TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 8 Episode 14: Funeral For A Friend

I remember vividly the feeling I had last night when I reviewed the two-part season finale for Naomi. Mainly after they did the final scene “stinger” and it was a major groaner on many levels. And tonight on Flash…we had that once again. In fact, in many ways, “Funeral For A Friend” was a complete mockery of events from the past 7 seasons.

Why do I say that? Well, the crux of this episode, obviously, was to mourn the loss of Frost. Which was fine…in context. Except, inexplicably, all of a sudden people didn’t know how to grieve the loss of a friend. Even though they’ve all (or at the very least the major characters) have lost someone in the course of this show. And then for Barry to ask how “to tell people to grieve while still moving forward” was laughable because he’s had to do that over and over again over the course of his life and this show! He had to mourn the loss of his father, multiple friends like Robbie, Stein, Snart, and more, almost lost Iris multiple times, thought he lost Joe, and more. Caitlin lost Robbie, her father. Iris lost her mother, Joe his wife, and the list goes on and on. So how is it that NO ONE knew what to do in order to honor Frost?

Now, yes, finding the “right way” at times is hard. And then bouncing from person to person in their grief (not unlike the Bizarro-world episode of Superman & Lois) was a clever idea…in theory. The one who came off the best though was Iris, who went from trying to be “objective” about Frost’s death, to doing a beautiful thing by having people talk about how Frost saved them. All leading to the BEAUTIFUL spot where the Jitters guy erased the “Killer” from the Frost drink. Inspiration, tact, and beauty. It was well handled.

In contrast, what they did with Chester and Allegra (who were the pinnacle of annoying this episode), Barry, and definitely Caitlin was just weird, lame, and wrong. Especially when they went “full angst” with Caitlin, leading to multiple scenes that were overdone, and of course, the TERRIBLE twist that she’s going to try and bring Frost back to life. There is no scenario where this storyline ends in a good way.

This is actually why I felt the better death would’ve been Caitlin, not Frost. Because Caitlin is now DESPERATE to try and get her sister back, whereas Frost would’ve had to learn to live life without “someone I NEED to protect”. As well as dealing with the “failure” she had suffered. That is MUCH more compelling than what we got.

It’s sad that the most rational person of this episode was Mark. Just saying.

Another very confusing element was the beginning of the show and a line said later. Barry had to deal with a meta (who was a very “Arrrowverse version” of the villain Blockbuster) and he brings Allegra and…Cecil? Say what now? Since when has Cecil been on the ground with the others? The answer is never. She’s the one they use for certain things, yes, but never in the field. And while Allegra has been in the field, apparently “no one has noticed her” or gotten a good look at her (or Cecil) according to that VERY over-the-top CCC writer, so…why aren’t they wearing masks or costumes or something to that effect?

Finally, and UBERLY FRUSTRATINGLY…we need to talk about Iris. Who quite conveniently didn’t have any issue with her time sickness…until the end when it affected her. Because that makes sense…right? It was literally out of control before, but then she went days without a single person or object fading out of existence? Exactly. Hopefully this gets resolved next week like they’re teasing because this is too much.

In the end, “Funeral For A Friend” tried to be meaningful, but fell flat on its face more times than not, and that’s sad because they could’ve done something REALLY grand here…but didn’t.

2.5.5