Title: The Flash: “Memorabilia” Review
Release Date: January 29th, 2019
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
The Flash has been known to introduce the next season’s big bad through references. Does this mean that the Red Death is the main villain for season six?
I’m about 99.9% sure that this was just a throwaway line to the fans who loved the Dark Nights: Metal comics. But, it would be awesome to see a new version of the Red Death, maybe in the form of an alternate Earth Oliver Queen instead of Batman as the evil speedster (since Oliver is practically Batman in the Arrowverse).
Enough with my crazy fan theories about the next season. It’s time to discuss this week’s episode, “Memorabilia”. Coming off the rails of an immensely disappointing episode last week, “Memorabilia” managed to find its footing rather quickly.
The premise was simple. Team Flash goes into Grace’s memories using an alternate Earth’s memory machine, wake her up from a coma using the machine, and try to bring out the humanity in Cicada. It’s a cheesy premise, yes, but The Flash makes stuff like this work all the time. Nora was the real focus here, as she was adamant to see that her parents didn’t find out her secret. You know, the small detail that the team’s greatest villain has been helping her find a way to save Barry from “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
From the beginning of the season, we were meant to believe that Iris had become a colder parent in order to prevent her daughter from becoming like Barry. After watching this episode, it appears that this situation is far more complicated than we once thought. Nora is not a reliable source of information and we’ve only seen her side of things (until now). Iris still implants Nora with a power dampening chip and essentially takes the choice to be a speedster away from her. But, future Iris isn’t the irredeemable demon that Nora made her out to be earlier in the season. She’s just a mother who wants to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes Barry made. Getting to hear Nora admit this was a big moment for her as a character. All in all, this was a pretty cool arc that showed that even when the main story is dragging along, The Flash can still deliver those big-time emotional beats.
I’m been trashing Cicada for the past few episodes now, and for good reason. He’s just not that interesting and Chris Klein just isn’t clicking with me in the role. I’ll say this though. The idea of Grace becoming Cicada in the future sounds intriguing (I’m guessing that is what the show was teasing with the girl in the mask during Grace’s memories). Grace clearly doesn’t care for meta-humans all too much and now has a vendetta against Nora. I’m not sure how it would work but I would be willing to give the villain another shot if it was someone else entirely under the mask. The new plan to stop Cicada using the cure seems pointless and it was a pretty weak cliffhanger for the episode. We know it won’t work. Their plans never work. They’ll get one small step closer to stopping him and he’ll somehow escape with his flying dagger.
The Ralph and Cisco thing was…okay…I guess. We’ve all seen this side story before, whether that be on The Flash or another series. A major character gets too invested in his/her work, a friend notices and attempts to get them to lighten up for a short bit. The workaholic gets mad and storms out, finding love or figures out the problem with their work shortly thereafter. For Cisco, he got both of these. It was just a fine B-story to give us a break from the intense memory arc. (the line from Cisco saying that he would stay for one drink since Ralph was paying was absolutely hilarious “You never pay for anything and I’m really curious to see what Hell looks like frozen over”)
I was far more invested in Iris’ newspaper subplot and her not wanting to contribute to the bleak future ahead. It’s a crazy turn of events when you think about it. Barry vanishes in a Crisis as The Flash. Iris, his wife, has to report on this story seeing as she as covered The Flash this whole time. Not only that, but the newspaper we’ve been seeing for five years (Central City Citizen) was actually created by Iris.
Other than the Red Death reference, this week’s episode gave us another look at the Flash Museum filled with a few easter eggs. The moment he saw all of the toys and merchandise in his name, Barry lit up with excitement. This was just a fun scene for any Flash fan out there. The easter egg which featured the comic with Cicada was a nice touch as well.
Sherloque is getting so close to putting all of the pieces together. He knows that Nora wanted to keep a secret from her parents and it had nothing to do with Iris’ parenting. Now that he knows about Nora’s Reverse-Flash defense mechanism in her memories, it shouldn’t be much longer before Nora is forced to tell her parents everything.
Verdict: “Memorabilia” bounced back from one of the worst episodes of The Flash season five. Although the Cicada plot is getting tiresome by the episode, there may be hope for a change in the big villain later this season, whether that be future Grace or Reverse-Flash.
The Flash: “Memorabilia” Review
Seeing Nora and Grace’s memories
Reverse-Flash’s suit is intimidating, even if nobody is in it
Iris’ side story with the Central City Citizen and the real story behind Nora’s childhood
By default since it was “okay”, Cisco and Ralph’s night out
The possibility of a new big bad
Cicada. Not sure what else there is to say here
Barry’s idea to use the cure to stop Cicada is pointless and will most likely go nowhere
