The Flash season 5 episode 7 offered up some answers during this year's Thanksgiving special, but there are still a few questions remaining. A typical episode of The Flash is usually filled with more mysteries than one can shake a stick at. Yet most of this episode's plot was devoted to three separate stories involving fathers and daughters, as well as their relationship problems.
The briefest yet most powerful of these stories was told through a series of flashbacks focused on The Flash's season 5 villain, Cicada. In The Flash season 5 episode 7, viewers learn Cicada's real name and origin, as well as why he's been hunting metahumans. The episode's ending stinger also revealed Cicada's true name to Team Flash, as they finally tracked down their newest and most dangerous enemy while he was out of costume.
Related: The Flash's Latest Twist Makes Cicada's Origin A Tragedy
The Flash season 5 episode 7, "O Come, All Ye Thankful," also introduced a new villain in the form of Weather Witch. The estranged daughter of Mark Mardon (aka Weather Wizard), his daughter was revealed to be a storm-chaser who had acquired a piece of The Flash's meta-tech that allowed her to control the weather in the same manner as her metahuman father. Her efforts to kill Mardon for abandoning her as a child brought The Flash and XS into play. This led to an argument between the father-and-daughter hero team, as Nora West-Allen became fearful of Barry Allen dying now that she'd finally gotten a chance to know him, after Barry was nearly electrocuted to death by a stray lightning bolt.
Despite being more concerned with resolving mysteries than offering them, there is still a lot for viewers to unpack following The Flash season 5 episode 7, "O Come, All Ye Thankful." Here are some big questions fans are discussing.
Where Was Ralph Dibny This Week?
The Flash season 5 episode 7, "O Come, All Ye Thankful," explained Joe and Cecile West's absence from the episode by noting that they were spending Thanksgiving with Cecile's family. (It should be noted that Jesse L. Martin is currently on medical leave from The Flash.) Yet nothing was said about where everyone's favorite stretchable sleuth, Ralph Dibny, aka The Elongated Man, was spending the holiday.
Related: The Flash Fixes Plot Hole By Secretly Changing Arrowverse History
One would think that Ralph would be up for the Friends-giving celebration, given his comments in the past that he doesn't really have any close friends or family outside of Team Flash. Of course, Ralph did make reference last year to a grandmother he always visits at Christmas. Perhaps his near-death experience at the hands of The Thinker last year made Ralph resolve to spend more time with what family he has left?
Why Was Cicada's Backstory From The Comics Changed?
The Flash's "O Come, All Ye Thankful" exposed Cicada's identity as Orlin Dwyer - the maternal uncle of the comatose Grace Gibbons. It was revealed that Orlin was awarded custody of his niece after her mother was killed by a random metahuman attack and that he did not handle the responsibility of parenthood well at first. After Grace told him that she hated him following a parent-teacher conference, Orlin became inspired to become a better man and to make a proper home for himself and Grace. The two were celebrating the one-year anniversary of Orlin's promise to be better at a carnival during the events of The Flash's season 4 finale, where Grace was knocked into a coma and Orlin was wounded by a piece of the STAR Labs' satellite. This shrapnel became his trademark dagger, which allows him to take away the powers of metahumans.
Related: FLASH Theory: Cicada's Dagger is Secretly [Spoiler]
This is quite different from Cicada's origins in the original Flash comics. There, Cicada was a 19th century preacher named David Hersch, who was granted the power to drain the life force from others to extend his own lifespan after being struck by lightning. After learning how The Flash got his powers after being struck by lightning, the insane Hersch formed a death cult and began sacrificing people whom The Flash had saved so that he could use their energy to try and resurrect the wife he had beaten to death in a rage over a century earlier.
Presumably, the writers of The Flash wanted to make their version of Cicada into a more sympathetic figure. Villains are more interesting when they have depth and motivations that the audience can understand, even if those motivations are wholly driven by self-interest. Most would agree that the idea of a broken man avenging his family is a far more interesting and relatable concept than an immortal wife-beating lunatic gathering power to raise the dead.
When Did Dr. Ambres Learn That Orlin Dwyer is Cicada?
One of the few things not explained in the flashbacks detailing Cicada's origins is how his accomplice, Dr. Ambres, learned that Dwyer is Cicada. Presumably he went to her after he first murdered Gridlock in The Flash season 5 premiere, in order to have her look at the wound in his shoulder that didn't seem to be healing. While this seems a likely guess, it still would've been good if viewers had seen this key moment along with the first time Orlin summoned the Cicada dagger to his hand. Perhaps this scene will be revealed in a future episode?
Page 2 of 2: Even More Questions From The Flash Season 5 Episode 7
Will Sherloque's Anti-Thanksgiving Be The New Festivus?
When Cisco and Caitlin discover that Sherloque Wells' Earth doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, they attempt to fill him with the spirit of the season. Their plan backfires, however, when Sherloque points out all the bad things that happened to them in the past year and asks what they truly have to be thankful for in the grand scheme of things. This, plus a tirade about Thanksgiving being a celebration of colonization and ethnic-cleansing, lead Cisco and Caitlin to abandon their plans for Thanksgiving Dinner at the West-Allen house in favor of hanging out with Sherloque to spend the day venting about their problems, eating pub snacks, and drinking heavily. Cisco proposes a toast to "The Thankless" and the three seem content up until Killer Frost takes over Caitlin's body and browbeats everyone into going to Barry and Iris' dinner party.
While the whole of Team Flash eventually comes together to celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional positive fashion, one wonders if "Thankless Day" might inspire a cult movement similar to Festivus - the fictional holiday created by George Costanza's father in Seinfeld as a send-up of Christmas. While doing shots and grousing about your life with friends may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's easy to see how those who dislike extensive cooking and spending time with blood relations might find it to be a better use of a day off. Then again, heavy drinking and complaining about your life is a Thanksgiving tradition for some families, so it may be hard for "Thankless Day" to truly stand out.
Why Gender-Swap Weather Wizard's Kid From The Comics?
While the Weather Wizard did have a child in the original Flash comics, the episode put a double twist on the concept. The Flash season 5 episode 7 introduced Jocelyn "Joss" Jackam - a meta-tech-empowered villain who wanted revenge on the metahuman father whom abandoned her and her mother. In the comics, Joshua Jackam was a methuman infant with weather-control powers - the result of a one-night-stand between the tech-empowered Weather Wizard and a CCPD police officer.
Related: Arrowverse: 15 Huge Changes From The Comics We're Glad The Shows Made
It seems a safe bet that Joshua was changed to Joss and aged up so as to further push the episode's theme of fathers and daughters with trouble relating to one another. The twist that the Weather Witch was the tech-using daughter of a metahuman villain rather than the metahuman daughter of a tech-based criminal was likewise necessary, because most of the classic rogues gallery from The Flash comics were reimagined for the TV series as metahumans rather than bank robbers armed with high-tech weaponry. It remains to be seen if Weather Witch will fly again, with her weather vane now safely locked up at STAR Labs.
How Did They Set-Up The 100th Episode of The Flash?
Surprisingly, there is no shocking twist at the end of The Flash season 5 episode 7, "O Come, All Ye Thankful," that serves as a set-up for The Flash's 100th episode next week. All of the lingering subplots are resolved, with the Weather Witch imprisoned and Nora's fears over her father's death dealt with. Indeed, the episode's conclusion is largely peaceful, with Team Flash settling down to enjoy a meal together as everyone explains the customs of Thanksgiving to an oblivious Sherloque.
The only cliffhanger in the episode is a stinger in which Sherloque reveals that he had monitored the security camera footage of the hospital where Grace Gibbons is being treated. Sherloque goes on to say that he identified the one man who visited her every day as Orlin Dwyer. Clearly a confrontation with Cicada is coming next week, but how that will tie into the promises of a huge time-traveling anniversary event remains to be seen.
How Will Everything Be Resolved Before Elseworlds?
Perhaps the biggest question of all is how The Flash will bring everything to a satisfying conclusion in one week's time, so that there is a clean slate for 2018's big Arrowverse crossover event, Elseworlds. The show will also need to set things up so it can start relatively fresh when The Flash season 5 returns in 2019. It seems unlikely the battle with Cicada will be resolved in a week, unless there is an even bigger twist that sets the stage for the rest of season 5. The only thing fans can be certain of is that there will be a lot of exciting things to see over the next two weeks.