S08.E12: Death Rises

[Trini]

With a new Meta terrorizing the city, Joe lends a hand to the local authorities, meanwhile Barry gets an assist from Cecile who helps to track the mass murderer.

Phil Chipera directed the episode with the story by Alex Boyd and teleplay by Arielle McAlpin & Dan Fisk.

Airdate: 4/27/2022

Edited April 25, 2022 by Trini

[Trini]

[So my recording cut off about the last ten minutes because of a sports overrun, so I'm going off of recaps and clips for the ending.]

Yet another supervillain obsessed with getting with Caitlin?? I hope they do end up together in whatever death dimension, because they can't keep doing this. Also Panabaker's pregnancy is getting harder and harder to hide and ignore.

Seeing as how Caitlin and Frost are almost the same person, I was just rolling my eyes at the scene where she essentially forgives herself for unleashing a grief demon into the world.

Why is Cecile always at STAR Labs again?? I mean, besides telling people how they feel and getting possessed again.

That wasn't necessarily a bad Joe Pep Talk, but it was probably the most hollow one yet. He didn't add or inspire any insights; it essentially: "Well, you'll figure somethin' out." They're taking the formula for granted now.

I did like that they had Barry use a new power, but then he didn't actually get the win against Deathstorm.

This vague 'time sickness' arc is Mirror Arc 2.0 with it being tedious and going nowhere. They keep adding more weird symptoms (now the Still Force itself is sick??), but no answers or resolutions. And why isn't Barry a part of this arc, besides a few token Westallen scenes? It doesn't make sense that he isn't doing more to help his wife -- especially when he's barely making progress in the Deathstorm arc at the same time.

It's great to see Sue be such a good friend to Iris since the show has always been bad at female friendships; but on the other hand I would have loved to see Barry or Joe be the one to anchor Iris to the present.

Iris and Allegra are busy with other things, who's running CCC Media??

[cambridgeguy]

Say, didn't Cecile say she didn't like using her powers on people because it was an invasion of privacy?  Guess that doesn't apply to family, friends, and supervillains.  Or is the show saying Team Flash is full of overly emotional people?

While I'm sure she's sorry he's dead taking Eddie's form doesn't seem like the best move.  Its been years, she's moved on, and is quite happy with her life (aside from the whole time sickness thing, of course). 

[Jediknight]

Wait, did my ears deceive me or did they actually get the rights to "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica?  How much did that cost?

[Terrafamilia]

17 hours ago, Trini said:

Iris and Allegra are busy with other things, who's running CCC Media??

Allegra's nemesis, who is probably busy changing the locks.

[Lantern7]

Running on lightning pads. Sure, why not?

How many more episodes do we have for this season? I mean, Deathstorm has potential, but the execution is lacking. Same with Iris and the time sickness. I'm just tired at this point, and it doesn't help that the other veteran Arrowverse show running now (Superman & Lois) is going nuts with their season-long plot.

[thuganomics85]

Jesse L. Martin sold the hell out of the pep talk, but it really did just boil down to Joe saying "Don't fret: you usually figure things out eventually!"  At this point, they should just go ahead and break the fourth wall and have him say "Listen, Barry!  You know how this goes.  We tread water for the majority of the season, but once we get around to the penultimate episode, you find a solution.  Come finale time, you save the day!  Then we get a tease for our big baddie next season and then it's just rinse and repeat!"

So, Deathstorm's grand plan is to take Caitlin and.... make her his wife?  And that's why he is killing all of these people/taking their grief?  So that he can turn her into a version of him?  Sheesh, Deathstorm?  Did you even try online dating or hit up a bar first before taking this drastic approach?  Hey, I'm sure there is some that would be down for you and dig your fire and Ghost Rider-ish style!

Still not sure what to make of Iris and her time sickness stuff, but as long as it keeps Sue around, I'm not going to complain.

Deathstorm plays mind games with Allegra by bringing back Esperanza and he now might be doing the same with bringing back Eddie for Iris?

If Kramer really wanted help with adjusting to this new phase in her life (working with The Flash, dealing with crazy meta stuff), she should really hit up Singh.  But does the show even remember that he exist anymore?

[cambridgeguy]

6 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

If Kramer really wanted help with adjusting to this new phase in her life (working with The Flash, dealing with crazy meta stuff), she should really hit up Singh.  But does the show even remember that he exist anymore?

His picture is up in the police station - I'm not sure if we saw it in this episode but we've seen it before. 

Speaking of people not existing anymore, it makes me wonder what Cisco thinks when he reads about the current happenings in Central City.  Maybe he's confused that his closest friends don't feel the urge to ask him for help when one is vanishing people and another is getting kidnapped by a entity with a flaming skull.

Or perhaps he gets all of his news from the Citizen and that's gone dark since the editor in chief and her second in command appear to be perfectly happy to ignore it.

[Whodunnit]

Caitlyn Whydoiattractpsychos Snow, everyone.

[tennisgurl]

Really show? Another supervillain obsessed with Caitlin? Not only have we done this story a million times, it takes a cool idea for a villain and just makes him another generic "cackling bad guy hot for one of the main female characters" villain we've all seen before. I was also annoyed by how easily everyone just moved past how Caitlin really screwed them over by going rogue. I know that Team Flash are a very forgiving bunch and I am sure they didn't want to pile on her while she was clearly very distraught, she knows she screwed up, but I feel like it would be realistic if they showed even a second of frustration at her going behind their backs to do this dangerous thing for her own personal reasons, letting her feelings cloud her judgement to do something stupid that got several people killed. This show treats Caitlin and Frost with such kid gloves, more than anyone else, even when they probably deserve at least a "please don't pull this crap again" speech. Barry is still team leader, going behind his back should warrant at least a minor slap on the wrist.

Barry throwing Chester a quick "I know you can do it" compliment was a nice little moment. If nothing else, the last few seasons have showed Barry really maturing and settling in as a real leader to his team, he tends to make solid choices these days, knows how to give his team the encouragement they need, and plays voice of reasons to the often questionable choices of his team, especially post crisis. 

Using Deathstorm as a gimmick to bring back dead characters is a decent idea, although this show has already done that before, and much better than what I think we will get here. At least ghost Eddie will possibly bring Iris back into the main plot.

I hate this Time Sickness thing and its connection to the stupid time forces, who I am happy to pretend don't exist. Why do they insist on keeping Iris off in her own stupid subplots instead of interacting with the rest of the characters, including her own damn husband? I am begging for some good Iris/Barry content, and I am left taking the sorry scraps they throw my way. At least its keeping Sue around, which I am always happy about.

Barry getting a new power up was cool, too bad it didn't do much.

[Trini]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:22 AM, tennisgurl said:

I was also annoyed by how easily everyone just moved past how Caitlin really screwed them over by going rogue. I know that Team Flash are a very forgiving bunch and I am sure they didn't want to pile on her while she was clearly very distraught, she knows she screwed up, but I feel like it would be realistic if they showed even a second of frustration at her going behind their backs to do this dangerous thing for her own personal reasons, letting her feelings cloud her judgement to do something stupid that got several people killed. This show treats Caitlin and Frost with such kid gloves, more than anyone else, even when they probably deserve at least a "please don't pull this crap again" speech. Barry is still team leader, going behind his back should warrant at least a minor slap on the wrist.

And this isn't even the first (or second!) time Caitlin and/or Frost have done something like this! Really hoping there's actual consequences from this, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

On 5/3/2022 at 11:22 AM, tennisgurl said:

Really show? Another supervillain obsessed with Caitlin? Not only have we done this story a million times, it takes a cool idea for a villain and just makes him another generic "cackling bad guy hot for one of the main female characters" villain we've all seen before

I get bringing back Caitlin's best love interest for nostalgia in what could have been the last season, but do they not see how it would look corrupting that relationship and doing this same story again? Nobody wanted this.

Also, after spending so much screentime in the past few seasons making Frost her own person, now she's all "I only exist to protect Caitlin"? I get wanting to help her "sister", but it seems like a big regression and another example of the show writing characters to fit the plot instead of the other way around.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Trini
spelling, d'oh!