The Flash S05E13 Review: Goldeneye

The Flash, Season 5, Episode 13: Goldfaced

I really, really loved part of this episode, but I really, really couldn't care less for the other part. Let's start off with the positive one first, which is the Barry/Ralph storyline. It's... it's genuinely pretty fun to see these two characters actually break out some badass, almost Arrow-style action sequences when they are rendered helpless and powerless with meta-dampening cuffs, and forced to maintain their cover (and later blow it) in front of the underground arms dealer Goldface. That is an amazingly set-up sequence that feels like such a great break from all of the muddled "chase after the main villain and his ambiguous goals" that has been plaguing this show since Thinker.

It's definitely pretty great to see Ralph in his element as he embraces his 'inner scum' (as the episode calls it) and goes into an underground super-weapons market in order to obtain the super-powerful neurostasis field doohickey that they need to completely synthesize a bio-EMP weapon to neutralize Cicada. It's a neat bit of pragmatism on Ralph's part, noting that they need to bring down Cicada as their main priority, and shutting down this underground criminal ring can come second.

And Barry goes on as Ralph's backup, and I absolutely adore the old-school James Bond style of ridiculousness as the two end up literally falling down through a disappearing segment of street into Goldface's base, and get the metahuman cuffs slapped on them. While Ralph can easily blend in, Barry ends up discovering a bunch of what the seller dubs as the 'CCPD Killer', and ends up trying to buy all of them off the market, putting him under suspicion. It's, of course, something that any hero couldn't resist doing, and I honestly can't blame Barry's normal idiocy on this part.

Best of all, though, when they are blown, Barry ends up thinking up of a proper cover story on the spot, styling himself as a super-villain called 'the Chemist', who is so badass that he is responsible for a couple of crimes where no evidence is left behind. I'm not 100% sure if Barry is calling back on any previous episodes for the stuff he's talking about, but that is some remarkable acting on Grant Gustin's part for sure. The scene is helped in no small part by Goldface's hamminess, easily making him fifteen times more entertaining in two scenes than Cicada has been over 13 episodes.

"The Chemist" and Ralph end up getting roped into an operation to steal a 3D organ printer or whatever, though, and Barry ends up basically steeling himself to doing what's necessary, which pretty adorably causes Ralph to worry. Ralph ends up locking Barry inside the van, but when he sees that he's going to steal organs going to cute little children, Ralph ends up being a hero himself and attacks the soldiers, lack of powers be damned. Ralph and Barry beat up a bunch of dudes with a brick... and then discover that the CCPD-Killer guns have a stun setting.

And we get a badass minute of action set to freaking ROB ZOMBIE of all things, which is just full-out awesome. Ralph handwaves it as having played a lot of Red Dead Redemption, but honestly, out of the cast of Flash, I would buy former-cop Ralph and actual-cop Barry to be able to pull this off. Regardless, it's pretty cool. Also cool is when they finally get confronted with Goldface, who threatens to blow up their armband-bombs... and then they just shoot Goldface in the face like fifteen times with stun handguns. Which is just hilarious and awesome.

Of course, Goldface stands back up, revealing that he is a metahuman that can control gold and use his necklaces and rings to basically encase his fists in gold. Not sure why Goldface didn't just blow their arms off right then and there, but I guess he's all for a traditional beatdown. This fight's also pretty cool, even if the way Barry defeats him -- by taunting him in front of a generator and then jumping out of the way -- is kind of cartoonish. Love the effect of him literally bleeding gold out of his eyes when he's knocked down.

And all this Goldface stuff is really great, really feeling like something out of the first season where it's an episodic villain-of-the-week that is connected but not intrinsically so to the greater big villain plot. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode doesn't really deliver. Iris's subplot is... it's decent, if bland. Iris going off doing reporting on her own without backup just feels pretty dumb, although her improvisation skills are pretty neat. Cicada himself is just a villain that I honestly can't take seriously at this point, though -- the fact that the actor doesn't play him with any sort of subtlety, with how Orlin even behaves like a slasher movie villain even when he's alone, just makes him cartoonishly silly, and I honestly don't really care for him as a main villain. I do find it utterly hilarious that Iris completely kicks Cicada's ass in this episode with the aid of a kitchen knife, though. Silly Cicada!

Oh, speaking of Cicada... after the way Barry dropped the bombshell of wanting to use the cure on Cicada, everyone is... surprisingly chill with using it? I mean, Cisco ends up skipping out on the episode again (this season has a piss-poor track record of keeping every secondary cast member on-screen) so we don't hear his side of the story, but you'd think Killer Frost and Caitlin would have some harsh words to say about it. Feels unnatural, is all.

The Nora/Sherloque stuff? Eh. Apparently, Nora goes to Eobard Thawne for help, and the huge, huge master plan is... to nudge him towards love? Specifically, Renee Adler (a play on Irene Adler, Sherlock Holmes' rival-turned-love-interest-by-modern-adaptations). Nora sets up what's essentially a meeting between the two, and when Sherloque creeps Renee away by babbling on about his detective observations, Nora tries her best to basically get Sherloque to not take love like a mystery. It's... it's pretty bland and boring, honestly, and I am just utterly not involved in this. The Council of Sherloque's Angry Exes is nowhere as funny as the show thinks it is, and the fact that Renee Adler just happens to be a metahuman, and that Sherloque's attention ends up being diverted to taking down Cicada instead of solving Nora's mystery, honestly just feels way too circumstantial.

I dunno. I enjoyed this episode better than most, but I am just really not in love with either Nora or Cicada, the two big driving plots of this season. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I hate them, but I just really can't bring myself to care about either of them. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Goldface, a.k.a. Keith Kenyon, is originally a Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) enemy in the comics, who obtained superhuman strength and durability after drinking a gold-based serum. This also bleaches his skin in a golden glow, which is something that grants him immunity to Green Lantern's ring. He would later become a recurring foe of the Flash (Barry), and a reluctant ally to the third Flash (Wally). 
• Ralph notes that Goldface is Amunet Black's ex-husband, which is also true in the comics and why he ended up being allied with Wally West's Flash.
• Ralph off-handedly refers to the team of him and Barry as the 'Dynamic Duo', which is a title often used to refer to, of course, Batman and Robin. 
• We get references to Ivo Labs, Superman, Breacher as well as 'infinite earths' at various points in the episode. Ivo Labs last appeared in the Elseworlds crossover; Sherloque using Superman as a intra-dimensional delivery man also happened in the same crossover; Breacher is a recurring character; while 'infinite earths' is a common term used by DC comics to refer to their multiverse.