The Flash S05E12 Review: Inception Deception

The Flash, Season 5, Episode 12: Memorabilia

We're slowly going to get to catching up with superhero shows, and this episode of The Flash is... it's not one that I have a whole lot to talk about, if we're being honest. The actual set-up and world-building involved is pretty neat, even if Sherloque did admittedly pull out that memory machine out of his ass. We get some nods to the previous Inception plot reference with Barry pulling Ralph out of Thinker's own mind-control, and we set up some backstory involving Jervis Tetch of Earth-221; Sherloque's ex-partner Watson Watsun; and the fact that this memory machine thing is very much able to cause memory fragments to bleed between the two users. Plus there are some pathogen/immune system esque thing going on with this machine and that the mind will basically reject 'invaders' by creating defense mechanisms. It's actually something that's done in a far better show-not-tell way, and I have to praise the episode for handling the wacky mechanics of superhero dream worlds spectacularly.

It basically leads to Nora basically using the machine to enter Grace's mind on her own to cure Grace to prevent her dad knowing all about her secret of apparently being buddies and working alongside Eobard Thawne. Of course, Nora ends up getting her silly butt trapped inside Grace's mind, and it's... it's trippy for sure. I do like how observant viewers can already see how... bizarrely idyllic Orlin and Grace's house is. Even when Orlin got better, their house was never as luxurious as it was in Grace's mind, which would be a nice little foreshadowing to the fact that these memory-worlds are, in fact, very much affected by how Grace remembers the world.

After they find out Nora's little fuck-up, Barry and Iris then go in after her... but ends up being trapped in Nora's memories instead. It's actually a great bit of showing what appears to be the same scene in CCPD before we actually zoom in at the crying little girl and realize that it's not Grace. We basically get Barry geeking out as he sees the whole Flash Museum thing, and then things get a bit somber as we follow up on the whole Nora/Iris relationship in the future. It's... it's honestly a plot point that I'm not the biggest fan of, and it's something that's honestly outstayed its welcome, but this episode actually gives it a pretty well-done follow-up. While Barry is all happy about living in the moment and is ever-so-optimistic about everything that is going on, Iris is worried about how much they can change the future. Will Flash always be destined to disappear during the mysterious crisis? Will Iris be destined to become a bitchy, overbearing mother to Nora? Will Cicada always remain un-captured? Throw in the fun wrinkle that present-day Iris trying to set up the newspaper ends up with only "Central City Citizen" as the available name ends up causing Iris to think that maybe history is set in stone. I could write an entire essay about time travel and predestination and all that in fiction, but this episode doesn't really explore a whole lot of that front and just focuses on how this all relates to Iris as a character, which is a smart move, I think.

This leads to a pretty well-done moment in the memory-flashback when Iris and Barry witness Future!Dream!Iris being absolutely angry at Nora, and I do appreciate the show's decision to not overplay Iris being a horrible parent. She's more... simultaneously dismissive and overbearing instead of outright abusive or negligent, which is actually far more horrifying as it's so much easier for Iris to believe that, yes, she will end up becoming this.

We then have the simultaneous arrivals of the 'defense mechanisms' in the two dreams. Grace reveals that she knows that Nora is Flash's daughter, that she's dimly aware of what Uncle Orlin is talking about, and that she shares her uncle's views on metahumans. She sics a specter of Cicada on Nora. Meanwhile, Nora's own mind unleashes the ghostly suit of Reverse-Flash on Barry and Iris. It's about this point that Sherloque and Caitlin figure out the whole 'the memory is how the dreamer remembers, not how they actually are', and we get some fun bits of the memory-travelers 'resetting' the dream world to how they really are while fighting Cicada and Reverse-Flash simultaneously.

I do believe that it would've made for a more interesting (if angsty-drama) story if Iris had been actually a cold parent instead of the completely-understanding-one that we eventually see the 'true' memory to reveal Iris to be, though... that felt like a cop-out.

Whatever the case, Barry and Iris manage to go out of Nora's mind, pluck Nora out of Grace's mind, and we get the revelation that this particularly bizarre situation is brought upon by the fact that one of the satellite shards infused with dark matter is embedded in Grace's brain, which causes the coma and the defense mechanisms. We get Sherloque cluing in to Nora's secret (though he side-steps it by handwaving it in front of the crowd as Nora's feelings for her parents), which is neat but a very slow
burn.

A bunch of B-plots... Iris changed the future a bit by founding the Citizen paper two years ahead of what it should be; Ralph and Cisco hit a bar and be good buddies and get an Eureka moment about the metahuman cure plot; and we get the next episode teaser of Barry wanting to use the metahuman cure on Cicada... which is going to lead to a lesson on super-human ethics, but at least someone brings up that option.

And... and that's about it. I still honestly don't care about the overarching Cicada plot since I genuinely still think that despite the show insisting that he will totally be unstoppable, he feels like he's just a threat thanks to plot armour. I also think that they really needed to do something more with Nora beyond just making her take over Season One Barry's role as a keeper-of-stupid-secrets, especially when we learn that Nora's end-goal of all the lies is to use Gideon to stop Cicada. Overall, a neat little bottle episode, even if I still am just filled with disdain for the overarching plot of the seaso. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Prominently displayed on the Flash Museum is the real-life comic book Flash (Vol. 2) #172, starring Wally West's Flash facing off against Cicada and Magenta. 
• The packaging for the Flash figures feature 80's/90's depictions of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Aquaman, presumably hinting that some time in the future, these superheroes are well-known enough in Earth-1 to receive merchandise. 
• Sherloque mentions Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter Killer of Earth-221, multiple times. Tetch, of course, is one of Batman's recurring enemies, recently making his live-action debut in Gotham.
• Among the enemies mentioned in the Flash museum is the Red Death, which is an evil Batman/Flash fusion thing from the Dark Knights Metal mini-series, which is a particularly new storyline, I believe.