TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 5 Episode 17: Time Bomb

The Flash can be a really great show that really delves into some complex things and delivers some great moments. And then, the Flash is a show that just pushes things into the silly or stupid or eye-rolling way too much. And “Time Bomb”, very frustratingly, was an episode that had a mix of both.

Let’s start with the good stuff. I really appreciated how things (pun intended) sped up in terms of them finding out about Grace and Future Grace and how it was all connected. How she stole a time sphere from the future to come to the past and “save” her uncle Orlan from his fate as a non-powered person. Grace taking care of him and promising to get his powers back was very interesting. And though we won’t get that, it was an intriguing plot point.

And Team Flash figuring what was going on (whereas before it would’ve taken several episodes) helped get things moving, especially when Grace’s first metahuman target was the one who killed her parents. Usually this would be a cliche, but it honestly played for the better for the most part. Sure, the family drama was a bit much, especially since the mother and daughter made up very quickly (pun still intended). But hearing Orlan and Grace talk about what was right and what was wrong about it all, and how an accident didn’t mean that Vickie should die.

This of course led to the first be shock of the night, where Grace realized that Orlan was a very different man than she remembered, and so he was, for lack of a better term, obsolete. And not worthy of her love. Yet despite this, his last breath was a plea to Flash to save her, which I appreciate.

Sherloque really proved his worth tonight as well, as he finally uncovered all the clues that connected Nora to Eobard, and him telling the secret at the end was oddly compelling. As well Barry locking up his own daughter because he couldn’t trust her anymore. Overreaction? Maybe if it was Oliver, but with Flash, this was deeply personal, and betraying. And it made full sense that he could’ve risk her being out and escaping whatever is coming.

So all that was good…Ralph’s entire sidestory? NOT SO MUCH!

Seriously, what is the purpose of Ralph Dibny here in this season? Sure, last season he had a purpose of sorts, but this season? Not so much! He can’t use his powers against either Cicada, he barely offers enough to help the team, and so now, he’s the over-the-top comedy guy, which is exactly what his issue was last time! He forces himself into the others lives, and basically ruins them. Now, as I noted before, I thought it would be good to have Camille work for Iris, but to not have Cisco do that? To have RALPH DIBNY do that in the most over-the-top way and have him want her to get superpowers to further connect with Cisco? What the heck was he thinking? I seriously fast-forwarded these parts because I didn’t want to hear what Ralph was trying to do, or what he said in the apology to Cisco (if it was one). It didn’t matter, he has not place on the team right now, and it shows.

So we have a rather complex situation here. On one hand, much of the main plot of the show was good, but the fallacy that is Ralph Dibny weighed it down heavily. As well as some of the other melodrama. So I need to give it a score that befits it. I didn’t hate “Time Bomb”, I just wish that they did a better job balancing things out.