The Flash Season 5 Episode 4 Review: 'News Flash'

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For the past few weeks now, the main antagonist of The Flash has been a character by the name of Cicada.

Well Cicada takes a bit of a backseat this week as a newer type of villain is causing trouble in Central City.

The main villain in 'News Flash', comes from a TMZ style of online blogger named Spencer Young.

After Clifford DeVoe's "Enlightenment" in Season 4, Spencer Young's phone gets meta-human powers with dark energy. With this type of technology, Young is able to use her phone to control the minds of people.

The storyline is similar to the James Bond movie 'Tomorrow Never Dies' where the main villain creates bad news for themselves in order to get heaps of views.

Spencer Young causes someone to become a suicide bomber at a social softball game, but Nora Allen's XS saves the day.

At this point of the episode, the good guys don't have a clue on who and how people are getting controlled. All they know right now is that someone out there is controlling the minds of people.

Iris West has a hunch that Spencer Young may be the culprit because her blog is the first one to always breaks the news for heroic actions.

The second attempt of Young making her own news is when she burns a building and XS has to save the day again.

This time The Flash was being mind controlled as Spencer Young told him to go to Las Vegas for no reason whatsoever.

Spencer Young seems to love Nora Allen which is why she wants to make XS a star.

However, Iris West thinks this is a bad idea because the more famous XS becomes, the more likely she'll be the next target of Cicada.

Speaking of Cicada, he's not in this episode much, but we do get more clues about him.

He works at a steel mill somewhere in Central City and he also has breathing problems. This is the reason why he uses the mask.

Anyway, the team have to forget about Cicada for now and concentrate on apprehending Spencer Young. Young evacuates a soccer stadium and XS and The Flash arrive.

For her big finale, Spencer Young hypnotizes XS and tells her to kill The Flash. Unluckily for Barry Allen, his own daughter starts trying to kill him and there's not much else he can do to apprehend her!

Thankfully Iris tranquilizes XS and The Flash is safe for now. Spencer Young tries to run away, but The Flash is fast enough to finally capture her and put her behind bars. They'll be no more breaking news from her!

Before the episode ends though, we find out why Nora Allen dislikes her mom Iris. This is because the future Iris never tells Nora she has powers and prevents her from being a speedster for most of her life.

Future Iris reckons she negated her powers at an early age in order for Nora's own protection. Present day Iris feels the same way and Barry approves of this decision.

Nora Allen feels she can no longer trust her own parents so she runs away and decides to live with her grandfather Joe instead.

I found it interesting that Nora Allen hates her own mother and is blaming her for something she has yet to do in this timeline.

I was also surprised that Barry took Iris' side.

I would have thought he would have encouraged Nora to use her powers at a very young age. Well anyway, the family is kind of fractured and it will take a lot of work for Nora to forgive Iris.

Overall, this week's episode was solid yet again as Season 5 has been way better than Season 4's boring tone.

The goofy humor is no longer present and the storylines have been much more engaging. Let's hope the rest of the season can keep up this strong momentum.

Verdict: 8.0/10

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: The CW Premiere Dates For The Flash, Superman & Lois And More (more); Michael Keaton Could Be Back As Bruce Wayn/Batman In The Flash Movie (more); The Elongated Man Will No Longer Be On The Flash (more); Several Superhero TV Shows Have Been Renewed By The CW (more).

And here are some more related articles: The Flash Season 5 Episode 14 Review: 'Cause And XS' (more); The Flash Season 5 Episode 13 Review: 'Goldfaced' (more); The Flash Season 5 Episode 12 Review: 'Memorabilia' (more).

A few more: The Flash Season 5 Episode 11 Review: "Seeing Red" (more); The Flash Season 5 Episode 10 Review: 'The Flash and the Furious' (more).

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