The Flash episode “Abra Kadabra” aired 28 March 2017.
Any episode that has Cisco yelling “You shall not pass!” is halfway to being a good episode. A lot happened on The Flash this week so let’s get into it…
Musical hangover
Westallen announce their re-engagement to Joe and Cecile over a coffee double date. “That’s so romantic!” the DA gushes. “You sing?” “Not as good as Joe,” says Barry, to which Joe replies with “Shut up, Barry.” The future West family, ladies and gentlemen.
Cecile then invites Barry and Iris to watch Hamilton in July. They stutter out an agreement – as far as Cisco has vibed, Iris still dies at Savitar’s hands. Barry worries that they are “running out of time.”
Meanwhile, a mysterious guy with the ability to teleport and do “magic tricks” has been robbing tech companies in Central City, which is apparently a hot spot for research and startups. He is Abra Kadabra, from the future, and knows Barry’s identity. He also knows about Savitar and Iris’ fate. Gypsy arrives, revealing that the meta-magician committed mass murder on her Earth. Abra then lures Barry, Wally and the vibers to Mercury Labs while he enters Star Labs. Barry speeds back in time to apprehend him. Abra pleads to reveal Savitar’s identity if they let him go free, but Gypsy is adamant about bringing him back to E19. This creates a rift between her and Team Flash.
Barry debates freeing Abra for the information but Iris convinces him not to free a murderer for her sake. Joe, however, doesn’t have anyone to talk him down, and opens the magician’s cell door. It seems like Abra will uphold his end of the deal…until Gypsy bursts in. The magician manages to loot from the time vault before throwing an explosive in the lift lobby and escaping.
Back to the future
Gypsy realises Abra Kadabra is stealing tech to build a time machine. Fortunately, he cannot return to the future without opening a Star Labs-detectable wormhole. Barry, Wally, Cisco and Gypsy chase his modified-aircraft-time-machine around town. Just as the magician seems to be slipping out of reach, Barry puts on an amazing display by speeding tremendously to get ahead, then leap of a building and phase Abra out of his aircraft. He did THAT.
Barry agrees to let Gypsy take Abra back to E19, where he will get a death sentence, but makes a last-ditch attempt to appeal to the magician’s humanity. Abra refuses, saying that he and Barry are enemies in the future. Since Savitar was the foe who hurt Barry the most, Abra feels like this way, he gets to hurt Barry too. He does tell Barry he eventually defeats Savitar, but not before Iris’ demise, so what does it matter?
Later, Joe opens up to Iris about his long-held fear of losing her. Iris reassures him that she does not blame Joe for anything. Barry comes in to announce he has found a way to get the dirt on Savitar – by running to the future.
Unlucky in love
Nothing threatened Westallen’s engagement this time, but other ships were struggling to stay afloat. Cisco was super excited to see Gypsy again, but the collector was distant. When he confronts her after she argues with Joe over freeing Abra Kadabra, Gypsy tells him she used to have a partner (in both senses of the word) who was killed by the magician. It explains why she’s hell bent on catching that guy, and also why she is hesitant to pursue a relationship. Poor Cisco is heartbroken again.
Caitlin and Julian were the other couple with a side plot. Julian is still upset and remains cold (ah, puns) until Abra bombs the lift lobby – piercing Caitlin with shrapnel. Caitlin, amazingly, stays calm and directs her own surgery, performed by Julian with Iris as an assistant. Later, she and Julian make up with a kiss. But while recovering, she suffers a seizure and can’t be resuscitated. A desperate Julian removes her power-dampening necklace so her metahuman powers will heal her wounds, but she wakes up as Killer Frost!
Throughout all this, we also got to glimpse Caitlin and Cisco’s beautiful friendship. At the beginning of the episode, Cisco consoles Caitlin about her “frosty” relationship with Julian, and towards the end she returns the favour while they banter about jello flavours and watch TV. The devastation on Cisco’s face when Caitlin flatlines was the biggest heartbreak of the episode. The scene where Cisco and Julian briefly argue about taking her necklace off was short but intense. Great work from Carlos Valdes.
Flashpoints:
- The amount of HR in this episode was criminal! He shows up near the end after a “two day love romp” for some classic Cisco-Wells banter and to declare his love for all things lime-flavoured.
- This week was a little disappointing in two aspects. First, couldn’t Tom Felton have one line about magic that is also a Harry potter reference? Secondly, the show wasted an opportunity to tell us more about Savitar. We hardly learnt anything new from what Abra Kadabra told Barry and team. We’re already very late into the season yet know so little about the big bad. Get on it, Flash!
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(featured image: the CW)
