‘The Flash’ 5×03 review: Nothing good comes from time travel

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers on The Flash Season 5 Episode 3. Do not read if you have not seen the episode or read ahead at your own risk.

Nothing good comes out of time travel and Team Flash found out, first hand, the repercussions of Nora’s actions in Tuesday’s episode of The Flash.

The episode picks up with Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) explaining that Cicada (Chris Klein) is her father’s scariest and most challenging enemy because no one ever caught him. She explains that Supergirl, Green Arrow, and The Legends all fail to catch him. Even the League failed. Cicada’s metahuman killing spree is happening sooner and his victims are different than Nora remembers.

Yay…time travel is fun!

Nora helps the team by deciding to bring a new version of Wells to the team. She introduces Sherloque Wells (Tom Cavanagh), a French detective who charges for his services. It is pretty amazing to see how many different versions of Wells Tom Cavanagh has played to this point. Sherloque Wells might just be my favorite so far.

Wells says he knows Cicada is David Hersh and Team Flash goes to check it out. It is revealed that Hersh is not the real Cicada, leaving the team angry and wanting a refund for a botched job. Wells reveals on his Earth that Hersh is Cicada and he knows this because they’ve arrested him across 36 different Earths.

Again, I repeat: isn’t time travel fun?

The team encounters Cicada again, but as the episode goes on, we find out something interesting about the villain. But first, he takes Joe (Jesse L. Martin) hostage and orders him to tell Vibe to come to the house so he can kill him. Cecile realizes what is going on and orders Cisco (Carlos Valdes) to the house before Cicada can hurt them. Once there, Cicada pushes Vibe back into the portal he breached through and they are now in a forest.

Sherloque helps the rest of the team track down Cisco as Barry (Grant Gustin) races to the forest but quickly loses his powers. Nora comes to the rescue as she throws lightning as Cicada and helps Vibe fake his death, rightfully this episode is titled “The Death of Vibe”. Cicada nearly tries to kill Barry again, but eventually flies away (what the heck? He can fly?!).

This leads to another interesting tidbit about Cicada. He goes to the hospital to visit his daughter, who is in a coma and sick. The doctor seemingly knows what Cicada (or Orlon) is up to. The doctor tells him to stop the fighting, but he refuses.

The episode ends with even more mystery surrounding Nora. Wells asks her if someone pushed her to help Barry stop the satellite or if she wanted to help on her own, but she quickly dismisses the question. The look Nora’s face says it all – she is lying or hiding something. But what?

Episode Notes:

• In a less than exciting subplot of the episode, Caitlin and Ralph are still on the hunt for Caitlin’s father. Dr. Carla Tannhauser, Caitlin’s mother, lies to them about her father’s whereabouts. So after some snooping, the pair find a suicide note from her dad. But that is short lived as they also find a coded message from her father asking to come find him.
• Someone is watching all of this from the S.T.A.R. Labs cameras, which I’m thinking is Caitlin’s father. But that brings up another question: just HOW BAD is STAR Labs’ security?!

The Flash airs Tuesdays on The CW.