The Flash 6.5: “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” Review

NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “The Flash”, including a major character death, are present in this review

 

 

The Flash once again sidelined Barry, alongside Iris, in its latest episode, in favour of instead highlighting the show’s supporting cast across several storylines. Even then, it was Cisco that took the spotlight most of all in, “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach”, after his former Vibe identity continues to wreak havoc on his present circumstances. At the same time, the hunt for Ramsey is spearheaded by Ralph and Frost, while Joe has a surprising encounter with Nash, which leads to the two ending up in a tricky situation, with no choice but to get to know each other.

The Flash opting to remove Cisco’s powers with the metahuman cure has so far proven to be a great decision, since it’s humanized Cisco’s character a lot more, while generally making him more sympathetic and genuinely resourceful. Despite this as well, the show has continued to find interesting ways to keep paying tribute to Cisco’s former superhero identity as Vibe, which it does once again here, after Cisco begins sleepwalking, nearly cutting his finger off with some scissors at Kamilla’s place! Shortly after this, Breacher then breaches into the bedroom, incredibly distraught, whereupon he confides in Cisco that his daughter has been killed. Yes, apparently it’s true. The Flash has killed off Gypsy, Cisco’s previous girlfriend, namely at the hands of an inter-dimensional criminal called Echo.

This doesn’t appear to be a fake-out either. Even by the end of the episode, Gypsy is very much dead, forcing both Cisco and Breacher to come to terms with her loss. I wonder if Gypsy being killed off has something to do with Gypsy’s actress, Jessica Camacho taking a role in HBO’s new Watchmen series, but whatever the case, this presents an excellent mystery, one that proves that Cisco has plenty of ability to be a hero, even without his powers. The plot thickens once a residual vibe energy, which Cisco helps himself and Breacher tap into in order to determine Echo’s identity, seemingly reveals that Echo is none other than Cisco himself as well, possibly under the influence of a power-suppression condition called, “Vibe Psychosis.” Needless to say, this is pretty dramatic, and once again has Breacher ready to hunt down Cisco and kill him!

The idea of Cisco becoming targeted by Earth-19’s Collector Agency, even without his powers, is a great one, especially when the mystery behind Gypsy’s death proves to be so strong. Even so however, one of the small gripes with this episode is the fact that Cisco is immediately suspected and pursued, despite the fact that Breacher and Earth-19’s other inter-dimensional Collectors, of all people, should be well aware that Cisco has infinite numbers of doppelgangers across the Multiverse. Sure, Breacher claims that all of Cisco’s doppelgangers are, “Pencil pushers”, but there’s no way he could possibly verify the identity of every Cisco in the Multiverse! Sure enough, Echo ends up being just another Cisco doppelganger as well, who apparently killed Gypsy because she was interfering with a fake doppelganger ID racket. Cisco’s ingenuity ends up capturing Echo for Earth-19 in the end though, so I suppose that all’s well that ends well, even if Cisco will no doubt never be the same now, despite events with Gypsy’s death helping to motivate Cisco to finally tell Kamilla that he loves her. Well, that’s at least nice.

The core Cisco storyline easily stole the bulk of this episode, though one of the subplots also offered a surprisingly good team-up between Joe and Nash, as I mentioned. After Joe tracks Nash to a tunnel area, where Nash had begun to follow the movements of the Monitor, a brief confrontation between the two leads to a cave-in, which traps them both, with a limited air supply. This gives us a chance to get to know Nash a little better, particularly through his belief that people can’t be trusted, and that he’s very much a self-serving nihilist. Joe, meanwhile, recounts a touching story of neighbourhood solidarity when his first wife left, explaining how this has given him faith in people, even when all seems lost. Sure enough, even without a direct line for help, Ralph eventually locates the trapped men as well, piecing together the evidence from Joe’s temporary disappearance. It still doesn’t seem like Nash is going to go over to Team Flash at this point, but at least this subplot offered a nice chance to keep fleshing out Nash’s character and motivations, while also giving Joe one of the most engaging storylines that he’s had in a little while.

The remaining storyline surrounding the hunt for Ramsey also gives Ralph and Frost something to do, at least when Ralph isn’t going to bail out Joe and Nash. After Frost decides to seek out Ramsey alone, blaming herself for Ramsey’s present rampage (wouldn’t it make more sense to blame Caitlin?), Ralph tries to convince her to keep a partner close by, especially when Frost once again fails to save some of Amunet’s former associates from being butchered. Frost eventually restores Caitlin’s form to appeal to Ramsey soon afterward, though this obviously fails, leading to Ramsey continuing his reign of violence and terror. It’s nice to see Caitlin again, since Frost has been in charge of their body for most of the season so far, but it also didn’t feel like the Ramsey storytelling moved forward here. I guess we just had to give Caitlin her one last chance to try and appeal to Ramsey’s humanity, even if this had an aftertaste of the show just wanting to give Ralph and Frost/Caitlin something to do within an episode that needed some space filled.

Saving Nash may have proven to be a great blessing as well, since Nash claims that he knows how to save Barry during the final moments of the episode! Like I said, I’m getting the impression that Barry’s ‘death’ premonition is a big fake-out, and Nash’s declaration seems to be further evidence to that effect, though hopefully, it doesn’t deflate the really impressive character drama that this season of The Flash has been enjoying throughout the lead-up to the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. Regardless, the especially strong storytelling with Cisco made, “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” another great episode of The Flash, even considering the show’s controversial decision to kill off Gyspy. Given the magic of the Multiverse, I suppose that Gypsy’s character could always come back someday, if the story demands it, but even if she truly is dead for good in the Arrowverse, Gypsy’s final impact on Cisco is superb, cementing the fact that Cisco doesn’t need his Vibe powers in order to be a hero. The Flash is taking a week off from here, and won’t return until later in November, but that’s just fine, especially since the show has continued to maintain lots of momentum in Season Six so far, the very momentum that it’s been struggling to maintain over the past couple of years.

The Flash presents an inspiring and bittersweet mission for Cisco in, "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach", as a vacation for Barry and Iris once again puts the show's supporting cast in the spotlight.
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THE GOOD STUFF
Cisco bringing Gypsy's killer to justice, even without his powers
Joe and Nash debating ideologies in the tunnel
Brief, but effective return for Caitlin during the Ramsey confrontation
THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF
Cisco immediately being suspected by the Collectors is a stretch
Ramsey storyline doesn't really move forward
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