When Caitlin and Frost split into two separate bodies a few weeks ago, it felt like the setup to some Odd Couple shenanigans that would be quickly resolved. With “Growing Pains,” that separation takes on a darker hue, as Frost is pursued for her past misdeeds by Kristen Kramer, who also seeks to pin a new ice-related crime on her.
The frosty attack on a delivery van full of new tech has left the driver dead and shattered on the ground. Despite Joe’s quite reasonable argument that there have been other cold crimes in Central City over the years (mister, we could use a man like Leonard Snart again), Kramer is focused on Frost, especially once Barry and his new junior tech Chester P. Runk turn up evidence of dark matter on the scene. Barry argues that the ice crystals are different than those formed by Frost’s powers, but Kramer insists on pursuing an arrest warrant for the meta she still calls a killer.
This wouldn’t be a problem if Frost would stay put at STAR Labs while the rest of the team finds the real culprit, but that’s not in the cards. Frost goes on a fact-finding trip to O’Shaughnessy’s, the bar where she used to work, and meets new bartender Mark, a whiz at mixology and other scientific pursuits. In case you didn’t immediately pick up on the attraction between them, there’s a long musical interlude during which Mark strips off his shirt to the tune of “Hot In Herre.” The song must have cost a pretty penny, and the producers seem determined to get their money’s worth, as this goes on for much longer than it needs to. (Your mileage may vary!)
The irony of playing that song over this frosty flirtation can only mean one thing: that Mark is the new cold criminal in town. He’s also the anonymous source who leads Kristen to Caitlin’s apartment, forcing Joe to arrest her for Frost’s crimes. (Given that they were sharing the same body at the time of said crimes, that’s not entirely unwarranted. I’m no lawyer, but I think a case could be made.) It’s hard to decide what’s lamer: Mark’s supervillain name Chillblaine or his backstory, in which he fell through the ice as a child, spent fifteen minutes in the freezing water, and grew up obsessed with gaining ice powers. He’s not a meta, just a guy with frosty gloves.
The barroom brawl showdown between Frost and Chillblaine is fun, even as it highlights just how stripped-down this pandemic-filmed season has been for the most part. Frost pulls off a couple of neat tricks, first bouncing her ice rays off the floor so that they ricochet into Mark and send him flying, and finally defeating him by extending an icicle through her own body (which has meta-rapid healing) and into his (which does not). But as the climactic battle in a superhero show, it still boils down to two people fighting in a bar. In the end, Frost decides to turn herself in anyway and face the music.
This week’s other storyline concerns the Speed Force, who has moved in with Barry and Iris and is eager to help Barry with his work. Barry is not so eager, suffering from glitches in his power, and generally not down with the whole “force that gives me my power looks like my dead mother” thing, particularly since Iris insists on addressing the Speed Force as Nora. After spending most of the episode trying to avoid her, Barry finally comes around to realizing the Speed Force he used to know has now taken on a more human dimension and should be treated that way.
The other Forces don’t make an appearance this week, adding to the feeling that this is a bit of a placeholder episode, if not quite a throwaway. The maturation of Frost as she becomes her own person is a natural development, but with so many characters being juggled through Team Flash these days, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see her sent to Iron Heights for an extended stay. (After all, Danielle Panabaker would still have a role to play.) That’s not the most likely outcome, but we’ve seen too many departures to rule it out.
Stray observations
- The Flash is going on hiatus for a few weeks, so let’s meet back here on May 4.
42 Comments
I loved Barry saying he was glad Cisco was not there to hear the awful villain name ChillBlaine Frost and Caitlin were both so worried about each other, and I buy it! Danielle Panabaker has great chemistry with herself
Not as good as Karen Gillian.
nothing and noone is as good as Karen Gillian!!!
Well that proved that two Karen Gillans….
That was ridiculously over-the-top and silly, with a rather misogynistic undercurrent (I always thought Pond was, at best, on the edge between ‘sexy empowered woman who is confident with her sexuality’ and ‘cheap exploitative titillation obviously written by a man’, and frequently fell off that edge)……but it’s so much fun that it seems almost cruel to juxtapose that with this season of The Flash. It’s also a bit worrying that a three-minute skit for Comic Relief feels like it’s had a lot more thought put into it than this entire episode, or indeed season…
Caitlin and Defense Attorney Cecille Horton talking Frost out of staging the jailbreak was one of my favorite parts of the episode.
For a few years, it felt like they were just as unsure what to do with Caitlyn/Danielle as Iris/Candice. Like Iris, the former has been served very well this season and it’s been a big part why I’ve been enjoying this season so much.
More prominence and storylines for Caitlin/ Frost and Iris I think has been serving the show well too & I hope it continues & they don’t actually lock up Frost & write her off for any significant time, which I doubt. The obnoxious cop lady hunting her down is too smug & wrong to get a win like that, for one thing
How did Chillblaine freeze that driver while stealing the chip if he needed the chip & a scan of Killer Frost to replicate cryokinetic powers?
Very coldly?
A wizard did it
I think he said he needed it to perfect his ice powers. He was doing cryo experiments long before he had even heard of Frost.
I prefer the comics version, where Chillblaine was a series of boyfriends of Lisa Snart (Golden Glider), who stole her brother’s cold-tech.
The Speed Force helicopter parenting.For someone that was Military Intelligence, and is now an investigator, she sure is jumping to conclusions awfully fast.Someone working out. That’s a little different for The Flash.DO NOT hook up Frost and Runk.Frost and Allegra, I could see them as partners in crime….so to speak.Is The Flash getting back to science saving the day instead of techno-babble?I also don’t like this bartender. They’re trying so hard to manufacture some chemistry between him and Frost, and it’s so bad.The fights this episode have been excellent.What is with those “romantic” fight moments? Ewwwwww…“You lack imagination.” Yeah, the writers do lack imagination for her character.It wasn’t until much later that I even realized that Cisco wasn’t even in this episode.I disagree with the reviewer. I thought that this was a (mostly) great episode.
Yeah…I wasn’t feeling this episode. I found myself doing anything else but watching it.Here’s hoping it bounces back after its break.
Yuuup, that’s how I’ve been watching this show since like, season 3. It’s one of my “gonna play my daily phone games” shows.
Good(?) to see that Frost also has the same terrible luck with men that her sister does. I also got a big laugh out of the mean inspector lady commenting on how many points of commonality there were between Caitlin and Frost’s faces. As Oliver said, wear a mask.On the whole I think this was the right course to take with Frost, she did do crimes, and it was always kind of nonsense that the show was willing to throw them away.
“As Oliver said, wear a mask”As Barry unmasks right in the vicinity of the police force outside! DAMMIT, BARRY, YOU AND YOUR UNNECESSARY RISKS!
I would say that Frost has better luck than Caitlin. Caitlin’s men just die, while Frost kills her men. Heck, Frost even killed one of Caitlin’s men.
Today I got my first vaccine jab…May 4 is when I get my second. I think the Speedforce may have been in play here…Also, it’s too bad Killer Frost didn’t watch “Arrow”, because the hot random newcomer is always the secret bad guy! The fact Killer Frost discovered she has her own independent horny level greatly amused me.
Frost utterly failing to conceal her crush was a good reminder that in a lot of ways, she’s much less experienced than Caity. In that light, “YOU FIGHT LIKE A BOY!” was a great line for her.
I’m more of a B+ on this one. The fx are improving: Speed Force Nora’s lightning is cool and rainbowy. There was real tension in Frost almost blowing the wall off the CCPD. They did a camera set-up/angle as though the wall was going to come down! Plus it was all Cait and Frost – DP with the screen time this week. Who wasn’t rooting for Frost to get laid? Yeah, Blaine was a tool with heavy Jake Busey vibes, but he did do a good flip from one pool table to the other. Plus breakfast food porn. B+ sez I.( I just realized this show likes to do big tables full of food two or three times a season! Delicious.)
Hahaha I thought he was Jake Busey at first
In Jake Busey’s dreams!
Chillblaine was such a great stupid name for this douchey techbro villain. I can imagine one of his bros at the cigar bar listening to him spout off about how crypto is going to change the world and getting sick of it and saying “Jesus, just chill, Blaine.”Clingy Speed Force was a delight. I am all for more Speed Force screen time, thank you.I have mostly enjoyed this season, but it feels a little aimless – is that just me? I know we have the Force Friends as the big bad this season, but the plot as a whole seems kinda haphazard. Them wanting to kill the Speed Force seems a bit random – why wouldn’t they also want to kill each other? Maybe this is explained in the comics that I didn’t read.
As I remember, it wasn’t. It was just taken for granted, which was in line with the rest of Joshua Williamson’s bafflingly-popular run on the book.
Like the Frost stuff, don’t need the Speed Force stuff (this week). Focus on Frost going forward and try to be more cosmic with the Force(s).
This really wasnt a very good episode. The villains this season seem so lacking, especially when compared to the work Jon Cryer is doing over on Supergirl.
On the other hand, it wasn’t awful. Whereas the premier (of the real season, not the remainder-episodes) was perhaps the worst episode of TV I’ve ever watched, and the ones since then have been pretty awful too. Its only redeeming feature at the moment is that it’s easy to watch.Having more of Caitlyn/Frost would be a big help, but I suspect this is the “excuse to get rid of Frost powers” episode by sticking Frost in prison until they need her for the finale. [on which note: impossible not to remember how Angel did this plotline so, so much better – and then resisted the temptation to undo it for several years].
Can’t argue with any of this.
So ‘it wasn’t awful’ is the best that can be said about The Flash these days?
Well… yeah? There are still good things about it. The core cast has good chemistry, there are some fun villains. But at the moment the writing is really, really bad.
Frost, and I guess the showrunners, realizing you cant just commit crimes and get away with it was very refreshing. Especially after that WandaVision finale when Wanda faced zero consequences for torturing an entire town.
Looks like another Arrowverse courtroom scene when Flash comes back from its break. Those are always pretty bad. No way it can be as bad as last weeks Supergirl.
I’m imagining what the screeching think/hit pieces would be like if it’d been a female character taking off her shirt to that song instead.
I would invest in better things to spend your thoughts on.
Like reverse racism, reverse sexism isn’t a thing.
Man, I know most/all of the characters on this show act dumb more often than not (usually minus Joe), but this episode? They acting dumb. as. heeeeell. Everyone makes the worst choices they can.
And wow that Kramer broad is bad at her job. Automatically and stubbornly jumps to her predtermined conclusions, ignoring all opposing evidence. She’s decided it’s Frost, so that’s who it’s gonna be. F*ck the actual experts. Those kind of characters/people make me furious and make her scenes unwatchable. But I know that’s more a me issue.
I enjoyed the cheesiness of Chillblaine. He has an awful name (mate, that’s what you get if you move from hot to cold, or cold to hot, temperature too fast. It’s uncomfortable more than deadly) and he even got to do a villain monologue! I also appreciated that, even though it’s boring that the new character is 99% always the new villain, the writers at least let Chillblaine drop in a character-specific clue early on (rattling on about science). Although he’s probably the sort of person who has an actual degree in mixology. Unghh.Kramer completely ignoring legitimate scientific evidence and saying “Yes well, I’m still going after Frost” didn’t seem very professional to me. Does she know there are like a million speedsters? The idea of another ice-themed meta shouldn’t be too difficult to swallow.I’m also kind of pleased that the other members of Team Flash think it’s weird when Chester does his ‘echo’ thing. Chester, stop being weird at crime scenes.Nora seemed pretty normal this episode, so was her recent apparent shiftiness shoddy writing? The Sensible Force tells me “yes”.
I don’t know what made me laugh more, the flimsy excuses to take Chillblaine’s shirt off multiple times in the episode, or Chillblaine and Frost pausing twice in their fight to eye-flirt with each other. Props to both actors for conveying a slightly confused “wait, is this hot?!!?!” look on their faces.
Man this show has declined in quality
There’s a trend this season for characters not to realise things that should be blindingly obvious. Of course Barry isn’t going to be fine with a cosmic entity who looks just like his dead mother suddenly becoming his new houseguest! That this seemed to be played as something that Barry needs to come to terms with rather than something that Iris should have recognised straight away about her husband, and accepted without question, is mind-boggling. It doesn’t come out of nowhere either – Barry has always been uncomfortable around his mother’s doppelgangers on other Earths and in most of his prior interactions with the Speed Force.