The Flash: Season 8, Episode 14: Funeral For A Friend

This week on The Flash, we get a filler episode, er, I mean what showrunner Eric Wallace describes as an "interlude," as the cast comes to grips with the untimely death of Frost.

Actually Funeral For A Friend might be better described as a character study than a filler episode. There's no plot to speak of, as the bulk of the script concerns the members of Team Flash dealing with their emotions and looking for ways to honor Frost's memory.

That's not to say it's bad— as fillers, er, I mean interludes go, it's actually pretty decent. It reminded me a bit of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Family— in which Captain Picard goes visits home in an effort to recover from his assimilation by the Borg. 

It's a good reminder that every episode doesn't have to feature the end of the world, as occasionally it's good to slow down and just let the audience visit with the characters.

Elsewhere, Chester and Allegra's relationship gets even more excruciating this week, I'm still completely uninterested in Iris' time sickness storyline and Joe continues to have nothing whatsoever to do on the show. 

And somehow, the writers are doing the impossible and making me actually like Chillblaine. Believe me, no one's more surprised than I am to hear me say that.

OK, that's all I got for an intro— on with the nitpicking!

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

We open on the various members of Team Flash trying to cope with Frost's death. 

STAR Labs gets a meta alert, and Chester says the Central City Savings & Loan has just been robbed. An exo-suited villain named Blockbuster exits the bank, as CCPD arrives on the scene. Two officers tell him to stand down, but he picks up their squad car and hurls it at them.

Barry suits up and zooms the cops out of the way before they're flattened. Allegra and Cecile (of all people!) then teleport in, joining Barry. Instead of simply zipping Blockbuster off to jail, Barry radios Chester and asks for intel on the villain's suit. ???

Before anyone can act, Blockbuster stomps his foot, which cracks the ground. This inexplicably causes a skyscraper a block away to crumble and threaten to collapse. Barry speeds off to stabilize the building, leaving Allegra & Cecile (!) to deal with Blockbuster.

Allegra fires a UV blast at Blockbuster, but she misses and explodes a car, which somehow knocks her out. Chester tells Cecile to use her powers to calm the villain, but she's overwhelmed by both her grief over Frost and the terror of the residents of the crumbling building (!!!). Blockbuster laughs at Team Flash's pitiful showing (as well he should!), and teleports away.

Back at STAR, Barry tells Iris that Team Flash needs to find a way to keep their grief from affecting their crimefighting. He calls a meeting to discuss the issue.

Just then Caitlin walks in, curious as to why she didn't get an invite. Barry says he figured she could use some time off to mourn, but she insists she's fine. They ask if they can help with the funeral arrangements, but she says her mother Carla's handling it. Barry says they'll see her at the funeral, and Caitlin hisses that she's not going and storms out.

Joe— who's there for some reason— says they all need to find their own ways to honor Frost in order to get over their grief, which handily sets up the rest of the episode.

Iris
Iris meets with Cecile at CCC Media and says she wants to write a special obit for Frost, but fears doing so would reveal she's a member of Team Flash. Plus she admits she really never got to know her very well. She ends up assigning the obit to her employee Aariz— who used to write them for fallen soldiers when he was in the army.

Later Iris meets with Carla at Jitters, and shows her the obit. Carla says it's well-written, but cold and impersonal. She says Frost wouldn't have cared about self-praise, but about her legacy. This sparks an idea in Iris.

Cut to CCC Media, where Iris uses her podcast to interview people whose lives were saved or changed by Frost.

Allegra & Chester
Back at STAR, Chester & Allegra try to think of a way to honor Frost. Chester suggests displaying her costume in a frozen glass case. Allegra ridicules that idea, and the two begin bickering like an old married couple. It's all about as entertaining as waiting while your tires are rotated.

Just then they get an alert about a disturbance at O'Shaughnessy's Pub. When the two arrive, they see a drunken Chillblaine drowning his sorrows as he tears up the place.

Chillblaine sees them and starts fixing drinks. For some reason Chester & Allegra continue their petty argument, prompting Chillblaine to scold them for acting like prats. He then promptly passes out, and they take him back to STAR Labs' Med Bay to sleep it off.

Allegra realizes that Chillblaine was right, and says Chester's idea was a good one. She then places Frost's old sky blue jacket in a display case to honor her.

Barry
Barry somehow gets ahold of Frost's bucket list, and decides to complete it as his way of honoring her memory. He goes white water rafting, builds a snowman atop Mt. Everest, learns ice sculpting and wins a hotdog eating contest (?).

He returns to STAR, where a bleary-eyed Chillblaine's just woken up. Barry tells him he thought finishing the bucket list would make him feel better, but it's still not enough. Chillblaine comments that Frost was born to protect Caitlin, and she never lost sight of that. Somehow this prompts Barry to say he knows the perfect way to honor Frost's memory.

Caitlin
Caitlin enters her apartment and starts removing everything that belonged to Frost. She finishes and sits on the couch, staring at the wall for hours. Barry arrives and tries to convince her to go to the funeral, saying she'll regret if forever if she stays home. She accuses him of being more concerned about playing hero than he is with her (?). She tells him to leave, but before he does, he asks her what Frost would want her to do— shut herself off from everyone or let them in?

This strikes a cord in Caitlin, who says if she sees Frost lying in a casket she'll realize she's gone for good. Barry pulls out his best banal greeting card aphorism, saying as long as Frost is in her heart she'll never truly be gone.

Cut to the funeral, where Team Flash is in attendance, along with members of CCPD and CCC Media. They eventually take their seats, and Caitlin nervously enters. She takes the podium and delivers a eulogy to Frost, mentioning her honesty and bravery, as well as her love for her family and friends.

Caitlin then walks over to the casket to say goodbye to Frost. She promises to keep her alive (hmm...) as the others gather round.

Later, Team Flash holds a wake at the West House. As they reminisce about Frost, they get an alert that Blockbuster's back. Barry says this time they're ready for him, and zooms off with Allegra, Chester and Cecile.

Caitlin ducks out of the room and makes a secret phone call to someone.

Sometime later, Caitlin carries a large duffle bag up to her apartment. Chillblaine's waiting for her, and asks why she called him. She lets him in, and he sees her apartment is stuffed to the rafters with high-tech lab equipment. He asks what the hell, and she shows him a hair sample she took from Frost's corpse, and says he's gonna help bring her back.

That night at CCC Media, Iris reads over Taylor's (remember her?) story on Blockbuster (the villain, not the defunct video store). Taylor says it's good to have Iris back at work, as Allegra was a poor substitute for her. She then says there are reports of the Flash working with other people, but no one knows who they are. She suggests they investigate their identities, and a stunned Iris says she'll think about it.

Taylor leaves, realizes she left her phone in Iris' office and returns for it. She's puzzled to see Iris is gone, even though there's no other way out of her office. As she walks out again, we see green temporal energy wafting up from Iris' chair.

Thoughts:
• I assume this week's title is a shoutout to the Elton John song of the same name.

• The episode opens with Team Flash mechanically going through the motions of their day as they mourn Frost. Among them is Chester, who mopes inside Jitters. While there he spots a Daily Specials board that features a "Killer Frost" drink.

Wow, how often do they update those specials? Cisco left Central City a year ago, and Kid Flash hasn't been on the show in... three seasons? Four?

And for a high-end Starbucks knockoff, those are some pretty cheap coffee drinks!

• Meanwhile Allegra's at CCC Media, with a thousand yard stare pasted on her face. Hey, she's doing her actual job for a change! Ever since Iris left her in charge back in Phantoms, she's spent every waking moment inside STAR Labs. It's about time she showed up for her real work!

• For several seasons now the opening titles have featured Caitlin and Frost sharing a zooming screen together.

Now that Frost is dead, I wondered how long it'd be before the producers updated the title sequence. Amazingly they changed it already! This week Frost has been completely removed, replaced by a montage of Caitlin faces.

• Team Flash gets an alert as a villain called Blockbuster robs the Central City Savings & Loan. Holy cow, there's so much to talk about here I don't even know where to begin!

Let's start with Blockbuster himself. Lately I've been praising the show for the way they've been accurately translating comic characters into live action. Despero looked like he stepped right off the printed page, and Deathstorm was perfectly realized as well. That all went out the window this week!

THIS is the version of Blockbuster I'm familiar with. Mark Desmond was a chemist who experimented on himself to augment his physical strength. He succeeded, but unfortunately his newfound power came at the cost of his intellect, turning him into a third-rate evil Hulk.

The CW didn't even try with this live action version of Blockbuster, as they gave us this— a guy who looks pretty much like anyone you'd see on a paintball course.

What the hell, guys? Did your costume/CGI budget run out for the month?

If they're not even going to attempt to make him look even remotely like the source material, then why use an existing character at all? Why not make up a new one and call him "Big Bang" or something instead?

Blockbuster then tosses a police car at a couple of CCPD officers in front of the Savings & Loan.

The part of the red-trimmed bank is played by the CBC Regional Broadcast Center in downtown Vancouver. If you look closely, you can see a spindly structure in the center of the screen, about a block away. That's the BC stadium, which is used for STAR Labs closeup exteriors! It looks like they painted it out in the actual episode.

• Barry zooms to the Savings & Loan to confront Blockbuster. A few seconds later Allegra and Cecile (!) teleport to the scene in a puff of blue smoke. 

Looks like Allegra's still using the special teleportation smoke bombs that Nash Wells brought from his unnamed Earth. She's been using these things for two or three seasons now, so either he left her a huge stash of them, or Cisco reverse-engineered and mass produced a warehouse full before he left.

I get why Allegra shows up, as she's now the second most powerful member of Team Flash after Barry. But why in the name of Zeus' Mighty Taint is Cecile there? She's just an empath (or a telepath, depending on the whims of the script). What's she gonna do, tell Blockbuster how he's feeling? She definitely doesn't belong on a field mission, as it's like bringing a limp noodle to a boxing match.

Maybe she plans to overwhelm Blockbuster with the power of her leather pants.

It's also odd that these two show up at a bank robbery without making any effort to hide their very public identities. Allegra works for a freakin' news outlet, for corn's sake! An organization whose sole function is to cover high profile events like bank robberies. How long's it gonna be before someone at CCC Media spots their boss firing UV blasts and fighting crime alongside the Flash?

Same goes for Cecile. She's a prominent attorney, who's face is likely plastered all over the news. Someone get these two gals some masks, stat!

Then the producers forget the premise of the show yet again, as Barry just stops and stares at Blockbuster. He then radios Chester and asks him to scan Blockbuster and find out what kind of tech he has in his suit. Wait, what? 

Who gives a flying f*ck what the guy's wearing? Have we forgotten Barry's Flashtime mode? He can literally move so fast that time seems to STOP for the rest of the world. He could have zoomed Blockbuster into a cell at Iron Heights while everyone else was blinking! There was no need for a ferkakte scan!

Ah, but we're still not done with this scene! Before Barry can react, Blockbuster stomps his foot so hard that he cracks the pavement. Somehow this affects a skyscraper a block away, shattering windows and causing catastrophic structural damage (?). None of that makes the least bit of sense, but let's move on or we'll be here all day.

By the way, the skyscraper that's compromised is located at 782 Hamilton Street, about a block from the CBC Broadcast Center.

As the building threatens to come down, Cecile helpfully announces she senses a ton of scared people inside it. Barry says he'll use his Speed Force Lightning to weld the structure's weakened girders back together.

No. NO!!!! That's not how Speed Force Lightning is supposed to work! It's a byproduct of Barry's speed— much like the contrail of a jet airplane or the smoke from a steam train. It's NOT a goddamned superpower in its own right! Yet every week he finds a new way to use it— as a weapon, as stepping disks to hop through the sky and now as a goddamned arc welder. Feh!

He's already the most ridiculously overpowered superhero there is, making it nearly impossible to write a scenario he can't easily handle. The last thing he needs is even MORE abilities!

Allegra then fires one of her patented UV blasts at Blockbuster— through her leather gloves! Sure, why not. I guess there's nothing saying she CAN'T do that, but it seems wrong and made me laugh.

Allegra somehow succeeds in knocking herself out, leaving Cecile to deal with Blockbuster by herself. Chester tells her to use her psychic powers to "calm" the villain, hoping that'll make him stand down.

Woah, woah, woah! Wait just a goddamned minute here! Up to now all Cecile's ever been able to do is sense someone's emotions, and depending on the writer and the episode, their thoughts as well. Suddenly this week they're acting like she's freaking Professor Xavier, able to use her psychic powers as a weapon to incapacitate metas.

This is a HUGE retcon and a giant load of horse sh*t, as it comes completely out of nowhere. You can't suddenly make a major change to a character like this, you have to set it up and lay some groundwork for it.

Of course in the end it doesn't matter, because the second she activates her powers, she's overwhelmed by her grief over Frost and the fear of the people inside the collapsing building. She then crumples like a cheap card table and folds up into the fetal position. Well done, Cecile! What a great addition to the team you are!

In fact she's so useless that even Blockbuster quips, "Pathetic! Worst heroes ever!" You said, it brother! Preach!

Blockbuster then teleports away, and Team Flash isn't able to track him for reasons. Hmm... Just last week, Barry entered the Time Vault and asked Gideon to scan the city for any trace of Deathstorm. So why doesn't he do that this week as well? Did the writers forget about that option already?

Lastly, once he vanishes, Blockbuster never appears again for the rest of the episode. There's a brief mention of him late in the third act, as Team Flash finally captures him— completely offscreen. 

It makes me wonder why they bothered to include him in this episode at all. He was nothing more than a cheap narrative device, created solely to illustrate how Team Flash is currently in chaos after the death of Frost.

OK, I think I've sufficiently torn this scene a new asshole. Moving on!

• Nice Attention To Detail: Iris & Cecile sit in the CCC Media break room, where they loudly discuss Team Flash business. At first I thought they were being pretty irresponsible, as Iris' employee Aariz is sitting right there in the background within earshot. On closer inspection, Aariz is wearing old school headphones, drowning out the two women. Well done, writers!

• Iris wants to write an obit for Frost, but worries that by doing so she'll risk outing herself as a member of Team Flash. Did she even know Frost that well? Sure, they were both members of Team Flash, but I can't remember ever seeing the two of them interact in any meaningful way. In fact Iris knows so little about her she ends up assigning the obit to Aariz!

Way to honor Frost's memory there, Iris!

• A bit later Iris meets with Frost's "mother" Carla Tannhauser, who asks her how she's holding up. Seriously? Why is Carla comforting Iris more than she is her own daughter?

• Iris decides to use her podcast to honor Frost  by interviewing people whose lives she changed for the better. Among them is former District Attorney Strong.

You remember Strong— she's first appeared last year in The People Vs. Killer Frost. She was hired by Kristen Kramer to prosecute Frost for her crimes against the state. Strong was played by actress Debbie Podowski, and they brought her back for this episode.

• At Jitters, Marco the barista decides to honor Frost's memory by erasing the "Killer" from her drink special. You show 'em, dude! That'll change the world!

• Last week Chester and Allegra FINALLY professed their love for one another, prompting me to celebrate the fact that we'd no longer have to watch these two thirty year olds act like fumbling adolescents as they awkwardly flirted with one another.

Welp, looks like I celebrated a little too soon. They may be done flirting, but now they're bickering like an old married couple. And what are they arguing about? Why, whether hummus is a condiment or a dip, of course! Oh, my sides— they're aching from laughter— I mean from vomiting!

I'll admit their bickering took my by surprise, and was a nice subversion of the audience's expectations. That doesn't make it any less insufferable though.

• During their insipid argument, Allegra tells Chester, "Easy, Condiment King! I don't need you wrong-splaining hummus to me!"

Believe it or not, Condiment King is an actual DC character, created as a one-off comical villain for Batman: The Animated Series. He was a comedian named Buddy Sandler, who was brainwashed by the Joker into becoming a villain who used various condiments as weapons. No, really!

• Over at O'Shaughnessy's Pub, Chillblaine deals with his grief by getting sh*t-faced and destroying the joint. Eh, at least he kept his shirt on while he did it.

Chester and Allegra then show up at O'Shaughnessy's to deal with Chillblaine. The bartender wants him outta there, saying he just froze half the bar. 

Sooo... how the heck did he manage that? Unlike Frost, Chillblaine doesn't have any inherent powers, as he uses high-tech freeze gauntlets. Which he's currently not wearing!

The bartender also reveals that Chillblaine froze his hand to the counter. Allegra apologizes for his behavior, then uses her UV powers to melt the ice and free the bartender's hand!

So I guess that answers the question of whether Allegra's concerned about people knowing she's a meta or not.

• All season long I've been pointing out how the exterior of O'Shaughnessy's (which in reality is located directly across the street from the BC Place!) doesn't match the interior set in the slightest. Nowhere is that demonstrated better than in this episode.

As you can see, the O'Shaughnessy exterior looks like a converted gas station, with 3, count 'em three bay doors.

For some reason, the interior features at least FIVE sets of somewhat similar windows— but they're inexplicably a good ten feet higher then they ought to be. The whole place is like a TARDIS, bigger on the inside than the outside.

• This is some Heavy Duty Nitpicking, but whatever. Chester & Allegra bring the drunken Chillblaine back to STAR, where they dump him on a bed in the Med Bay to sleep it off. Wouldn't it have made way more sense to have tossed him into one of the cells in the Pipeline? Those units would serve perfectly as a drunk tank.

I get the feeling The Flash's soundstage must have run out of space and they dismantled the Pipeline set, as we haven't seen it all season.

• Chester & Allegra end up honoring Frost by putting her powder blue jacket on display in their "Hall Of Fallen Heroes," or whatever this room's called. 

I don't remember exactly when this jacket first appeared, but she had it at least as far back as Season 4's Girls Night Out.

It's impossible to tell what most of the other items in the Hall are, as we never get a good look at them. That's definitely X-S's purple & white jacket at the right of the screen. I'm not sure how they got ahold of it though, as the original Nora was erased from the timeline and the new Nora is still wearing her version of the jacket.

Not sure what the object in the middle is. It almost looks like some sort of tiara or crown? The glasses at left might be Vibe's, although they don't look much like his. And he's not a fallen hero. Maybe they're Captain Cold's goggles? I really can't tell from this blurry shot.

That's definitely Ronnie Raymond's jacket (complete with the Quantum Splicer) behind Chester though. Again, no idea how they can have this, as Ronnie and his outfit were disintegrated in the Singularity at the end of Season 1. I suppose these could all be replicated artifacts, recreated just for the display?

• Barry decides to honor Frost's memory by doing all the items on her bucket list, which he has for some reason. As we join him, he's putting the finishing touches on a snowman, which he's build atop Mt. Everest.

We then get a good look at the list, which includes: 

– White Water Rafting
– Attend Samurai School In Kyoto (???)
– Swing Dance With Judd Nelson (I think?)
– Build A Snowman Atop Mt. Everest
– Master Ice Sculpting
– Have My Art Displayed In The Louvre
– Win A Hot Dog Eating Contest

Note that the first three items have already been crossed off the list. Earlier in the episode we saw him come back from rafting. At some point after that he apparently went to samurai school (which is apparently a thing) and somehow talked Judd Nelson into dancing with him. 

So how much time passed between Barry's white water rafting adventure and the snowman? Based on the way the episode plays out, it seems like only a couple of hours. Doesn't seem like enough time to attend a semester of samurai school.

Maybe Barry pulled the school instructor into Flashtime, and he spent several months in the class while just a few seconds passed for the rest of us.

I had to laugh at this scene, in which Barry admires his snowman as the camera zooms out to reveal Everest's snowy peaks, which are completely empty and pristine.

Hah! If only! In reality, we'd have seen a massive line of rich idiots with more money than sense, all lined up as they wait for their chance to take a selfie at the top.

As part of the list, Barry then hangs one of Frost's horrible, horrible pieces of art in the Louvre— right next to the Mona Lisa. Wow, that's a ridiculous stretch even for a comic book show like this!

Of course the second the Louvre director sees it, she gushes, "It's magnificent!" Wakka wakka! Because uppity high society snobs are so clueless they can't tell modern art from trash, amirite?

Barry completes Frost's list by competing in a hotdog-eating contest at CCPD. Thanks to his speedster metabolism, he easily wins, beating Officer Korber. So he cheated then, right?

Based on Korber's face, it's clear that she won the contest the previous year, and possibly even farther back. Was it really fair for Barry to use his powers to whup her? Even for Frost's sake?

• The bucket list scene was a lot of fun, and a nice way for Barry to pay tribute to Frost. That said, many of the activities on the list (like the rafting and mountain climbing) were probably meant for her AND Chillblaine to do together. Barry really should have asked him if he wanted to help, instead of hogging the list for himself.

• In the Med Bay, Barry tells Chillblaine (who's become second only to Joe as the team's wise elder):

Barry: "I also... thought finishing this list would be a way to honor her memory, but even with everything crossed off... it still doesn't feel complete."
Chillblaine: "Look, man, as wild and crazy as her lust for adventure was, what my Snowflake lived for, more than the thrills, was taking care of the people she loved. That's what she really wanted to do with her life. Hell, she was literally born to be Caitlin's savior. She never lost sight of that."
Barry: (obviously inspired) "I know how to honor Frost's memory!"

So what was Barry's brilliant idea? We never see him paying any further tribute to her for the rest of the episode. Did the writers forget about this scene?

The only thing he does in the rest of the episode is visit Caitlin and convince her to go to the funeral. Was THAT supposed to be his ultimate way to honor Frost? If so, it was very murky and could have been explained much more clearly.

• After refusing to go to the funeral, Caitlin comes home to her apartment and begins removing all traces that Frost ever lived there.

Looks like Danielle Panabaker is pregnant again! How do I know? Welp, she announced the happy news on Instagram back in January 2022. But also because she spends this entire episode being filmed from the waist up, or holding bulky items in front of her belly to cover her rapidly-growing baby bump! It's pretty obvious once you realize it.

We do get a couple long shots that are ostensibly of Caitlin, but it's clear they're using a non-pregnant body double who's desperately trying to hide her face!

• At one point Caitlin discovers Frost's beloved blue and white flannel shirt and smells it (ewww!). She then sits motionless on the couch and stares at the wall, apparently for an entire day, all through the night and into the next morning.

I assume this is a reference to Twilight: New Moon, in which Bella was so distraught after Edward broke up with her that she sat in her room staring into space for four months straight. Yeah, I can't believe I know that.

• The third act begins with everyone gathering for Frost's funeral. Yeow, that's kind of a provocative funeral dress she's wearing!

I bet that was an interesting conversation with the mortician as well. "Let me get this straight— you want me to put BLUE lipstick on the deceased?"

• Everyone on Team Flash shows up for Frost's funeral, with two MAJOR exceptions— Cisco and Ralph.

OK, I know there were real world reasons for their omission, but the producers really should have tried to get the two actors to come in for a quick cameo. 

Cisco and Caitlin have been friends for close to a decade, and he worked closely with Frost for at least half that time. His absence feels like a slap in the face to both of them.

Same goes for Ralph as well. He and Frost were good friends back in the day, and he even became her life coach in an effort to teach her how to be a real person— sharing his beloved Book Of Ralph with her. He definitely knew her better than Sue Dearbon, and SHE showed up to the funeral, so... 

The only reason Ralph's not there is because showrunner Eric Wallace is a thin-skinned asshole, who senselessly fired actor Hartley Sawyer for a minor lapse in judgement.

* Why the hell is Kristen Kramer at the funeral? She's the brash former State Prosecutor who did her level best to try Frost for her crimes and sentence her to life in prison. Yes, they eventually kissed and made up, but... it still seems like reeeeally poor taste for her to be there.

• I'm puzzled as to why Officer Korber (seen here behind Iris & Barry) is at the funeral as well. Did she even know Frost? I can't imagine she did, and likely knew her only as a criminal.

So how are Barry & Company going to explain to Korber how they know Frost and why they're at her funeral? I guess Team Flash could say they're there to support Caitlin in her time of need, but it still seems sketchy.

If Korber hasn't figured out Barry's secret identity by now, this should be the clincher!

• OK, seriously? Cisco and Ralph don't show up, but CCC Media reporter Aariz does? He LITERALLY does not know Frost, as I'm confident they've never been in the same room together. All he did was write a generic obit for her that Iris ended up not using.

• After delivering a touching eulogy for her sister, Caitlin approaches the casket and says, "I'll keep you alive, Frost. I promise."

Of course the implication here is that she'll keep her alive in her memory, but as we see in the tag scene, her line has an unexpectedly sinister actual meaning!

• Team Flash gathers around the casket to say one last goodbye.

There's that pesky Caitlin double again in the center of the screen, doing her best to obscure her face! Not only does she keep them from having to do costly CGI "twinning" effects here, but now they don't have to try and hide Danielle Panabaker's rapidly growing belly!

• After the funeral, Frost makes a phone call to someone and says, "Hey. We need to talk."

For a second I thought maybe she was calling her ex Marcus, in an effort to get back with him. Her tone was a bit too brusque for that though. 

Instead she called Chillblaine, as she apparently has his number for some reason.

Sometime later she lets Chillblaine into her apartment, where we see she's set up a secret and very elaborate genetic lab. Jesus Christ! How much time passed between her phone call to Chillblaine and this scene? Days? Weeks? Maybe even months?

And where the hell did she get all this high-tech equipment? Did she "borrow" it from STAR Labs? If so, how'd she sneak it all out BY HERSELF, without anyone else noticing? And how'd she carry it all up to her high-rise apartment with no help as well? 

Maybe she ordered it all from Amazon Prime. Or she smuggled it out one piece at a time like Johnny Cash.

I get that this is a comic book world, but c'mon! It still has to make a slight amount of sense.

• So what's Caitlin's endgame here? It's pretty obvious she's so distraught she's planning to clone Frost. But why? Surely a doctor/scientist like her would know that wouldn't work. 

Yes, she might be able to clone Frost's physical body, but she can't duplicate her mind. A Frost clone would be the most tabula of rasas, as her brain would be completely empty. Did Caitlin somehow use some kind of bullsh*t comic book science to make a copy of Frost's brain patterns before she died?

Also, it appears Caitlin's planning on cloning Frost from a hair sample she surreptitiously cut from her corpse during the funeral. Again, as a woman of science she ought to know that's impossible as well.

See, she clearly cut a length from the END of Frost's hair. The hair shaft itself is made up of dead cells, and the DNA inside would quickly break down and no longer be viable. You could use a person's hair to genetically ID them, but cloning would be right out. 

The only way this would work is if she pulled a hunk of Frost's hair out by the roots— which would still contain living cells with undamaged DNA. 

Again, I get that it's a comic book show that isn't much concerned with scientific accuracy. I just thought I'd point out that her plan's complete nonsense.

All that said, I reeeeeeally hope we're not gonna get a resurrected Frost. As I said last week, I hated to see her character die, but now that it's happened it better damn well stick. Having her come back after giving her a heartfelt and emotional death scene would be a HUGE cheat, and completely negate any impact it may have had. It'd be cheap and manipulative, and the audience deserves better. She needs to stay dead.

I may be worrying about this for nothing, as it seems actress Danielle Panabaker is on my side. In a recent interview with TVLine, she said when showrunner Eric Wallace pitched Frost's death to her, she claims her only question was, "Are we really going to kill her? Because it didn’t feel right to do a fake-out. This needed to be her real death, in order to feel truthful and honest."

So I'm hopeful that confirms Frost isn't actually coming back, and Caitlin's just grasping at straws here. 

Actually I wouldn't mind a "Caitlin Turns To The Dark Side And Becomes A Mad Scientist" storyline, as that would give her character some much needed interest. She's been pretty bland lately, as the writers have been neglecting her in favor of the way more fun Frost.

• In the tag scene, Taylor (who I admit I'd totally forgotten about) continues her anti-Allegra campaign. She also mentions that the Flash has been seen working with other people lately, and tells Iris she wants to find out who they are. I'm betting this is the start of a "Taylor Outs Allegra As A Meta And Member Of Team Flash" storyline. And why not? That'll teach Allegra to not wear a mask!