The Flash Season 5: 4 Ups & 1 Down From 'All Doll'd Up'
The Flash goes dark with a strangely compelling offering that answers some big questions.
Contains spoilers from The Flash Season 5, Episode 5.
The Flash returned from a one-week hiatus this week to bring us an unusually dark episode. 'All Doll'd Up' introduced us to the Arrowverse's terrifying iteration of Ragdoll, who contorted his way into our nightmares as he committed a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. But it also made significant strides in storytelling, furthering the emotional narrative between Iris West-Allen and her time-travelling daughter, Nora.
Of course, the mother and daughter have had a strained relationship since Nora showed up in the past and revealed that, in the future, Iris made some surprisingly questionable decisions. This week's instalment tackled that head on, with satisfying results.
However, Nora wasn't the only one struggling with the past and her parents as Caitlin made some significant progress in her search for her once-presumed dead father - something that wouldn't have been possible without Cisco's help, but this progress may have come at a cost.
'All Doll'd Up' saw The Flash continue its current trend of making full use of its rich cast of supporting characters while furthering the emotional core of the story, and it managed to do so disguised as a good old-fashioned villain-of-the-week episode. First, the positives...