If revenge is a dish best served cold then Captain Cold has been waiting a long time to extract his. This week’s episode once again sees the return of the Snart siblings, Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold and Lisa Snart AKA Golden Glider, plus the addition of a new member to the family. When Lisa reaches out to the Cisco for help, she explains her brother has been kidnapped and forced against his will to commit crimes. But when Barry races to his so called “rescue” he turns out to be working alongside their Father Lewis heisting jewellery for profit. Eventually we find out that Leonard is just putting on a front and for all the criminal deeds the siblings perform the real bad guy is their abusive and sadistic father played by veteran villain actor Michael Ironside. After years of physical abuse towards his children he has implanted a explosive charge in his daughters head and has no qualm about detonating it if his son doesn’t do his bidding.
This season we continue to see the humanizing of Leonard Snart and see his struggle to uphold his promise to Barry of no killing, honour his family and still pursue his own means. The uneasy alliance between Flash and Cold continues to make Wentworth Willer better than your meta-human of the week. While this is all really just set up leading to the spin-off show Legends of Tomorrow that will bring together a misfit team of legends from heroes and villains alike, it still helps further develop the characters and also move the overall narrative of the season forward. I also liked the way Snart has specks of grey throughout his hair which gives him a frosty look now that hasn’t been wearing his classic Captain Cold hoodie and glasses costume of late.
The theme of family doesn’t end there though; with Joe’s ex-wife is Francine back on the scene he is left with no choice but to open up to Iris about the truth behind her Mother’s absence. I say it time and time again but as Joe West Jesse L Martin is playing his role on another level, the level of emotion he brings the his heart to heart scenes is inspiring. He tells Iris that he let her believe her Mother was dead all these years to shelter her from the truth that she was a drug addict and endangered her life as a child one too many times. No matter his best efforts he just couldn’t help her turn her addiction around and rather than letting her think she was abandoned he saw letting Iris believe she was dead all these years as the only way to help her deal with it. I commend the show for not taking the traditional route of Iris hating her Father for a season; instead she was mature about the situation and while I’m certain there will be more repercussions to come I really liked the way it was handled.
But not everything was as heavy, love is in the air for most everyone else it would seem. Jay Garrick having finished stabilizing the dimensional portal inside Star labs by building a speed cannon, with a little help from a smitten Caitlyn, is convinced to stay just a little longer until this Zoom problem is taken care of, I hope he gets more screen time next episode. Patty mistook Barry’s friendly chat for flirting and gave him her number for more than just police related work, it’s uncertain if Barry feels the same way but it’s a fun new relationship the season will continue to flesh out and Cisco gets his moment with Lisa Snart. Continuing to win her over with his genuine care for her, I’m sure there are Cisco fan girls out there giddy and a little jealous that he’s becoming a little bit smoother with each meeting they have.
Overall it was a decent episode, some great Flash moments included Barry asking Iris, under gun fire no less, to have complete faith in him and leap out of a skyscraper window only for him to race across town, up the side of the building and catch her mid-fall and later using his super speed to attempt every single possible key pad combination was smaller scale fun too. I love me some Ironside and felt it was a waste to kill off such a great character actor like Ironside so early especially with his long history with DC (voicing big bad Darkseid in Justice League and even the Dark Knight himself in Batman the Animated Series) but his character was despicable and it seemed inevitable that it was something Leonard Snart had to do. I would have liked him to be more charming and self-centred like his son than just flat out evil but that wasn’t the story they wanted to tell here. It’s a shame that we won’t get to see him return in the vein of Clancy Brown’s General another long time DC alumni.
Review by Dylan Boaden.
