"Time Bomb" was a solid episode that finally brought many missing pieces of this season together. Though the total picture isn't in full view, there was quite enough drama to chew on for Team Flash. But most importantly, the Flash family.
The Future Cicada
Grace Gibbons somehow made it to the past. She isn't a speedster so she had to have a speedster's help to time travel even if that help was inadvertent. Now we can give Eobard Thawne the benefit of the doubt and say he is earnestly trying to help Nora or if past is any indication of the future, we can be sure Thawne had a hand in helping Grace find the time sphere. How would she have known of its existence? Where did she get it from in the future?
It also seems that the new Cicada was somehow using mind control to make her Uncle Orlin a killer; once his powers were gone, he didn't seem to connect to her anger at all. He flat out questioned the mission to kill meta-humans, not seeming to know that he had once killed in the name of that same belief system. Their rage and anger fueled one another, but the dark matter in her brain seems to be quite the weapon. Killing the doctor that saved her life and her uncle in the name of a misguided revenge mission makes this version of Cicada far more dangerous than Dwyer ever was.
Nora's Secret/Barry's Betrayal
Keeping secrets is nothing new to Team Flash. They've all done it at some point even when it made no sense. They've all also made really big life-changing mistakes and all been forgiven. Let's think, altering timelines, trying to kill fellow teammates, creating weapons that could kill fellow teammates etc...
Nora's betrayal seems a bit different though. She has known for a while that the Reverse Flash hurt her father in unimaginable ways-she saw it firsthand when she traveled in time with him. As she has grown closer to her mother we can infer that Iris has probably shared some of the pain he caused Barry with Nora too. Actually some of the pain he caused everyone. It's his fault Ronnie is dead and he "killed" Cisco. So no matter how noble her reasoning, everyone she has now come to know and love as a woman and a hero deserved to know that he was helping her come up with the great plans to defeat Cicada. That she chose not to tell them after she learned how evil Thawne really is makes her decision making questionable.
The dynamic of the family with the meta-human wife was an obvious foreshadowing of the revelation of Nora's secret and of Barry's reaction to it. The husband was extremely angry and wanted nothing to do with the wife at first and even the daughter was afraid of her mother. After some time had passed the mother and daughter were seen patching things up, and she was able to explain why she felt keeping the secret was the right thing to do. We know Nora will get to explain herself, but did she deserve being put in the pipeline?
Barry tries to be the bright eyed-hero that everyone tells him he is. But even those heroes have dark days. When Barry learned he was Savitar, he talked about the darkness that his life had left him with and understood just how easy it was to be lost in it. Hearing that one of the loves of his life has been working with the one person who reminds him of just how dark life can be was unbearable at the moment. If you can't trust your own family, who can you trust? Now he isn't sure why Nora really came to the past or if any of the moments they bonded were real. So rather than have her lie to him and continue meddling with events for Mr. Thawne, say something he might regret, and just maybe to get her out of his face at the time, he raced her to the pipeline. Harsh, yes. Understandable, yes.
Team Flash often puts people in the pipeline when they aren't sure what to do with them or if they think the person may be a threat. Barry's been put there, Caitlin's been in there, Wally's been in there. So while it might have seemed jarring because it's his daughter, it isn't out of the ordinary for this group.
Cisco and Kamilla
How cute are these two? Making their relationship Insta official is by far one of the sweetest things we've seen this season, which has been pretty light on romance. It's nice to see Cisco happy again. It's also nice to hear him verbalize the struggle of having powers and balancing the Team Flash act with having a normal life. Ralph's interference wasn't welcome, but his words of wisdom (though weird) were on point and something Cisco will ultimately have to confront.
Other Things I was Thinking as I Watched
*Cisco and Ralph's Spiderman references were too much!
*Rooting for Kamilla and Cisco but also for her to become more involved in the Citizen with Iris. Hope these two stories can work well.
*Glad Sherloque didn't let Nora tell her story. She had more than enough time to come clean to just her mom and dad. Since she chose to keep lying, she deserved to be busted in front of everyone.
*The look on Barry's face when he found out what Nora had been hiding conveyed sadness, anger, confusion, just all the damn emotions!
*Iris looked stunned and heartbroken.
*Barry racing her to the pipeline before she could say a word felt like something a person in his place would do. It doesn't mean he won't hear her out at some point; it just means he couldn't hear it then.
*Nora will be in the pipeline for like an hour before they read her little future diary and realize she is trying to save her dad. Everyone will feel bad for being mad at her. Sigh....
*How the hell did Grace get that time sphere?? Is Thawne helping her?
*They better give Grace the cure. Her uncle gave consent; they don't need hers.
*Barry and Iris clashing over Nora's secret is the perfect argument. They never really fight about anything, but this is something that deserves debate. It also can be an opportunity for them to talk which they haven't done in a while.
*Did Cisco really not tear Wells' chair apart??
*Thawne told Nora to tell her father everything. He knows this will devastate Barry, but he also knows that Barry is more capable of helping him get what he wants if he is fueled by something. Pulling his strings for years has taught him this much about his hero. Back in season three, Thawne told Barry, "The you from the future, he's not this stupid." Thawne needs that smarter Barry right now. (The show needs that smarter Barry right now.) What is he really up to?
What did you think of "Time Bomb"? Sound off in the comments, and as always thanks for reading.
The Flash is on hiatus. It will return to the CW on Tuesday, April 16th.
