The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 8 - The Fire Next Time

 For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

When an paroled metahuman criminal is accused of murder in a seemingly open-and-shut case, Barry goes all-out in both his personas to see justice done. Meanwhile, Iris tries to give Allegra an opportunity to mentor a new writer.

Influences

Law and Order (the episode is more concerned with legal proceedings than usual.)


Goofs

Cecile's new rule against using her powers to read if people are guilty or innocent seems to have been introduced only to prolong the drama of the episode and the question of whether or not Jaco Birch has become a killer. (It's also somewhat nonsensical given the whole reason Cecile became a defense attorney in the first place was so that her work as a lawyer wouldn't harm innocent people, after almost sending Allegra Garcia to prison.)

Iris' behavior as editor-in-chief is completely unprofessional. No serious head editor would allow a staff writer to go behind the back of a lower ranked editor after having a pitch rejected. (This is not to say this sort of thing does not happen at less than reputable publishers, but it's hard to make Iris look at all competent when she does this sort of thing, especially after the revelation at the end that Taylor is scheming to take Allegra's job.) It nothing else, Iris should have made it clear that she was trying to get Allegra to mentor Taylor instead of trusting Allegra to automatically work to help the newer writer to develop a weak idea.

Jaco's confrontation with Donna Winters doesn't make a lot of sense unless he is guilty.

Jaco's being treated like a hero for stopping a volcano from destroying Central City falls flat considering it was his powers that accidentally created he eruption in the first place.


Performances

The scene of Joe and Barry discussing Barry's father and Jaco's case is a great moment for Jesse L. Martin and Grant Gustin.


Flash Facts

The title of the episode comes from an essay by James Baldwin about racism in America.

The social media influencer Taylor wants to interview is a woman named Rose Levin. In the comics, Rose Levin was an ancestor of Booster Gold, who wrote a popular blog devoted to proving that Booster Gold was also the hero Supernova.

Technobabble

Barry notes that Stan Mullen's body is burned all the way through, but there's no fire damage to the ground underneath his corpse or any signs of fire damage elsewhere in the bar. This suggests a metahuman attack, as nothing else could create a fire that violates the laws of physics in that way.

Chester confirms the local dark matter readings are consistent with a metahuman attack.

Barry's tomography reports regarding Donna Winter's body confirm the thermal lesions on her body match the marks on Stan Mullen's body exactly. Barry says there is no pyrokinetic meta who could replicate burns like that even if they tried.

Jaco Birch's powers are tied to his emotional state, with his fire becoming hotter the more angry he is.

Chester cross-references the heat signature from both murder victims and determines the signatures produced an anomalous heat effect created by non-composites reacting to hydrogen isotopes, i.e. cold fusion. This proves that Jaco Birch can't be the killer since his powers come from absorbing heat and redirecting it as fire.

Jaco's powers are tied to the earth beneath wherever he's standing. When he became upset at the thought of losing his son, he absorbed so much heat from the planet's core that he opened up a lava channel under Central City.

The Flash phases into the water table under the city releases it directly into the lava channel. This stops the eruption but not the massive heat exchange that would have cooked the city if Jaco hadn't used his powers to absorb the heat.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: Joe, the look in my dad's eyes that night... It was the same look in Birch's eyes when they arrested him. Look of an innocent man... desperate not to lose his son... Begging someone to believe him.
Joe: And you do.
Barry: Yeah, I do. I just keep thinking about all the time my dad lost. (sighs) All the birthdays we spent, separated by plexiglass. I can't let Birch and his son go through that if he's innocent. (inhales deeply) I don't know. Maybe the team's right. Maybe I'm making something out of nothing. You think maybe I've had blinders up this whole time?
Joe: Maybe. Or... You can see something they can't. Look, what you went through, I wouldn't wish on anyone. But what it did, was it gave you the ability to believe in the underdog when no one else is willing to. So... If your gut tells you... To not give up on Birch... Then for Henry's sake, don't. Not yet.


Dialogue Disasters

Barry: The fact that Birch ran away doesn't change the evidence. There's still nothing directly tying him to Mullen's death.
Cecile: Sure, Barry, sure, but fleeing custody is not exactly exculpatory, and I am saying that as his lawyer.


Continuity

The episode opens at O'Shaughnessy's, where bartender Donna Winters leaves manager Stan Mullen alone.

Smoke fills the bar just before Stan is burned to death.

A calendar reveals that it is February 1st.

Iris suggests going out to dinner until she sees the calendar, at which point she suggest that she and Barry have a night in or that they both call in sick. Barry dismisses this, however, saying there's too much going on at work and that it is "just another day." It is later revealed that it is Dr. Henry Allen's birthday.

Chester is revealed to have a fear of fire.

After looking at the crime scene and hearing from Donna that Stan had gotten into an argument with a patron the night before, he recalls something and shows her a photo asking if she recognizes the man in it. She confirms that she does. 

The man in question is Jaco "The Hotness" Birch.

Jaco first appeared in 416, where he accidentally gained the powers of Eric Frye because of Melting Pot. It is unclear if he never lost the powers afterward or if he regained fire-generation powers following Crisis on Infinite Earths. In any case, he apparently served time for arson at Iron Heights and was recently paroled due to his good behavior.

Chester notes that Jaco was a thief, not a killer, from what he knew of his record.

Barry notes that Jaco never had the fine control needed to kill someone without burning a building down.

The CC Citizen is starting a new "citizen of the week" profile feature. 

Taylor Downs requested she be allowed to write about social influencer Rosie Levin for the first feature.

Allegra rejected the pitch, believing Rosie Levin to be the sort of pseudo-celebrity CC Media shouldn't give a platform.

Iris reveals that Taylor went to her after Allegra rejected the pitch and she approved it, saying that they need the clicks Rose Levin's 500,000 social media followers might bring in.

Allegra is not happy that her authority is being ignored. Iris says that it's her privilege as Editor In Chief to make decisions Allegra disagrees with.

To add insult to injury, Iris assigns Allegra to interview Rosie Levins with Taylor.

The CCPD approach Jaco Birch as he's showing his son Harold around his new job as an arena security guard. Harold is less than impressed.

The Flash steps in and knocks Jaco into a fountain before he can use his powers.

As Jaco is being taken away by the police in front of his son, he proclaims his innocence in a way that causes Barry to start having flashbacks of his father's arrest.

Barry approaches Cecile and asks for her advice regarding Jaco' case. Cecile agrees to represent Jaco, but refuses to use her powers to read if he is guilty or innocent.

Cecile says the case against Jaco is open-and-shut, due to his having means, motive and opportunity, in addition to the witness who saw him threatening Stan Mullen before his death.

Allegra zones out of the interview with Rose Levin, after she talks about quitting college because she found the university environment to be like a prison.

Allegra recognizes a janitor at CC Jitters as Lydia, a woman she served time with in Iron Heights.

Lydia recognizes Allegra and reads her the riot act for forgetting where she came from and not using her position to help people who are struggling.

Allegra says Lydia is right and she's going to write about her.

Jaco is concerned about his son, who was neglected by his mother while Jaco was in prison.

Jaco says his love for his son was what made him work so hard to get paroled, having his four year sentence commuted somewhat.

According to Jaco, his argument with Stan Mullen was regarding a guitar she was trying to sell. Stan only wanted to pay half what he had previously agreed.

Barry says he believes Jaco is innocent, but nobody else is convinces after Jaco escapes from the truck transporting him to holding.

Jaco confronts Donna Winters and threatens her if she doesn't recant her testimony.

Barry makes reference to Frost going on the run after Chillblaine framed her in 707 as proof Jaco could be innocent.

Donna Winters' body is found, burned in the same way as Stan Mullen's, behind O'Shaughnessy's.

Chester agrees to take a look at the data, but he's convinced Jaco is guilty too.

Barry sets up a murder board in his lab at CCPD.

Joe checks on Barry and says it's been eight years since he saw one of those, in reference to the one Barry made for his father's case.

Joe recalls that Henry Allen missed his 45th birthday party due to an emergency call. Henry was disappointed, but Joe comforted him saying there would be other birthday parties. Unfortunately, it was the last one he enjoyed as a free man.

Allegra writes about Lydia what what ex-cons like here are going through to make ends meet.

Iris agrees its a much better piece than Taylor's fluff piece, but says it isn't what she wanted her to write. She also wanted Allegra to mentor Taylor and help her develop her idea to be more in depth.

Despite this, Iris decides to run Allegra's piece as the first CC Citizen of the Week profile.

Chester finds proof that Jaco can't be the killer. Unfortunately, it comes as he attacks the social services worker transporting his son.

An earthquake begins shaking the city as Jaco is holding up the convoy.

With the Flash advising him, Jaco is able to stop the eruption and save the city.

Jaco is found innocent and given custody of his son.

Allegra tries to apologize to Taylor, but she swears to destroy Allegra.

Henry Allen was bad at softball and liked lite beer.

Henry Allen never made Barry clean his plate as a child and read him the same bedtime story whenever he wanted it - a story about a hippo trying to make friends by making cookies.

Barry asks Chester to look for more victims who died from cold fusion heat.


The Boomerang Factor

Iris is made to look utterly incompetent as an editor-in-chief, allowing Taylor to ignore the chain of command while giving Allegra a hard time for demanding her authority be respected. She also doesn't make it clear that she was trying to give Allegra some managerial experience mentoring Taylor.

Granting that Jaco Birch is presented as a hot-tempered idiot, his efforts to escape prison, confront the woman who accused him or murder and kidnap his son from social services are idiotic even by the standards of a Flash villain.


The Bottom Line

There's a good idea here and some great acting from Grant Gustin. Unfortunately, all the scenes of Joe and Barry bonding can't make up for how contrived the plot with The Hotness is and how idiotic Iris' storyline is, in how it twists reality to try and make Iris out to be this brilliant boss while she's undermining Allegra and failing to communicate her expectations beyond "because I said so."

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 16 - P.O.W.

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

John Diggle arrives in Central City with a weapon to help Barry stop the Godspeed War. Meanwhile, Allegra and Ultraviolet’s new bond following he surgery is put to the ultimate test, as Joe and Kristin Kramer are hunted by her former colleague. 

Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (use of Still Force and Godspeed characters), Ghostbusters (general design of the entropy trap),  and The Most Dangerous Game (Joe and Kramer being hunted.)

Goofs

The official show summaries keep changing Kristen Kramer's name, spelling her first name with an "i" and an "e' (Kristin/Kristen).

Cecile mentions that it is the year 2021. However, the events of The Flash season 7 have taken place within a four week period following the events of 703, which was firmly set in mid-2020 based on the Season 6 episodes leading to the battle with Mirror Monarch.

Joe retrieves his oversize gun seemingly from nowhere during the final confrontation with Creyke.

It's a minor point, but the episode never addresses if Caitlin (who knows more about metahuman neurology than most) examined Diggle while he was in Central City or after his breakdown facing Godspeed.


Performances

It's always good to see David Ramsey as John Diggle and the scenes between him and Grant Gustin improve this episode immensely.


Flash Facts

The entropy trap which Diggle delivers is said to be a one-of-a-kind due to it being constructed from some unique Time Trapper tech. This is a reference to a classic villain from the Legion of Superheroes comics - a time-traveler from the future who became the Living Embodiment of Entropy. This also confirms that the Time Trapper exists in the Arrowverse.

August Heart is said to have worked for Dayton Labs' Central City branch in the future. In the DC Comics universe, Dayton Labs is a research facility owned by Dayton Industries - a company owned by the superhero Mento, who was part of the Doom Patrol.

Adam Kreyke claims to have the power to die over and over. There are a few DC Comics characters who have a similar power of immortality, but most of them (such as Resurrection Man and Multi-Man) gain a new superpower each time they die.

At the end of the episode, Nora West-Allen's lightning is only purple when it was purple and yellow in Season 5. This is believed to foreshadow that the newly introduced Bart Allen Jr. is her twin brother, as his lightning is yellow, like his father's.

In the original The Flash comics, Barry and Iris did have twins, a boy and a girl, who inherited Barry's powers, but they were named Dawn and Don and were known as the Tornado Twins. 

Bart Allen Jr. desribes the Speed Lab as "crash." This is a future slang term from the comics, used by Impulse to describe good things.


Technobabble

The Godspeed War generates a build-up of electricity, shielding Central City from outside electrical signals, basically acting as a giant Faraday Cage. This prevents Cecile from calling Joe, who is outside of the city.

Adam Creyke is armed with an advanced pulse rifle and a scrambler program that prevents people close to him from using a phone.

The motion-detection plate on the entropy trap has a response time of a picosecond. The plasmatic wave it generates eliminates all entropy from any object or person, freezing it in time.

The metal band that Caitlin creates to replace Ultraviolet's mask is made of the same unique metal alloy, so her body won't reject it and it will still maintain the laryngeal structure.

Diggle confirms that the doctors at the neurology clinic in Gotham didn't find anything wrong with him physically.

Chester's algorithm confirms the Godspeeds are returning at an exponential rate. 

Caitlin's scan of August Heart's brain and body show no sign of speed powers, organic or artificial. However, his neurological scans show severe memory degradation yet his somatic memory cells are still intact, but inactive. She says a nano dose of neurogenic dark matter might reactivate the cells, but the procedure is risky and it would still only restore his memory temporarily.


Dialogue Triumphs

Diggle: So you want to tell me what's really got you so upset that you're talking to your teammates like that? And don't tell me it's about some broken tech, Barry.
Barry: It's my daughter. Nora. Before she came to join us, she lived in the future. The exact time Godspeed's from.
Diggle: Okay, and with everything that's going on, you think it affects the future somehow?
Barry: Dig, if... If August Heart is here, what does that mean for Nora? And the future of our family? Is she okay? Will Iris and I still have a family? Is Nora even alive in the future anymore? (breathing heavily) Now all I want to do is run to and make sure Nora's okay. See with my own eyes that my daughter's safe. But I can't do that.
Diggle: Why not?
Barry: Dig, you know better than anyone what could happen if I did. Besides, man, with this civil war destroying the city staying here to fight is the right thing to do.
Diggle: No, it's not. Barry, I lived a long life here on this earth. I've been a spy, a vigilante, a soldier... hell, I've even been the Green Arrow. The most important job I've ever had is as a dad. And there's not a bullet I wouldn't take, there's not a timeline that I wouldn't risk changing if it meant protecting my family. I know that now. Lyla... my kids, they're my heart, man. My soul. My entire world. How far would I go for them? As far as it takes. Everything else be damned. Don't be afraid to do the same.


Continuity

The events of this episode take place sometime after the Batwoman episode Rebirth (B216) as Diggle makes reference to his clinic visit in Gotham City from that episode.

As the episode opens, the Godspeeds are randomly running around Central City attacking people when they aren't fighting each other.

Barry has another dream vision of Nora West-Allen, like the one in 715, where she tells him that the future is changing and something happened to their family.

Iris is still suffering from a sickness that has her confined to her and Barry's apartment.

Cecile hasn't heard from Joe since he left Central City with Kristen Kramer 8 hours earlier

Joe and Kramer are revealed to have escaped their exploding car and hide in the woods as Creyke hunts them.

Kramer recognized Creyke's attack coming because she knew what the light of his pulse rifle looked like.

Barry is said to have six broken ribs and internal bleeding after his latest battle with the Godspeeds, but he says he'll be fine after an hour thanks to his speed healing.

Barry tells the rest of the team about his vision of Nora and wonders if he should go to the future to check on her.

Diggle arrives from Star City with a device Cisco constructed  - an entropy trap - which he thought might help with the Godspeeds.

Diggle volunteered to deliver the entropy trap personally, as he is still working with ARGUS.

Chester is aware of who John Diggle is (presumably having read up on previous Team Flash adventures) and says that he is a big fan.

Barry plans to use the entropy trap to catch a Godspeed so they can question him as to why the Godspeeds are fighting.

Caitlin heals Ultraviolet and says she won't need any more surgeries or bio-chip updates to live.

Ultraviolet plans to go after another Black Hole team right away. Allegra says that's stupid.

Ultraviolet asks Allegra to help her. Allegra agrees, but says they will only work to capture the Black Hole forces - not kill them - and that it will have to wait until after the Godspeed War is over. Ultraviolet agrees to those terms.

Barry attempts to lure the Godspeeds into the entropy trap by broadcasting one of their signals through the speakers built into his suit. They manage to catch one.

The Godspeed refuses to answer questions, which Diggle takes as a sign that he's a soldier and will talk when he is ready to volunteer information.

Diggle tells Cecile that ARGUS is aware of her empathy powers, despite her efforts to keep her status as a metahuman a secret.

Cecile tried to read the Godspeed but could only sense hatred and determination.

The Godspeed was trying to contact his other selves but was blocked by Allegra's powers.

The Godspeed finally speaks and reveals that he knows Barry Allen's secret identity.

Joe wants to flee and get back-up but Kramer wants to confront Adam Creyke.

Joe asks why Creyke would be trying to kill Kramer now when he tried to save her before. She says that he must not know who he is hunting, which gives Joe an idea.

The Godspeed reveals that there are two factions within the Godspeeds - those loyal to August Heart, who want to take Barry's speed and deliver it to him. The other Godspeeds wish to live freely, as they "did not ask to be born, but we do ask not to die" which is the inevitable fate of all the Godspeed clones.

The Godspeed reveals that the original August Heart has come to the present day from the future and the Godspeeds are trying to find him. It also says the only solution is to kill August Heart before he becomes Godspeed.

The Godspeed escapes after Barry refuses to help kill August Heart, thanks to Barry forgetting that the anti-meta safeguards in the Pipleine only work on naturally created metahumans - not artificial speedsters created by a Velocity drug.

The Godspeed also breaks the entropy trap, which can't be rebuilt as it was made using repurposed Time Trapper tech that ARGUS didn't have much of in their possession. 

Barry snaps and yells at Chester when he says he can't fix the entropy trap. This prompts a lecture from Diggle.

Allegra overhears Diggle's speech about the importance of family and resolves to help Ultraviolet against Black Hole now.

Diggle references having been the Green Arrow for a time during Arrow Season 6.

Iris gave Cecile Nora's journal to search for information on August Heart. Cecile found mention of a few places Nora found that seemed personal to Heart which might be worth searching.

Barry agrees to let Cecile search for the original August Heart, but asks her to take Diggle and Allegra with her.

Cecile winds up going with Frost and Diggle, as Allegra isn't answering her texts for some reason.

John has a massive migraine, which he says is the worst one that he's ever had.

Cecile feels John's pain, describing it as like fighting a hurricane. She also claims to have sensed something behind the pain which felt infinite in power.

Barry tries to enter the Speed Force to visit Nora in 2049 but is ambushed by a mob of Godspeeds.

Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force by Deon Owens (aka The Still Force) who tells him that the Godspeeds are feeding on the Speed Force and that "big sis" (i.e. Nora Speed Force) has her hands full trying to deal with them.

Deon refuses to send Barry to the future, saying it is too risky until the Speed Force is done cleansing herself. Besides that, it is taking all of his strength to protect Iris, who is being pulled out of time by some outside force, which is causing her illness.

Deon promises to protect Iris, but tells Barry he's needed to fight the war in the present.

Diggle attacks the Godspeeds using a dose of nanites devised by Ray Palmer that neutralize superspeed. (The same nanites were used by Oliver Queen against Eobard Thawne in 122.)

Diggle has another headache, this time hearing a chorus of voices say "Worlds Await," over and over.

Frost saves Diggle while he is down.

Allegra is revealed to be tracking Ultraviolet, who ran off without her despite her promises to wait. She finds her in the middle of a massacre, critically wounded.

Ultraviolet has just enough time to curse Allegra for letting her die alone, but she says that she will not die afraid.

Ultraviolet's body dissolves into dust upon her death.

Frost, Diggle and Cecile check out the future site of Dayton Labs' as Nora's journal said August Heart worked there for a while in her time.  That lab doesn't exist in the modern day, however.

They find a man they think is the original August Heart, but he's amnesiac and was only at the Dayton Labs site because he felt it was important for some reason.

Adam Creyke claims to have died 17 times and been reborn over and over.

Adam Creyke recognizes Kramer and asks who she really is, claiming that the real Kramer was killed during Operation Griffin.

Creyke defends his mercenary actions, saying he gave half of the money he earned back to the reservation they grew up on.

At Joe's urging, Kramer doesn't shoot Creyke.

Chester calculates they have 90 minutes before the next wave of Godspeeds.

The only thing Cecile can sense from August Heart is the same confusion and fear an amnesiac would have.

Chester tells Diggle to thank Cisco for the Time Trapper tech and to tell him that he's going to do what he can to repair it himself.

Diggle leaves Central City, telling Barry there's something he's been putting off for far too long and it nearly got him killed. This coincides with a quick flashback to A810 and Diggle's discovery of a glowing green object in the meteor that nearly hit him when he was loading his moving van.

Barry and Diggle hug before he leaves and Barry offers whatever help he can.

The mystery man confirms his name is August after Caitlin injects him with dark matter.

Cecile has still not gotten in touch with Joe at the episode's end.

Nora West-Allen appears and tells Barry she wouldn't have come to the past if it weren't important.

Nora points out that the fact that she is there is proof that Iris will be all-right, as is the person who traveled with her. This leads to the introduction of her brother, Bart Allen Jr.

Location

A wooden area somewhere near Midway City.


Untelevised Adventures

Iris is off-camera for most of the episode, being protected by the Still Force.

Barry is ambushed by several Godspeeds while evacuating City Hall.

Frost is said to be out in Central City fighting the Godspeeds for most of the episode.

Iris gave Cecile Nora's diary so she could search for information on August Heart.


The Fridge Factor

Iris is reduced to a damsel to be protected by this episode.

Ultraviolet is killed off an episode after being cured, purely to give Allegra angst about abandoning her family and likely setting up her inevitable conclusion that Team Flash is her family now.


The Boomerang Factor

Barry's forgetting that the safeguards in the Pipeline only neutralize the powers of natural born metahumans seems like a major oversight, as does the safeguards somehow not working on those who get powers from temporary means like Velocity-9.


The Bottom Line

Overstuffed but comfortable, like an old easy chair. The scenes with Diggle are enjoyable and expand well upon his mystery. Unfortunately, the urgency of the Godspeed War is seriously undercut by all the subplots involving Iris' disappearance, Joe helping Kramer and everything involving Ultraviolet. It's clear they didn't have as much time to develop everything with the shorter season order and, ironically, it's probably for the best they had to abandon the Elongated Man storyline they had planned lest this seem even busier. That being said, the final two minutes bode well for the 150th episode and the arrival of Impulse.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 15 - Enemy at the Gates

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

When an army of Godspeeds attack Central City, Barry must put his plans to start a family with Iris on hold. Meanwhile, Chillblaine is out of prison and claiming to have turned over a new leaf, but Frost is skeptical. Meanwhile, Caitlin must perform a revolutionary surgery procedure to save Ultraviolet.

Influences

Numerous "base under siege" episode of Doctor Who.


Goofs

Not a goof as such, but it's a little odd that Iris West-Allen is entirely absent from this episode given that one of the major subplots centers around her pregnancy results.

While played for laughs, Chester does have a legitimate point in wondering why Barry suddenly has a car in this episode, when Barry was always shown using public transportation in flashbacks before he got his speed powers and the Pilot specifically noted that Barry didn't own a car. (The simplest explanation is he's borrowing Iris' car.)

Unless STAR Labs has some kind of magnificent sterilization technology, there is no way Caitlin would have allowed Allegra or Cecile to stand that close to Ultraviolet while she was performing surgery unles they were also in surgical scrubs.

Why would Barry need to call Iris with her pregnancy test results? Shouldn't that be the sort of thing you reveal to your wife in person?

Joe's entire subplot feels tacked-on.


Performances

While it's somewhat ridiculous he needs to do, Grant Gustin does a convincing job of making it seem like Candice Patton is on the other end of the phone every time he calls Iris throughout the episode.

Artistry

The special effects for the Godspeed fight at the end are impressive.

Flash Facts

Chester asks Barry if he has a Flash Mobile when he sees Barry holding car keys. Various toys have depicted The Flash having a Flash Mobile, despite it making little sense for him to have a car. Perhaps the most famous example of this was the Justice League animated series episode "Eclipsed" where the Wally West Flash bought a red van with yellow lighting decals with the suggestion he was going to use it to pick up women.

Cecile makes reference to a Kord case. This is likely a nod to Ted Kord or Kord Omniversal, aka The Blue Beetle.

Joe makes a passing mention of Midway City. In the comics, Midway City was the home of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl as well as the original Doom Patrol. Midway City has been mentioned in passing in earlier episodes of The Flash, but is most notable as being where Patty Spivot moved after she quit her job with the CCPD and broke off her romance with Barry Allen.

Frost mentions several Central City districts from the comics while listing the hospitals she could take Chillblaine to, including Danville, Fairview and Leawood.

Technobabble

According to Barry, meta-DNA signatures can misrepresent HCG levels on a standard pregnancy test. This means that he has to conduct Iris' pregnancy test personally to protect his secret identity. 

According to Caitlin, Black Hole introduced a delbiberate irregularity into Ultraviolet's vascular system which created a 40% decrease in her body's ability to maintain her oxygen intake. She was also given implantation circuitry which was grafted to her vocal cords, which receives regular software updates like a smart phone. With Black Hole having been shut down, sooner or later the circuitry will stop working and kill her.

Chester tries to develop a cryptographic algorithm to decode the Godspeeed language. 

If blown up, Central City's power planet blast radius would be over 40 square miles.

Chester estimates it will take six Godspeed clones roughly an hour to punch through STAR Labs' force field.

Chester determines that the Godspeeds are creating a set of variables to predicat a fixed outcome. This makes unpredictable behavior the best defense against them.

Chillblaine named his gauntlets Derek and Nancy.

Chester comes up with a plan he thinks can shut down the Godspeeds, which involves recording their speech and playing it back through the CCPD emergency alert system, making it impossible for them to communicate. He also thinks he can boost the signal to scramble their brains.

Removing the chip from Ultraviolet's body triggers a systemic neural trauma. Cecile is able to neutralize it by projecting her own sense of calm and peace onto Ultraviolet.

The Time Vault Panic Room has tachyon nullifiers that can prevent a speedster from phasing into it.

Chillblaine says he has explosive chemistry with Frost, comparing them to sucrose and potassium chlorate with heat.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Frost is trying to take care of a wounded Chillblaine.)
Frost: Come on, I'm taking you to Danville General.
Chillblaine: No. No, no, no. They're probably still pretty upset about the CAT scan machine that I sabotaged a few years back.
Frost: Okay, fine. Leawood Med, then.
Chillblaine:  Kinda blew up their bio-chem lab.
Frost: Okay, um... fine, there is a shady vet down on Fairview. He won't ask-
Chillblaine: (laughs) Hey. Dr. Haley? Yeah, I love that guy. He's wanted to kill me ever since Tijuana, though.... That's actually a really funny story for some other time.


Dialogue Disasters

(Barry is waiting on the pregnancy test to finish processing.)
Barry: I just... wish Iris was feeling better and could be here.
Cecile: I know, I know. But you're gonna call her as soon as we're done.


Continuity

Barry falls asleep in his lab at the CCPD and has a dream of Nora West-Allen, telling him that things are going to work out. The realism of the dream leads Barry to believe that he's impregnated Iris.

Iris calls into work sick the next morning, having apparently been nauseous for several days.

Barry tells Iris that he's going to drive to STAR Labs to conduct a pregnancy test in the lab there.

Barry has to drive to STAR Labs, as moving at superspeed could destroy the blood and urine samples he took from Iris.

Cecile has been working with Iris on a case involving someone named Kord.

Cecile senses that Barry is nervous yet excited about something.

Barry and Cecile have a monthly Tuesday lunch date, which is that Tuesday.

Barry lies about the bag he is carrying that has Iris's blood and urine samples and says it is full of protein bars, which he needs for when he is using his super speed.

Frost has set up an art studio in STAR Labs.

Chester shows Frost a newspaper article about Chillblaine turning State's Evidence and being paroled, confirming his claims in the closing scene of 714.

Chester compares Chillblaine's reformation to that of Captain Cold.

Frost decides to follow Chillblaine, convinced he's up to something.

Joe was reportedly able to dig up more on Adam Creyke in a week than she could in years.

The last time Warrant Officer Adam Cryeke was seen was on a security camera stealing five M18 Claymore Mines from the barracks armory at Fort Dakota. These were the weapons he used to kill Kristin Kramer's unit.

Kramer is unsure how she survived the explosion when everyone else died.

Kramer is also unaware of just what metahuman ability Adam Creyke has that allowed him to survive such an explosion, but she's certain he knew it wouldn't hurt him.

Kramer and Creyke were both Wet'suwet'en First Nations - a band predominantly located in what is today called British Columbia.

Kramer says that Creyke joined the Army to stay with her, despite a love of open waters and a desire to join the Navy.

Creyke's callsign while in the Army was Rasputin.

Joe had an uncle who owned a schooner and took him fishing every summer. He taught Joe a bit about sailing and that sailors take the naming of their vessels seriously.

Joe finds a schooner named Rasputin that was registered in Midway City six weeks after Operation Griffin.

Joe says he will help Kramer bring down Creyke, but it has to be about justice - not revenge.

A new Godspeed who speaks in the electronic modem speak of earlier Godspeed duplicates appears in Central City. The last time Godspeed was seen was in 618.

Barry runs into Chester on his way to the lab. When Chester asks why he had to drive, Barry lies and says he was bringing his blood and urine samples in for his annual physical with Caitlin, who is his General Practitioner. . 

Barry is reminded that Caitlin is performing surgery on Ultraviolet in the medical lab.

Barry decides to go perform the pregnancy test at his lab at CCPD instead.

Ultraviolet is reluctant to have Caitlin perform surgery on her, but Allegra persuades her to give her a chance.

Frost follows Chillblaine to O'Shaughnessy's Pub, where the two first met in 707. She saves him from some former associates who don't take kindly to "rats."

Chillblaine asks Frost out to dinner once again. 

Since Chillblaine apparently robbed or irritated every hospital and shady doctor in Central City and Keystone, Frost agrees to take Chillblaine to STAR Labs to have Caitlin tend to his injuries.

Cecile shows up at Barry's lab for their lunch meeting and discovers him in the middle of the pregancny test. She immediately figures out what he is doing when he says he is waiting for a liquid to turn blue.

Barry and Cecile are distracted by the reports about the new Godspeed.

Chester tracks two simultaneous Godspeed sightings - one causing a muli-car collission near City Hall and the other near a gas station three miles away.

Barry determines there must be multiple Godspeeds as even he isn't fast enough to be in two places at once.

When it is suggested that Iris rally Team Citizen to investigate the sites where Godspeed was sighted, Barry dismisses the idea, saying it isn't safe for anyone who isn't a speedster go out. This is after Frost already agreed to cover the second site.

Chillblaine tries to ask Caitlin for more details about Frost likes. She simply tells Chillblaine that he can't handle her sister.

Chillblaine offers to help in dealing with the Godspeed problems. Frost locks him up in STAR Labs' lounge instead.

Barry confronts a Godspeed who attacks Central City's Power Plant.

Chester's algorithm translates the Godspeed's response to Barry's words as "I have him." This leads to a chase with multiple Godspeeds chasing Barry, as he reaces to STAR Labs to get under the Babel Protocol Force Field.

The Babel Protocols were last mentioned in 702.

Chester overhears Barry's message to Iris and learns that they're trying to have a baby.

Chester was unware of the existence of Nora West-Allen and her time spent in the past with Team Flash during Season 5.

Before leaving, STAR Labs, Cisco turned the Time Vault into a panic room.

Frost gives Chillblaine his cold gauntlets and lets him loose to help fight the Godspeeds.

The Godspeeds are eventually able to work through STAR Labs' force-field by draining the energy from it rather than trying to beat it down or phase through it.

Gideon suggests that Chester's plan might work if it plays his sound file through STAR Labs' internal intercom once the Godspeeds enter the building. The plan works. 

Barry leads the six Godspeeds away from STAR Labs, only for them to be met by another six Godspeeds, who fight them before they all disappear.

Ultraviolet is said to be recovering after her surgery.

Barry says the Godspeeds barely stole any of his power.

Chillblaine ditches Frost and escapes STAR Labs after the fight.

The pregnancy test comes up negative.

Joe and Kramer watch the docks where Creyke's boat is docked.

Creyke was in Special Forces when he was in the army and had a knack for killing.

The episode ends with the car Joe and Kramer was in blowing up, after Joe sees something in the woods behind them and an energy bolt hits the car.


Location

O’Shaughnessy on the south side of Keystone City.
An unknown dock near Midway City.


The Bottom Line

One of the better episodes of the season, but that's damning with faint praise. The best thing about it is how well it utilizes the regular cast, apart from Joe's story seeming like an afterthought and the fact that an episode centering around Iris' pregnancy doesn't have Iris on-camera once! Still, the action-sequences and effects work are great, but the Godspeed mystery has been drawn out for far too long.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 13 - Masquerade

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

A familiar threat traps Cecile and Barry in a psychic prison, as Chester struggles to fills Cisco's shoes as Team Flash's tech guy. Luckily, an old friend arrives from out of town to lend a hand. Meanwhile, Joe begins to dig into Kristen Kramer's past and makes an unsettling discovery.

Influences

The comics of J.M. DeMatteis (psychological themes, presence of Sue Dearbon), Mission Impossible (referenced, the heist scenes) and The Fast and The Furious films (referenced by Chester)


Goofs

If Roger Hayden stole the Medusa Mask from the Kahndaqi embassy, why was he allowed to keep it while he was an inmate at Arkham Asylum? Shouldn't it have been taken into evidence and returned? And how the heck did Arkham Asylum justify taking the mask and donating it to an American museum once they learned what it was?

The design of the Medusa Mask has changed since it was last seen in Elseworlds. (Presumably an intelligent magical artifact like the Medusa Mask can change its appearance or it may have been altered by Crisis on Infinite Earths.)


Performances

Natalie Dreyfuss continues to be a delight as the Arrowverse's version of Sue Dearbon.


Artistry

The direction by Rachel Talalay is top-notch.

The asylum sets are well-lit and eerie, adding to the horror of the dream sequences. 


Flash Facts

This episode is the first to not include Carlos Valdes in the opening actor montage.

The opening sequence for this episode is in black-and-white.

Chester makes a reference to the number 52, saying a replacement cable he needs is on Aisle B, Shelf 52 of the Starchives.

Sue claims that she studied ballet at the DeMatteis Academy of Dance. This is a nod to comic writer J.M. DeMatteis who, while not the creator of Sue Dearbon, has probably co-written most of her most famous stories as part of the writing team for Justice League International.

Among the posters in Chester's redecorated lab are a large photograph of rapper Tupac Shakur. This episode originally aired on what would have been Shakur's 50th birthday.

The villain of this episode is revealed to be the Medusa Mask worn by a villain called the Psycho Pirate. This is an original conceit for the Arrowverse, as the Medusa Mask in the comics did not have an independent consciousness that manipulated its host

The first Psycho Pirate was a man named Charles Halstead, who was an enemy of the Justice Society. He based his crimes around emotions and had no powers besides being a master manipulator.

The second Psycho Pirate, Roger Hayden, was a career criminal who happened to meet Charles Halstead in prison. Wishing a legacy, Halstead told Hayden of the Medusa Masks - legendary artifacts that could control the emotions of others. Hayden found the masks, melted them into a single faceplate that gave him the power of them all, and gained the ability to manipulate the emotions of other people.

The Roger Hayden Psycho Pirate is notable as one of the few beings who knows of the existence of the Pre-Crisis DC Comics Universe, having been made into a servant of the Anti-Monitor but spared from the effects of having his memories altered - presumably due to his connection to the Medusa Mask.

The New 52 Roger Hayden was depicted as a powerful psychic whose powers were enhanced by the Medusa Mask. Otherwise he was largely the same character, save that he was quite insane due to his memories of the continually resetting universes. He was powerful enough, with the mask, that he was able to manipulate every mind in Metropolis at once without straining himself.

The Arrowverse version of Roger Hayden was an inmate at Arkham Asylum, who made a cameo during the Elseworlds event, in which he referred to the coming Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, nothing came of this cameo, as the Psycho Pirate had his storyline cut for time.

The Arrowverse version of Roger Hayden claimed to have gotten psychic powers from a mask he stole from the Kahndaqi  Embassy, but nobody believed him as he was insane. The mask is said to have been taken from him by the Arkham Asylum staff and donated to the Central City Museum.

Mention is made of the Kahndaqi embassy. Kahndaq is a fictional nation in the DC Comics universe, located in the Middle East, and is the homeland of Black Adam.

The psychiatric hospital where Cecile was a patient is identified as St. Carmine's. This may be a nod to Carmine Infantino - the artist who co-created the character of Cecile Horton. 

The is no real-world St. Carmine recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.


Technobabble

Barry notes that the CSIs on the Eric Frye case found butane at the scene of the crime, indicating human arson rather than metahuman based pyrokinetics.

When trapped in the mindscape, Barry's brainwaves oscillate at a rate of .5 hertz, which is typical of a coma patient.

Sue determines that the Mask of Medusa is currently locked up in the restoration lab of the Central City Museum. It's hermetically sealed and protected by a laser security grid that is sensitive enough to detect a dust mite. This, according to Sue, is not a problem.

The problem, according to Sue, is that the museum has a Montgomery vault with a password that changes daily and is known only to a single security guard at one time.

Chester suggests tracking Cecile by her unique neurological signal.

Chester looks for more neuro-fiber to repair the Memory Machine.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: Cecile... I'm never gonna know what it was like for you to go through all this. But I know what it's like to lose a mom. And to blame yourself for it, even when it's not your fault. It makes you want to take that pain and bury it under a mask. Away from the people you love. But masks don't heal wounds. They only hide them. Facing those wounds can be scary as hell, but it's the only way to start healing


Continuity

This episode takes two weeks after the events of 711 and the lightning bolt that struck Cecile.

Cecile's aunt is watching over Jenna, so that Cecile can focus on recovering from her injuries.

Joe has started researching Kristen Kramer's background since he left the GCPD, but every file he keeps finding involving her is classified or redacted to the point of being unreadable.

Reportedly, Kristen Kramer has replaced Joe as Captain.

Cecile gives Joe a file she came across while prepping a client who is a metahuman and an army vet. He apparently served with Kramer at Fort Dakota.

Joe drives to Fort Dakota to check their records in person.

Cecile is revealed to be locked up in a psychic landscape resembling an asylum and someone else is pretending to be her.

Chester has repainted and redecorated Cisco's workshop, bringing in posters and his own tools. He has, however, kept the old Pinball game - something Caitlin notes Frost will be thankful for.

Chester also set up stealth audio speakers around the lab, which play dance music whenever he claps his hands. Unfortunately, the system shorts out when he claps his hands twice to crank up the bass.

Chester offers to teach Caitlin how to dance - an offer she reluctantly accepts.

Chester is inventorying the Starchives and memorizing the locations of various things.

Chester stumbles across Barry and Iris "having fun" in the Starchives. They inform him of their decision to try and have a baby.

"Cecile" calls Barry in to get his opinion on a case involving Erik Frue - a pyrokinetic metahuman, who appeared in 416.

Barry asks why Cecile called him on this case, as she handled something similar years ago. This triggers his becoming trapped in the same landscape as the real Cecile.

Chester suggests that Cecile could use her powers to see if Barry is being mind-controlled, but she shrugs this off saying she's just an empath. However, Caitlin says she can at least determine if someone is manipulating his emotions.

Pushed to help, Cecile says that she can't sense Barry's emotions but feels something cold and mad, "like alight in the middle of the darkness, glowing like a gold mask."This leads Chester to conclude that the person manipulating Barry is the Psycho Pirate, based on the golden mask description in Cisco's Who's Who guide.

Reference is made to Roger Hayden, who appeared in S409. However, he is said to be a random madman who claimed to have superpowers but didn't.

Roger Hayden is said to have stolen the Medusa Mask from the Kahndaqi embassy. It was later donated to the Central City Museum by Arkham Asylum, where it is due to go on display in one day.

The Medusa Mask was said to have been used by the warrior Gilgamesh to imprison a powerful demon - or what might be considered today to have been an ancient psychic metahuman. Since that time, the mask has popped up around the world, falling into the possession of the Yoruba Tribe of Africa and a group of pirates.

The Medusa Mask moves from host to host, driving them insane before moving on.

Chester suggests using the cerebral inhibitor to break the Medusa Mask's hold on Barry, but Caitlin notes they would need the mask for that to work. This leads Chester to suggest calling in Sue Dearbon and getting her to pull a heist to steal the mask.

Cecile tells Barry she's been trapped in the psychic asylum since she was struck by lightning during the Force Storm. Barry reveals that was two weeks ago. (i.e. 711)

Barry says he thought the lighting that struck Cecile was the work of Psyche, but this doesn't feel the same as his illusions.

Barry realizes he doesn't have his powers in the mindscape and can't vibrate through the walls or doors to escape the cell.

Barry says the experience feels like when he was trapped in a psychic landscape by Grodd in 613. This leads him to conclude that they are trapped in a memory, but he has no idea whose memory.

When Sue says she can't hack the vault containing the Medusa Mask, Chester suggests that Cecile could empathically nudge the security guard into opening the vault to check on the Mask.

Sue tells Chester that this whole job feels too easy and that there's something weird about this whole situation.

Chester says he's sure this will all work out and notes this isn't even the first time he's had to save Barry's brain, making reference to 613.

Sue is a trained dancer, which gave her the moves to work her way through the laser grid and turning it into ballet. 

Cecile notes that the psychic asylum is a one-floor building. 

Barry finds a portal out of the mindscape, but it vanishes as he approaches it. This reveals a jabbering woman in a straight-jacket, who is revealed to be another version of Cecile.

Barry is forced to pass out by the crazy Cecile. This triggers an alarm in the medical lab at STAR Labs.

Sue is armed with tranquilizer darts, which she uses to knock out the guard once the vault is open.

Caitlin informs the rest of the team that she's detected a third mind in Barry's brain along with the second. This leads to the revelation that the Medusa Mask has already taken over Cecile.

The Mask, through Cecile's body, makes Sue tranquilize herself, saying that the new host shall serve her for eternity. 

Sue chews out Chester for not listening to her when she said this seemed like a set-up. This leads to Chester having a depressive episode because of his fears of not measuring up to Cisco.

Cecile comes clean with Barry and reveals that they are in her memories. The mindscape is modeled on the time she spent as a patient at St. Carmine's Psychiatric Hospital, outside Houston Texas.

Cecile had a mental breakdown during her first year of law-school, when she was interning at the District Attorney's office in Houston, Texas, following the death of her mother from cancer. Her mother died alone and Cecile blamed herself and her working too hard, even though her mother's prognosis was good.

Barry tells Cecile that he thinks the only way to escape is for her to acknowledge her past and confront her fears about being seen as crazy because she sought treatment for her mental health. Her resolution to try and face the other version of herself leads to Barry regaining his powers.

Iris gives Chester a pep talk about how his place is with Team Flash and how they've all made mistakes in the past.

Chester says he appreciates the talk, but he thinks the problem is less his scientific acumen and the fact that he barely knows the rest of the team after a year.

Chester has an intuitive leap that the Medusa Mask sought out Cecile thinking an empath would make for a stronger host, but to have a permanent host it needs something else to enhance itself - like the Thinker's Chair.

Chester has a crazy plan to stop the Medusa Mask. This ultimately boils down to Iris distracting it while he attacks the chair with a samurai sword. At the same time, Cecile confronts her past and reasserts control of her own body.

Sue apologies to Chester for being so harsh.

Sue says she's going to hang around Central City for a while since Ralph is still busy with another case. She invites everyone to drinks and a late dinner at her penthouse suite at the Lily Hotel.

Barry and Iris make sure Chester is aware that invitation includes him, despite him being more of a root beer kind of guy.

Chester accepts, but asks Barry and Iris to stop "getting freaky" in the Starchives when he is at work and just take a day off or go on vacation somewhere.

Cecile tells Joe about her time in the hospital and he assures her it is fine and he doesn't think any less of her.

Joe reveals that he found Kristen Kramer's record and determined that her last mission placed her in command with a squad meant to take out several strategic facilities - a mission that failed and ended with everyone, except Kramer, dead. Joe suspects that she was working with the enemy. 


Untelevised Adventures

Ralph Dibny is apparently busy with a case of his own, according to Sue Dearborn, which is why he didn't come to Central City with her.

Ralph and Sue apparently had an adventure in Tunisia which was much more complicated than the museum heist.


The Bottom Line

Well-directed, but badly written, with seemingly no purpose other than making a Very Special Episode point regarding the stigma of mental health. Definitely a worthy cause, but turning the Medusa Mask into the Helm of Nabu probably wasn't the best way to make the point. At least the performances are solid, even if half the cast has nothing to do for most of the episode.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 11 - Family Matters, Part 2

 For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

The Forces go to war, with Central City caught in the crossfire and the world facing a second Big Bang unless Barry Allen and Iris can find a way to unite their "children."


Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (concept of Strength, Sage and Still Forces)


Goofs

The plot of this episode doesn't even try to make sense, with character motivations changing from scene to scene and it being totally inconsistent as to the Forces being children in host bodies or the hosts seeing themselves as Barry and Iris' children.

Again, the power level of the Forces is inconsistent, as the Speed Force is apparently capable of destroying the other forces by itself, but it needed Barry's help to kill Alexa in 708.

Also, Nora threatens to destroy the city, only to reveal that the storm threatening Central City is due to the other forces, not her.

It also doesn't make much sense that the Speed Force can't go back in time to when it didn't exist, but Barry can using his powers.... which come from the Speed Force.

Granting that Iron Heights may not be in Central City's district (Pre-Crisis, it was halfway between Central City and Star City) why weren't Kristen Kramer and her meta-cure bullets there trying to do something about the escaping criminals? Jurisdiction didn't seem to matter when she showed up in Keystone City with a CCPD riot team to capture Frost in 707 and this would seem to be an ideal time for her to make her point about removing the powers of meta-criminals.

Why, apart from needing to give Team Citizen something to do in this episode, are Allegra and Kamilla tasked with getting people off the streets when Barry could do the job faster and more effectively?

It beggars belief that the DA's office agreed to commute Frost's life without parole sentence just days after her conviction, purely because The Flash put in a good word for her and her response to being broken out of prison was to start capturing the escaped meta-criminals, given the pressure Kramer was putting them under and her apparent grip on the CCPD. (This also raises the question of why Barry didn't testify on her behalf along with Joe at her trial.)


Performances

Trite as it is and as many times as he's given similar speeches, Jesse L. Martin nails his speech on the difficulties of being a parent.


Artistry

You can see where most of the season's special effects budget went, with the various lighting and storm effects in this episode.


Flash Facts

Central City's population is said to be 3 million. This is roughly the same as the greater St. Louis, Missouri area, which is about 2.8 million.


Technobabble

Barry gives Iris a transmat orb full of hyper-tachyon particles that will pull any organic matter in the immediate vicinity to Central City.

The storm created by the Forces generates Category 3 winds and over 22 lighting strikes a minute.

Chester rebuilds the isotopic sensor, enabling Barry to use it while sweeping through the city at super-speed. It is accurate to within 100 yards.

Cisco says an Einstein-Maxwell gravitational trap could hold the Speed Force, but the coils would need enough current to power Las Vegas to do it.

The Speed Force can be detected by the presence of kinetic isotopes in the atmosphere.

The lightning that struck Cecile is revealed to be made of electrochemical isotopes - the energy of the Sage Force.

A collider reaction over Central City threatens to achieve enough atomic mass to trigger a second Big Bang, as the four Forces return to their original state, like when they were born. To save reality, Barry must keep the Force Event from reaching optimal expansion, preventing the Forces from snapping back and destroying all existence.


Dialogue Disasters

Every thrice damned speech about The Forces being family and needing to come together.


Continuity

It is revealed that Iris, Bashir and Alexa's deaths at the end of 710 were the result of Bashir reflexively creating an illusion - something he didn't know he could do with the Sage Force.

Iris thinks Nora attacked her because she sees her as competition for Barry's affections. (This is not exactly news since Nora tried to kill her in 709 and said as much.)

Barry decided to hide Iris, Bashir and Alexa in the dead Speed Force subspace following Crisis, saying that the Speed Force can't go there.

Joe and Cecile see a news broadcast on a mass escape from Iron Heights after lighting took out a wall. Most of the escapees are metahumans. There is no word on the news about Frost being one of the escapees.

Cecile is stuck by lightning. Joe takes her to STAR Labs for treatment.

The Speed Force confronts Barry and demands it bring the other Forces to her so she can kill them. She threatens to destroy Central City if he doesn't do this.

The Speed Force was able to sense Barry going someplace she could not follow.

Cisco fixes the isotopic sensor so Barry can look for Deon Owens.

Frost did escape prison, but decided to recapture the fugitive metahumans. She's in full costume when she goes after Chillblaine, who just stole some biotech interfaces.

Caitlin treats Cecile and Joe says he is going to stay with her.

Bashir talks to Alexa telepathically and convinces her to work with him to steal the transport sphere from Iris, saying they need to confront the Speed Force and kill her before she kills them.

Barry finds Deon at Central City Stadium. Deon apologizes for killing Iris, Bashir and Alexa, but Barry tells him that he was faked out.

Deon wants to kill the Speed Force and teleports away after Barry says they're going to find another way to stop her.

Barry tells Cisco and Chester to man the coms while he keeps searching for Deon. He also says to get  Team Citizen on the street to start evacuating people to storm shelters.

Joe suggests that maybe killing the Speed Force is the only way.

Allegra asks Joe to come help her with the evacuation. She also tells Joe that he's a good man even if he isn't a cop anymore and that he helped her fulfill her dreams of becoming a reporter.

Joe declines her offer, saying he needs to be there for his wife.

Bashir and Alexa overpower Iris and take the orb, transporting them all back to reality.

Barry has no luck finding Deon and meets the Speed Force again.

The Speed Force claims that she isn't responsible for the storms destroying Central City - it's the other Forces. She points out that the Earthquakes are generated by the Strength Force and those are also a part of the storm.

Iris returns to STAR Labs having wound up halfway across town.

Frost brings down Chillblaine.

Joe tells Barry and Iris that they are good parents and are doing the right thing in trying to wrangle the forces.

Barry says maybe they need to bring the Forces together rather than keeping them apart.

Deon meets with Alexa and Bashir and they agree to work together to kill the Speed Force.

Barry meets wit the Speed Force, who knows he was plotting against her.

Barry, Bashir, Alexa and Deon are drawn into the Speed Force and an all-out fight breaks out.

Everyone is forced out of the Speed Force because of a collider reaction forming over Central City.

Chester estimates they only have three minutes before the isotopic forces return to their original state, triggering a second Big Bang.

The other Forces unite against the Speed Force to give her a vision of her worst fear - which turns out to be being alone. This caused the Speed Force to join with them all, as they help Barry to calm the storm and prevent disaster.

The Four forces join together inside the Speed Force subspace that looks like Barry and Iris's childhood home, which has now been restored to a pristine state.

Barry says he feels more powerful now that all the Forces are working together in harmony.

Cecile wakes from her coma and is expected to recover fully.

Baby Jenna was being watched over by Rob and David Singh.

Allega says she wants to refine her powers to be more than a human glowstick.

Kamilla and Cisco indulge in a public display of affection while getting coffee with Allegra and Chester. This causes Allegra and Chester to look at each other for a moment and look away quickly. This is apparently meant to hit that the two are starting to develop feelings for one another, despite having barely interacted.

Chester built an electric sock warmer for his grandmother.

Cisco gets a text, which he ignores. It is from Chip Cooper, saying that he needs an answer.

Frost shows up at Caitlin's apartment, claiming she was given probation on her life sentence after the DA's office saw her on the news catching the escaping metahuman criminals and after Barry put in a good word for her as The Flash.

Frost tells Caitlin about her crush on Chillblaine.

Barry and Iris decide to start trying to have kids.


Location

The Speed Force.


Untelevised Adventures

The escape of multiple metahuman criminals from Iron Heights occurs off-camera.


The Fridge Factor

Frost falls hard for Chillblaine, despite his repeated attempts to kill her and frame her for his crimes, because women love bad boys. I guess. Hopefully this is building to her making a statement about how she doesn't need a boyfriend because it sort of stinks to see this sort of thing after Danielle Panabaker put her foot down about Caitlin getting a new love interest every season, despite being a recent widow.


The Boomerang Factor

Joe West spends the entire episode sitting with his wife instead of trying to lead people to safety (like the rest of Team Flash) purely so he can be there to give Barry and Iris a speech about what it is to be a parent.


The Bottom Line

Without a doubt the worst episode in the series' history. Lazy writing buoyed by strong performances it doesn't deserve. The only good thing is that can be said about this episode is that it ended the Forces storyline. Unfortunately, that may just be temporary as there's still  another eight episodes to go and no clear plotline for what comes next.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 4 - There Will Be Blood

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Barry's efforts to prepare everyone for a world without The Flash are derailed when Cisco starts scheming to find a way to save him from the coming Crisis. Ralph also has a hard time processing the idea of a world without Barry Allen. Meanwhile, Ramsey Rosso taps into his newfound powers to save his life and loses his humanity in the process.


Influences

The zombie movies of George Romero, the Venom movie (the effects to animate Ramsey's blood powers) and The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson.


Goofs

You'd think Barry would take Frost's opinion on Ramsey Rosso into account before ordering Cisco to save his life. at least when it comes to finding a worthwhile person to save. But we do have to set up the irony of Barry being responsible for empowering a dangerous metahuman, don't we?

Cisco, as an engineer, is wholly unqualified to do most forms of medical work, never mind develop a cure for cancer!

Barry said he was going to make Cisco the team leader after his death. Isn't that Iris' job?

Couldn't Ramsey add adrenaline into his cure instead of taking blood from scared people?

The special effects for Bloodwork's powers look like a cheap version of the effects for Venom.


Performances

Hartley Sawyer makes Ralph's depression in the fact of Barry's death incredibly convincing, given how little time he gets to work relative to the Cisco storyline.

Jesse L. Martin spins most of the episode giving inspiring speeches to most of the cast, making me realize how much I missed him during Season 5. While the dialogue in the final scene is sickly sweet, Martin (and to a lesser degree, Grant Gustin) make it work through sheer force of will.


Flash Facts

Iris makes reference to Midway City, when discussing her lead on Sue Dearbon's whereabouts. In the DC Comics Universe, Midway City was home to the Silver Age versions of Hawkman and Hawkwoman as well as one incarnation of the Doom Patrol. It is located somewhere in the American Midwest, though differing comics place it in Illinois and depict it as being something like Chicago or place it in Michigan, near Sault Ste. Marie.

The cure-all Nash promises Barry and Cisco in exchange for their help is located in McCulloch Technologies.The company is named in honor of the second Mirror Master. Evan McCulloch.

According to Nash Wells, the Dominator home world is called Swan Moon. In the classic DC Comics universe, the Dominator homeworld was never given an official name and was simply referred to as the Dominion Homeworld, after the empire ruled by the Dominators.


Technobabble

Ramsey determines that the black blood he absorbed from Mitch Romero's system temporarily cured his HLH cancer but he requires more blood to create a permanent cure to save my life.

Nash Wells requires an anti-vibrational crypto-circuit.to complete his work on Earth-1. He describes his work as thermic excavation.

The Dominators developed an extremely rare bio-regenerative serum capable of healing organic tissue. Injecting it into  the healthy cells of an organic being causes them to replicate and replace unhealthy cells. Unfortunately, the shelf-life of it is limited and it won't work on someone in the advanced stages of something like HLH cancer. Nash Wells claims it might even be able to protect someone from the effects of antimatter, but it seems likely he was just going along with Cisco's suggestion. In the wrong hands, Nash Wells says the serum would be a 12 on a danger scale of 1 to 10.

Nash Wells is armed with a device, similar to Sara Lance's Canary Cry disks, which plays a high-decibel frequency that hurts anyone who hears it. The device also seems to cause electrical interference, causing the lights at McCullouch Technologies to go out and the emergency lights to come on. It can be deactivated by a control on Nash Well's bracer.

Cisco has a device that makes alarm noises. He uses this to distract Barry and Nash while he steals the serum so he can use it on Barry.

The Dominator serum must be kept at -15 degrees Celsius.

Nash's smoke bombs allow the thrower to teleport themselves to a pre-determined safe location - i.e. STAR Labs' lounge. It is not explained how it works.

Ramsey determines that the reason why his dark-matter based cure isn't working is that Mitch Romero was afraid for his life when he died and his blood cells were flooded with epinephrine. The adrenaline released while being attacked is the true bonding agent, which mean that in order to get the blood he needs, Ramsey has to kill people.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Nash Wells offers to help Team Flash if they help him with his work.)
Barry: Your work? What's your work?
Nash: It's thermic excavation.
Cisco: You're a cosmic myth-buster who also happens to be a geologist?
Nash: (beat) Sure.

Barry: Let's just say that we trust you-
Cisco: We don't!
Barry: -which we obviously don't.
Nash: (unoffended) Understood.


Continuity

This episode takes place a few days before Halloween 2019.

Cisco refuses to accept that there's no way to save Barry and stop him from dying in the Crisis.

Iris says that it is six weeks until the Crisis is meant to happen.

Ramsey's newfound power gives him the strength to snap a padlock and the precision to make it look like it was cut with a power saw.

Ramsey steals 10 liters of blood from Central City Hospital.

Barry decides to distract Cisco from his upcoming death by putting him to work on the problem of curing Ramsey Rosso's cancer.

Nash Wells reveals himself to Barry, after also revealing that he bugged Cisco somehow when they first met.

Nash offers to help Barry find a cure for Ramsey Rosso's condition in exchange for STAR Labs building him an anti-vibrational crypto-circuit.

Iris gives Ralph a lead that Sue Dearbon was spotted in Midway City. Ralph thanks her, but doesn't act on it.

Ramsey's second attempt at making a serum based on Mitch Romero's blood fails, only causing the black blood substance in him to surge further out of control, causing him great pain.

Nash Wells leads Barry and Cisco to McCullouch Technologies, saying they have an alien serum that could heal Ramsey.

Ralphi is binge eating and tells Iris that he's given up on the Sue Dearbon case.

Cisco steals the serum and hides it, pretending it was already gone when he cracked the safe holding it.

Barry figures out Cisco was lying to him later.

Barry had planned to make Cisco the team leader after his death, but is questioning that given Cisco's actions.

Ralph has been depressed into inaction because he thinks trying to save anyone is pointless if he can't save Barry.

Joe tells Ralph that he can't save everyone, but he can save Sue Dearbon.

Frost tells Cisco he can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved and trying to force the issue could take him down a dark path.

The serum doesn't work on Ramsey's cells. Apparently the cancer is too far gone.

Ramsey determines that for his cure to work, he must drain the blood of people who are afraid. This leads him to attack Central City Hospital.

Ramsey also determines that he can control the people he kills, though they act like movie zombies and dissolve into black blood once he gets a certain distance away from them.

Ramsey killed five people in his attack on the hospital on Halloween night.

Ralph tells Iris he is going to Midway City to start the search for Sue Dearbon anew.

Nash Wells is apparently tracking the Monitor, who has a base in the sewers of Central City and the circuit Cisco made for him helps him follow his energy signature. The episode ends as Nash is about to hit the wall the Monitor walked through with a pickaxe.


The Bottom Line

Manages the neat trick of seeming like total filler, even though it's almost wholly devoted to pushing the villain's storyline forward. It's odd, but the scenes of everyone being depressed Barry is going to die and coping with Barry's death at the end are the best moments of the episode, repetitive as they are. Everything involving Bloodwork is equally repetitive and predictable, yet somehow stupider and less enjoyable to watch.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 15 - King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Cisco has completed work on the metahuman cure, but they still need a willing test subject to make sure it works. Barry suggests that King Shark - currently in the custody of ARGUS - might be just the man-shark for the job. Unfortunately, their visit coincides with Gorilla Grodd's attempt to escape custody and take over Central City with his newly honed psychic powers.


Influences

Traditional monster fighting monsters movies, The Shape of Water (subplot of woman falling in love with a fish monster) and The Flash comics of John Broome.


Goofs

Where the heck is Ralph Dibny this week? I know they probably couldn't afford two animal monsters AND the stretch guy this week, but it would have been nice if something had been said about where Ralph was.

Again, it must be noted how odd it is that Cisco - an engineer - is working on a cure for metahuman powers, while Caitlin - a medical doctor - constructs the delivery system.

It also seems strange that neither Caitlin nor Cisco had previously raised their objections to forcing their cure on metahumans who don't want to lose their powers... such as when Barry first suggested using their cure against Cicada weeks ago!

Even by the standards of comic book junk science, the idea that there is no way they'll ever be able to cure King Shark if he reverts back to his shark state is pure plot convenience. Or inconvenience in this case.


Performances

I didn't realize how much I missed Jesse L. Martin as Joe until they brought him back. While his subplot here is strictly unnecessary and is only there to make us realize how much we missed him... still good to have him back. Hopefully he'll be back in action soon.

The cast in general do a good job acting to empty air and suggesting that they believe all the various CGI beasties really are there.


Artistry

While the CGI is hardly the show's best, it is probably the best we could have hoped for given the difficulties of two CGI creatures fighting. And the effects team does a good job trying to make it look like the creatures have weight in the actual environment, even if Grodd seems way too bouncy for an 800 pound gorilla.


Flash Facts

Grodd is said to have climbed up the Broome Belfry. Located at the center of Central City, this building is doubtlessly named in honor of John Broome - a legendary Silver Age comics writer, who was probably most famous for his work on The Flash.


Technobabble

The metahuman cure works by altering a person's biology on a cellular level and suppressing the dark matter inside a metahuman's body.

Dark matter levels vary from meta-human to meta-human.

The Shay Lamden of Earth-Two developed a dark matter anomaly similar to the Shay Lamden of Earth-One. The difference is that while the Earth-One Lamden developed a mutated mass of tumors, which killed him, the Earth-Two Shay Lamden's neural pathways regressed, becoming more and more shark-like in his thinking.

Dr. Tanya Lamden was able to reverse King Shark's regression using a cerebral interface that stimulates his neural outputs, which she calls a telepathic crown.

Cisco compares the telepathic crown to the Mental Activity Dampener 2.0, even before they try using the two technologies together to increase their power and act as a lure for King Shark. The two are made to interact using a logarithmic code.

After having the metahuman cure used on him, King Shark's body still has some dark matter in his pituitary gland - the result of the first cure not being made with animal physiology in mind. A second dose, modified based on his unique biology should make his transformation to an ordinary human permanent.

A shark's amygdala triggers a huge emotional response when it feels attacked. Caitlin theorizes this is why Shay Lamden remembers very little of his early days as King Shark apart from rage.

Caitlin determines that King Shark's earlier rampage was caused by a severe brain wave disruption in his frontal lobe, resulting in a complete lack of control over emotions and judgment.The way the neurotransmitters work in the telepathic crown work never would have caused that. This leads to the revelation that Grodd was trying (and failing) to telepathically control King Shark.

Sharks only see in monochrome.

With the telepathic crown, Grodd's telepathy is powerful enough to override the anti-mind-control headsets that Cisco developed.

A vibration or jolt could be used to accelerate the cell cycle in Shay Lamden, prompting a return to the dark matter cellular form. Unfortunately,  saturating his metagene cells a second time will eliminate any possibility of the meta cure being able to ever restore him to normal.

When a shark is turned upside down, it enters tonic immobility - a state of paralysis.

Sharks have electroreceptor organs called ampullae of Lorenzini? It's how they detect electromagnetic fields and navigate. The organ can also attract electrical currents, which enables The Flash to wake up King Shark with a thrown lightning bolt.


Dialogue Triumphs

Sherloque: Monsieur Lamden, I should introduce myself. Sherloque Wells. You've probably heard of me. I have a question. I've been debating in my brain. What drives the King Shark? Is it the shark, or is it the man?
Shay Lamden: If you're asking should I be held accountable for my actions, my answer is simple. Yes, I should. I don't remember how many people I hurt, or who, but that's no excuse.

Sherloque: I see him out there and I see you in here in the shadows. Why is that, I wonder?
Tanya: Can you blame me? You saw his hand transform.
Sherloque: (chuckles) Yes, right. "Shark Week!" Not something you see every day, but no, I thought your hesitation occurred before that moment, not after. It was a slight hesitation, but it was there nonetheless. Again, why do you think that is?
Tanya: I don't know.
Sherloque: No? Well, perhaps I could be so bold as to offer a suggestion that it is not the hand of which you were frightened, but rather, it was seeing the face of the man that you love.
Tanya: I don't love Shay. We're friends.
Sherloque: All right, well, let's take a look at that too, shall we? So this is a friend from another Earth, for whom you left a high-paying job and for whom you have dedicated every waking moment of your life trying to help. It doesn't quite add up.
Tanya: I can't love Shay. He's my dead husband's doppelganger from Earth-2. How crazy would I have to be to fall in love with him?
Sherloque: No crazier than marrying the same woman from five different Earths. (laughs quietly) I know. I'm very good at marrying people, but not so great at staying married. Along the way, though, on these countless Earths and countless doppelgangers, I learned there is one thing that makes all of us unique. And if that is what you fell in love with, well then, perhaps a face doesn't matter that much.

Grodd: Hear your master, Humans. Soon, you will only know my will...The will of Grodd!

King Shark: Tanya, you look sad. Why?
Tanya: We found each other today, and now that connection is -
King Shark: Still here.
Tanya: Shay... What you did...
King Shark: I would do it again for you, my love.
(King Shark puts his hand against the glass of the tank. Tanya does the same.)


Continuity

Grodd was last seen in L317 as part of Damien Darhk's team. Before that, he was last seen on The Flash in 314.

King Shark and Dr. Tanya Lamden were last seen in 215.

ARGUS Director Lyla Michaels makes an appearance. She is informed of Nora's status as Barry's daughter from the future and comments that this is no stranger than finding out your son used to be your daughter - a reference to how Barry's time-traveling somehow caused Sara Diggle to become John Diggle Jr.

Joe West returns from his trip visiting Wally West in Tibet.

Joe suggests that someone besides Officer Jones might be helping Cicada out.

ARGUS hired Dr. Tanya Lamden to work with King Shark to try and find a way to improve his condition.

King Shark is agreeable to trying the cure, before he suddenly goes on a rampage.

Joe is allergic to Szechuan peppers.

Iris seems to have developed a fear of her new office, after hearing about all the times she died there after the events of 514.

Barry injects King Shark with the metacure after he grapples Cisco. The cure works, transforming him back into an ordinary human.

Shay Lamden says he only remembers fragments of his time as King Shark before Tanya began working with him.

It is revealed that Grodd escaped his cell at ARGUS by planting a psychic suggestion in his guard's mind when the power was knocked out and the power dampeners in his cell turned off during The Enlightenment. The suggestion was to keep the power dampeners powered down while Grodd bid his time and gathered the information he needed for a new plan to take over Central City.

This led to Grodd's discovery of King Shark's telepathic crown and the realization he could use that to augment his telepathy to rule a whole city.

Sunset is Shay Lamden and Tanya Lamden's favorite time of day.

Joe reveals to Iris that the reason he stayed in Tibet for so long was so that he could heal himself after his confrontation with Cicada in 503.

Joe tried to help Iris work through her fears by having her punch them out on a punching bag.

The Flash Museum wrongly says that speedsters are immune to Gorilla Grodd's telepathy.

Shay Lamden elects to become King Shark again, since Grodd can't control his half-shark brain.

King Shark beats Gorilla Grodd.

Grodd is placed in a medically induced coma to prevent him from telepathically controlling his guards ever again.

Ever since being exposed to the telepathic crown, Grodd's telepathic powers are now growing without any outside stimuli. A coma was the only thing Caitlin could think of that would keep him alive without endangering his life.

Cisco also develops a new set of AI-enhanced power dampeners for Grodd's cell at ARGUS that continually upgrade to match Grodd's power level.

Cisco's favorite comfort food is Swedish Fish candy.

Barry thinks the team should approach Cicada and offer to let him take the metahuman cure.


Untelevised Adventures

It is never explained just how Grodd was returned to ARGUS custody after having become unstuck in time during Legends of Tomorrow Season 3. Presumably the Time Bureau returned him to his cell after Grodd's attack on Amaya Jiwe's village in 1992.


The Boomerang Factor.

The chief fight of the episode could have been avoided had Barry not very slowly worked his way to the downed Grodd and removed his crown at super-speed.


The Bottom Line

The episode takes its time in delivering its promised fight, but once we get it... it's there. It's not that the fight is dissatisfying, but it takes forever for Grodd to be revealed and there's something awfully strange about an episode where the main characters are acting like cardboard cut-outs while the most satisfying emotional subplot involves two characters we haven't seen in three years. The bits with Joe and Iris are okay, but feel completely disconnected from everything else.

For a filler episode based around a ludicrous comic-book idea though, this episode is oddly satisfying. But it would have been better had the premise been given two episodes for Grodd's plan to be better fleshed out, like the last time he attacked Central City and for us to have had more time to develop the conflict between Barry's desire to use the cure to save lives and Cisco and Caitlin not wanting to turn it into a weapon against every metahuman some other authority decides shouldn't have powers. There was a time and a place for this argument and it was several episodes ago when Barry first suggested using the cure against Cicada. Again, more time (and a second episode) might have helped with this. All in all, though... not a bad bit of filler.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 20 - I Know Who You Are

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.





Plot

Barry, Cisco and the rest of Team Flash seek out Tracy Brand - the physicist Barry's future self said would one day help him to trap Savitar in The Speed Force. Unfortunately, Killer Frost is looking for her as well, promising a battle between the former friends. Meanwhile, Joe's ponders his relationship with Cecile and how it can grow with half of his life hidden from her.


Influences

The Terminator (a future threat tries to kill the woman who is destined to bring about his downfall, name-dropped by Tracy Brand) and The Flash: Out of Time by Robert Venditti (basic idea for Savitar's identity),


Goofs

As showy and impressive as it is, why did Killer Frost freeze HR's drink - a trick showing more fine control of her powers than she's ever shown before - when all it did was tip him off that she was close? (Caitlin's influence trying to warn him?)

After taking Tracy to STAR Labs, Barry asks Joe why he hasn't told Cecile about Team Flash. Given that all of the events of the episode take place in one night (we know this because Cecile says that she told Joe that she loved him that morning whens he visits him at his house later) when has Joe had time to talk to Cecile?


Performances

The chemistry between Anne Dudek and Tom Cavanagh is brilliant and salvages what might be an otherwise creepy subplot with HR hitting on a woman under severe duress.

Carlos Valdes and Tom Felton do a good job playing off of each other, exploding the underdeveloped dynamic between Cisco and Julian.

Jesse L. Martin is a treasure. Not a lot else needs to be said.


Artistry

The sequence in which Barry saves Tracy Brand from Killer Frost's attack in the lab is a new high-mark for the show's excellent slow-motion effects work.

Ignoring that Killer Frost really should not be able to out-pace The Flash on ice-slides, the chase sequence looks amazing.


Flash Facts

In this episode, Killer Frost shows the ability to create ice-slides - bridges of frozen water on which she can move at great speed. Ironically, while this ability is often utilized by ice-manipulating heroes and villains in comic books (Iceman from The X-Men being the most famous example.) no version of Killer Frost in the comics made use of this ability. This may have been due to the pre-New 52 Killer Frosts being heat-vampires rather than an ice-creating elemental. The Killer Frost in the Justice League cartoon, however, did have the ability to create ice slides.

While not creating ice-slides, the Killer Frosts in the classic comics did have the ability to fly - presumably by using cold air to provide lift or through some latent telekinetic ability that also allowed them to shape and manipulate the ice they created by draining the heat from objects.

At one point Tracy Brand compares herself to Sarah Connor in The Terminator. Cisco corrects her and says she's more like Miles Dyson. In the Terminator mythology, Miles Dyson is the scientist who creates the neural-net processor that leads to the development of Skynet - the artificial intelligence that tries to take over the world but is defeated by John Connor, son of Sarah Connor.

"Eppur si muove" is Italian for "And yet it moves." As HR notes, this statement is attributed to the astronomer Galileo who reportedly said this phrase after being forced to recant his research which proved that The Earth moved around The Sun rather than the reverse, which was the accepted dogma of the Roman Catholic Church at the time. Since then, the phrase has become a rallying cry for scientists whose research is held back or decried by political or religious pressure.

Tracy theorizes that Savitar's armor is made of a theoretical substance capable of dispersing heat at high temperatures. This sounds remarkably similar to how - in the modern The Flash comics - Wally West was able to create a costume of pure Speed Force through sheer force of will to protect him from the effects of friction and static build-up.

The concept of Barry Allen having to fight a future corrupted version of himself lies at the center of the New 52 Flash story Out Of Time.


Technobabble

Tracy Brand's dissertation was on the purely suppositional nature of extra-dimensional energy. Barry tells her - not realizing she hasn't talked with anyone about her hypothesis yet - that her work on relativistic quantum mechanics and its application to interspatial theory to manipulate matter on a sub-atomic level is groundbreaking.

Barry is able to use a spark of his speed lightning to ignite a gas torch as a weapon against Killer Frost.

Tracy Brand's theories of quantum mechanics involve ideas of wave-particle duality, quantization of energy and time- symmetric formulation of quantum theory and how the boundary conditions lead to principle causality and the psychological arrow of time.

Tracy Brand studied speedsters and theorized the idea of The Speed Force's existence based on the energy produced by a speedster in motion being more than they could generate through sheer kinetics. She theorizes this energy could be manipulated or controlled... perhaps even turned into a prison of sorts.

Barry's costume is made of vulcanized Teflon. It neutralizes any electron imbalance and prevents the friction of Barry's movements from generating a lethal dose of static charge.

"Eppur si muove" is Italian for "And yet it moves."

Tracy Brand notes that the way light reflects off of Savitar's armor is unlike any metallic compound she's ever seen.

In Fermi liquid theory, any sort of non-Fermi liquid is called "strange metal". This is a theoretical compound capable of dispersing heat at high temperatures.

Tracy theorizes that Savitar moves so fast that he needs his armor - which is made of this "strange metal" to neutralize the charge that builds up around him.  This seems to be like Barry's vulcanized Teflon costume, but on a much larger scale.

Tracy further theorizes that without the suit, Savitar would just be a man with a major case of static cling. She also guesses that Savitar's own velocity could be used against him with the right device and he could be trapped in The Speed Force.


Dialogue Triumphs

HR: So our hopes of defeating an evil speed god hinge on a grad student?
Barry: Yep.
HR: ... could be worse.

(The window in the door of Tracy Brand's lab ices over and shatters. Killer Frost enters.)
Killer Frost: Admission here is so easy.

(Barry has been knocked down by one of Killer Frost's blasts. Cisco nervously approaches her.)
Cisco: So... you've gone full-on Killer Frost, huh? New threads and everything.
Killer Frost: No more pencil-skirts for me.
Cisco: (raising his hands defensively) I don't want to hurt you.
Killer Frost: You won't. But I will hurt her.

Tracy:You're interested in my theories on quantum mechanics?
HR: Your ideas of wave-particle duality. Your quantization of energy. And your time-symmetric formulation of quantum theory. And -
(Cut to the STAR Labs portable lab van, where Cisco and Julian are manning the station. Cisco is talking into a walkie-talkie.)
Cisco: - how the boundary conditions lead to principle causality and the psychological arrow of time.
HR: ... and the psychological arrow of time.
Tracy: You really know your stuff!
HR: Well... je suis... smart.
Cisco: (over HR's ear-piece) Lay off the French. And lay off the improv too, please?

(Team Flash explains to Tracy why Killer Frost is trying to kill her.)
Joe: We know it's a lot to take in.
Tracy: Well, to be fair you're basically telling me I'm Sarah Connor in Terminator.
Everyone Except Tracy: Wellll...
Cisco: More like Miles Dyson.

Julian: Caitlin could be home now. Had you stopped her, she would be here. But you didn't! You couldn't! Tell me why!
Cisco: Because I'm afraid!
Julian: Afraid of what?!
Cisco: Afraid of killing her! (holding up his hands) I'm walking around with two loaded guns here, ready to go off. I mean, what if she's hurting Barry or Joe or you? And I have to save you and I can't control my powers and I end up killing her?! She's my best friend. And I rather it be me than her.

Tracy: How did you know I was here?
HR: (clears throat) I may have done a bit of holographic stalking. I stalked you. Holographically.
Tracy: You mean, in the future, I'm still obsessed with a 500 year old Italian polymath?
HR: (laughs) It would appear so.

The Flash: I know who you are.
Savitar: It's about time.
The Flash: Yes, it is. Everything with you is about time, isn't it? The past? The present? The future? You know all of it, right? And you know everything about me! About Joe! About Wally!  And Iris?! You know our strengths. You know our fears. You know how much we love each other. And you know how to use that love against us. All this time we thought we couldn't stop you because you were one step ahead. But that's not it! You don't just know what's going to happen to us. You were there. You lived it. You remember... when you were me!
(Savitar kneels down and his armor begins to unfold. Out of it steps a somewhat familiar figure.  The hair is longer and dirtier and the face is scarred... but it's clearly Barry Allen)
Savitar: Like I told you.from the beginning.. I am the Future Flash.


Continuity

According to the data from Future Barry, Tracy Brand will win the 2021 Nobel Prize, The Copley Medal and a Presidential commendation.

In 2021, Tracy Brand develops the technology that traps Savitar in The Speed Force.

During the events of this episode, Wally is on Earth Three visiting Jesse Quick.

In 2017, Tracy Brand is a graduate student enrolled in Central City University's theoretical physics program. She failed her dissertation and is in the process of burning her notes when Barry, Cisco and HR find her.

On Earth 19, the great physicist Einstein's first name was Norbert. Not Albert.

On Earth 19, the fried potato snack Americans call Fries and the British are Chips are called Finger Chips.

HR's drink of choice at CC Jitter's is a triple-shot no-whip mocha Flash.

Tracy Brand's drink of choice is on the CC Jitter's secret menu. It is called The Zoom - triple espresso with a shot of cayenne.

Team Flash wipes the security footage at Central City University to protect Caitlin's identity.

Team Flash tells Tracy Brand about her future and that her theories regarding The Speed Force are right.

HR claims to have written a book of motivational speeches on Earth 19 - All's Wells That Ends Wells.

The Galileo of Earth 19 also coined the phrase"Eppur si muove".

HR is familar with the writings of Galileo and knew that there is a statue of him in one of Central City's parks. It is because of this that he recognizes the landmark in one of Tracy's photos from the future.

Joe dumps Cecile just before she is taken hostage by Killer Frost.

Killer Frost is able to repeat the exact words Barry is going to use as he tries to talk sense into her. She claims this is because Savitar knows what Barry did in his past and told her what Barry said.

Savitar tells Barry that the time of his ascension is almost about to happen.

Cisco takes a blood sample of Killer Frost while she's fully mutated. Julian thinks he can use that to reverse engineer a permanent cure for her condition.

The team notes that Savitar rescued Caitlin rather than kill Tracy Brand, indicating that he needs Caitlin for something.

Joe takes off his wedding ring and tells Cecile that he loves her, promising there will be no more secrets between them. We later learn that he told Cecile about Barry and Wally's secret identities and his work at STAR Labs.

Barry figures out that Savitar is a corrupted future version of himself.


Untelevised Adventures

We don't get to see HR's talk with Tracy and how he convinces her to try and help Team Flash build a speed trap for Savitar.


The Bottom Line

Flawless. Absolutely flawless.