Fast X - We Really Need Talk About What's Going On With Cipher

gamespot.com:

Fast X is an overwhelming film with a lot of moving parts. You've got four almost entirely separate story threads running through the film: Dom on his own investigating new baddie Dante Reyes, Tej, Roman, Han and Ramsey trying to stay off the grid, Dom's brother Jakob and son Little Brian having a road trip, and Letty and Cipher having to team up to escape a blacksite prison in Antarctica.

That last thread is an odd one. It doesn't take up much of the movie--it's only three or four scenes, which are scattered throughout the movie in a way that feels almost random since they have no bearing on anything else that's happening. But more interesting than this thread itself is what it might be signaling about Cipher's future. Could they be setting Cipher up to join the family? Yes, they certainly could be. I'm not sure that they are doing that, but they've certainly put themselves in the position to do so.

I'm not sure that's the best idea, though. The story is already a huge mess in narrative terms, and how they handle Cipher could also irrevocably muddy the franchise's core themes, too. Let's break it down.

In The Fate of the Furious, Cipher came in like a thousand wrecking balls. Charlize Theron's villain character immediately positioned herself as the Fast & Furious franchise's apparently unredeemable main villain. She was a clear thematic contrast with Dominic Toretto, the man who can't stop turning enemies into family, and she was intent on bending him to her will. And so she held his ex-girlfriend Elena and their young son hostage, and forced him to fight against everyone else he loves.

That film established Cipher's importance to the franchise pretty quickly, revealing that the villains from the previous two movies,