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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 5 Episode 19: Snow Pack

April 24th, 2019 by Todd Black Comments

“Snow Pack” was a very literally packed episode, as it had multiple storylines going on that surprisingly all tied into one another in some shape or form. And while that’s always a good thing in terms of having connective stories, some things definitely got lost in the shuffle.

First and foremost, the big storyline was about Nora being forced back into the future by Barry without him telling anyway. That opening scene with Iris and Barry arguing over what was right or wrong about the situation was honestly very powerful. Iris called out Barry for all the emotional one-track mind decisions he’s made over the years, and Barry fired back that nothing to do with Thawne can be good. Both were right, and both were wrong, and that’s what made it work.

Iris using the Time Sphere to go to the future with Ralph was fun, but it did fall short in some ways because instead of just explaining why she was there, she just repeated Barry by saying to get away from Thawne. If she had said that she had come back to take her own in the Time Sphere, that would’ve worked so much easier.

That being said, plot wise it made sense for that not to happen, and the reveal of the Negative Force (which is comics accurate believe it or not) was a nice twist for both Thawne and Nora. And now she’s infused with the “Reverse Hate” if you will, and next weeks preview showed where that is going to end up.

As if one family drama wasn’t enough, we had the return of the Icicle, and his desire to have an “Ice Family”, including Killer Frost and Caitlyn’s mother. While I do appreciate the reconnecting of Caitlyn and her mother, I once again loathe the trope that was similar to last night’s Arrow in that Caitlyn exaggerated facts about what happened between her and her mother.

Plus, the father SUDDENLY finding the strength to save Caitlyn (but apparently not having the strength to save his wife…) was very Deus Ex Machina, and of course, that resulted in his death. Which was very oddly paced and there is no way he would’ve gotten away from his wife without her being literal seconds behind him instead of the minute that she returned in.

Which leads me to…how did Cicada even known about that area? It was a secret lab, and Barry hadn’t been there that long, how in the heck did she not only find the place, but know about the Cryo Atomizer? Me thinks there’s a couple gaps in logic…

Still, despite all of this, there was a lot of great family drama, and some pretty killer action pieces. Even Sherloque and Ralph were pretty good this episode. So I think that deserves respect in terms of “Snow Pack” and its score.

4.5 out of 5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!