The Flash season 5, episode 22 review: Legacy

“Time language. No matter what changes with the timeline, that’ll never change.” Spoilers for The Flash season 5, episode 22 follow.

Ralph stops Cicada’s dagger from being destroyed, leading to Team Flash still attempting to stop Cicada from committing metahuman genocide.

In the future, Thawne awaits his execution due to Team Flash’s inability to destroy Cicada’s dagger.

Cicada is still at large, I guess?

Really? The last episode of The Flash ended on a high note that was setting up Thawne’s escape, thus ensuring Team Flash’s life would be more miserable in the finale. It also felt like a giant leap forward in the most interesting story of this season. Instead, this episode begins with Ralph taking the brunt of the mirror gun’s shot, injuring himself in the process, and letting Cicada escape.

This is a bad set-up for the finale for several reasons. It takes away the impact of the cliffhanger of the previous episode. It breaks the rules of its own universe by Ralph somehow stretching quickly enough to stop the dagger from being destroyed. And then, instead of simply revealing to the team that Thawne has escaped, there’s an exposition scene of Sherloque explaining Thawne’s plan, which is not very interesting at all.

Cicada’s story hasn’t been interesting in several episodes and it really felt that the finale would focus more on Thawne, but instead, Cicada’s still the villain. This isn’t an inherently bad thing if the season could end the story on a high note, but it just feels like a retread of previous episodes in the season, especially because the plan feels like something a room full of geniuses could have devised earlier in the season, at least in part.

Thawne finally escapes

Once Thawne finally escapes about halfway through the episode, this is where the finale really begins to shine. Thawne has always been, and more than likely always will be, the best villain this show has ever had. The intimidation that Thawne is able to bring to the show, even without his powers, is fantastic so, now that he has his powers back, there’s a sense of utter existential terror, well as much as a CW show can pull off, that’s been missing since season 2.

More from Arrowverse

• The 9 best (and 8 worst) Arrowverse characters
• 27 best fighters in the Arrowverse, ranked
• All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best
• 11 things nobody wants to admit about the Arrowverse
• The 7 best (and 6 worst) Arrowverse villains

The fallout of Thawne’s plan becomes more apparent when Nora begins to disappear from the timeline. Nora has been a great addition to the cast this season, and this episode manages to send her off in a heartbreaking, emotional way that resonates with you much in the way Eddie’s death in season one did.

So much of the back half of the episode is so good because of the performances by Tom Cavanaugh, Jessica Kennedy Parker, Grant Gustin, and Candice Patton. Cavanaugh is terrifying and continues to be one of the best members of the cast. As for Gustin, Patton, and Parker, the emotion they are able to pull off in this episode is some of the best of the series, and they truly feel like a family.

Ralph and Cisco’s problems

With Ralph jumping in front of the mirror gun blast at the beginning of the episode, his entire body is morphed into this pretty grotesque version of his body. This really felt Cronenberg-esque, and there would be some sort of consequence. Nope. Cisco just vibes and sets him, mostly back to normal. It made his sacrifice at the beginning not really feel like one.

As for Cisco’s relationship though, this is the one B-plot of the season that has actually been good throughout the season. The relationship hasn’t been the most convincing, but it’s been nice to see Cisco being happy, because he deserves it. It would’ve been really disappointing in this episode if revealing his identity screwed up that relationship but, by being consistent with the rest of the show, it ends on a good note, which is great.

Despite a disappointing first half of the episode, season five of The Flash ends on a fantastic high note even if the characters are at a low.