With all the pressure on everyone from the approaching Crisis, the team takes a different approach in this episode. The focus this week is on the secondary characters, a mystery, and some underground happenings. They play with the name of a Robert Downey, Jr movie for the title: “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach.”

The opening is a plot device I believe is overused- character in really bad situation, they say something unexpected, and then we time jump back. In this case, it’s a 12 hour shift. Determined to take some personal time with Barry’s apparently inevitable death looming, he and Iris take off for a vacation, leaving Cisco in charge. Never one to miss a chance to make a situation more complicated, Cisco has created a Barry AI to help him make decisions as team leader. There’s some banter about a classic 80’s show and a surprising reveal of one of the character’s middle names. As soon as Barry and Iris leave, Cisco uses BARI (the AI) to make assignments for Ralph and Killer Frost.

 

Down in the tunnels below Central City, “Nash” Wells is continuing his strange archeological project. Joe West stops by, citing concerns with previous Wellses keeping secrets. The two argue, scuffle, and set off bizarre accident with one of Nash’s toys that sets up another subplot for those two. Later in the evening, Cisco and Kamilla go to bed with some awkwardness over something not quite said. Cisco has a peculiar incident while he’s asleep, but that surprise gets immediately eclipsed by Breacher making a dramatic entrance. He comes with the news that Cynthia, Cisco’s ex better known as Gypsy, is dead. In the Cortex, Breacher gives them the details about her death, a shadowy villain called Echo, and makes a request. This is when he finds out that Cisco isn’t Vibe anymore, but both he and Kamilla agree to help find out what happened.

 

Joe and Nash keep bickering over what happened to them, what to do next, and outlooks on the world. There’s a deadline involved now that just happens to match the usual run time of an episode of the show. Norvock, the “worm-eye” guy that used to work for Amunet Black, sets up a meeting with Killer Frost, asking for help with a situation. Ralph finds them, and points out that Killer Frost going after Rosso alone is a bad idea. They argue a bit, and there’s a passing reference to Gingold, a drink that was part of Ralph’s origin in the comics. Cisco and Kamilla go to the crime scene, watching an impressive team from the Agency that Gypsy and Breacher worked for. They also meet Zak Zeal, the man in charge who seems to have double majored in smug and arrogant. He and Cisco are clearly not going to get along, but he does give some more detail about Gypsy’s death.

 

Cisco and Kamilla have a talk that almost gets to something important when Zak interrupts. He blusters at them and they undertake their own mission. We also learn that either Kamilla is some kind of genius or the STAR equipment is ridiculously easy to use. Nash and Joe talk more and fail to make any progress on their problem. Returning to STAR, Cisco and Breacher use a gadget to see how Gypsy died. We never get a clear view of her as the actress who played her, Jessica Camacho, has moved on to the role of Pirate Jenny on HBO’s Watchmen. It’s an ugly death, and reveals a startling glimpse of the killer. This apparently links back to a worry Breacher had about Cisco earlier and the older man leaves after a threat and a deadline.

 

Nash and Joe continue their debate, and, just as Nash learns something surprising of interest, Elongated Man shows up with a timely rescue. It’s nice to see Ralph get some credit for his detective work in this scene. Caitlin tries to reason with Ramsey Rosso where Killer Frost has failed. This doesn’t go well, and is the most banged-up we’ve seen Caitlin get in a while without turning to Frost. Cisco is shaken enough to give in to what seems to be happening, but Kamila’s pep-talk makes him realize something important. This leads us back to that opening scene, which plays out but, moving forward, shows once again how slick Cisco is. Using his smarts and a few gadgets, Cisco gets out of his predicament and leaves a few hints for his pursuers about what’s actually going on.

 

Cisco finds the villainous Echo and they have an ugly showdown. I’m betting Cisco is wishing he still had his powers, but he does the best he can. Cisco took some precautions and manages a very clever trap for his foe. It was a surprising fight, although what we learn here contradicts something Breacher said earlier in the episode. After things get wrapped up with Echo, Breacher invites Cisco to Gypsy’s funeral over on Earth 19. Between them, Breacher, Kamilla, and Cisco figure out how Gypsy came to die where she did. Kamilla and Cisco finally get to their important milestone, in spite of seemingly everyone’s best efforts.

 

Barry and Iris get back from their brief vacation, and Barry wonders if Cisco even managed to go home while he was gone. He did, and also learned some things, and shares his enlightenment, although Barry figured it out ahead of time. There’s a reference to Gypsy’s funeral being next week, which makes me wonder if it will be part of the next episode. There’s some talk about Cisco’s growth and a nice farewell for Gypsy. The episode wraps up with Nash, Joe, Ralph, and Killer Frost down in the tunnels. Nash finally agrees to share what he’s up to if they meet him tomorrow, and leaves while making a surprising claim.

 

What I liked: I’m glad they’re giving Ralph credit for being a good detective. He’s less of a clown now than when they first introduced the character, and I’m happy to see it. I enjoy Danny Trejo as Breacher. While it was odd to remove the two main characters, their wanting to get away for a bit made perfect sense. Cisco was brilliant, and pulled off some great stuff in this episode.

 

What I didn’t: No disrespect to the character, but I don’t buy Kamilla being able to run the equipment at STAR that easily. I’m not sure what Caitlin thought she was going to accomplish, or why she didn’t change to Killer Frost. I get why it was shot this way, but bringing Gypsy back just to kill her and without the actress that played her is kind of cheap. I also initially thought Gypsy’s death was going to happen in a different manner, and I liked mine better. I thought she was going to be trapped on one of the Earths as the anti-matter wave hit. I also thought (and hoped) they were hinting at Cisco getting his powers back.

 

I don’t think this was one of their better episodes. I’ll give it a low 3 out of 5.