The Flash’s 18th episode (“Abra Kadabra”) gave us an excellent villain of the same name (played by David Dastmalchian). Sure, David Copperfield may have been more science-based than magic-oriented, but there’s no proof so: magic. Granted, he was using his powers for evil, including murder and robbery! But I did think the throwback to famous magicians was fantastic (the Houdini one in particular).
His evil plan? He wanted to (as Cisco put it) “Marty McFly it back to the future.” But that’s the last thing that Gypsy wants. She spends most the episode seething (“You are going to die for all the things you’ve done. I cannot wait to see you be put to death.”) and not using her words, until Cisco (bless) flirts with her (“Gypsy, that kiss, that wasn’t I’ll see you around. That was like, it needs to happen again, real soon.” Y’all. That was so fiery chemistry.), only to get her to talk. Turns out, Kadabra killed her partner—in all senses of the word.
This sets up an interesting conflict. The Criss Angel wannabe (just kidding: nobody wants to be Criss Angel) claims to know the identity of Savitar. Now, there are two possibilities here: it’s true and it’s not. It could just be a villainous ploy to win his freedom/life. But we’ll never know, despite Joe’s best efforts to make decisions worthy of Barry’s previous stupidity. It’s because of him Kadabra gets outs and Caitlin ends up as shrapnel kabob. (Did anyone even point that out?)
Granted, this gave us some excellent (read: often nerve-wracking) Caitlin and Julian time. He’d been waaaay distant from her (trust issues), or as Cisco put it: “Looks like things between you and Julian are…frosty, huh?” Yes, I laughed. And yes, I’m terrible. Earlier in the episode, Caitlin did apologize to Julian: “I forgot that I could hurt you as Caitlin Snow. … But maybe you could find it in your heart to forgive me.” This really does soften him, almost as much as her nearly dying and him having to operate on her (“I’m putting my life in your hands. I trust you, Julian.”). I won’t lie: that was a fantastic scene, even if I spent half of it clenching my jaw. It was teamwork in an unexpected way.
Speaking of teamwork, that’s how the Flash Gang recaptures Kadabra, the best part of which is Cisco bellowing “You shall not pass.” I love him and his nerd ways. Barry, to his credit, doesn’t fight Gypsy about taking Kadabra. His resolve is clear: “I have nothing to offer you. No reprieve. No escape.” He does attempt to appeal to the magic man’s better angels, but not eve Lucifer is listening on that. This whole endeavor leaves Gypsy and Cisco on shaky ground, but I suspect our favorite bounty hunter will be back again. And no, I don’t mean Boba Fett.
And on the subject of what may come, Barry’s solution to save Iris is to…run into the future. There are about 3,000 ways in which this could be problematic, but he has a point. The gang needs information that’s solid, and this will absolutely do that. One question: if he’s not fast enough to beat Savitar, why can he run fast enough to visit the future? I’m probably thinking too much about the mechanics here. So, regardless: Run, Barry. Run.
Lastly, we need to talk about the elephant in the room. Or, as it were, the ice queen. After a sweet scene and a kiss between Julian and Caitlin—yes, I cheered my dirty shipper heart out—Caitlin flat lines. To save her life, Julian removes the necklace keeping her from Frosting out, and well…she’s alive, but also evil now. So, yay, but also MAJOR OOPS. Even though Caitlin literally said she’d rather die than take the cold option (leaving the decision to contradict her wishes as problematic at best), Julian’s got a case of FEELS. And let’s face it: most of us would’ve done the same, dumb, desperate thing.
Doesn’t matter that it’s spring, darlings—things are about to get cold in Central City.
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