The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 8 - The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2

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



Plot

As Iris and Cisco try to help Barry win free of Bloodwork's influence, the rest of Team Flash must protect Central City from the army of "Blood Brothers" that Bloodwork has built.


Influences

The zombie movies of George Romero.


Goofs

Everyone is suddenly using the term "Blood Brother" to describe Ramsey's followers, even though they aren't in communication and the term was never used before this episode.

While Cecile's powers enable her to sense the fear in the Blood Brothers/Sisters, the range makes it incredibly inefficient for zombie detection purposes as you can easily hear and see the zombies before Cecile can pinpoint their location.

The CGI for Bloodwork's monster form is pretty lousy and doesn't even look like the design from the comics.

It never is explained just how Barry causes Bloodwork to hallucinate his mother. (STAR Labs hologram projector?)


Artistry

The direction manages some decent jump scares.


Flash Facts

The Flash logo in the title stinger drips with black blood.


Technobabble

Cisco developed a 2.0 version of the Babel Protocol - the self-destruct mode that he programmed into Barry's costume. The new plan creates a force-field around STAR Labs that a speedster cannot phase through. Unfortunately, it also blocks any comm signals from going into or out of STAR Labs. They can still use the extrapolators to enter and exit the building, however.

Frost has an analog police scanner, which apparently still functions through the STAR Labs force-field.

Cisco was working on a photon emitter - a ray gun that could deliver megadoses of photon radiation, which is usually administered to cancer patients. He theorizes he can use this to cleanse Ramsey of his sentient infection. Unfortunately, he has no way of knowing it will work before he tests it and he could wind up flash-frying anyone he aims it at.

A 207 is the police code for an abduction in Central City.

Cisco can use the extrapolators as listening devices.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Nash Wells regards the barrier he found - the one carved with seven strange symbols.)
Nash: I'm coming for you.
Voice: You seek the truth.
(Nash pauses as the voice echos through the cavern. He smiles.)
Nash: Novu.
Voice: If you wish to know all, show your allegiance and all will be revealed.
Nash: Yeah, that sounds great. (sarcastically) Oh, wait. No, I don't barter with false gods!
Voice: Bow down to me and all you desire shall be yours.
Nash: (shouting at the barrier) Let me in. Let me in!
Voice: Bow down to me!
(The walls shake as the voice speaks. Nash only laughs.)
Nash: Planet after planet Earth after Earth I've tracked you, Novu, and you think some paltry mind games and a little rock wall is gonna stop me. You've got another think coming. I'm coming for you. And you can't stop me!
(The walls shake again, This time the lights in the tunnel go out. Unbeknownst to Nash, this coincides with the power going out around Central City because of Bloodwork.) 
Nash: Hmm. What's this now? Punishment from an angry god? Or simply faulty wiring?
(Nash holds up what appears to be an advanced electric flare.)
Nash: I say, let there be light.
(Nash turns around and almost runs into a hissing Blood Brother.)

Cecile: HR Wells told me once "Barry Allen's superpower isn't speed. "It's hope. It's hope, and that kid has an endless reservoir of it." I didn't know how right he was until I really got to know you, Barry. Whatever is about to happen, this world's a better place for having you in it.
Caitlin: You know, when you first came into my life, I had lost faith in just about everything. You saved my life, Barry.
Cisco: God, I remember the old days. No doppelgangers. No Flashpoint. No time travel. It was just us against the bad guys. I miss that.
Iris: I don't know, I kinda like time travel. When you were stuck in the Speed Force, I would have Cisco vibe me to the Waterfront so I could watch our first kiss. You know, the one you had to erase from the timeline to save the world.
Barry: Why'd you do that?
Iris: I don't know. I guess when you're filled with sadness, happy thoughts are what get you through the day. And what's happier than getting half your first kiss with the love of your life other than getting to do it twice?
(Barry kissses Iris' forehead.)
Iris:  Our love story never ends, Barry. Not even with Crisis.
Barry:  Iris, it's inevitable.
Iris: Maybe. But whether you vanish or or worse, I am gonna be there with you. I'm gonna be right there with you to the very end, okay? Because the only thing more inevitable than Crisis is us.
(Barry nods.) 
Barry: Iris is right. Whatever's in store for us, they can't change what we mean to each other. Can't erase what's in our hearts. As long as we hold on to that we've beaten Crisis before it even begins.

Nash Wells: For so many years, I've traveled across worlds across the multiverse, to do one thing. Kill you. And now here you saved my life.
Voice: Submit and begin your life anew.
Nash Wells: Show me.
Voice: The knowledge is within you.
(The symbols on the barrier begin to glow. Nash presses them in a certain order and the glow fades. For a moment nothing happens and Nash looks disappointed. Suddenly, the barrier slides up revealing a golden light. Nash gasps as the light envelopes him and pulls him in, leaving him screaming as the barrier slams down, leaving the cave looking as it did before.)


Continuity

Cisco makes reference to the Babel protocol built into Barry's suit, first seen in 402.

Cecile's new office for her legal practice is in the same office building as Ralph Dibny's detective agency and the Central City Citizen.

Kamilla and Cecile start trying to sneak out of their office together, avoiding the Blood Brothers as they do so.

Frost leaves STAR Labs and helps Joe in trying to subdue the Blood Brothers. They confront Bloodwork and The Flash, who say that neither of them shall be blessed with eternal life.

Nash Wells is in the middle of trying to get to the Monitor's portal as the invasion is going on. He winds up fighting several Blood Brothers in the sewers.

Cecille is able to detect the immediate presence of Blood Brothers due to the fear they were feeling when Bloodwork took over. Unfortunately, the presence of too many of them leaves her paralyzed.

Barry seems to speak to Iris through the police band, telling her to meet him where she said yes - where their life together began. This leads her to return to her and Barry's loft apartment, where Bloodwork is waiting for her.

Bloodwork is revealed once again to have the ability to access the memories of his Blood Brothers and to replicate their voices in his own body. This allowed him to speak through Barry, as Barry, using information only Barry would have.

Bloodwork offers to make Iris immortal so she can be with Barry forever. She refuses. Bloodwork is about to vibrate Barry's hand through her chest but he suddenly stops, says that can happen in due time, just before saying "Trust me, Iris." and running off.

Allegra Garcia saves Frost and Joe from a group of Blood Brothers. Unfortunately, Joe is wounded in the fight.

Cisco attacks Bloodwork with the Photon Emitter. Unfortunately, one hit from The Flash is all it takes to destroy it. Bloodwork says he isn't going to kill Cisco, because he needs him to become his messenger and prepare STAR Labs particle accelerator so he can use it to transform the whole city into Blood Brothers at once. He then says, curiously, that he knew he chose the right guy for the job.

Caitlin determines that Joe has a nicked spleen and the only thing capable of keeping him preserved is Frost's ice powers slowing his circulation. Unfortunately, Frost is freaking out at the prospect of trying to do anything medical anymore, even with Caitlin guiding her.

As Iris and Cisco discuss how they should have worked together from the beginning, it occurs to them that in both their attempts to stop Bloodwork that he said something which Barry had said to them once before. This suggests to them that Barry is still alive inside Bloodwork and is fighting back against his control.

As Bloodwork and The Flash arrive outside STAR Labs, The Flash tells Cisco to let the light in.

Cisco thinks that Barry's plan is to use Allegra's light powers to create a focused UV blast through the particle accelerator that will spread the cure for Bloodwork's condition instead of the conditon itself.

Barry's plan works and cleanses everyone except Bloodwork, who changes into a giant hulking monster for a bit while fighting The Flash.

Nash Wells is saved from the Blood Brothers when the UV wave washes over him - a miracle he attributes to The Monitor.

The Flash contains Bloodwork in the MAC.

ARGUS picks up Bloodwork. As far as Cisco can determine his condition is permanent and, worse yet, his cancer has returned.

Frost hands control of their body over to Caitlin for the duration of Crisis.

Barry tries to return the watch Joe gave him. Joe refuses to take it just yet.

The team join together and discuss the past as they wait for Crisis to begin.

Cecile makes reference to HR Wells telling her that Barry's real superpower was that he never gave up hope.

Iris reveals that she had Cisco vibe her to the moment of her and Barry's first kiss in 115, while he was trapped in the Speed Force between season 3 and season 4, so she could relive it over and over.

The skies turn red and lightning fills the air just after midnight on Tuesday, December 10, 2019.

In the final scene, Nash Wells offers himself to the Monitor and is told he has the knowledge to open the portal. He touches the seven symbols and there is a flash of light which draws him into the portal, which then seals itself again. This same scene was also show at the end of the episodes of Batwoman, Supergirl and Arrow which aired during this week.


The Boomerang Factor

Cisco and Iris once again have to learn the lesson about working together in order to save the day. Except Barry gives them the plan to save everyone, which makes the whole things sort of pointless.

It's just a coincidence that Nash Wells is trapped in the dark during the Bloodwork attacks and is saved by Allegra's actions, causing him to pledge himself to the Monitor... or whoever that voice was.


The Bottom Line

A disappointment all around and a definite contender for one of the worst episodes in the show's history, as our regulars are dumbed down to make the story work and too much emphasis is put on supporting characters no one really cares about. Drawn out for far too long, this episode proves that this Bloodwork was never worthy of being a Big Bad, much less a two-part finale. At least we didn't have to spend the whole season dealing with him. Of course probably any villain would have been underwhelming heading into Crisis but Bloodwork's plan was just so stupid to be beyond belief.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 7 - The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 1

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



Plot

Iris uncovers a vast conspiracy, as Barry is infected with a hallucinogen by the increasingly monstrous Ramsey Rosso.


Influences

The Last Tempation of Christ (title, some of the dream-driven imagery), the Venom movie (special effects for Bloodwork's powers) and The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson.


Goofs

How did Frost know Ralph was in danger?

As effective as this episode is as a psychodrama, it's still somewhat muted because we know that Barry has to survive to see Crisis.


Performances

Grant Gustin gives a startling performance here, as Barry becomes trapped inside his own head and confronts increasingly disturbed images.


Artistry

Props to the chefs who made the food in the nightmare dinner scene so horrific.

The general dreamlike direction of the episode is incredibly effective.


Flash Facts

The mobile of the infant Nora West-Allen holds many tiny XS symbols.


Technobabble

Bloodwork says that his powers, like Elongated Man's, operate on a cellular level.

Caitlin determines that Ramsey's powers are getting stronger, since Ralph's elastic cells are not healing at the accelerated rate they normal do.

Caitlin theorizes that Barry can temporarily loan someone his speed-healing powers with a blood transfusion. This is ultimately borne out by her experimental surgery to save Ralph's life.

Barry's blood has a small spike in cortisol following the transfusion that allows Bloodwork to infect him.

The fever generated by Bloodwork's powers taking a person over does not respond to ice.

Caitlin administers 10ccs of naproxen sodium to control Barry's fever.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Barry has just tried to punch an intangible Ramsey Rosso.)
Barry: I don't know how you're doing this. Real or not, I'm coming for you.
Ramsey: And yet I'm not your foremost concern, am I? Not as much as your inevitable demise in a coming... Crisis? Goodness, you really are full of surprises, aren't you? So tell me...when you saw all those permutations, billions of possible futures all ending in your death...What role did I play?
Barry: You didn't. You weren't there.
Ramsey: (disappointed) Really? Not even in one? Huh. Then again, you never saw this coming did you? Frankly, neither did I. (smiling) Makes one believe in the impossible, doesn't it?

(Barry looks up and sees his mother.)
Barry: Mom? Is this another nightmare?
Speed Force: No, Barry. This is much, much worse.

Speed Force: You've answered our call before. It's always been difficult. What's changed?
Barry: I've lived more. I've gotten married, seen a future where I'll have a daughter who's the best of me and Iris combined. Most of my life has been driven by my past, but... but now, I... It finally feels like I'm living for myself. I don't wanna leave my family or my friends. I don't want to die. I know that's selfish. (sobbing) I'm sorry I let you down.
Speed Force: Barry. No person is immune to fear and doubt. No matter how brave. That's what makes you human, Barry. But the courage to move forward, even in the face of overwhelming odds... that's what makes you a hero. That's what makes you The Flash.
Barry: Thank you. I needed to hear that.
Speed Force: Don't blame yourself.
Barry: His lies.. They were so convincing.
Speed Force: That's because he never lied.
(There is a long pause as Barry ponders that and realizes what it means.) 
Barry: (quietly) What do you mean?
Speed Force: That's what makes Ramsey so dangerous. He manipulates the truth to spread his disease.
Barry: What, so... so the part about his cells allowing me to save the world from Crisis and still survive is true?
Speed Force: Yes. But that path's not for you.
Barry: Why not?!
Speed Force: Barry, you must understand-
Barry: - that you want me to leave behind everyone I love when there's a way to save me?!

Iris: (writing) My name is Iris West-Allen and I once met a young man, a superhero who I called the Streak. The world has come to know him as the Fastest Man Alive, the Scarlet Speedster, the Flash. But no matter what title you choose for him, he'll always be remembered as the protector of our amazing city and its citizens, as a beacon of hope for us all, and as the man who sacrificed himself again and again so we could live. Today we say good-bye to him, not because he was taken but because he gave himself willingly. And in the end, that's what makes him deserving of the greatest title of all - Hero.

Bloodwork: I am the world's salvation come to save it from all that ails it. Soon, the entire world will embrace... Bloodwork


Continuity

Elongated Man and Bloodwork fight, with Bloodwork wounding Ralph and infecting him with his blood.

Barry has Type O-negative blood. This makes him a universal donor who can donate to anyone.

Ralph's elastic skin is too strong to be penetrated by a standard needle. This requires Barry phase Ralph's body through the needle at super-speed to set up an IV.

ARGUS moves Ralph to a secure location while he recovers.

This episode takes place on December 8, 2019. Two days until the day Barry is destined to disappear.

Bloodwork learns that Barry Allen is The Flash through the connection he forms through their blood. He can apparently learn all about a person's memories when his blood is absorbed into another person's body, in addition to taking control of them.

Allegra discovers Iris' unwritten article about Barry's upcoming disappearance.

Iris determines that the man that recruited Esperanza Garcia and saw her transformed into Ultraviolet was wearing a pin with a spiral emblem and was also at Remington Meister's party in 606.

Iris found another picture of the man getting into a car, whose plates were tracked to a rented parking space in Central City.

The man claims to be a transporter for Maelstrom Couriers - a company catering to the ultra rich. He says he was hired to transport Esperanza Garcia for the government and that he was acting as a designated driver at the Meister party. Today, he's transporting a literal set of family jewels.

The Speed Force appears to Barry in the form of his mother, Nora Allen.

The Speed Force explains that Ramsey was able to get himself into Ralph's blood and because of the blood transfusion he is now in Barry.

Allegra reveals to Iris that she knows Barry's secret identity and that she was told by Nash Wells.

Allegra says she wanted to become a reporter because she was inspired by Iris's early blog reports about The Streak.

Ramsey tries to convince Barry to surrender to him, claiming that he he shared his power with him Barry would be a greater hero than ever, able to save the lives of those he was too slow to save.

The courier Iris and Allegra questioned is later found in what appears to be a bombed-out car, in the paid parking space they confronted him at earlier.

No cameras showed anyone going into or out of the car park that day to plant a bomb.

Allegra finds the spiral pin and says that it is glowing with ultraviolet energy.

Kamilla reveals that she already knew Barry was The Flash and that Cisco is Vibe to Allegra.

The Speed Force says Ramsey's powers could allow Barry to survive Crisis and heal people the way he described, but that there are universal forces that will be imperiled if Barry Allen does not die during the Crisis.

Barry begins to stop fighting the infection as Ramsey and The Speed Force fight for him.

The Speed Force admits that it does not feel pain in the same way that humans do.

As the episode closes, it is 36 hours to the Crisis.

Iris starts writing the article about Barry's death.

Nash Wells returns to the tunnel, ready to try and break through to the portal to the Monitor.

At first, it seems that Barry has beaten the infection. Iris realizes, however, that Ramsey is controlling Barry and trying to pretend to be him.

Barry knocks out Iris, Caitlin and Frost.

When The Flash is under Bloodwork's control, his eyes and mouth are stained with black blood and black blood oozes from The Flash symbol on his chest.

Ramsey officially gives himself the name Bloodwork.


The Bottom Line

A surprisingly effective episode with some strong imagery and a powerhouse performance from Grant Gustin. The only real problem with it is that, knowing that Crisis is coming up, the actual danger of the episode (and, by extension, its villain) is ineffective. Worse yet, there's really no way to separate this story from Crisis and consider it as its own entity. Still, it's enjoyable despite that.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 6 - License To Elongate

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



Plot

Barry tags along with Ralph on a case, hoping to prepare his protege for his new position as Central City's most prominent superhero. Yet it is Barry who will wind up learning a lesson, as he winds up in way over his head trying to go undercover. Meanwhile, Cecile tries to help Chester P. Runk get his life back in order as Nash Wells seeks out some unlikely help in accessing The Monitor's lair.


Influences

James Bond movies. (Honestly, the episode hangs so many lampshades on the elements it references, I feel no need to list them all here.)


Goofs

It should be noted once again that Barry sucks at maintaining his secret identity and anyone who heard him using his real name at the party should be able to figure out he's The Flash now... even if they think his name is Allen Barry.


Performances

Hartley Sawyer actually does a credible job playing Ralph as a Bond-type. While the odds of an Elongated Man spin-off are seeming increasingly unlikely, Sawyer proves he can front a story in this episode.


Artistry

The music and cinematography do a good job of evoking the spirit of the James Bond films.


Flash Facts

Despite being around since the Silver Age of comics, Ralph Dibny has never really had an Elongated Man emblem like The Flash's famous lightning bolt on a white circle. Most of his costumes work an E into the design somewhere.

The Elongated Man emblem introduced in this episode was taken from the Elongated Man costume seen in the animated series Justice League Unlimited.

Ralph and Barry spend most of the episode in Midway City. In the classic DC Comics universe, this was the hometown of Hawkman and Hawkwoman in the Silver Age of comics. Depending on the writer, it is said to be similar to Chicago and located in Illinois or located in Michigan and comparable to Sault Ste. Marie.

Ralph makes mention of an exclusive fashion designer named Victoria Veil. This seems to be a bit of a knowing nod to long-time Batman love interest Vicki Vale, though the last name is spelled differently and the famous Vicki Vale was a reporter - not a fashion designer.


Technobabble

Eternium creates an anti-vibrational force field that prevents speedsters from phasing through it.

Violent contact with Eternium, such as a jackhammer, could trigger a catastrophic molecular blast.

One of the tools in Cisco's lab is a sonic wrench.

STAR Labs has a multi-rigged private global satellite surveillance system.

Ralph as a camera built into his bow-tie.

Ralph has an explosive cuff-link.

The EYE-3C9 satellite system (aka Ring of Fire) is equipped with 15 dioptric long-range missiles.


Dialogue Triumphs

Remington Meister: Oh, so gentlemen, I don't think we have been introduced. I'm Remington Meister, your host. And you are?
Ralph: The name's Dibny. Ralph Dibny.
Barry: Allen. Barry
Remington Meister: Well, nice to meet you, Allen Barry and Ralph Dibny.

Remington Meister: I must say, I did not expect Central City's resident superhero to crash my little gathering.
Ralph: And I must say, I'm surprised by all the Bond villain cliches. I mean, you've got the accent, the diabolical scheme, even the silent but deadly henchperson.
(Ultraviolet enters the room.)
The Flash: Ultraviolet? I sent you to Iron Heights.
Remington Meister: Luckily, she has friends in low places.
The Flash: And let me guess, you're gonna add my unmasking to your little auction?
Remington Meister: Oh, I could care less about your secret identity, Flash. My interests are global. And to think, Mr. Dibny, that it was the Flash that set off my meta-activity monitor that then triggered the security protocols that got you caught. Danke schon.
Ralph: Do you expect me to talk?
Remington Meister: No, Mr. Dibny. I expect you to die.
Ralph: Oh, come on! That line is literally from Goldfinger!

Ralph: Look, tonight's job was for Ralph Dibny because both parts of my identity have value. The same is true for you, only tonight I could've used your civilian half. What I'm trying to say is Barry Allen is just as important as the Flash. Try to remember that. I know I will.


Continuity

Nash Wells claims that he tracked the Monitor to Earth 1 and that the hole in the sewer of Central City he found leads to an inter-dimensional portal that should lead directly to The Monitor.

Cisco does not appear in this episode, presumably being busy with Gypsy's remembrance ceremony on Earth 19.

Chester P. Runk, last seen in 601, fully recovers and is released from the MAC.

Barry designs an official Elongated Man emblem for Ralph to pin to his costume.

Barry and Joe plan to surprise Ralph with a passing-of-the torch ceremony tomorrow. The problem is Ralph plans to leave for Midway City to check on a Sue Dearborn lead that day. Barry decides to tag along to make sure Ralph gets back to Central City in a day.

Ralph thinks Sue Dearbon might be in Midway City because Sue was seen wearing a one-of-a-kind Victoria Veil dress in Milan right before she disappeared. A woman wearing the same dress was spotted at a gala in Midway City three weeks earlier.

The host of the gala Ralph and Barry crash is a German named Remington Meister.

While sneaking in, Ralph and Barry meet a woman named January Galore who immediately sees through their disguise. Ralph later identifies her as an underground weapons dealer.

Nash Wellls runs into Allegra Garcia at the Central City Citizen. He convinces her to use her powers to help him scan for Eternium in the rock wall, in exchange for a world-shattering story.

Cecile helps Chester unfreeze his bank accounts, gets his driver's license reinstated and even manages to get his parking tickets erased.

Jitters has apparently closed their store-front following the Black Hole manifestation in 601, They now run a coffee delivery service called Jitters-To-Go.

Cecile decides to use her powers to help Chester ask out his crush, Natalie.

The dress Ralph identified as a one-of-a-kind turns out to have a duplicate, commissioned by a woman named Idna, as many designers will copy themselves for the right price.

Remington Meister is a master Mahjong player.

Remington Meister says he has not seen Sue Dearborn at one of his galas in six months and confirms that she is not on his guest list. He also realizes that Ralph and Barry are not on the guest list either.

Ralph identifies another of the party guests as Riggs Wellington - a Bratva counterfeiter.

Cecile misreads Natalie's emotions as Chester is talking to her, giving him the absolute worst advice.

Killer Frost says that The Book Of Ralph advises you to be yourself when asking someone else out.

Nash explains the idea of alternate universes and dopplegangers to Allegra.

Nash also accidentally lets it slip to Allegra that Barry Allen is The Flash.

Ultraviolet, last seen in 602, has been broken out of Iron Heights and is now working as muscle for Remington Meister.

Remington Meister is auctioning off a satellite weapon called The Ring of Fire, capable of destroying a city from orbit. He plans to destroy Central City to prove that it works.

Allegra makes reference to Ragdoll (last seen in 520) and how the freakiest thing in the world is watching him eat.

Cecile realizes that she was projecting her own uncertainty over her new job onto Natalie rather than reading her.

Allegra is afraid of using her powers and becoming like her murderous cousin. Nash convinces her that the powers do not make her bad and that she can use them to help people... like him.

Nash says that Allegra reminds him of some one but does not elaborate.

Ralph and Barry are able to stop Remmington Meister from destroying Central City and break up his crime ring.

Chester asks Natalie out. She rejects him but he's feeling more confident in himself thanks to Cecile and convinces her to be more confident in herself as well.

Cecile encourages Chester to look into a job at STAR Labs.

The Flash officially passes the torch to Elongated Man in a ceremony at CCPD HQ.

Elongated Man and Joe West officially recognize Barry Allen for his work as a Cold Case CSI and all the people he has helped.

Ralph shows Iris a photo of a man wearing a familiar looking pin and tells her about how Ultraviolet showed up again in Midway City.

In the final scene, Ramsey Rosso attacks Elongated Man after he meets with Iris.


Location

Midway City


The Bottom Line

A fun filler episode that does a fairly good job of disguising the fact that the regular cast is barely in this episode. I personally could do with a lot less of Cecile's wacky hijinks, but pairing her with Chester somehow manages to ground his character and make you want to see more of him interacting with Frost and the rest of the STAR Labs gang. Ditto Allegra and Nash Wells, who aren't bad but just seem to be distracting away from the characters we've known and loved since Season 1. Still, for the cheesy fun of the Ralph as James Bond stuff, I can forgive a lot.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 5 - Kiss Kiss Breach Breach

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



Plot

While Barry and Iris are away on vacation, Cisco is left in charge of Team Flash. Unfortunately, he soon finds himself preoccupied with a murder mystery where all the clues point to him being the killer. At the same time, Killer Frost puts herself in charge of the hunt for Ramsey Rosso while Joe West confronts Nash Wells over his business on Earth-1.


Influences

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (the title, general neo-Noir theme, including a story of an unwitting hero solving a murderous conspiracy involving his ex.)


Performances

Carlos Valdes gets two nice turns here as Cisco and as Echo.


Flash Facts

There are several DC Comics characters who use the codename Echo. One of them is a Legion of Super-Heroes villain who has sonic powers similar to those of Vibe in the comics.


Technobabble

Cisco creates an artificial intelligence modeled on Barry's thought patterns to help him make decisions - Barry Allen Replicated Intelligence or B.A.R.I.

Each Collector is equipped with a QT-Net - a quara-temporal containment barrier that is impenetrable to breacher technology and powers. When a Collector is killed in the line of duty, a QT-Net is activated and creates a planet-size force-field. This prevents their killer from breaching to another world, as the barrier can only be lifted by the Collector Agency.

Breach Psychosis is a condition that metahuman breachers sometimes suffer if they represss their powers. The symptoms include hallucinations, blackouts and dry mouth.

Earth-1's vibrational frequency is calibrated at a molecular level. This is what caused Nash Wells' gauntlet to trigger a large explosion.

Cisco finds a way to allow himself and Breacher to artificially "vibe" the weapon that killed Gypsy.  By using his white-noise sleep aide to generate low-level delta wave vibrations to stimulate harmonic resonance in his prefrontal cortex and thinking about Gypsy, Cisco can absorb the residual vibe energy from the object that killed her, using the shell casing as a trigger .

Cisco discovers a code programmed into his white-noise generator that converted it into a micro neural impulse disruptor, capable of creating effects similar to Breach Psychosis.


Dialogue Triumphs

Cisco: (opening voice-over) Sometimes the truth is the hardest lie to see through. And when you can't put your faith in the truth, all you have left is yourself.

Ralph: Frost, as your life coach, going after Ramsey alone is probably gonna put me out of a job.
Frost: This isn't a joke. This is a fight. My fight. So stay out of it.
Ralph: We're a team. Your fights are my fights, so why don't you just take a breath and try trusting a friend?
Frost: I knew from day one not to trust this guy. But we did. And now people are dead. So I've gotta fix this.

Joe: (To Nash) You selfishly don't believe in anything or anybody. I used to be like that. When my ex-wife left me and my daughter I was broken. So much so that I went somewhere where I almost never go. Church. I didn't go there to pray or anything. I went there to yell at the universe for destroying my life. Next thing, I'm at home. I'm so hurt that I can't even cook dinner for my for my daughter. Doorbell rings. I open the door to what looked like my whole neighborhood standing on my lawn who had cooked food for us. You can have faith in anything, but it was then I realized that I... I have faith in people.


Continuity

The opening scene where Cisco is confronted by the Breachers of Earth-19 takes place 12 hours after Barry and Iris left on vacation in Tahiti.

According to Barry, it's been two weeks since Ramsey Rosso has been seen.

Cisco's middle name is Baracus, after the character of B.A. Baracus from The A-Team.

Ralph wishes his first name were Hannibal, after the leader of The A-Team.

Barry's favorite food for breakfast is bananas.

Barry's favorite movie is Jurassic Park, though his first instinct was to say The Empire Strikes Back.

BARI tells Ralph and Killer Frost to stake our Ramsey's lab, while Cisco holds down the fort at STAR Labs.

Joe and Nash become trapped in the sewer after Nash accidentally triggers a cave-in.

Cisco and Kamilla are sharing a bed together but it is not clear if they are sexually active or not.

Cisco has apparently started sleepwalking. Kamilla noticed it several nights earlier but didn't say anything.

The night before, Kamilla found Cisco standing at her apartment door with his keys in his hand and his shoes on. This night, Cisco was holding a pair of scissors.

Breacher arrives and tells Cisco that Cynthia (Gypsy) is dead.

Breacher was last seen in 417.

Breacher tells Cisco that Cynthia had been tracking an infamous hacker called Echo, whom she had mentioned to Cisco before. Breacher thinks Cynthia figured out who he really was and he killed her after somehow getting the jump on her.

Matthew Norvock was last seen as the DJ at Killer Frost's birthday party in 603.

According to Norvock, Ramsey Rosso killed two regulars at his bar called Rat and Pops.

Frost decides to go after Ramsey as Caitlin, thinking she can talk sense into him.

Zak Zeal is the Breacher Agency officer put in charge of investigating Gypsy's murder.

Zeal says that due to multi-dimensional signal speed, their best guess is that the murder happened some time between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m.

The agency also uncovered a 301-H energy cartridge. Standard issue, with no finger prints.This, coupled with the Sigma Baryon residue they found suggests that the murder weapon was a transonic-demolecularizer.

Cisco says they can use STAR Labs satellites to track the murder weapon based on its energy signature.

The vision Cisco and Breacher share show him killing Gypsy.

Kamilla finds the murder weapon in a drawer in Cisco's lab.

According to Breacher, every other version of Cisco Ramon in the multiverse is a pencil pusher. None of them are scientists or superheroes capable of killing Gypsy.

Kamilla recalls that Cisco was sleepwalking at 4 am on the night Gypsy was killed. This is within the window of when she was said to have died.

Ralph saves Joe and Nash, having figured out where Joe was based on where his car was parked and the map he left behind that had the collapsed tunnel marked.

Caitlin fails to make Ramsey see reason. He says he will kill her the next time he sees her.

Cisco determines that someone hacked his white noise generator to make him look like the killer

Cisco determines that Echo is his Earth-19 counterpart.

Echo's specialty was hacking multiversal databases to create new identities for people who wanted to take over the lives of versions of themselves who were living better on another Earth.

What enabled Echo to kill Gypsy was that she was stunned to recognize his face as that of her ex-boyfriend and it made her hesitate just long enough for him to pull his disintegration gun.

Gypsy's last action was to send herself and Echo to Earth-1. Breacher guesses this is because she trusted Cisco to be able to figure out who the killer was.

Breacher invites both Cisco and Kamilla to Cynthia's remembrance ceremony.

Cisco and Kamilla admit they love one another.

Barry and Iris visited 15 beaches in 24 hours.

Chester's energy level in the MAC is said to be at 87%.

Cisco says he'll be out for a week because of the remembrance ceremony.

Nash says he knows how to save Barry Allen's life.


The Fridge Factor

Gypsy is killed off purely to give her father and Cisco angst and to push a narrative where Cisco has to prove he's still capable of being a hero, even without his powers


The Bottom Line

A decent enough filler episode, with a strong focus that Carlos Valdez proves more than capable of holding up on his own. That does little to keep this episode from feeling weak given how poorly developed Kamilla is and how repetitive Killer Frost going off on her own and Joe being proven right in a contest of faith are based on earlier episodes. Still, at least Ralph gets to prove his worth in two different moments that have nothing to do with him being comic relief and Danny Trejo is as delightful as ever as Breacher.

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 6, Episode 3 - Dead Man Running

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




Plot

Barry takes Killer Frost in-hand to help him with tracking a new metahuman with a taste for dark matter, as he tries to figure out how to tell the rest of Team Flash about his impending demise.This leads him to the lab of Ramsey Rosso, who is quite overjoyed to help... himself to STAR Labs' dark matter supply. Meanwhile, Ralph uncovers a startling secret about his family as he works to clear his mother's name on a robbery charge.


Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (character of Bloodwork) and the movies of George Romero.


Artistry

The opening scene, in which the zombie Romero kills his gang, is a neat stylistic tribute to George Romero's movies.


Flash Facts

The character of Mitch Romero seems to have been named in tribute to George Romero - the legendary director of many classic zombie movies.

Ralph makes reference to The Monitor as an Asgardian cosplayer. This is a nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor movies, which have been previously established as existing in the Arrowverse.

One of Mrs. Dibny's former boyfriends was a man named Marv Perez. This is a tribute to Marv Wolfman and George Perez - the chief writer and artist on the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics.

Ramsey Rosso name-drops Ted Kord while telling his lie about where he got his dark matter. Ted Kord is the head of Kord Industries and has been referred to (but never seen) in the Arrowverse many times. Originally Brandon Routh was meant to play Ted Kord in Arrow season 3, but rights issues caused his character to be reworked into Ray Palmer. In the comics, Ted Kord is the secret identity of the second superhero to use the name Blue Beetle.

Mention is made of a break-in at McCulloch Tech. This is the same company that developed the Mirror Gun from Season 5, which was named in honor of the second Mirror Master. Evan McCulloch.

Nash Wells is searching Earth-1 for a metal called Eternium. In the DC Comics universe, this is the metal which made up the Rock of Eternity - the seat of power for the wizard Shazam. After the Rock of Eternity was destroyed it acted like Kryptonite to a wielder of the power of Shazam, draining their powers and causing physical pain.


Technobabble

According to the pattern of these gene transcriptions in Mitch Romero's body, his dark matter-infused cells are destroying his normal cells and the more dark matter he absorbs, the stronger he gets.

Ramsey estimates that Romero's metastasized blood chemistry has given him the strength of ten men.

Ramsey claims that with gene splicing, he can use your dark matter to negatively charge Romero's blood.

According to Nash Wells, Eternium is a multiversal element.

Ramsey determines that dark matter infused with healthy blood cells create an even stronger biological substance - the strange goo bled by Romero.. This substance appears to heal any and all weaknesses in the human body including cells affected by HLH.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ramsey: So can I talk to Cait? Can she hear me right now?
Frost: One, it's Frost. I'm rebranding. And two, sure. She can if she wants to.
Ramsey: Caitlin, I want to explain myself. About purchasing dark matter from Kord Industries. I hope you understand if there's any chance of saving more lives-
Frost: You're gonna take it? (sarcastically) Right.
Ramsey: I didn't want to go behind your back, but you refused to help me-
Frost: Not listening anymore.
Ramsey: And you never told me that you were a meta. I thought we were closer than that, Cait!
Frost: Huh. Guess you two aren't as good of friends as you thought.

(Barry returns to the lab and finds Ramsey stuffing dark matter samples into his bag.)
Barry: I had a feeling about you. I hoped I was wrong. But I know a desperate man when I see one. Put them back.
Ramsey: No.
Barry: I can make you.
Ramsey: Go on, then. Like you said, I'm a desperate man. I have nothing to lose.
Barry: I thought you wanted to save lives.
Ramsey: HLH isn't just my mother's disease. First it killed her, and now it's killing me.
Barry: I still can't let you take those. Look at what it did to Mitch Romero.
Ramsey: I am marking a calendar every day until I die, waiting to fall off a cliff, powerless to grab onto anything or anyone! I watched my mother dive off that same cliff with a smile on her face. She didn't even fight.
Barry: I know what it's like to lose your mother. I know you're angry-
Ramsey: This isn't anger. This is the pain beneath my anger. It takes courage to fight death.
Barry: Maybe it takes more to accept it?
Ramsey: My mum had that same look on her face when she was first diagnosed. You're a dead man, too. Aren't you, Barry? So why don't you fight for yourself?!
Barry: I'm marking my calendar with the days I have left to live. And I'm gonna spend them saving as many people as I can.
Ramsey: You're not a coward. You're just naive.

Barry: There's always gonna be a crisis, or some metahuman that's threatening to take away the life that you love. Truth is, we're all living on borrowed time.
Frost: So, what, everybody feels this crappy all the time? That actually does kind of make me feel better.


Continuity

Mitch Romero's gang is killed by his zombie, while in the middle of robbing a warehouse

Barry and Iris tell the rest of the team about the approaching Crisis, but leave out the part about how Barry is destined to die during it.

Ralph's mother calls him Ralphie.

Ralph's mother was arrested for robbing the Avenue M Pawnshop at 10 pm the previous night.

Ralph's mother was directly identified by the shop owner, whom she allegedly held at gunpoint.

Ralph's mother has been accused of being involved with 14 different crimes, including robbery, larceny and bribery, but has never been convicted.

Ralph's mother says she was at the Avenue M Pawnshop that day, but at 5 pm - not 10 pm.

Ralph's mother says that she was at Cleaner's Royale on Oak Street - an illegal gambling establishment which is disguised as a dry cleaner - at 10 pm that night.

Ralph's mom used to date a man named Marv Perez.

Frost acts as Barry's metahuman consultant in order to go with him to the Romero Gang crime scene.

Frost notices that the guns on the scene of the crime are dark matter powered but are missing their power clips. This leads her to conclude (wrongly) that Ramsey Rosso must have taken them.

Barry notices that the same unknown substance that was at the Romero Gang robbery site is in Ramsey's lab.

Ramsey recognizes Killer Frost as Caitlin Snow.

Ramsey lies about Mitch Romero's attacking him and says that he was knocked out while working late. He says that he did have a small amount of dark matter in his lab, which was given to him by his colleague Ted Kord. This is also a lie.

Ramsey offers to help Barry with his research into the strange substance. Barry accepts his help, though Frost openly says she doesn't trust Ramsey.

Allega Garcia obtains footage of Harrison Wells breaking into McCulloch Tech. She was apparently friendly with one of the security guards there.

Iris shoots the story down immediately, knowing there is more to this than Allegra can possibly know and that it is a doppelganger rather than the Harrison Wells of Earth-1, who is meant to be dead.

Central City has yet another new mayor. Iris sends Allegra to get quotes from the city council about them.

Cleaner's Royale is run by a man named Tony, whom Ralph was once friendly with. Apparently he hasn't seen Ralph since he got his powers and lost weight.

Tony offers to give Ralph the security footage that will prove his mom was in Cleaner's at the time of the robbery. For $5000.

Ralph uses his powers to steal the flash-drive the security footage is saved on, while Cecile and his mother attempt to win the $5000.

Mitch Romero was the head of the largest gun-running operation in the Central City Underworld.

Barry and Frost confront Romero as he is robbing Mercury Labs of dark matter. Frost knocks him out the window, which angers Barry, despite Frost being sure he was tough enough to survive the fall.

Ramsey tells Barry that Romero has been biologically dead for 24 hours, but something in him is continuing to seek out dark matter, which is accelerating the decay of the body even as it becomes stronger.

According to Ramsey, he is the top hematologic oncologist in the Western hemisphere.

Ramsey asks Barry for dark matter from STAR Labs to see if he can study its effect on Romero's cells. Barry is reluctant but eventually agrees. However, this turns out to be a secret test to see if Ramsey will steal the samples for himself, as Frost predicted.

Cisco and Iris interrupt the new Wells as he is in the middle of stealing a gem which he claims gives nightmarish hallucinations to its victims.

Iris tasers the Wells before he can escape.

The security footage reveals that Ralph's mom left the casino at 9:30 pm. Another camera reveals that she was outside talking with Marv Perez, whom Ralph thought was dead.

Ralph's mom confesses to lying about how every boyfriend she ever had after her husband ran out on her and Ralph died. She wanted to spare Ralph the pain of losing another father figure because things didn't work out for her and another man.

The new Wells' full name is Harrison Nash Wells. He considers the Council of Wells to be a bunch of idiots and came to Earth-1 in search of an artifact that contains the same particles he is detecting weakly off of Iris West Allen. He notes the readings were stronger in the alleyway where Iris and Cisco confronted him.

Nash Wells is a skeptic, who doesn't believe in magic or gods or any sort of mysticism. He has dedicated his life to dispelling myths.

Nash Wells escapes after using a smoke bomb to blind Cisco and Iris.

Allegra comes back just in time to see Nash Wells in Iris' office. This causes her to try and quit her job because she refuses to work for someone who can't be honest with her.

Iris convinces Allegra to stay after promising to tell her everything eventually.

Frost has existed as a part of Caitlin for 30 years.

Frost doesn't have a favorite song or ice cream flavor.

Frost admits to Barry that the reason she's been on edge is that she's afraid of dying now that she's truly begun to live.

Ramsey discovers that the Romero zombie mirrors his movements, for some reason.

Frost has the inspired idea to feed the Romero zombie all the dark matter in STAR Labs in order to make him overdose on rage. Instead, this makes his corpse explode over her and Barry.

Ramsey blows off Barry's offer to listen to him if he needs to talk about his disease.

Ralph apologizes to his mom for freaking out and gives her an addendum to his book of Ralph - 22 Steps To Being Open To The Love Of Your Life. She says she doesn't think it is in her to settle down, but she encourages Ralph to try and find a woman he can devote himself towards.

Ramsey believes he can use the strange blood-like substance to cure his disease without further dark matter treatments. He commands the substance to enter his body and declares that he needs more.

Barry throws a birthday party for Frost at STAR Labs.

Frost's friend, Matthew Norvock, has a quick cameo as the DJ at the party. He was last seen in 511.

Barry and Iris finally tell Frost, Cisco and Ralph about Barry's impending death.

Nash Wells tracks the Eternium signal to a manhole cover.


The Bottom Line

A decent episode, though too much attention is paid to Ralph's mom and not enough is given to the new Wells or the season's alleged big bad, which is a shame as Barry's interactions with Ramsey are some of the best acting in the episode. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of forced moments, like Barry's sudden anger at Frost and refusal to trust her judgement.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 2 - A Flash of the Lightning

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




Plot

Faced with the news of his apparent death having been pushed forward almost five years, Barry turns to Earth 3 and Jay Garrick for advice. Meanwhile, Killer Frost takes the first steps toward building a life of her own and Cecile's career as District Attorney comes into conflict with her identity, as she crosses paths with a metahuman criminal she believes is innocent in spite of all the evidence.


Influences

Crisis on Infinite Earths (the episode title and the imagery of Barry's death) and the 2008 Titans series (character of Allegra Garcia)


Goofs

Ralph's screams as he is hit by Allegra Garcia's heat waves sound silly.

It is said that ultraviolet light travels 80 times faster than Barry Allen's top speed. Yet Barry traveled faster than light in the last episode, running into and out of the black hole generated by Chester P. Runk.


Performances

Grant Gustin's tearful performance as he describes what he saw in the future is a high-water mark for his career.


Artistry

Barry's visions are truly horrific and bring the imagery of the universe dying from Crisis on Infinite Earths to life.


Flash Facts

The episode title is taken from Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 - the comic in which Barry Allen apparently died. This, in turn, is taken from a poem by William Knox; Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
He passes from life to his rest in the grave.

The character of Allegra Garcia first appeared in Titans #28 in December 2010. Born in the Amazon jungle and raised in the slums of Rio, she was the biological daughter of the supervillain Wavelength and inherited his ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy.

The Arrowverse version of Allegra Garcia is an American metahuman, who was running a car-jacking operation in Keystone by the time she was 20. A petty criminal since she was 13, she developed metahuman powers while in custody and gained the ability to manipulate radio waves.

Jay Garrick has a map of the Multiverse which makes mention of Thaddeus Brown living on Earth 51. In the comics, Thaddeus Brown was a master escape artist and the first person to use the name Mister Miracle. He mentored both Scott Free and Shilo Norman, who would go on to take up his name and costume as crime-fighters.

Jay Garrick's map identifies Earth-13 as the home of Wells The Grey - a wizard version of Harrison Wells. In DC Comics' cosmology, Earth-13 is a world of magic where Etrigan (as Superdemon) is the leader of a team of magical heroes known as the League of Shadows.

Jay Garrick's map makes reference to Earth-18 having great tequila. In the cosmology of DC Comics, Earth-18 is the home of the Justice Riders - a Wild West version of the Justice League.

Jay Garrick's wife is a neurologist named Joan Williams. In the original Flash comics, Joan Williams was Jay Garrick's love interest and eventual wife.


Technobabble

Cisco uses a nanite camoflauge cocktail designed by Ray Palmer to disguise Killer Frost's eyes and voice so she can pass for a normal human woman with white hair.

The key fobs for modern cars run on radio waves, making it possible for a metahuman who can manipulate radio waves to break into a car by radiating the right frequency.

Barry builds a mobile Gideon from parts salvaged from the plinth in the Time Vault.

Without speed-healing, just a brief touch of antimatter could erase a person from existence.

Jay Garrick has been charting antimatter signatures across the multiverse. He has an algorithm which has determined that the entire multiverse is in danger.

The Neural Hyper-Collider harnesses neural electricity and transfers it across super-luminal particles, allowing the human consciousness of a speedster in his physical prime to travel across space-time past any physical barrier, including antimatter.

Ralph determines that Allegra Garcia is innocent based on the burn pattern of the victim's body. Ralph says it looks like the victim was burned before the car crashed and exploded. Since Allegra can only control radio waves and not microwave radiation, this proves someone else had to have attacked her.

Jay Garrick's helmet is used to channel the tachyons into Barry's frontal cortex and ignite his synaptic pathways.

Jay detects temporal energy as Barry's mind moves past the antimatter barrier to the future.

Dr. Williams claims that a person who has experienced collapsed neural pathways can stimulate those nerves by hearing poetry.

When Barry's neural synapses were overloaded, it created a state of neutral entropy - a near shutdown of the nervous system. Barry compares the sensation to feeling like every nerve in his body is on fire.

According to Dr. Williams, a speedster's synapses fire at ten times the rate of a normal human, meaning a speedster experiences neural entropy with ten times the pain. It typically takes a day or two to recover, even with a speedster's accelerated healing factor.

Cisco determines that the blast that injured Ralph was pure ultraviolet radiation. Had it not been for Ralph's relative invulnerability, he would have been burned to death instantly. As it stands, Ralph got what he describes as "the sunburn from Hell" and has visible burns and blisters on his face..

UV rays have shorter wavelengths than radio waves but are still part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Most UV rays generated by the sun are absorbed by the ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere.

Ultraviolet light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which is 80 times Barry Allen's top-speed.

Ramsey notes that Mitch Romero's body showed no signs of hemorrhaging, but his blood coagulated with an unidentifiable biological substance.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: (opening narration) I stared at that newspaper for so many years. "Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis." First it felt like a guide. You know, like proof that things were headed in the right direction? Then it became a sword hanging over my head. A part of me always felt like if I vanish in whatever crisis is coming... Maybe I was still out there somewhere, looking for a way to come back to you.

Joan Williams: I've discovered that poetry can stimulate collapsed neural pathways.
Barry: Lady Gaga usually works for me.

(Joe is questioning Allegra in an interrogation room.)
Joe: Okay, help me understand why you pleaded guilty this morning and now you're suddenly innocent.
Allegra: A girl can change her mind.
Joe: What were you doing at the witness' apartment?
Allegra: Just needed to hash it out with him, prove it was wasn't me he saw.
Joe: That's something a detective would do.
Allegra: I'm trying to be a reporter, okay? Figured this was as good a time as any to get some experience. Get a story and my freedom. But what's the use? You'll always see me as a criminal anyway.
Joe: You know what I see? I see that scared little kid that I used to pick up for robbing liquor stores when she was 13. That same girl that I would check on in juvie who would always tell me to leave. This morning, I get a ping that you'd escaped from your meta-cuffs, and we find you in the location of the dead State's witness. If you're a reporter, how does this story play out?

Joe: Our badges, your emblem, they're symbols of the strength that we're charged with to get back out there. And we don't make the choice to die. We would never choose to do that. But when we hear the call of duty... we're willing to make that sacrifice. And that's not giving up, Barr. That's what you call resilience. And I know you to have plenty of that.


Continuity

Ramsey Rosso meets with a weapon's dealer named Mitch Romero.

The weapon's dealer he met with in 601 was called Gat.

Ramsey originally paid $500 for the anti-matter gun. Mitch wants $5000 for the new one.

Ramsey's arm turns into a black liquid mass, seemingly draining the life from Mitch Romero when he is attacked.

Ralph and Cisco take Killer Frost to a gallery opening at the space curator by Cisco's girlfriend, Kamilla, at her request.

Kamilla is aware of Caitlin's secret identity.

Allegra Garcia is a career criminal with the power to manipulate radio waves.

Allegra Garcia was arrested at the scene after a man named Salvador Traversoni lost control of his car and crashed. The evidence suggested that Garcia had tried to use her powers to take over the car.

Cecile senses that Garcia is lying when she tries to plead guilty to all the charges against her.

Cecile takes the unusual step of requesting bail for Garcia rather than accepting the guilty plea and a 15 year sentence.

Barry decides to time-travel to December 11, 2019 - one day after he is supposed to disappear. He is stopped by a barrier of antimatter in the Speed Force, which wounds him.

Earth-3 has blimps as an apparent public transport.

Jay Garrick was last seen in 415.

Jay Garrick has officially retired as The Flash of Earth-3 and now walks with a cane.

Jay Garrick has a map of the multiverse with extensive notes regarding several Earths. He has Earth-1 labeled as the home of Barry Allen, Earth-3 as his own home world, and Earth-38 as the home of Supergirl and Superman.

The map also lists two undesignated Earths and includes numbers higher than 52 - the supposed cap number of universes known to Harry wells at the time of Crisis on Earth-X.

Earth-13 is apparently the home of Wells the Grey - the wizard version of Harrison Wells seen in 406.

Earth-15 was apparently destroyed in the year 1986. This was the dead Earth to which Cisco sent Fallout's radiation in 410.

Earth-18 apparently has great tequila.

Earth-19 is home of the Breacher Agency, which employed Cynthia and Josh.

Earth-30 apparently only has vegan cuisine or only allows Vegans to live there.

Earth-51 is the home of Thaddeus Brown, who was mentioned in 520.

Earth-221 is the home of Sherloque Wells. This is likely a reference to the address of Sherlock Holmes - 221B Baker Street.

Earth-X is home of the Freedom Fighters and was encoutered during the Crisis on Earth-X storyline.

Jay Garrick suggests that he can send Barry's mind past the antimatter barrier to see the future.

Since the last time Barry saw Jay, he has gotten married to a woman named Dr. Joan Williams. She is the spitting image of Barry's mother, Nora Allen.

Jay says that he and Joan hit it off after he consulted her because he needed a neurologist's help to chart how his powers were affecting his body as he aged.

Joan asks Barry if she reminds him of anyone from his Earth. He says she does, but does not say she looks like his mother, saying only she looks like "someone special."

Ralph determines that Allegra Garcia is innocent, based on the injuries of Salvador Traversoni being inconsistent with those of someone trapped in a car that exploded.

Ralph and Iris go to question the witness who identified Allegra Garcia as the killer. They find Allegra Garcia standing over his dead body. Startled, she sends a blast at Ralph, which burns his face.

Joe West is able to stop Garcia from escaping, thanks to a metahuman restraint shooting gun.

Barry sees billions of potential future timelines while under the influence of Jay's machine. He also sees the deaths of himself, Iris, Killer Frost, Ralph Dibny and Cisco Ramon as the antimatter waves destroy Central City.

Curiously, Cisco is back in his Vibe costume in Barry's vision.

Barry makes reference to the pilot episode and how he usually hears Lady Gaga when he wakes up from being knocked into a coma.

Allegra Garcia dreamed of being a reporter as a girl.

Joe West picked Garcia up for robbing a liquor store when she was 13.

Jay and Joan transport Barry back to Earth-1.

Iris tells Joan that she looks like Barry's mother.

Barry tells Joe about the newspaper from the future and his visions and how he feels he's going to have to sacrifice himself and there's no way to avoid it.

Team Flash have alerts set to their phones to warn them if the MAC is having problems processing Chester P. Runk's bio-energy.

Killer Frost has taken up drawing as a hobby.

Allegra Garcia says she can see the radiation around her - not just control it. She specifically mentions gamma waves and microwaves but says she can't stop herself from seeing them.

Cecile tells Allegra about her telepathic and emphatic powers.

Allegra Garcia says she has a cousin, Esperanza, who was with her the night of the particle accelerator explosion. Esperanza had the same tattoo as Allegra - a gang symbol. Allegra claims she was forced to join the gang when she was younger and that the fight she got in the night of the particle accelerator explosion was due to her trying to get out of the gang.

Ralph retrieves Esperanza Garcia's records and discoverers that she was in a vegetative state before being taken into the custody of a redacted government organization the night of the particle accelerator explosion.

Esperanza Garcia now calls herself Ultraviolet. It seems to be her preferred wavelength, though she seemingly has the ability to control all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, generating an EMP that knocks out the power at the CCPD headquarters.

Esperanza Garcia was hired to kill Salvador Traversoni. She then tried to kill the witness who identified Allegra and Allegra herself to hide that she was still alive.

Ultraviolet's existence hints at a secret organization that is exploiting young metahumans and training them to be assassins. Ralph says he plans to look into it.

Killer Frost buys some artwork to decorate the medical lab. She says she used Caitlin's credit cards to do it. This leads Ralph to declare that her next life lesson will involve personal finance.

Cisco puts Killer Frost's first self-portrait up among the other artwork.

Ralph's mom used to date a trapeze artist - No Net Nick.

Cecile decides to resign as District Attorney and become a defense attorney specializing in metahuman defense.

Cecile acts a reference for Allegra and gets her an internship with Iris' newspaper.

Jay says he'll keep monitoring the anti-Matter outbreaks from his lab on Earth-3.

Ramsey Rosso examines the body of Mitch Romero, which comes to life as he is performing a biopsy and knocks him out.


Location

Earth-3.


The Bottom Line

A decent episode, though I wonder how much the audience cares about Cecile's crisis of faith regarding her career and the addition of Allegra to an already overburdened cast of supporting characters. It's depressing how little screen-time Cisco, Ralph and Frost have here but at least Ralph is allowed to do some real detective work instead of being the comic relief.

On the other hand, Grant Gustin is acting his heart out of Barry's coping with his unavoidable death and Jesse Martin gets some great material as Joe. So while I question how well some of the new story additions will stick, at least there is little that is outright annoying.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 1 - Into The Void

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



Plot

As Barry and Iris cope with the loss of their daughter, Nora, Team Flash faces their most dangerous threat yet, as small black holes begin opening up all around Central City. Meanwhile, Killer Frost has a brush with death that may forever change her relationship with Caitlin Snow and a new villain is born.


Influences

The 1980 Flash Gordon movie (music and the black hole sequence) and The Flash comics of Mike Baron (character of Chester P. Runk) and Joshua Williamson (character of Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork)


Goofs

How did Godspeed get to the past when he can't run faster than sound, according to Cisco?

Iris lies about why she was at the junkyard for no good reason. Surely Barry of all people would understand her wanting to save the jacket she eventually gave to their daughter in the future? Besides, that, this sets up a major plot convenience as Iris starts investigating junkyard robberies to hide her lie and stumbles across the story of Chester P. Runk.

How does Ralph know about Superman's Fortress of Solitude? (Maybe Barry told him about it after the events of Elseworlds?)

Team Flash shouldn't be surprised they don't hear from Barry while he's inside the black hole, given that the radio signals (or whatever they use to let Barry hear them when he's moving faster than sound) wouldn't be able to escape the pull of the black hole.


Performances

It must be noted again what a fantastic job Danielle Panabaker does in playing off herself and in having made Killer Frost and Caitlin into two distinct characters with different body language, even ignoring their different physical traits.


Artistry

The entire sequence where Barry enters the black hole is brilliant, stylistically made to resemble the slow-motion fight scenes from Flash Gordon.


Flash Facts

The title of the episode is taken from a line in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie - "Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here."

As the episode opens, Ralph is out of town, tracking a missing woman named Sue Dearbon. This is the maiden name of Sue Dibny, aka Mrs. Elongated Man in the comics.

Chester P. Runk first appeared in The Flash #9 in February 1988 and was created by Mike Baron and Jackson Guice. A morbidly obese but brilliant cosmologist, Runk felt isolated from the world and grew to hate the popular people around him. After earning a full scholarship to MIT, Runk developed a matter-transfer machine. While testing the device, intending to teleport himself across the city, the machine imploded and wound up inside of Runk, somehow bonding with him.

This gave Runk the ability to create a controllable black hole, but he had to keep feeding dense materials into the hole to prevent it from devouring him. This brought him into conflict with the Wally West version of The Flash, whom Runk sucked into the black hole along with several other people who annoyed him. This led to the discovery that Runk's black hole led into an otherwise empty universe. After convincing Runk to let him and the other people trapped in his universe go, Wally helped Runk to find a positive use for his power, starting a legal business to dispose of garbage, toxic waste and other things people wanted to disappear forever. Runk and West became friends and lived together for a time after Runk became wealthy enough to buy himself a mansion.

The Arrowverse version of Chester P. Runk is not morbidly obese, but is a brilliant scientist who hosts a show about science on a Twitch-style streaming network. Building his own equipment out of abandoned gear he finds in a junkyard, he develops a controllable black hole in his final episode. As in the comics, the black hole bonds with Chester and his conscious mind causes it to manifest in places that are important to him until Team Flash helps reunite Chester's mind and body.

Ramsey Rosso first appeared in The Flash #29 in October 2017 and was created by Joshua Williamson, Pop Mahn and Christian Duce. Born with severe hemophilia that limited his ability to play as a child, Rosso was brilliant but his inability to survive in the world limited his academic pursuits so that he eventually took a job with the Central City morgue. It was here that he began researching a cure for hemophilia, using blood samples from metahumans that were taken as evidence. Rosso developed a formula that gave him a number of superpowers relating to controlling the flow of blood.

As Bloodwork, Rosso is capable of transforming his entire body into a living flow of blood. He can constrict or enhance the flow of blood in others' bodies, causing it to congeal or burn instantly. He also claimed to be invulnerable and did appear to be resistant to cutting implements. The Flash was able to stop him, however, by shocking him with a controlled lightning blast. His chief weakness is that his powers are tied to his own heart-rate and he loses control the more agitated he becomes, transforming into a hulking monster with little sense of reason if he becomes too worked up.

The Arrowverse version of Ramsey Rosso is a research oncologist rather than a coroner. An old friend of Caitlin Snow's from medical school, nothing is said about him being a hemophiliac in this episode. Instead, he is motivated by the death of his mother to cancer and her acceptance of death as inevitable. While we do not see the results of his experiments to create a cure for her type of cancer in this episode, it is clear that he will become this universe's version of Bloodwork.

When Ralph returns to STAR Labs, he reveals that he just came from Opal City. In the comics, Ralph and Sue Dibny eventually settled in Opal City to become that city's protectors after the 7th Starman Jack Knight elected to retire from being a superhero.

Joe retrieves a theft report from the Leawood and New Brighton junkyard for Iris. Leawood and New Brighton are the names of districts in Central City in the comics.

Ralph makes reference to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, when he calls Killer Frost out on isolating herself in a "Snow-tress of Solitude."

The music Cisco plays as Barry enters into the black hole is Flash's Theme by Queen. As Cisco notes, this has never been more appropriate as the plot of the Flash Gordon movie saw Flash Gordon travel into a black hole and another universe.


Technobabble

Cisco is working on building a Mental Augmentation Chamber (i.e. The MAC) which will allow Barry to tap into the Speed Force to boost his cognitive abilities. This would allow him to see every possible outcome to a scenario at the same time, effectively allowing him to "speed-think" even faster than he can now.

Cisco says that the junkyard where the black hole first manifested is awash with gamma rays and magnetar fields.

Rachel Rosso is said to have HLH - Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocystosis. HLH is a rare disease, sometimes acquired by cancer patients. There are two types of HLH: familial and acquired. Familial HLH accounts for about 25% of cases and the condition is passed from parent to child. HLH causes certain kinds of white blood cells to attack other blood cells, resulting in the body slowly failing as it destroys itself. Ramsey claims the median survival rate after diagnosis is 2-6 months.

Chester P. Runk builds a gravitational wave emitter powered by a modulated neutrino charge in his lab. It is this device that allows him to create a small black hole.

Cisco creates an inverse mass angular momentum disruptor - i.e. the stellar grenade. He believes it can be used to collapse a small black hole safely, making it implode by reversing the mass-collecting properties of the black hole.

Normally, stimuli enters the brain through the sensory area, goes up to the temporal lobe, and then back around through the rest of the brain. In Chester's brain, the impulses start in the right area, but halfway through their rotation they just vanish, becoming an energy pulse of negative ionic energy inside the black hole. A negative ionic energy map Cisco makes of the black hole shows this pulse moving halfway around the black hole. This proves that the energy pulse is Chester's conscious mind.

Since Chester's synaptic energy has a negative charge, Barry theorizes he can use the positive charge of the lightning he generates as The Flash to act as a magnet and attract Chester's mind to him.

Containing the energy of a human mind requires the superconductive wiring and filaments from a quantum computer. Cisco retrieves this from Nora's spare gauntlet and threads it into Barry's costume, so that he can retrieve Chester's mind from the black hole.

According to Barry, The Speed Force is a billion times stronger than any gravimetric force. This may not be a precise measurement, but it is strong enough to allow Barry to run into a black hole without being crushed to death instantly.

The structural integrity of The MAC is such that it can be used to contain synaptic energy, making it a handy container for rejoining Chester P. Runk's mind and body.

Chester has to remain inside The MAC for 4-6 weeks for his molecules to restabilize at the subatomic level.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ralph: Having Caitlin's memories isn't the same as having your own.
Killer Frost: Like you'd know anything about that.
Ralph: I know it sucked sitting cour-tside for "The Thinker Show" when he hijacked my body, and I think that you've been going through something similar since Thomas died. And after being at that funeral, seeing that woman live the last days of her life to the fullest, I think that made you want want to start living your best life right now.
Killer Frost: (sharply) That's not my gig! Okay? (quieter) I fight the bad guys, keep Caiti safe, and then go back in my cage. I just have to deal with it.
Ralph: Have you thought to ask Caitlin how she feels?
Killer Frost: What's she gonna say? "Go ahead, Frost, take the wheel." (scoffs)
Ralph: There's only one way to find out.

(Barry begins running around the black hole, picking up speed.)
Cisco: I've been saving this for the right moment - since day one.
(Cisco hits the space key on his keyboard. Flash's Theme from Flash Gordon begins blaring through STAR Labs' sound system.)
Iris: (rolling her eyes) Really, Cisco?
Cisco: The guy is running in and out of a black hole!
(There is a long pause as Iris considers this.)
Iris: Good point.

(The Monitor appears before Iris and Barry.)
Barry: What do you want?
The Monitor: For your universe to survive.
Iris: The plinth you destroyed it. You destroyed Nora's message.
The Monitor: An unfortunate side effect. But I needed to discourage you.
Barry: From doing what?
The Monitor: Hoping. Your determination is boundless, Flash. It is one of your greatest qualities but you cannot avoid the coming Crisis.
Iris: Barry has five years before he vanishes.
The Monitor: No longer. December 10, 2019. On that day, he will answer the call and make the ultimate sacrifice. Soon this world will fight for the fate of all the known universes.
Barry: I'm not gonna leave my family. There has to be a way to stop what's coming.
The Monitor: I am sorry, but events have been set into motion that you cannot possibly comprehend.
Barry: I don't need to understand them! Just tell me what I can do.
The Monitor: To survive? You can't. In order for billions to survive this coming Crisis, the Flash must die.


Dialogue Disasters

Cecile: Baby Jenna is napping like a little angel and I have creamed corn, I have candied yams, I have collard greens. Baby, let's eat! (The delivery of this line is just indescribable and mere text cannot do justice to how badly Cecile tries to sound cool while saying it.)


Continuity

Apart from the opening scene, which takes place immediately after the ending of 522, this episode takes place four months after the Season 5 finale.

The final message Nora left for Iris and Barry seemingly causes a power surge at STAR Labs that seems to short out Gideon and destroys the data drive the message was saved on. This is presumably a side-effect of the paradox of Nora's existence being resolved, but is later revealed to be the work of The Monitor.

Godspeed, last seen in 518, makes an appearance. In the four months since Nora's death, Godspeed has apparently traveled back in time and begun plaguing Central City.

The Godspeed Barry catches is the fourth one Team Flash has stopped in the past four months. None of them have been the real August Heart. All of them have been unable to speak except in odd electronic-sounding noises, which Cisco calls "modem speak."

The Central City Citizen has a couple of hundred-thousand subscribers.

Ralph is a vegetarian.

Ralph is still out of town, tracking a missing woman named Sue Dearbon. He is either in Peru, Monaco or Texas.

Barry has become a workaholic over the past few months and is anxious to test the Mental Augmentation Chamber Cisco is working on.

Barry leaves the party early to investigate a break-in at Eastside Industrial.

Iris leaves the party to take a call, after asking Joe what happened to several old boxes she kept in his garage.

Caitlin leaves the party early to go to the funeral of one of her old teachers, Dr. Rachel Rosso. She was one of Caitlin's mentors in medical school, who reportedly saw a lot of herself in Caitlin, as they were both overachievers.

Dr. Rachel Rosso had a son, Ramsey Rosso, who is also a medical doctor, specializing in oncology.

At the funeral, Ramsey describes his mother as having always pushed him to keep going no matter what pain he experienced, telling a story about her helping him get back on his bike after he fell and hurt himself. This story is later revealed to be a lie and Ramsey was truly disgusted with his mother's acceptance of her cancer diagnosis as untreatable.

Iris goes to a junkyard in search of the boxes Joe threw out. She retrieves the purple jacket she wore when she had speed powers in 416, which would eventually be given to Nora and become part of her XS costume.

While Iris is at the junk yard, she is nearly swallowed by a mysterious black hole.

Iris lies about why she was at the junkyard, saying that she was following up a tip on a series of junkyard robberies.

The data Cisco retrieves from the first black hole site results in more data than anyone has ever acquired about black holes before.

Ralph returns wearing a tux, saying that he just came from Opal City, where he was working undercover among the wealthy elites all summer.

Ralph apparently agreed to take the case to find the missing Sue Dearbon after her parents begged him to take it when every other private investigator said it was hopeless. Ralph says he took the case because they looked so sad and desperate. In a reflection of how Ralph's character has changed in the past years, the fact that they're ludicrous wealthy and paying all his expenses does not come up.

Caitlin has been having random "frost outs" with her powers suddenly flaring up all summer. She had two in the days following Rachel Rosso's funeral.

Iris eventually does go investigating reports of thefts at the junkyard to see if there's a connection to the black hole that nearly ate her.

Caitlin likes her lattes with a bit of cinnamon. According to Ramsey, this is the same way his mother liked them.

Caitlin credits a letter of recommendation from Dr. Rachel Rosso for getting her a job with STAR Labs.

Ramsey said that his mother developed HLH as a result of her cancer and her blood literally boiled her insides to death. This inspired him to start working on a cure for the condition.

Ramsey did develop a cure for HLH, but it requires dark matter as a bonding agent. He asks Caitlin to help him get the dark matter he needs for a trial but Caitlin refuses, saying his process could turn people into metahumans against their will.

A second black hole opens at C.C. Jitters. Barry just stops Caitlin from being sucked into it as The Flash.

Iris discovers the connection between the two black holes, finding that the one person arrested for stealing from a junkyard who didn't fit the profile of a thief was a man named Chester P. Runk, who has a science show on-line.

In his last show before being hospitalized in a catatonic state, Chester apparently (and accidentally) created a small black hole in his lab.

Chester has a crush on a waitress named Natalie, who works at C.C. Jitters.

Caitlin says the last time Killer Frost refused to take over her body and her powers went wonky was right after her father's death in 519.

Ralph theorizes that Killer Frost is afraid of dying in the wake of so much recent death, having never really had the life experience to cushion the blow of the revelation that she is mortal and won't live forever like Caitlin has.

Ramsey acquires a black market dark-matter gun from an illegal weapons dealer.

Iris finally tells Cecile about how she was at the junkyard trying to get her jacket back.

Iris realizes that the throbbing of the black hole's corona corresponds to the beat the catatonic Chester is drumming out.

Ralph gets Killer Frost to emerge by faking an emergency in STAR Labs' reactor.

Ralph changes his assessment, guessing that Killer Frost wants a life of her own outside of being Caitlin's alter ego.

Caitlin led her debate team in high-school to back-to-back championships.

Barry admits that he's been throwing himself into his work the past four months to avoid having to think about Nora's death.

Cecile is able to bench her own body-weight and is able to carry Chester into The MAC by herself.

Cisco has been saving Flash's Theme from Flash Gordon to play for the perfect occasion. He decides that Barry going into a black hole is that occasion.

Barry is able to enter into the black hole and retrieve Chester's mind.

Chester's mind is restored but his eyes now glow with orange energy.

Chester has to remain inside The MAC for 4-6 weeks. Thankfully, he is more than happy to hang around STAR Labs in the meantime. He plans to ask Natalie out as soon as he can.'

Caitlin agrees to let Killer Frost take over their body and live her own life outside of being a superhero.

Ralph takes up the job of Killer Frost's life coach. He has a newly written Book Of Ralph Vol. 2.

Ralph suggests Killer Frost pick a new name for herself. He suggests Anne, which is the middle name of his mother.

Ramsey Rosso is revealed to have 99% of the cancer markers his mother did, suggesting the real reason he is so desperate to find a cure. He injects himself with his cure and it does seem to start removing the cancer markers from his DNA. It also causes his arm to become coated with some kind of black liquid, which causes him to scream.

Barry sets up a display case in the Time Vault to hold Nora's jacket.

The Monitor appears to Barry and Iris and tells them that the date of Barry's disappearance has ben pushed up to December 10, 2019. He also says that for the multiverse to be saved, Barry must die and this fate cannot be avoided. 


Untelevised Adventures

August Heart (aka Godspeed) apparently traveled back in time at some point in the past four months and began causing damage around Central City. He has also apparently been giving super-speed to other people, having created four decoys under his control, who are incapable of speech.


The Bottom Line

A solid season opener, mainly sold by the fantastic Flash Gordon sequence and the chilling tie-in to Crisis at the end. The subplots are being set-up but Bloodwork is a largely underwhelming big-bad in the face of what we know this season is building toward. Still, a good start overall.