THE FLASH has been pretty uneven in terms of quality for a while now, and boy oh boy did this episode illustrate that perfectly. The show’s powerhouse cast still regularly turns out magnificent performances, but the material they’re given often falls short. After years of fan anticipation and build-up, we finally got a proper Killer Frost debut… only for everything to more or less go back to normal by the end of the episode. Sure, Barry’s temporarily lost his job and he and Cisco had an argument, but is anyone seriously expecting either of those plot threads that to last more than a week or two? And with the crossover happening next time, there’s very little chance we’ll be see any of the emotional fallout from Caitlin’s brief walk on the dark side either.
Which is a huge shame, because Danielle Panabaker delivered what’s easily her strongest performance on the show to date in “Killer Frost”. While her hammy take on Earth-2 Killer Frost was enjoyable in its own way, this main dimension version was much more nuanced and threatening. The conflict between her and the rest of Team Flash was far more suspenseful and gut-wrenching than anything Alchemy, Saviatar, or Zoom had to offer-- and it was personal in a way those could never hope to be.
One of the most enjoyable and interesting parts of Caitlin’s transformation was that it was at least partially motivated by resentment of Barry, who has frankly had to deal with very little consequences for the way he meddles in other people’s lives. Her barbs were so effective because there was quite a bit of truth to her accusations of Barry being selfish and willing to sacrifice others’ happiness for his own. THE FLASH rarely has a villain viewers can sympathize or partially agree with; even the Reverse-Flash, who was by far the series’ most compelling bad guy, was pretty much straight up evil.
So it’s incredibly frustrating that after showing us how effective Caitlin is as an antagonist that she goes right back to being to normal at the end of the episode. And not only that, but her time as a villain doesn’t even seem to have affected her relationships with her friends. Mere hours after multiple attempted homicides, Caitlin’s walking around STAR Labs with the other members of the team like nothing happened. Even Joe, a notoriously overprotective father, was hugging Caitlin and asking her to help Wally with his new powers, even though he saw her attempt to murder his other son with his own eyes. It was truly nonsensical.
Perhaps even more puzzling is the fact Barry cuts a deal with Julian to make sure that Caitlin doesn’t go to jail, despite the fact that she attempted to kill at least half a dozen people. Yes, she now feels guilty about her actions, but that doesn’t change the fact Caitlin nearly cost people their lives-- something she should be held accountable for. If nothing else she’s clearly in need of professional help. Julian rightfully calls Barry out for his skewed sense of justice, but even that scene feels hollow given that right after wards Julian is revealed to be Doctor Alchemy. It seems like anyone who calls Barry out, even justifiably so, either ends up apologizing or becoming a villain. And honestly revealing that the new bad guy just happens to be Barry’s new co-worker who hates him feels like pretty lazy writing. The writers really couldn’t think of anything more exciting?
I doubt this is the last that we’ll see of Caitlin as Killer Frost, given that Cisco’s vision still hasn’t come true, but given her treatment this episode, it seems doubtful she’ll be giving Alchemy or Savitar a run for their money with regard to the main villain status. I suppose we can stay optimistic that if she does break bad again there might be more lasting fallout the second time around, but frankly that feels like a pretty low bar to set. And even then will we still have to sit through tedious fights with cardboard baddies like Savitar? It just seems like a waste. This episode proved that Killer Frost has what it takes to be the villain that brings the compelling emotional conflict back into the show, but whether that’ll be enough to convince the writers to take her off the sidelines remains to be seen.
Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer -- Click to read Kaitlin's posts
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