The Flash Review: The Icicle Cometh (Season 5 Episode 6)
The Flash Season 5, Episode 6, “The Icicle Cometh,” attempts to give Caitlin some answers about herself and her past.
For the most part it succeeds, and if you’re a Caitlin fan, you’ll probably be generally happy with how things played out. But there’s also a lot of table setting for the remainder of the season, which feels more than a bit formulaic in places.
To be fair, nothing about “The Icicle Cometh” was groundbreaking. In fact, many (most?) of these twists were visible from a mile away.
Who didn’t think that Thomas Snow would ultimately turn out to be evil? Did we really believe Caitlin was going to have something nice happen to her with no strings?
Of course not, we’ve seen this show before.
Also, it was right there in the title: “The Icicle Cometh”. That this episode turned out to be an origin story for Icicle makes perfect sense. And that’s fine. The story wasn’t really about him anyway.
It was about Caitlin. All of this happened, we have to assume, so that finally Dr. Snow could realize the answer to her Killer Frost problem was inside her all along.
Sure, it’s cheesy, but that’s also just so The Flash.
I’m just happy that Caitlin and Killer Frost are both granted some degree of agency here. It’s been a long time coming.
Caitlin saves the day because her family — her real family — is in danger. She’s able to reconnect with Killer Frost, because she was always part of her in the first place.
The episode tries valiantly to finally give us some answers on the Killer Frost front after two seasons and change of mixed messages. But, sadly, it’s twisted it up its own internal logic so much we may never get it all straight.
What do know is that Caitlin’s “frosty” condition is not tied to the particle accelerator explosion or dark matter, but rather to some, quite frankly, horrifying, experiments Thomas performed on his daughter as a child.
Though he claims it was to combat her genetic disposition toward developing ALS, The Flash isn’t incredibly clear on what all this means, or how exactly Thomas Snow pulled all this off.
Did he experiment on himself first? Or did he try again on Caitlin after he developed his own inner ice queen?
Is Caitlin even technically a metahuman at all?
(Personally I was hoping she’d be the series’ first second generation meta, but alas, it was apparently not to be.)
The episode is equally vague about the connection between Caitlin and Killer Frost. This isn’t a new problem for The Flash — the show has never known exactly how to explain what these two women are to each other, and prefers to lean on the idea that they’re somehow two separate people to exempt Caitlin from responsibility for some of Killer Frost’s darker choices.
Overall, the show seems to have settled on a strange sort of pseudo-Firestorm rationale, where the two women share a body all the time, rather than merge at convenient moments.
It’s not clear yet that this is a better solution than simply giving Caitlin two personalities, but it appears to be what we’re going with.
At any rate, it’s still nice to see Caitlin get the chance to be the hero for once, as well as to hear Killer Frost declare that she and the rest of Team Flash are her family.
Caitlin’s honestly had such rotten luck the past four seasons that maybe her best shot at happiness is a best friend and protector that she carries around inside her all the time.
(But for what it’s worth: Seeing Barry, Cisco and Caitlin actually get the chance to really talk again? Was fantastic.)
On some level it’s a good thing that Icicle got away. It shows that The Flash realizes that this Caitlin story doesn’t have a one episode and done resolution.
She has unfinished business with Icicle, sure. But also with her father, and with herself. Here’s hoping that The Flash at least allows some of that journey to play out onscreen this time.
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- Cisco and Caitlin’s friendship is so pure.
- Caitlin’s dad/Icicle name-dropped Victor Fries and my new personal headcanon is basically that the Snows and the Fries are, like, cousins or something. Don’t @ me.
- On some level, I appreciate the way that The Flash is basically pairing Ralph off with a different person every week in an attempt to endear him to us after the disaster that was his character last season. And for the most part, it’s working. He and Cecile were hilarious together.
- Why must we endure Sherloque Wells every week? Why? Iris and Nora could have totally done that entire storyline without him.
- After weeks of Nora cold shouldering her mother, watching her follow Iris around like an excited puppy was kind of adorable.
- There’s a Cicada subplot this week that involves him getting injured while murdering yet another meta. Good, I say. Stab him again, random girl whose name the show never even bothered to tell us.
- For the record: I’m not sure I could be less interested in the internal dynamics of a group of randoms (and/or possible domestic terrorists) who hate meta-humans and want to murder them? I’m sorry that Cicada’s daughter is dying or whatever, but that doesn’t excuse what he’s doing. Spoiler alert: this isn’t how you give villains depth, show.
What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8pm on the CW
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.