And thus, the last interesting female character on the show is dead. You'll be missed, Frost. You'll be missed.
Aside from that though, this episode was actually pretty good. Dare I say "great"? Not season 1 great since we should all know that The Flash will never be what it once was, but I did enjoy, say, 60-70% of this episode. However, I do still have bones to pick, and so I will be picking them.
I did not get bingo this week though. I haven't gotten a bingo since Armageddon, so let me explain a few of the things I do with my bingo card for a moment. Firstly, I randomize the order that the tiles appear every episode. I do this so that I will almost never be able to get bingo in the same way twice. For example, if I put Iris, Allegra, Cecile and Bad CGI in the same row or column as my free space (which is labeled as "Crippling Regret"), I would always get bingo, and that would defeat the purpose of it. I'm also constantly changing the things that are on the bingo board. As recently as last episode I added "Barry Being Right" because the writers love to make someone think they were being morally superior before having it revealed that the Ronnie they knew would've wanted to be put out of his misery if he'd known he was killing people, or that a meta didn't actually commit some crime, or that killing the other forces of nature on the day they were born is the best possible way to prevent more deaths. Barry was arguing in favor of all of those things, and made everyone he was arguing with look like absolute clowns as a result! I hope this better illustrates that as much as I want to get bingo, that ultimately isn't the goal. The goal is to track the recurring tropes of the show and see how much they impact the viewing experience and the writing. So while I do only have 2 bingos compared to 11 rounds where I didn't have bingo, that doesn't tell the whole story. Now onto my actual review of the episode.
I've seen many people comment on this, but the writers kept changing two separate things during this story arc. 1. How cold fusion worked, and 2. What Deathstorm's motivation was. Seriously, look across this entire arc and you'll see that Deathstorm's motivation changed every single episode. The only time his motivation was consistent was from the last episode "Death Rises" to this one, and even *that* consistency was based on a retcon. Firstly he was killing people because he was hungry and needed to feed. Then he was killing people to get Caitlin's attention because he needed her to give him a body. Then he was a being that's existed inside a pocket dimension that thinks all life on earth needs to cease to exist. Then, within the same episode as the last one mind you, he's a lonely guy looking for someone to turn into his bride. Writers, I'd like to suggest that you pick a lane and stick with it, otherwise we're going to get more villains who are inconsistently written like the Speed Force, Godspeed and, yes, Deathstorm.
As for cold fusion changing every single episode, the first episode of this arc, "The Fire Next Time", which I'd like to stress is only part of this arc as a technicality, shows that Frost's ice powers can't put out people that have been affected by Deathstorm's cold fusion and that cold fusion can only burn people but not the surrounding environment. While they do keep that second thing consistent, "Reckless" tries to say that Deathstorm is actually *attracted* to Frost's powers and they can use her as a lure to trap him. Apparently that's because Frost's powers are also cold fusion-based. First off, everyone make sure to cross "Retcons" off of your bingo boards. And second, Frost's powers work, or at the very least *should* work, by chilling the air to create ice that can she can blast at people. That's how Iceman and Sub-Zero's powers work, so why the sudden retcon to how Frost's powers work? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I guess we can't just say "Deathstorm has fire-based abilities and Frost is the only one that can put him out" for some reason.
Also, why is Chillblaine still a character? Him being here and being an *ally* this entire episode is one of the reasons that I have "Forgiving Known Murderers/Criminals" on my bingo card. The other one is multiple-murderer Ultraviolet from last season. Yeah, don't think I've forgotten about that.
*Also* also, why is Cecile still a character? I absolutely detest this character's need to shove herself into every situation to make herself seem more important than she really is. If Cecile sticks around after Jesse L. Martin leaves at the end of the season, I will complain on the internet!
Now let's get into the individual episode complaints.
Allegra and Chester have still not "done it", and the reason I'm complaining about this is that the actors have no chemistry and the show keeps shoving this couple down our throats, and also because if we're to believe "Argmageddon, Part 4", once Allegra and Chester have their one night stand, Allegra goes to Europe for ten years, never to be heard from again. And you know what? Good riddance, I say! So yes, I do care about Allegra and Chester getting together, but only because it means that Allegra is going to leave the show and never come back.
Secondly, Danielle Panabaker's performance wasn't the best in this episode. In fact, everyone seemed pretty flat this week (with one glaring exception). In the scenes of Frost and Chillblaine debating about whether or not she's alive, Panabaker's performance was sorely lacking. The words were right, but the delivery was all wrong, and so they didn't have the impact they really should've. Same with her confession about how much she loves Caitlin, as well as everyone's big sad faces when they find out Frost is dead.
Yeah, Frost's death is gonna weigh heavily on these people, but not everyone knew her that well unless they all hung out off-screen. I'm all for off-screen adventures, but I don't recall Allegra, Chester or Cecile spending more than five scenes with Frost, so I don't fully believe that they're all gonna be shedding tears when they didn't know her as well as her life coach and best friend Barry or her sister Caitlin. And again, Grant Gustin and Danielle Panabaker's performances here were... Exaggerated, so this really sad moment is overshadowed by the lackluster facial performances of the actors, and it takes the audience out of the episode as a result.
Also, that CGI fight between Deathstorm and Heckfrost (I'd use her actual name but imdb has struck my entire reviews for less before so I'm airing on the side of caution) was pretty clumsy visually. It wasn't hilariously bad like the infamous Speed Force Lightsaber moment from "Heart of the Matter, Part 2", but it is just not very interesting to look at, and you can hardly tell what's going on at times.
And finally, we all know that Iris isn't gonna die because Barry's kids do canonically exist and have existed since when Iris initially got her "time sickness", which means that Iris is going to live. This side plot has absolutely no stakes, and as a result it feels like it doesn't have any air in its lungs.
Now onto the positives. I'm very happy to report that I have not been able to cross off "Frost gets a Subplot, but Not Caitlin" for the last few episodes now, and that's because this arc put Caitlin center stage in the second act. And trust me, that's a good thing. Bringing back Ronnie Raymond's body as Deathstorm was actually a good call, and the idea of focusing a story arc on Caitlin (who's soon to be the last og on Team Flash outside of Barry, so where are all the people complaining about Sara being the last og on Legends of Tomorrow when you need them?) is actually promising. The result was an arc that was very inconsistent but a general improvement on the arcs we've gotten since season 7. Though I'm not eager to rewatch any of these episodes any time soon, I think I'd consider this the best arc from the last two seasons (I don't consider Armageddon an "arc", but that was better than Deathstorm overall so do with that information what you will).
Though Frost's words fell flat because of Danielle Panabaker's lacking performance, she was saying the right words. I'm glad that this arc actually came full circle and gave Frost a life. I just wish that the life she got lasted a bit longer, and had a little bit less to do with Caitlin. One of the only good aspects of season 7 was that the introduction of Chillblaine meant that Frost was developing into her "living her life" story by getting a love-interest, and that's pretty great. I loved the debate about whether or not Frost was actually alive as well, and I think they concluded Frost's storyline in an *alright* fashion. Her death was way too telegraphed though. It was pretty clear to me that Frost was going to die during this episode based on her reaction to the team in "Death Rises", and it happened in such a laughably lame way that all I could think to say in the moment was "That Was Anticlimactic."
The other major enjoyable facet of the episode was Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne. He has the best scenes and dialogue in the entire episode bar none! Cosnett is the only actor bringing his A-Game this week, and trust me when I say that it shows! Where he was able to bring an earnest, caring and idealistic attitude to Eddie in seasons 1 and 2, his performance this week has this air of menace to it that you've never seen from him before. When we heard the gunshot and Eddie fell to his knees in the exact same way he had in season 1, I nearly jumped out of my seat! I definitely got Stargirl season 2 vibes from his scenes this week. It's not meant to be scary for the audience, it's meant to terrify the characters, which then results with the audience feeling unnerved.
Overall, we can close off the "blackest flames" arc on a lukewarm note. Not perfect, definitely inconsistent, hilariously cheesy dialogue, but not necessarily "bad."
7 / 10.
Aside from that though, this episode was actually pretty good. Dare I say "great"? Not season 1 great since we should all know that The Flash will never be what it once was, but I did enjoy, say, 60-70% of this episode. However, I do still have bones to pick, and so I will be picking them.
I did not get bingo this week though. I haven't gotten a bingo since Armageddon, so let me explain a few of the things I do with my bingo card for a moment. Firstly, I randomize the order that the tiles appear every episode. I do this so that I will almost never be able to get bingo in the same way twice. For example, if I put Iris, Allegra, Cecile and Bad CGI in the same row or column as my free space (which is labeled as "Crippling Regret"), I would always get bingo, and that would defeat the purpose of it. I'm also constantly changing the things that are on the bingo board. As recently as last episode I added "Barry Being Right" because the writers love to make someone think they were being morally superior before having it revealed that the Ronnie they knew would've wanted to be put out of his misery if he'd known he was killing people, or that a meta didn't actually commit some crime, or that killing the other forces of nature on the day they were born is the best possible way to prevent more deaths. Barry was arguing in favor of all of those things, and made everyone he was arguing with look like absolute clowns as a result! I hope this better illustrates that as much as I want to get bingo, that ultimately isn't the goal. The goal is to track the recurring tropes of the show and see how much they impact the viewing experience and the writing. So while I do only have 2 bingos compared to 11 rounds where I didn't have bingo, that doesn't tell the whole story. Now onto my actual review of the episode.
I've seen many people comment on this, but the writers kept changing two separate things during this story arc. 1. How cold fusion worked, and 2. What Deathstorm's motivation was. Seriously, look across this entire arc and you'll see that Deathstorm's motivation changed every single episode. The only time his motivation was consistent was from the last episode "Death Rises" to this one, and even *that* consistency was based on a retcon. Firstly he was killing people because he was hungry and needed to feed. Then he was killing people to get Caitlin's attention because he needed her to give him a body. Then he was a being that's existed inside a pocket dimension that thinks all life on earth needs to cease to exist. Then, within the same episode as the last one mind you, he's a lonely guy looking for someone to turn into his bride. Writers, I'd like to suggest that you pick a lane and stick with it, otherwise we're going to get more villains who are inconsistently written like the Speed Force, Godspeed and, yes, Deathstorm.
As for cold fusion changing every single episode, the first episode of this arc, "The Fire Next Time", which I'd like to stress is only part of this arc as a technicality, shows that Frost's ice powers can't put out people that have been affected by Deathstorm's cold fusion and that cold fusion can only burn people but not the surrounding environment. While they do keep that second thing consistent, "Reckless" tries to say that Deathstorm is actually *attracted* to Frost's powers and they can use her as a lure to trap him. Apparently that's because Frost's powers are also cold fusion-based. First off, everyone make sure to cross "Retcons" off of your bingo boards. And second, Frost's powers work, or at the very least *should* work, by chilling the air to create ice that can she can blast at people. That's how Iceman and Sub-Zero's powers work, so why the sudden retcon to how Frost's powers work? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I guess we can't just say "Deathstorm has fire-based abilities and Frost is the only one that can put him out" for some reason.
Also, why is Chillblaine still a character? Him being here and being an *ally* this entire episode is one of the reasons that I have "Forgiving Known Murderers/Criminals" on my bingo card. The other one is multiple-murderer Ultraviolet from last season. Yeah, don't think I've forgotten about that.
*Also* also, why is Cecile still a character? I absolutely detest this character's need to shove herself into every situation to make herself seem more important than she really is. If Cecile sticks around after Jesse L. Martin leaves at the end of the season, I will complain on the internet!
Now let's get into the individual episode complaints.
Allegra and Chester have still not "done it", and the reason I'm complaining about this is that the actors have no chemistry and the show keeps shoving this couple down our throats, and also because if we're to believe "Argmageddon, Part 4", once Allegra and Chester have their one night stand, Allegra goes to Europe for ten years, never to be heard from again. And you know what? Good riddance, I say! So yes, I do care about Allegra and Chester getting together, but only because it means that Allegra is going to leave the show and never come back.
Secondly, Danielle Panabaker's performance wasn't the best in this episode. In fact, everyone seemed pretty flat this week (with one glaring exception). In the scenes of Frost and Chillblaine debating about whether or not she's alive, Panabaker's performance was sorely lacking. The words were right, but the delivery was all wrong, and so they didn't have the impact they really should've. Same with her confession about how much she loves Caitlin, as well as everyone's big sad faces when they find out Frost is dead.
Yeah, Frost's death is gonna weigh heavily on these people, but not everyone knew her that well unless they all hung out off-screen. I'm all for off-screen adventures, but I don't recall Allegra, Chester or Cecile spending more than five scenes with Frost, so I don't fully believe that they're all gonna be shedding tears when they didn't know her as well as her life coach and best friend Barry or her sister Caitlin. And again, Grant Gustin and Danielle Panabaker's performances here were... Exaggerated, so this really sad moment is overshadowed by the lackluster facial performances of the actors, and it takes the audience out of the episode as a result.
Also, that CGI fight between Deathstorm and Heckfrost (I'd use her actual name but imdb has struck my entire reviews for less before so I'm airing on the side of caution) was pretty clumsy visually. It wasn't hilariously bad like the infamous Speed Force Lightsaber moment from "Heart of the Matter, Part 2", but it is just not very interesting to look at, and you can hardly tell what's going on at times.
And finally, we all know that Iris isn't gonna die because Barry's kids do canonically exist and have existed since when Iris initially got her "time sickness", which means that Iris is going to live. This side plot has absolutely no stakes, and as a result it feels like it doesn't have any air in its lungs.
Now onto the positives. I'm very happy to report that I have not been able to cross off "Frost gets a Subplot, but Not Caitlin" for the last few episodes now, and that's because this arc put Caitlin center stage in the second act. And trust me, that's a good thing. Bringing back Ronnie Raymond's body as Deathstorm was actually a good call, and the idea of focusing a story arc on Caitlin (who's soon to be the last og on Team Flash outside of Barry, so where are all the people complaining about Sara being the last og on Legends of Tomorrow when you need them?) is actually promising. The result was an arc that was very inconsistent but a general improvement on the arcs we've gotten since season 7. Though I'm not eager to rewatch any of these episodes any time soon, I think I'd consider this the best arc from the last two seasons (I don't consider Armageddon an "arc", but that was better than Deathstorm overall so do with that information what you will).
Though Frost's words fell flat because of Danielle Panabaker's lacking performance, she was saying the right words. I'm glad that this arc actually came full circle and gave Frost a life. I just wish that the life she got lasted a bit longer, and had a little bit less to do with Caitlin. One of the only good aspects of season 7 was that the introduction of Chillblaine meant that Frost was developing into her "living her life" story by getting a love-interest, and that's pretty great. I loved the debate about whether or not Frost was actually alive as well, and I think they concluded Frost's storyline in an *alright* fashion. Her death was way too telegraphed though. It was pretty clear to me that Frost was going to die during this episode based on her reaction to the team in "Death Rises", and it happened in such a laughably lame way that all I could think to say in the moment was "That Was Anticlimactic."
The other major enjoyable facet of the episode was Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne. He has the best scenes and dialogue in the entire episode bar none! Cosnett is the only actor bringing his A-Game this week, and trust me when I say that it shows! Where he was able to bring an earnest, caring and idealistic attitude to Eddie in seasons 1 and 2, his performance this week has this air of menace to it that you've never seen from him before. When we heard the gunshot and Eddie fell to his knees in the exact same way he had in season 1, I nearly jumped out of my seat! I definitely got Stargirl season 2 vibes from his scenes this week. It's not meant to be scary for the audience, it's meant to terrify the characters, which then results with the audience feeling unnerved.
Overall, we can close off the "blackest flames" arc on a lukewarm note. Not perfect, definitely inconsistent, hilariously cheesy dialogue, but not necessarily "bad."
7 / 10.