THE FLASH “Memorabilia” Review

The Flash — “Memorabilia” — Pictured (L-R): Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow, Jessica Parker Kennedy as X, Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen — Photo: Shane Harvey/The CW

THE FLASH “MEMORABILIA” REVIEW

BY JUSTIN CARTER

With about 10 episodes left into the season, there was admittedly no way Team Flash’s plan to stop Cicada by saving his niece Grace was going to work. Something was going to have to go wrong. The real question was what. The way “Memorabilia” goes about revealing that answer rewards our time and patience, and fortunately provides some interesting stories before things go completely south.

Sure enough, Team Flash does come up with a plan to get Grace out of her coma — the best way to explain it is “Inception, but with speedsters” — but Nora doesn’t want Barry to learn she’s been working with Thawne, so she tries to save Grace alone but gets trapped in the kid’s mind. Barry and Iris, in turn, have to save Nora, but that means they get trapped in her memories and see the childhood she’s alluded to in past episodes. No surprise, young Nora’s view of older Iris is very different from the reality, made wholly clear by the debut of the Flash Museum.

This is a heartfelt episode packed to the brim with references and callbacks to earlier episodes, which also thankfully avoids the trap of being goofy. The Museum wouldn’t have worked in the 100th episode back in December, but it does here, thanks to the linked narrative of memories and warped childhoods. A day where Nora snuck out to the Museum and got her Flash toy shattered by Iris — at least, in her eyes, as the reality of that moment was sad, but much softer than remembered –reminds Barry and Iris of the looming timeline that may await them. Despite their best efforts to reconnect with Nora ,or Iris trying to avoid creating her own newspaper, Barry will disappear one day and lead to Nora’s resentment of her mother, or that’s what they believe.

Despite a quick fight with a statue of the museum’s Reverse Flash, Barry and Iris are certainly better off than Nora. Turns out that not only has Grace been aware of her surroundings since she fell into her coma, she’s fully aware that the Flash’s daughter is in her head and supports her uncle in his meta-killing. That she’ll become the new Cicada that plagues Central City in 2024 is a big thing to rather casually drop — it doesn’t seem to connect with Team Flash when Nora learns this, and I admittedly had to watch a second time to understand that. It’s a weird escalation but the right one, and one that winds up giving Nora yet another Rogue of her own. In that respect, she really does take after her dad.

Additional Notes

• Some of the callbacks I took notice of: Jervis Tetch, aka Batman villain the Mad Hatter; an issue of the current Flash comic from writer Joshua Williamson (great run he’s had going since 2016); and the show’s theme is a cute ringtone that I desperately want.
• Sherloque’s partner was a Watson named Watseun who slept with his fourth wife, because he has no good friends, apparently.
• The subplot of Ralph taking Cisco to singles night is short, but very sweet, and I wouldn’t mind more subplots like this of various team members just hanging out in their off time.
• Nora’s view of her mom as a kid no doubt triggered one or two childhood memories for some viewers, and I was one of them.
• If the Flash Museum is to be believed, our next big baddie could be the Red Death. That should be fun!