The Flash S06E05 Review: B.A.R.I.

The Flash, Season 6, Episode 5: Kiss Kiss Breach Breach

Okay, this episode felt very... bottled? We don't have the typical "one of Barry's friends has to learn to accept his death and grow as a person"; we don't have any real progression on the Bloodwork storyline... and instead we get basically just Cisco and Kamilla on a little standalone adventure as they try to solve the murder of Gypsy, who apparently just got herself killed off-screen which is pretty fucking shitty. Like, I'm not the biggest fan of CW's take on Gypsy, which is one of those in-name-only adaptations, but she has been a pretty fun supporting character and it just feels pretty shitty to have her death be off-screen seemingly just to really shoehorn that, hey, the OTP is Cisco-x-Kamilla. I'm not that big on shipping in these shows but come on. Sure, there's the argument that she was 'vaporized' and there's no body and she might be transported to another dimension or something, but as far as this episode's concerned she's just straight-up fucking dead and that kinda sucks. 

This episode's premise is... eh? Barry and Iris go off on a beach holiday, leaving Cisco in STAR Labs where he's set up an A.I. called "B.A.R.I." to help him make decisions based on an algorithm that supposedly mimics the real-life Barry Allen, but instead of some hijinks episode on Cisco not over-relying on an A.I., the episode turns into a murder mystery. Breacher shows up on Cisco's bedroom, telling him to help find out the mysterious criminal Echo who's killed Gypsy with some sort of vaporizing gun. There are a whole lot of red herrings that are pretty dang obvious -- Cisco has apparently been sleepwalking and it's something that Breacher theorizes is a side-effect of suppressing Vibe powers; there's an asshole Collector agent called Zack Zeal that's the obviously-not-the-murderer. And then after Cisco and Breacher go through a bit of a machine to help them vibe, the murder weapon is found in STAR Labs and it seems that Cisco, in a fit of sleepwalking psychosis, was Gypsy's killer (because Breacher insists that every single multiversal counterpart of Cisco is a pencil-pusher... which is demonstratably not true; we've got Reverb and the cartoon Earth-X Resistance Fighter Vibe).

And then the episode just sort of hammers home the central plot of "you have to have faith", and it's... it's a pretty sappy superhero message, sure, but man they have less subtlety than a machete to the face. Cisco and Kamilla end up setting a fake surrender for Cisco, who does this so the Collectors will lift the breaching web around Earth-1, which in turn allows Cisco to confront Echo who of course is an evil Cisco Ramon, from Earth-19. Carlos Valdez hams it the hell up as a mentally unhinged doppelcisco, and it's a pretty neat confrontation to cap off what's otherwise been a pretty bland episode. Carlos Valdez's calm "gotcha" monologue as the smarter Earth-1 Cisco and his unhinged giggling as Echo are all pretty neat. And as much as I loathe their off-hand murder of poor Gypsy, Cisco's little eulogy to her is pretty well-acted. 

We've got a bunch of unremarkable B-plots, too, which gets the "you gotta have faith" themes shoehorned in. Ralph tells Frost to have faith in the team instead of going off solo, Killer Frost has faith in Caitlin, who in turn has faith in the good within Ramsey and tries to talk to him. Unfortunately Ramsey's all crazy and he's convinced that he's the next evolutionary stage of humanity and he'll save us from death. Neat monologue, but otherwise it's just there. Meanwhile, Nash Wells tries to continue investigating what he thinks is the Monitor's sewer clubhouse, but thanks to him being an idiot who is used to a different set of rules of physics, ends up trapping himself and Joe West underground with a limited amount of oxygen. Joe basically tells Nash to HAVE FAITH because Joe has faith that his police buddies will realize he's missing and send out a search party. Jesse L. Martin is one of the best actors in the show, and his heartfelt speech about how one of the lowest point in his life was when his wife left him and he's struggling as a single parent but the entire neighbourhood shows up and helps him cook dinner is heartwarming. Anyway, Ralph saves them with stretchy powers, and Nash ominously tells them that he might have a way to save Barry Allen. 

Ultimately it's pretty bland and a very uneventful episode of The Flash. The focus on Cisco is certainly neat and Kamilla gets more to do in this episode than she ever did before, and we get to see a bit more of the Breacher Collectors, but the careless disposal of a supporting character and the honestly predictable and bland storyline doesn't make this too exciting. I guess they're saving the special effects budget of the season for the Crisis on Infinite Earths (and I get that this is probably breathing room so Grant Gustin can film extra scenes for Crisis; the other CW shows similarly have a bunch of protagonist-light episodes to facilitate it) but still, taken in a vacuum, this one's kind of disappointing. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• There have been many characters called Echo in the DC Comics (among others one of Riddler's sidekick; a sonic-based Batman enemy; one of the Dial H for Hero identities; a Crimson Avenger enemy; a Legion of Super-Heroes enemy), but Earth-19 evil Cisco Ramon is original to the show. 
• Norvock the snake-eyed man, a recurring character in season five, makes a brief return as Frost's contact, and he understandably wants absolutely nothing to do with Bloodwork.