The Flash Season 4 Episode 5: 'Girls Night Out' Review

Hashtag Feminism!

It's all about the girls in The Flash as Barry and Iris both have their bachelor's night and bachelorette party. Mix in the antics of Felicity and new team member Ralph Dibny and we have the the silliest episode ever! Still, it's all great. Personally I love how Ralph, though new, is central to the episode. His actions are directly responsible for the guys not being there to assist the girls. And how very serious issues are mixed up in all the silliness. Mostly about feminism, of course. Some about parenting. And others, about friendship.

In fact, let's discuss the episode with them.

1. Feminism (Girl power!), a new bus meta, and Amunet Black

As I said, it's all about the ladies. In fact, we don't even see Barry or Cisco use their abilities throughout the episode. Felicity, Cecile and a reluctant Caitlin join Iris to celebrate the bachelorette party at a classy restaurant, but it doesn't take long for trouble to find them. Norvok, Amunet's one eyed henchman and Caitlin's old colleague comes to inform her that the Boss, which is Amunet, of course, wants her back. She refuses, and he drops his glass-eye (literally drops the eye) and brings his snake-like, scorpion-from-mortal-combat-esque tongue behind the eye into action. Before the ladies can process their shock though, they're hit with another one. Caitlin immediately transforms into Killer Frost, whom they'd thought was forever gone, and fights him off. But it isn't over yet. Frost, apparently not satisfied and knowing she would never be free as long as Amunet lived, set off to confront her in her own bar, followed discreetly by Iris, Cecile and Felicity. It doesn't go well --Frost and Amunet almost get into a full-on meta fight right there in the bar after Amunet shows her what she's up to: a new meta appropriately named Weeper was producing an extremely addictive 'love-drug' from his tears, and Amunet was going to milk him for all its worth. Iris jumps between them and stalls the fight, but not for long. Amunet track down Frost before she can leave the city and breach away to another Earth and almost kills her. Luckily, some cops show up and in the diversion, she escapes back to STAR labs, now Caitlin Snow once more.

Very down on herself, she apologizes to the ladies for keeping her condition a secret, and not telling about her association with Amunet, whom Cecile knows by reputation as the biggest and most powerful on black market metas. Still, the ladies decide they can't just turn a blind eye to what's happening with Weeper. Since they can't reach the guys, they head out alone, leaving Caitlin behind as she's afraid of going Killer on them again. They track down Amunet and Iris sneaks in with Felicity, but they are caught almost immediately by her henchmen. At that point, Caitlin shows up to rescue them, even offering herself up in exchange. Amunet declines the offer and orders them all killed. Voluntarily for the first time, Caitlin 'summons' Killer frost and together with Felicity's knowledge and Cecile at the wheel, they manage to take Amunet down ,free Weeper who runs away from them immediately, and escape. As Iris puts it, an awesome night for the team-Flash ladies. Thumbs-up, girls!

2. Parenting, and the Bachelor's Night

While the ladies were busy having their adventures, the guys were having some adventures of their own, though not nearly as cool. Just like with the girls, the night starts out normal enough. Cisco, Harry and Barry show up at Joe's for the party, which was supposed to be a very quiet one --Cisco had prepared wine and a cool collection of videos from Barry's childhood (aww... he was cute!), reminding Joe of raising him, Iris and Wally and putting him in mind of his unborn child with Cecile. Then Ralph show up uninvited and everything goes off the rails. He drags them off to a strip club, Barry gets incredibly drunk from Cisco's miscalculated specially-made liquor and a fight starts out at the club with the four in the middle. Also, Joe find out that Cecile's daughter, Joanie was moonlighting as a stripper in the very seedy bar for research into her paper on feminism. This of course leads to a parental discussion, with Joe reminding her how he and Cecile only want what's best for her. After this, Barry, Joe, Cisco and Ralph are arrested for the club fight. While they wait in a cell, Joe reveals to Barry why he was down throughout the night. He is literally terrified of raising a kid again, and afraid that he is too old, has forgotten how and does not have what it takes anymore. At this, Barry reassures him of the awesome job he did raising him and Iris, although he was a single parent, and what an awesome job he had done with Wally too, and shows him how much easier it would be with someone like Cecile at his side to love the child with him, and with them too to lend a helping hand. Joe finally realizes that only one thing is needed to raise the child, and that is loving him/her as much as he loved Cecile and the others, and when Cecile also confides her fears to him, he calms her down with this.

3. Friendship, and the Killer Frost/Caitlin Dynamic

In a thematic sort of way, friendship is also explored in this episode. Iris and Caitlin realize that in all their years of working together, they've never really bonded, and this was one of the reasons she never revealed to her the Killer Frost situation. And Killer herself shows how much she's actually in need of a friend, but she keeps on rebutting all attempts of Iris to become closer. Still, Iris points out one fact to her: she is as scared of being Caitlin as Caitlin is of being her, and tells her it doesn't have to be one or the other. Seeing how they both utilized the other part of themselves at will during the episode and the ease with which Killer turned back into Caitlin at the end, this may be a start towards something akin to friendship between both personalities and maybe --just maybe --the dynamic really is changing. Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost might just be getting along the way to becoming one and the same at last.

This episode was pretty packed! What was your favorite pare, scene, or quote? Let's know in the comments, and don't forget to leave an upvote! Follow me for more Flash reviews and reviews on all the other Arrowverse shows.

The Flash returns next Tuesday on the CW with 'When Harry met Harry...'