. While it’s not resolving it unnaturally fast, there are signs of reconciliation starting to build. While Barry and Iris are adorably playing detective Cecile gives Nora a new appreciation for both her parents, telling her stories of Iris doing cool things under the guise of Flash stories. Hearing what a great person her mom has always been starts to bring Nora around, but Iris wins her daughter’s trust back herself. Rag Doll, whose figured out The Flash’s identity… somehow, attacks Barry. He slaps anti-metahuman cuffs on him and plans to push him off a building. Thanks to some Spider-Man style swinging, Elongated Man and Iris arrive just before Barry takes a plunge. Unfortunately, they’re not fast enough to stop Rag Doll from pushing Barry over the edge.Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora/XS, Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash (Photo Credit: Robert Falconer/The CW)It’s disappointing that we don’t get to see a real battle with Rag Doll. He fights Elongated Man off screen, and ends up trapped inside him. I really want to see how that fight played out, but it’s left to our imaginations. You know what? It’s probably better there anyway. Still, I’d have liked to see a good Elongated Man action scene. It’d be more of a problem if what we’re shown instead wasn’t so cool. Iris instinctively dives after Barry Allen, angling her body to catch up with him and unlock his cuffs. His super speed back, Barry’s able to bring them both safely to the ground. Not only is it a cool sequence, it moves the story forward. Nora sees her mother’s physics-defying display of badassery, which is enough to at least get her to start talking. It’s not a full resolution, but it’s a start, which feels natural at this early stage in the season. Maybe it’s just the fact that the lessons being learned aren’t rehashes of past episodes, but all the family drama is really working for me this season.Meanwhile, we’re finally getting back to the mystery behind Caitlin’s father. As interested as I am is Cicada as a big bad, this is really the story I want to here more of. Cisco vibes with some of his recovered belongings, which leads them to Dr. Stein’s old lab. (Which only served to remind us how much we miss Victor Garber on Legends of Tomorrow.) There, they find even more things for Cisco to vibe on, leading him to another equation-based puzzle. One that points to a Greek goddess with Killer Frost-style powers. Meaning Caitlin’s father knew about and was around for the birth of Killer Frost.Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora/XS (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher/The CW)The investigation hits a setback, though. Every time Cisco vibes something, he starts to bleed. It progresses to the point where he collapses on the ground. Caitlin figures it out immediately. The dark matter is affecting his central nervous system. He might not be able to keep being Vibe for much longer, and it’s tearing him up inside. Unfortunately, don’t get much further than that this week. Caitlin and Cisco have a sweet moment where she assures him that, even without his powers, he’s still an important part of the team. Who else could improvise brilliant technical solutions and punny supervillain names?Besides, the show appears to realize that the mystery is what makes this b-story really fun. And it’s not going to be quite so fun if Cisco can just Vibe the answer whenever they reach a new area. Instead, the next step of the puzzle is solve the way it should be: With Wells and Dibny putting their detective heads together and following clues. Now, it would have been so much better if we actually saw them do that. The fun part of any mystery is watching the detectives piece clues together, and something is definitely lost when you skip straight to the solution like this. To the show’s credit it did place the clues well enough throughout the episode that the solution wasn’t a total deus ex machina. Plus, the character drama in this episode was well-written enough that I didn’t mind the focus on that. It looks like we’re going to get some answers next week anyway. Wells and Dibny have narrowed down Caitlin’s father’s location to a number of supposedly defunct black sites. We get to see the emotional confrontation next week.The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.Previously on The Flash:The Flash Season 5, Episode 4 RecapThe Flash Season 5, Episode 3 RecapThe Flash Season 5, Episode 2 Recap Stay on target Top Movies and TV Panels to Keep on Your Radar for SDCC 2019’The Flash’ Season 5 Finale Recap: 2 Big Bads and 1 Pre-Crisis
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