Happy 100 episodes! Let’s have a time travel show!

Barry and Nora travel back in time to patch together a device to countermand Cicada’s dagger. Savitar’s suit, Zoom’s transmitter and the night the particle accelerator exploded…

This is an immensely clever way to honour the past of the show without getting bogged down by it. Tom Cavanagh (who also appears in three pivotal if tiny scenes) does a great job of keeping the clock ticking at the same time as updating what we know. So we get DeVoe at the particle accelerator explosion, a Grodd cameo and some lovely Thawne stuff. The moment where Barry and Nora go to him is especially great because it demonstrates how alien Thorne’s thinking processes are. He knows who they are, and what they are and he doesn’t care. Because finding out what’s going on is at least as much fun as knowing.

That folds back into the improving Nora and her parents dynamic and also leads to some great moments of Barry struggling with being a dad and a hero at the same time. If you’ve been annoyed by Nora up to now, this is the episode to jump back in with. Especially given the last scene and what it implies about her and what Sherloque is starting to suspect.

Oh and all of this actually drives the plot forward. The team develop a counter measure for Cicada, confirm his identity, confront him and almost win! They learn more about him and the stage is set for an overt conflict when the show comes back! Verdict: There really is a sense of everything moving in lockstep in a manner some of the Arrowverse shows sometimes lack and it makes for a slick and very entertaining viewing experience.

Plus? Best Back to the Future gag EVER. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart