“Monster” is episode five of season three of The Flash.
Barry is whizzing around a kitchen cooking, saying that he has moved out of Joe’s to find his own place. Which at the moment means living with Cisco. Cisco would prefer that Barry didn’t always do this, but says that he is a great guest. He’s not too sure how he feels about the other guest though. In the previous episode, “The New Rogues”, Harry Wells was returning to his Earth, but suggested that they try and find another Harrison Wells to take his place. And they did, settling for H.R. Wells (would have been weird if he’d been H.G. Wells). Cisco just feels that there is something about H.R. Barry knows they have had Wells issues in the past, but they can’t stop trusting people because of that.
Caitlin is at a large building and tells the receptionist that she wants to see Dr. Carla Tannhauser. No, she doesn’t have an appointment, but she’s sure that Dr Tannhauser will be willing to see her. The receptionist doesn’t believe this but Carla appears and says that Caitlin is always welcome. Dr. Tannhauser is Caitlin’s mother. Caitlin had read her mother’s paper on the applications of cryomedicine and has a patient who could use her help. Carla tells Caitlin to send over the file – and Caitlin slams her hand down on her mother’s desk, freezing it. The patient is Caitlin.
In the previous episode, Caitlin had used her powers to free Barry from a mirror. This looked like the first time she had deliberately used her powers and, later, her hair started going blonde and her lips blue like those of Killer Frost. Caitlin met Killer Frost, in “Back to Normal”, and doesn’t want to be like her. So she cut out her blonde hair. She still hasn’t told anyone else though.
At S.T.A.R. Labs H.R. has got bagels, coffee and jam for everyone. He’s very enthusiastic and thinks that coffee is a reason to stay – on his Earth coffee was wiped out by a blight. H.R. wants to do some team-building exercises and has hidden clues around the facility. Cisco is not keen and tells H.R. that trust has to be earned. He should watch how they function together first. Caitlin is not present and has left a message saying she will be back in a few days. Barry and Iris head off to work.
Barry arrives at Captain Singh’s office and apologises for being late. Julian, who is also there, tells the captain that tardiness is another thing to add to the list. Along with unauthorised access to case files, repeated absences, phone call interruptions, disappearing during the day, visitors in the lab. The list is, according to Julian, endless. Although he has only reported nine different violations of regs. Singh tells Barry he does good work, and not to put that in jeopardy. Julian is not happy that this list of violations only gets a 15 second talking to.
Afterwards, Barry bumps into Joe, who says that after a year he wishes Barry and Julian would get along better. Barry explains that to him it’s not been a year, only two weeks. And no, it’s not that before then he and Julian were friends – Julian didn’t even exist. Well, he probably did, somewhere. Then Cisco calls; meta-human hits are coming in from the harbour district. When Barry arrives there, Cisco wants to know what Barry can see. When Barry says it’s a monster, he has to clarify that it is actually a monster. Which Cisco manages to see using the satellite. Barry follows the monster, but when he turns a corner, it’s vanished.
Back at the lab, Cisco points out that every meta-human encountered so far has been meta-human. Not a monster. More important than working out why the monster disappears is how to stop it. H.R., who is observing, asks if they have carbon fibre rope. Also, a transformer exploded as the monster passed. it would be useful to take a look at it, but it’s a crime scene which means it’s Julian’s.
When Barry arrives at CCPD, Julian wants to know where he has been for the last hour. As usual, Barry doesn’t have an explanation that doesn’t involve ‘being the Flash.’ Barry tells Julian he wants to improve their relationship. Julian doesn’t like how little regard Barry has for the rules. So Barry tries flattery, saying that Julian’s evidence collection techniques are superior to his, and he’s like to shadow him for the day. Julian is not interested until Barry offers to give him the lab as well, with Barry moving into a storeroom downstairs. So Barry gets to tag along as Julian investigates.
Caitlin’s mother has Caitlin try to cool down a tungsten rod heated to 2,000 Celsius as Carla and her employee Nigel monitor Caitlin. Caitlin manages that really easily. Caitlin does not have a great relationships with her mother – something that both she and Killer Frost agreed on were that their mother was an ice queen. Carla tells Caitlin she stayed have stayed with her mother where she had access to world class facilities. Caitlin felt that she would be under her mother’s shadow if she did that. Plus there were personal reasons for getting away. Carla tells her that the only time she sees Caitlin is when she is in trouble.
H.R. is proving very chatty and talkative, and is definitely keeping secrets from everyone. Secrets that are perhaps not what might be expected; both Barry and Cisco decide to investigate. Julian appears to have a problem with meta-humans, but it sounds like a fair bit of that is jealousy. He feels that they are squandering their powers; if Julian had powers he would use them to help people and improve the world. A lot of this episode seems to be about relationships, especially bad ones – Barry’s with Julian and Caitlin with her mother. It looks like Caitlin is going to have problems with her powers if she isn’t careful; they appear to be affecting her mentally.