Violet recaps Season 3 Episode 5 of The Flash, titled Monster, where a monster is terrorizing Central City! Meanwhile, Caitlin visits her mother. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode
- His thoughts on Monster, Episode 305 of The Flash
- Her thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 5: Monster
Recap of The Flash, Season 3 Episode 5: Monster
Barry is staying with Cisco while he looks for his own place. Cisco seems to be suspicious of the new Wells, “H.R.”
At STAR Labs, H.R. treats everyone to coffee just the way they like it. He also wants to do some team building exercises, but Cisco isn’t too enthused about that, and Iris and Barry have to go to work anyway. They also listen to a message from Caitlin saying that she’ll be gone a few days.
Killer Frost
Caitlin goes to see her mother, Dr. Tannhauser, about her Killer Frost abilities. Caitlin’s mom and her assistant, Nigel, have Caitlin test out her abilities. Her mom seems to disapprove of her working at STAR Labs instead of with her. The test results show that Caitlin absorbed all of the energy. Dr. Tannhauser runs some more tests – tests which Caitlin points out that she’s already run on herself. Caitlin expresses her frustration with her mother for never really being a mother to her after her father died.
Caitlin decides to leave, but Nigel locks the doors. He wants to runs some more tests of his own accord. However, Cailtin uses her powers on him. Just then, Caitlin’s mom comes in and tries to talk her down, apologizing for not being a good mother. They hug. Dr. Tannhauser tells Caitlin to go, and says that she’ll take care of what Caitlin did to Nigel.
The Monster
Over at the police department, Barry goes to see Captain Singh, to whom Julian has complained about Barry. Singh basically just tells Barry not to think that the rules don’t apply to him. This frustrates Julian, who thought Barry would get more of a reprimand than that. Barry runs into Joe on his way out and complains about not being able to stand Julian.
Just then, Barry gets a call from Cisco about their meta-human detectors going off downtown, so Barry suits up as The Flash and runs over to check it out – it’s a monster! Cisco uses the STAR Labs satellites to take a look at it. Chaos is breaking out. A bus crashes and the doors get stuck. Barry helps Iris get the doors open to le the people out. Barry loses the monster, so Cisco uses car alarms to track it. But when Barry gets to where it should be, the monster is gone.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry, Cisco, and H.R. try to figure out how the monster could have disappeared, and how to stop it. Barry also tells them how a transformer went off without the monster even touching it.
Barry returns to the CSI lab and tries to make peace with Julian. He tells Julian he wants to learn from him and asks if he can shadow him for a day. Julian isn’t interested, but then Barry offers to give up the lab in return.
At STAR Labs, Cisco is getting fed up with H.R. When Cisco takes a break, H.R. records an ominous message stating that no one knows why he’s really there.
Iris stops by the lab for a lunch date with Barry. They discuss the DA that Joe blew off a date with. Just then, Barry gets a message from Julian that he’s ready for him to come shadow him. Barry meets Julian by a downed transformer. Julian thinks he has noticed a pattern for the monster’s movements. Suddenly, the monster shows up again. Julian calls for backup, and pulls out a gun. Barry uses his superpowers to push Julian out of the way of falling debris.
They return to the lab and put their heads together about the monster, noticing that transformers always blow when it’s around, and that it stays to a 10 block radius. When Barry asks Julian why he hates metahumans, Julian says he doesn’t like how they squander their abilities. They get into another argument, and Barry leaves, frustrated.
Barry returns to STAR Labs to discuss the monster with H.R. and Cisco. After H.R. leaves to get some coffee, they talk about how H.R. isn’t very helpful, and that he just keeps repeating things back to them. They decide to vibe him.
Iris stops by to see Joe at the police station, and encourages him to go out with the DA. They are interrupted by Captain Singh and Julian, who think they know where the monster will strike next.
Cisco goes through H.R.’s things and pulls out his recorder. However, H.R. walks in just as he starts to play it. H.R. tells him to continue playing it. It turns out that H.R. is writing a novel. He explains that he is a scientist and a novelist. At that moment, Caitlin returns. Just after that, the others get an alert about the monster.
The Flash heads over to the monster with a rope, while the rest of the team coaches him from STAR Labs. Cisco tells Barry to take it down like an AT-AT in Empire Strikes Back. But when Barry does so, it turns out that the monster is a hologram. They realize that CCPD has sent snipers there, and since it’s a hologram, the bullets will go right through it. H.R. tries to help, but Cisco accuses him of being a fake. The Flash is able to catch a bullet before it hits a civilian, and tells the police to stop firing.
Cisco tells Barry to go to the 25th floor of the Hamilton Building, where all the power is going. Julian is there, and shoots at the person sitting at the computer who is controlling the monster. However, The Flash rushes in and pulls the person out of the way just in time. Julian is surprised to see that it’s just a kid (a teenager), and thanks The Flash.
Joe goes up to the 25th floor and talks to the teen about why he did it. He says he wanted to feel powerful for once, because he is teased at school. Joe tries to encourage the boy that he’s still young, so he can turn all this around.
Later at STAR Labs, H.R. explains that he’s just an idea guy, and that he’s not the one who solved the cryptogram. Cisco is disappointed that they picked the one Wells who’s not a scientist. Wally calls H.R. a con man. H.R. tries to justify why he’s valuable to them. Barry agrees to let H.R. stay for a few weeks to try to prove himself to them.
Caitlin tells Cisco about her visit with her mother.
When Barry returns to the lab, Julian confesses that he almost killed a 15 year old kid, and that The Flash saved the day. Julian says that he knows how the kid feels, and tells Barry about his own background. He had finally gotten to the top of his field as a scientist, when the world changed and there were metahumans, which he doesn’t know anything about. Barry opens up a bit himself. Julian tells Barry he doesn’t have to pack up and move out of the lab, and that he was wrong about The Flash, so he might be wrong about Barry too. Barry asks Julian if he wants to get a drink, and he agrees.
Caitlin receives a video message from her mother about more test results. Dr. Tannhauser says that the more Caitlin uses her powers, the more difficult it will be to reverse them, so she must not use her powers under any circumstances. However, upon hearing this, Caitlin freezes the desk and computer monitor.
Her Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 5: Monster
This episode was kind of cheesy, considering that there wasn’t an actual monster. But maybe it would have been more cheesy if the monster had been real, I don’t know. In any case, I felt like this episode was more of a character development and relationship building episode.
I can’t recall ever really hearing about Caitlin’s parents before, and this episode we learned quite a lot. Was this always Caitlin’s history, or was it merely changed due to Flashpoint? Either way, this is the timeline we’re stuck with now, and it appears that Caitlin has a lot of mommy issues.
I’m actually liking the new Harrison Wells, or H.R., I should say. Even though he is a con man, as Wally said. But then, if you’ve been reading our Flash recaps from the beginning, you’ll know that I’m a big Tom Cavanaugh fan, so I’m enjoying seeing him repeatedly play the same character with different personalities. Show-wise though, I hope that he’ll actually end up being an asset to the team.
I also like the fact that Barry and Julian are starting to get along. I especially liked how Julian talked about the fact that so many metahumans just squander their power on doing bad things — because this is something that’s been bothering me about the show, that almost every metahuman that pops up is evil, unless they’re friends with Barry. Of course, then Barry was just argumentative and accused Julian of being jealous that he’s not a metahuman… but at least the point was brought up.
His Thoughts on The Flash, Season 3 Episode 5: Monster
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Scenes from The Flash, Season 3 Episode 6: Shade
Preview of Season 3 Episode 6 of The Flash
