Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The CW‘s The Flash Season 9 episode, “Hear No Evil.” Read beyond this point at your own risk.
The episode opens with Barry and the rest of the team asking who the visitor is. Mark shows up to help with introductions and she introduces herself as Snow. Mark explains that Caitlin continued to work with him after Barry destroyed things, but Snow came out of the CRC instead and Snow doesn’t know who she is. She’s a blank slate with no memories. Mark also reveals that Caitlin is dead, but he has a plan to bring her back. The plan, on the surface, is pretty simple. Mark wants Team Flash to provide a stable energy source to reverse the process that created Snow to bring Caitlin back. Barry agrees and they get to work. However, Snow seems unsure, and Mark is up to something — he really wants to bring Frost back, not Caitlin.
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Chester tries to talk to Allegra about the kiss, but she sort of pushes that conversation off. Joe and Cecile try to process the loss of Caitlin. They also talk about Joe wanting the family to move away from Central City — something Cecile is struggling with. Barry is also struggling with how things ended the last time he saw Caitlin and he’s determined that the plan will work.
Meanwhile in Central City at Hartley Rathaway’s Krakatoa Club, Hartley goes to leave but he’s attacked by a new Fiddler in the parking lot. He fights with her and manages to get away, but she does some serious damage before he flees and Fiddler leaves.
At STAR, Snow enters the CRC with Mark reassuring her she’s doing the right thing. However, when they fire things up, it quickly begins to go very wrong. Barry gets Snow out and Mark freaks out. Snow says that Mark didn’t tell her it would hurt, just that it would bring “them” back — meaning it would bring both Caitlin and Frost back. Chester realizes that’s the problem, trying to bring them both back. Barry wants to know why Mark lied. Mark says it’s because he can’t trust them, and he says he will never give up on Frost. The intruder alert then goes off. It’s Hartley. He’s looking for Caitlin because he needs a doctor. He needs a specific device to counteract the Fiddler’s attack. Barry finds it and helps him. Hartley confirms that the Fiddler who attacked him is not the Fiddler they know. This one is new. The new Fiddler goes to see the mysterious Red Death who tells her she failed and tells her failing isn’t an option. Red Death tells her that if she fails again, she’ll die.
Barry goes to speak with Mark at the bar. He tells Mark that he understands why he did what he did, but that he’s also part of Team Flash and they have his back. Barry tells Mark no more going rogue and that if Mark lets them in, they can work together and do the impossible. They then get a message that they need to get to STAR. Chester finds out that neural DNA was never going to work. Instead, they need an imprint or map of Caitlin’s mind, and they should have one because Caitlin’s dad made one after he did what he did with Caitlin and Frost’s consciousness when Caitlin was a child.
Snow finds Hartley who is frustrated trying to work on his sonic gauntlet. Snow is very empathetic and asks him what’s wrong. Hartley tells her she’s useless, but his heart rate goes up and she realizes he’s afraid of someone else — his partner — getting hurt. She tells him that it’s beautiful that he changed his ways to keep Roderick safe, but that it’s also not real change and it’s still a choice he has to make for himself.
Barry gets the report Thomas Snow made and it turns out that Thomas tried to reverse what he did to Caitlin and Frost at one point and realized he couldn’t do so without killing one of them. They can only bring one person out of that CRC which means they have to choose: Caitlin, Frost, or Snow. The team gets together to vote. Allegra chooses Frost because Caitlin did. Chester doesn’t want to choose but chooses Caitlin because it makes the most sense in terms of science. Iris chooses Frost. Barry says he needs to think, but Mark says they’re doing it in eight hours no matter what. However, Snow weighs in. She says she wishes she’d never been born because the family is being torn apart and it’s her fault. Iris tells Barry she chose Frost because didn’t choose her when she was alive. Barry realizes that Caitlin made her own choice when she stepped into the CRC. It gives him clarity.
Snow and Cecile meet. Snow says she wishes she knew what her purpose is. Cecile says she can’t read her feelings. They become fast friends and talk about the vote. Cecile asks Snow how she feels. Snow says she doesn’t want to go back inside the CRC and she’s afraid of the decision that will be made. Barry says Snow should make her own choice. Thomas originally stepped back and let Frost and Caitlin decide who they should be, so they are giving Snow the same choice.
The Fiddler attacks Hartley’s club again and Hartley has left to go deal with it. At the club, he finds this new Fiddler attacking his partner, who tell Hartley that she killed everyone — and she seems to kill him. The Flash shows up before Hartley can kill Fiddler, but she’s not done just because her instrument is down. She attacks with her voice. Flash intervenes once more before Hartley can kill Fiddler once she’s downed again and reveals that Rodrick and the others are just trapped in a vibrational phase. Hartley has to use his gauntlets to get them all out, which he does. It also fixes his heart. However, Captain Boomerang shows up and rescues Fiddler — and also takes Hartley’s gauntlets.
They determine the identity of the new Fiddler but are confused as to what Fiddler and Boomerang are up to. Snow also has to tell Mark what she’s decided. She tells him she’s not going back into the CRC and that she’s choosing herself. She explains that Caitlin chose this and she’s not giving it up. Snow also reveals that she has a name: Khione, the name Thomas Snow had for what he had dreamed of creating in the first place. Mark is extremely upset, but Hartley shows up and destroys the CRC, intervening to enforce his new friend Khione’s choice. Mark says he’s taking Barry down and storms out. Later, Team Flash goes to Hartley’s club to dance, and Khione even manages to get Joe to dance, too. Chester and Allegra still don’t actually talk, but Allegra asks him to dance. The episode ends at the mystery Red Death lair with Fiddler and Boomerang putting Hartley’s gauntlets to use, letting Red Death race out through the city to stand on a rooftop and we see them in their suit in all its glory for the first time — with Red Death declaring that Central City will pay for whatever it is The Flash has done.
The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
