TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 5 Episode 7: O Come All Ye Thankful

I think this is actually only the second Thanksgiving episode in Arrowverse history. I’m pretty sure the first was on Legends of Tomorrow, but don’t hold me to it. Still, having a Thanksgiving episode in a non-era traveling series is actually rather refreshing, because we usually only get Christmas episodes. And, “O Come All Ye Thankful” was another solid episode in Season 5, with only a few annoyances.

Not so ironically, this entire episode was based around the idea of the West-Allen family, mainly because the show finally decided to deal with Nora and her lingering anger towards her father. Not because of his decision to support Future Iris, but rather, her feelings about him continually risking his life for the city. How many times will he have to do this before it’s all done? Is that even an option?

This plotpoint is tricky, because it’s one that was dealt with in Season 1 with Joe, and then also with the Savitar arc in certain ways. With Nora, I’m glad that we went through it, but it also led to some clunky scenes and dialogue. The end result was good though, with Nora admitting how she both loved and hated her dad because he was the Flash, and then finally understanding at the end why he does what he does. With this, it could mean that we don’t have any other lingering West-Allen issues…except for the secret that Nora is obviously hiding in regards to who set her on the path she’s on…

Speaking of which, we got to see the backstory of Cicada tonight, and it was actually really good. They took similar paths to how they showed Duvoe’s and Wells’ backstory, but this one was infinitely more sympathizable. For example, unlike in the comics, Grace wasn’t Orland’s daughter, it was his niece. And he was given ownership of her after his sister died. He never wanted to be in that position, but slowly, and surely, Grace’s influence made him a better person, things were turning around…and then the Enlightenment happened.

What I also liked here was that Orland wasn’t the one who decided that the metas needed to die, it was actually the nurse. This is a subtle but fun difference in how many villains get their paths. And while it doesn’t explain everything, (like where he got his suit and why he realized he needed the respirator), it was enough to set Cicada apart from the others. And now, definitively, Team Flash knows who he is.

Sadly, the rest of the episode didn’t really live up to the momentum the first two storylines set up. Weather Witch was an interesting villain in terms of her having the Metatech (which I’m really glad they brought back), but on the other hand, her sole purpose for being a villain was to kill her father, really? I mean, we only got light details on the matter from the real Weather Wizard, and even then, it didn’t explain a lot.

As for Sherloque and Cisco and Caitlin’s sudden hatred of Thanksgiving…really? I mean, this just makes me hate Sherloque even more, and he’s really grating me at this point.

Thankfully, the real stories made up for the lackluster ones, and next week is the 100th episode of Flash, so it’s going to be something special no doubt.