The Flash (5×16)- “Failure is An Orphan” Written by:         Zack Stentz Directed by:       Viet Nguyen After back to back weeks of filler episodes I guess we all should have expected for them to throw everything into disarray with a big change episode.  But is it good change or bad change?  Let’s see if we can unpack this. In 2049, Thawne has about twenty minutes left before he’s put to death and it seems that he and Nora are on the brink of something with their plan to stop Cicada as the Timeline is in flux around Barry’s last confrontation with Cicada.  So the pair have to make the confrontation happen…

The Flash (5×15)- “King Shark vs Gorilla Grodd” Written by:         Eric Wallace & Lauren Certo Directed by:       Stefan Pleszczynski Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: This was another filler episode. However, we should all be aware of that by now considering the cost prohibitive nature of Gorilla Grodd episodes.  A CGI Gorilla just can’t be a big part of this series with the budget restraints of having this show on the CW, no matter how much I’d like him to be. But I have to give credit to the producers; every time they bring Grodd in it’s as a big deal.  They also do a…

The Flash (5×13)- “Goldfaced” Written by:         Jonathan Butler & Gabriel Garza Directed by:       Alexandra La Roche “Goldface…”  Well there’s worse names that start with Gold. Were you expecting someone else? Let’s cut to the chase, we have ourselves a very interesting theme for this week’s episode:  Characters being manipulated into doing something ill-advised through the manipulation of their egos: Even though the episode is named after another plotline, the big story of this week’s episode is that Sherloque is on the brink of discovering that Nora came back from the future to stop Cicada.  You’d think this would be fine with Barry, “Hey thanks Nora for stopping this serial killer…

The Flash (5×12)- “Memorabilia” Written by:         Sam Chalsen & Kristen Kim Directed by:       Rebecca Johnson So we go from an episode with a title that plays on a popular film series to one that is nearly a triple entendre (Seeing Red because the Flash wears red, it’s slang for going mad with rage and a nod to the Emotional Spectrum) to an episode that when doing a title search tricks you into looking at Flash March.  These people are sneaky. We open with Nora explaining to Eobard (and the audience via Voiceover) the mounting frustration she feels hiding whatever she and he are trying to accomplish with her trek through…

The Flash (5×10)- “The Flash and the Furious” Written by:         Kelly Wheeler & Sterling Gates Directed by:       David McWhirter Alright! The second half of Season five kicks off with a title I am genuinely surprised they didn’t use earlier.  (It’s like how both the Bruce Timm Batman cartoon and “The Batman” reworked Batman film titles for Batgirl episodes, you just know the next Batman cartoon will have an episode called “Batgirl v Superman” at some point.) The episode opens pretty much where we left off in the 100th episode with Nora in the future talking with Eobard Thawne still looking like Wells. (They’ll have to explain that soon enough.) We…