The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 9 - Phantoms

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

Plot

Iris follows a story to Coast City, as the rest of Team Flash focuses on the mystery of a fire-wielding serial killer.

Influences

Legion of Super-Heroes (character of Phantom Girl), X-Men (Tinya seems more like Kitty Pryde than her comic book countpart, particularly with her power to short out electronics) and It. (a serial killer with monstrous powers who feeds on fear.)


Goofs

Deon's demand that Iris not tell her family about her worsening time illness is idiotic and a prime example of the kind of random decision to keep secrets needlessly that has made the later seasons of The Flash painful to watch.

Where is Ralph Dibny in all this? Sue says the Black Hole has finally been defeated so what happened to her partner in crime fighting? 

Iris tracks the Coast City Phantom using a metahuman tracking app that measures the ambient levels of dark matter tied to the meta using their powers. However, as has been shown in earlier episodes (as in the case of Frost and her father) that only works with metahumans created by the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion. Given Tinya is implied to be a Coast City native, the app shouldn't have worked for her. (It's possible Tinya lived in Central City eight years ago.)

Iris' decision to try and drag Tinya into the limelight seems really exploitative, even ignoring her age and the fact that Tinya has no desire to be a superhero.


Performances

Natalie Dreyfuss is a delight, as always, as Sue. Her interactions with Candice Patton as Iris are the high point of the episode, primarily because it's the most convincing friendship with another woman Iris has had on the show with someone who isn't a work friend of Barry or a subordinate at her work.


Artistry

The special effects for the black fire are generally good.


Flash Facts

A billboard in Coast City advertises Ferris Air. This is the employer of both Carol Ferris (aka Star Sapphire) and Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) in the comics.

This episode introduces the Arrowverse version of Phantom Girl, aka The Coast City Phantom (CCP). She is revealed to be a teen runaway named Tinya, who is trying to find her mother, who was a barista at the CC Jitters in Coast City, California.

In the comics, Phantom Girl first appeared in Action Comics #276 in May 1961 and was created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and artist Jim Mooney. A native of the planet Bgztl, Tinya Wazzo had the power to phase through solid matter, which was innate to her people due to Bgztl existing partly in the fourth dimension. She joined the Legion of Super Heroes and also used the codename Apparition. 

Technobabble

Chester installs a cold fusion alarm module for the STAR Labs satellites, capable of detecting any rapid drops in barometric anomalies around Central City.

The Cold Fusion Killer's fire powers are cryokinetic, meaning that their power output is detected as extreme cold pockets.

Chester is able to trap a sample of the Cold Fusion Killer's black fire using a micro-catalyzed containment unit. He and Ray Palmer designed the device together as part of the foundation Ray started in 801.An an 8-inch vacuum-sealed borosilicate canister with an ionic-fused base and cap, it preserves the vaporized integrity of gases.

Chester hopes to analyze the black fire and, after learning its molecular properties, reprogram the STAR Labs satellites to seek out the source.

Iris' metahuman tracking app measures dark matter readings.

STAR Labs' fire suppression system detects carbon dioxide. As such, it does nothing to try and stop the cold fusion fires, which do not generate carbon dioxide like normal flames.

Sue bluffs Tinya with a molecular destabilizing matrix she claims can knock out any metahuman in a three block radius by destabilizing their powers. (It's actually a paper weight.)

The cold fusion fires start in a subzero state, but they still give off high levels of kinetic energy, which is what allows it to burn people despite a lack of measurable heat.

Chester begins searching STAR Labs for cold catalyzed reactions by tracking muon-catalyzed heat signatures. He determines that the cold flames are converging on the Speed Lab.

Dialogue Triumphs

(Sue threatens to hurt Tinya with an exotic weapon.)
Tinya: Yeah, I thought you two helped people?
Sue: (gesturing to Iris) Oh, she does. Me, it depends on my mood. 


Continuity

Deon, the Still Force avatar, agrees to give Iris a check-up even tough she's been stable for months.

Iris tells Deon about the lost time she experienced in 808.

Iris has vague memories of her meeting with Deon in 803, but neither one of them remember the incident.

Deon still has no idea how someone gets a time sickness, but he plans to look into it.

Deon detects mutations in Iris' aura which may be a result of his treatment. He promises to look into that as well, but asks Iris not to tell anyone until he knows for sure what is going on.

Joe takes some of the evidence from Barry's investigation into the Cold Fusion Killer to look into on his own.

Caitlin is said to have gone on a spontaneous getaway vacation with Marcus to see Dear Evan Hansen in Metropolis. 

According to Frost, Caitlin and Marcus have becoming nauseatingly weepy watching musicals together at home. 

Chester creates a new module to track the Cold Fusion Killer.

Sue Dearbon is in town, making her first appearance since 714.

Sue says she's on a tour of her family's companies, having taken over management in the wake of her parents being sent to prison and the destruction of the Black Hole syndicate. 

Sue is going to Coast City to inspect part of a line of luxury hotels she owns, but is hoping to see the Coast City Phantom.

The Coast City Phantom (or CCP) is reportedly the first metahuman to ever be reported in Coast City.

Sue invites Iris to come with her and look for the Phantom.

Chester detects a cold spot at 138 South Devon Road, but the Cold Fusion Killer is gone before he can get there. The location is a yoga studio.

The third victim of the Cold Fusion Killer was a yoga instructor named Parker DeStefano.

Iris and Sue search around downtown Coast City, as that's where most of the sightings of the Phantom took place.

Sue guesses that Iris wanted an excuse to get out of town and asks about how her relationship with Barry is. Iris changes the subject, having used the meta-tracking app on her phone to find a ping on the Phantom.

The app leads Sue and Iris to a teenage girl named Tinya in a CC Jitters, who is not interested in talking to them.

Sue observes Tinya placing something through her backpack.

Tinya is able to short out Iris' phone by phasing a fingertip through it.

Chester falls asleep while working in the lab and dreams that he hears voices before the black fire grows out of control.

Cecile claims to have felt Chester's fear.

Frost notes that Chester is the most touchy-feely person she knows and he is clearly upset about something and hiding it.

Allegra volunteers to try and get Chester to open up.

Sue tries to download Chester's app, but with her substandard data plan it will take over seven hours.

Iris says they don't need to track Tinya. They just have to research her.

Iris opens up to Sue about her illness and the mutations.

Sue says she was in the same place Iris is after finding out about her parents, but advises her that you can't run from a problem like that.

Iris realizes that Tinya may be on the run as well.

As Allegra is talking with Chester, black flames fill his lab, like in his nightmare.

Barry puts out the flames.

Chester reprograms the satellites again to include the interior of STAR Labs, which is why the alarms didn't go off.

Barry realizes the Cold Fusion Killer must be projecting the flames remotely. This leads him to search the city until he finds where they are hiding.

Sue and Iris ambush Tinya as she's going into an apartment.

Iris reveals that she found out who Tinya is by searching the database of missing people in Coast City. This led her to discover that she was a runway who was in foster care.

Iris and Sue agree to help Tinya find her missing birth mother, who was a barista at the CC Jitters where Iris and Sue first found Tinya.

Chester tells Allegra about his father died in a car fire 24 years ago and how he's been afraid of fire and corpses burned to death ever since.

Chester says he thinks the killer is his father's ghost, because he's started having visions of his father's death.

Allegra says there is no way Chester's father, who he said was a loving man, would ever become a vengeful ghost.

Allegra doesn't believe in ghosts.

Cecile claims to feel the pain of thousands of people, maybe more, radiating from the black fires.

The black flames manifest an illusion of Chester's father, which tries to take his hand so they can join togehter.

Cecile claims that whatever intelligence is behind the illusion feeds on grief.

Chester is able to drive away the killer by affirming that his father would be proud of him and what he does every day.

Joe determines that all three of the Cold Fusion Killer's victims were also suffering from depression following bad circumstances.

Stan Mullen, the bar manager, lost all his belongings to foreclosure.

Donna Winters, the waitress, lost her sister a week before her death. 

Parker DeStefano had just lost her fiancé and childhood sweetheart to cancer. 

Cecile says it is almost like the black fire itself was sentient, as she felt passion, desire and determination from the flames.

Barry concludes that the flames must be alive.

Iris decides to stay in Coast City for a while longer to help Tinya.

Deon appears to Iris and says he figured out what is wrong with her and it is not good news.

Location

Coast City, California.


Untelevised Adventures

Sue Dearbon claims to have encountered a number of metahumans while she was traveling around the world fighting the Black Hole.

Whatever Iris and Sue do to figure out who Tinya is.


The Boomerang Factor

One wonders if Deon really knows what he is doing in regards to treating Iris' time illness since he isn't even sure how someone catches one.


The Bottom Line

Passable, largely because of the mystery of the Cold Fusion Killer, if not the actual horror show built around him. My money is that it's the Flame of Py'tar, now free to rage without Despero controlling it. In any case, the show continues to tease stories that are far more interesting than what is shown on camera and I think most fans would rather see more of Sue traveling the world and meeting other metahumans than the adventures of Team Citizen. 

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 14 - Rayo de Luz

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

Plot

When Ultraviolet returns to Central City, Allegra becomes determined to redeem her wayward cousin. Meanwhile, Joe pursues his new lead that Kristen Kramer might not be what she claims.

Influences

The MCU's Black Widow (Sue's action scenes in her leather catsuit.)


Goofs

Allegra's map shows Metropolis being in New York, presumably close to, or in place of, New York City. This contradicts what has been shown in Superman and Lois, which suggested Smallville, Kansas was only a few hours drive from Metropolis and in the same state division for high school football.

Despite only being the Interim Captain of the CCPD, Kramer already has a name plate on her desk reading "Captain Kramer."


Performances

Again, Natalie Dreyfuss is a delight and it's so good to have the show bring her back.

Flash Facts

The episode title translates to "Ray of Light" in Spanish.

This episode was directed by Danielle Panabaker. This is her third time directing an episode of The Flash.

This is the first episode not to feature Candice Patton, except in archival footage for flashbacks.

The map of Ultraviolet's recent crimes which Allegra chows Chester places Opal City in southeastern Illinois. This is the first time the location of Opal City on Earth-Prime has been confirmed. The same map shows Metropolis is in New York state and Central City is in western Missouri.

While actress Alexa Barajas plays Ultraviolet in this episode, this is the first time she did not also voice the character. The voice of Ultraviolet in this episode was provided by Erika Soto.

After nearly being blasted by Ultraviolet, Allegra comments that Chester almost wound up with a hole through his body. This literally happened in the comics, where a lab accident transformed Chester into what was essentially a sentient black hole.

At one point Chester evokes the name of Rao, the Kryptonian sun god. ("Great Rao!")


Technobabble

Chester says it's impossible to track where Ultraviolet is based on her energy signature since she radiates pure light and light is pretty much everywhere. However, he is later able to track her by measuring Allegra's powers and using them as an input signal. With that done, the satellites will search for its counterpart signal. 

Sue has a photonic stun grenade, which neutralizes the powers of metahumans with light powers.

Caitlin gives Chester Naproxen for his pain.

The STAR Labs van can generate an EMP. However, the van only holds enough power for a single pulse.

Dr. Olsen's guards are armed with electro-pulse rifles.

Sue is able to take on all the guards using a taser line weapon reminiscent of the Widow's Bite.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Sue describes how her parents willingly worked for Black Hole.)
Sue: Carver bought my parents' loyalty for billions. And once they got a taste, they needed more. And what happened, once Carver was gone? My parents were in too deep. And worse, they got used to this lifestyle. And no matter how hard I tried, I could not pull them out. Because they didn't want out.
Allegra: Which is why you have to pull with everything you have. When I first met Team Flash, it was in handcuffs. When they first met you, you were robbing a bank. We didn't want help either, but this team never gave up on us.


Dialogue Disasters

The entirety of Allegra's "Care Bear Stare" scene using the power of love to save the day, complete with glowing heart.


Continuity

The episode opens with a flash-forward of Allegra fighting Ultraviolet 12 hours after the episode opens.

Barry and Iris plan to leave for a day to take a vacation at a secluded island somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Barry says they'll be completely off the grid, since the phone service and Wi-Fi are spotty.

Barry credits Chester with the idea of him and Iris going away, referencing the incident in the Starchives from 713.

Frost says she hasn't heard anything about any villains being on the loose, so as far as she's concerned they can take the day off from superhero business.

Chester invites Frost to join his Dungeons and Dragons game, but she declines, saying she has some personal business to attend to. When asked if she needs help, she says she's going to be shopping.

Chester then asks Allegra if she'd like to join his game, but she says she has a news tip she has to check up on. This involves a picture of Ultraviolet that was sent to her, along with the texter asking if that's the metahuman assassin Allegra was looking for.

Joe took a recorded statement from a soldier who claims to have seen Kristen Kramer arguing with a man named Adam Creyke at a café near the base on the day before her squad was killed 6 years earlier. To make matters worse, Creyke was apparently telling her to 'stick to the plan" and Kramer was AWOL at that moment, having not signed out at the base.

Kramer is now effectively head of the CCPD, despite being officially titled as the Interim Captain.

Despite everything, Joe still believes Kramer seems like a straight-arrow cop and there's something not right about this whole situation.

Chester shows up at Jitters wearing fake elf ears.

Marco, a barista at Jitters, was apparently part of Chester's D&D group at one point. He was kicked out for using fire spells in what was meant to be an unarmed duel.

Allegra tells Chester that she was trying to find her cousin, Ultraviolet, and was using the Citizen Tip Line to get reports of where she had been. She had tracked her to two assassinations in Metropolis and Opal City and gotten word she was back in Central City.

Allegra says she thinks she can talk to Ultraviolet and make her give up crime and be good.

Ultraviolet shows up at Jitters and tears it apart, telling Allegra to stop looking for her.

Sue Dearbon shows up and fights Ultraviolet.

Sue can speak Spanish.

One of the reasons Sue hung around in Central City was that she heard a former Black Hole assassin was back in town. This is how she stumbled across Allegra and Chester - she was already following Ultraviolet.

Allegra is nowhere near as proficient with her powers as Ultraviolet and can't build up the energy or focus to melt someone's face off.

Chester has no luck finding Ultraviolet's current location, but he does use satellite images to figure out where she was.

Sue uses Chester's map to guess where Ultraviolet's target is, noting that she appears to be using a standard Black Hole recon pattern.

Allegra suggests Chuck stay behind since this could get violent. He agrees.

Allegra and Sue are able to catch Ultraviolet, but discover the man she was going to kill wasn't a target - he was Dr. Olsen; the Black Hole scientist who experimented on her.

Ultraviolet says that her voice was cut out of her by Dr. Olsen. She then reveals the extensive scars on her neck that are su

Sue and Allegra argue about whether or not to help Ultraviolet. Allegra thinks Dr. Olsen sounds like a danger, which Sue agrees with, but Sue says they can't trust Ultraviolet since working for Black Hole warps your mind and destroys your soul.

Joe confronts Kramer with the documents he found from something called Operation Griffin. 

As Joe enters Kramer's office, she's reading the file of Roy G. Bivolo.

Kramer is enraged when she learns that Joe was looking into her past and threatens to arrest him.

Ultraviolet tries to train Allegra in how to use her powers offensively by destroying coffee cups in a make-shift shooting gallery in the Speed Lab.

Sue picks a fight with Ultraviolet, during which Chester is caught in the crossfire and his arm is hurt, requiring a sling.

Ultraviolet escapes, saying she will look for Dr. Olsen herself.

Allegra says that she and Ultraviolet have matching yin-yang tattoos which they got in a back alley as teenagers.

Joe tells Cecile about his meeting with Kramer and how she acted like a guilty person. 

Joe is about to contact the governor's office about what he found, when Kramer texts him and asks for a meeting. Joe decides to go, despite Cecile asking him not to.

Sue encourages Allegra to give up on saving Ultraviolet. When Allegra says she knows nothing about what it's like to lose your family to crime, Sue reveals that she discovered her parents weren't really being blackmailed by Black Hole - they were Joseph Carver's willing accomplices, but he used blackmail material to keep them compliant for years as they managed his international accounts. Sue tried to pull them out once Carver was dead, but they were too far gone and didn't want to leave crime behind them.

Chester is able to track Ultraviolet using Allegra's powers as an input signal - the yin to Ultraviolet's yang.

Chester insists on going as back-up in the STAR Labs van.

Ultraviolet finds Dr. Olsen but he asks her if she would consider one last experiment before she kills him.

Dr. Olsen offers to restore Ultraviolet's voice if she kills everyone else who knows about his former operation - including Team Flash.

Dr. Olsen says Allegra and Ultraviolet's powers are fueled by hate. Allegra says that isn't true and channels more energy than she ever did before, thanks to her love of family. 

Caitlin describes Allegra's new "supernova" power as a leveling up.

Caitlin takes care of Ultraviolet and looks at Dr. Olsen's note. She thinks she can use them to restore Ultraviolet's voice.

Kramer meets with Joe at O’Shaughnessy's - the bar in Keystone City where Frost fought Chillblaine in 707.

Kramer explains that Adam Creyke was her brother - not by blood but he was the only other Native American kid who grew up off the reservation where she lived as a child. This led to them bonding and joining the Army together.

Kramer denies knowing that Creyke had sold out their unit at the time - only that he was trying to talk her out of going on the mission, for some reason. This was why they had argued the night before.

Kramer asks Joe to help her find Adam Creyke and bring him to justice.

Allegra asks Chester out for coffee that night. When he says he's busy with his D&D and asks for a raincheck, she asks if she could join his game.

Barry returns from his vacation and says he and Iris are thinking of getting a time share on the island in question.

The final scene has Frost tracking down Chillblaine, whom Norvock told her had escaped from Iron Heights.

Chillblaine claims that he had his record expunged after turning State's Evidence on other metahuman criminals and that he's now "one of the good guys" like Frost.

Location

O’Shaughnessy on the south side of Keystone City.


Untelevised Adventures

Sue Dearbon apparently had several encounters with Ultraviolet over the past year, including one in Belize.

Sue's acquiring an experimental photonic stun grenade involved two trips to New Delhi, a helicopter crash and a very deadly quinceanera.


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, all in all. The Kristen Kramer story isn't that riveting since there's no reason to sympathize with her and nothing to justify Joe's faith in her. Still, the season does seem to be pushing the theme of forgiveness and that no one is entirely evil. Allegra's storyline plays into the same theme and it is all right. Unfortunately, when the best parts of the episode leave you hungry for a Sue Dearbon spin-off, something is drastically wrong.

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 6, Episode 12 - A Girl Named Sue

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




Plot

After months of searching, Ralph finally catches up with the elusive Sue Dibny and finds there's much more to the missing heiress than meets the eye. Meanwhile, Iris joins forces with Eva McCulloch - a presumed dead scientist who is also a prisoner of the mirror dimension that Iris is now stuck in - to try and find a way back to the real world, as a doppelganger of Iris begins manipulating Barry and Joe towards her own ends.


Influences

A Scandal In Bohemia (Sue is set up as the Irene Adler to Ralph's Sherlock Holmes), classic Film Noir movies and pulps and The Flash comics of John Broome and Grant Morrison.


Goofs

The damage dealt to Ralph's camera would do nothing to harm the files inside a digital camera. Even an old-fashioned film camera would be fine so long as the chamber housing the film wasn't broken.

Ralph has a bit of a glass jaw in this episode, despite his powers allegedly making him nearly-invulnerable and super-strong according to The Thinker. In fact, he's able to ignore several hundred bullets at close-range! (Presumably Ralph needs to brace himself and Sue and the henchmen were able to catch him off-guard.)


Performances

Natalie Dreyfuss proves an instantly enchanting presence as Sue Dearbon and her chemistry with Harley Sawyer is amazing. Which makes the twist of the episode all the more effective, yet we're still left wondering how much of her affection for Ralph was an act.


Artistry

The soundtrack for this episode is fantastic, with a lot of jazzy tunes that feel more appropriate to a 1940s detective movie than a superhero show. The music for the Sue/Ultraviolet fight


Flash Facts

This episode confirms the existence of The Mirror World in the post-Crisis Arrowverse. First appearing in The Flash #126, the Mirror World was a fourth-dimensional space discovered by the original Mirror Master Sam Scudder, through which he could travel through time and space. Despite being a perfect copy of Earth, the Mirror World was unpopulated save for a race of telepathic amazonian women known as the Orinocas.

Apart from a lack of Orinocas, the Mirror World of the Arrowverse seems identical to the one in the comics.

This episode introduces the character of Dr. Eva McCulloch, who has been mentioned before but never seen. Eva seems to be a gender-flipped version of Evan McCulloch - the second Mirror Master in the comics.

Evan McCulloch was created by Grant Morrison and first appeared in Animal Man #8.. A life-long criminal turned hitman, McCulloch was given the gear of the original Mirror Master after his death b the FBI, who intended for McCulloch to act as their agent while posing as a supervillain. McCulloch decided he like the idea of being a real supervillain better than being a Fed and went rogue - literally joining with the rest of the Flash's enemies (aka The Rogues Gallery). McCulloch proved to be even more clever about using the Mirror Master's many weapons, even if he was unable to develop them himself.

Sue Dearbon first appeared in The Flash #119, Sue Dearbon was a wealthy socialite from Westchester County, New York, who was married to Ralph Dibny before her first appearance. A later story revealed that Sue fell head-over-heels in love with the Ductile Detective after he and The Flash joined forces to stop a robbery at a high-society party she was at. For some reason, love blossomed between the two and they were quickly married, though Ralph had no need of her money having made a fortune doing personal appearances as Elongated Man.

Sue is notable as the only superhero love interest to become a Justice League member, having acted as the bureau chief for the JLI embassy in Paris. Despite not having any powers, Sue was a woman or rare intelligence who found ways to use the variety of skills she had picked up as a member of the landed gentry to help the Justice League and her husband in their work.

While the Arrowverse version of Sue Dibny is a high-class thief who turned to crime out of boredom, she shows the same versatility and intelligence of her comic book counterpart. She even explains away various skills as things she learned while taking various lessons her parents signed her up for to keep her occupied as a child.

The newspaper articles on Ralph's case board show that Sue Dearbon was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship - a prestigious real-world scholarship offered to students with an interest in foreign affairs and international diplomacy. This may be a nod to sue's role as the embassy chief for the Justice League International office in Paris in the comics.

Sue claims that a black-market weapons dealer and ex-boyfriend named John Loring is the reason why she went on the run. This is a nod to how Sue Dibny was killed in the comics by Jean Loring, the ex-wife of Ray Palmer, in the Identity Crisis storyline. (Arrowverse fans will remember there is a Jean Loring in the Arrowverse, but she was the Queen family lawyer, an old friend of Moira Queen and had no romantic connection to the Arrowverse Ray Palmer.)


Technobabble

Eva McCulloch explains the Mirror World to Iris thus: reality is observed by three dimensions: width, depth, and length. The super-string theory posits that there are other realities, fractal dimensions humans can't see. The Mirror World is one of these dimensions which exists on the other side of our reality.

Eva says that the clone of Iris running around in the real world is a fractal variable.

Ralph set up alerts on Sue Dibny's credit cards, bank accounts and trust funds. It is through this that he learns about her putting a deposit on an apartment in Central City.

According to Eva, liquid nitrogen should slow down the mirror's molecules to the lowest enthalpy state possible.

Barry says the scorch marks at the scene of the house fire were like giant burns created by sunlight through a magnifying glass. This was consistent with the same energy blasts used by Dr. Light and the photon rifle.

The inner gate of the vault at Central City Mercantile Bank is fitted with an anti-theft electrical system. Opening or closing it without the manager's key automatically activates a 50,000 volt fail-safe.

The device Sue uses to analyze the diamond is a Laser Confocal Scanner.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Ralph enters the apartment building where he tracked Sue Dearbon. It is, to put it politely, a dump.)
Ralph: Not exactly the Ritz.
(Ralph approaches one of the apartment doors. As he is about to open it he sears the sound of breaking glass and a struggle. Suddenly, the door swings open.)
Woman: Get down!
(A dark haired woman dives into the hallway, knocking Ralph down as the room behind her explodes. A moment later, after the debris is done running down...)
Ralph: (coughing) What the hell, lady?
Woman: Hey, I just saved your life. You're welcome, by the way.
(The woman stands up and as Ralph looks up at her she is backlit by the whole blown in the opposite wall leading outside. She's gorgeous. And familiar.)
Ralph: Oh, my God. It's you!
(For a moment, Sue looks astonished and looks around nervously at the idea of being recognized.)
Ralph: You're Sue Dearbon!
(Sue relaxes instantly, apparently satisfied Ralph isn't here to hurt her.)
Sue: In the flesh. And you are?

Ralph:  Sue, I I have been looking for you - for nine months.
Sue: Ouch. I hope you don't bill by the hour.
Ralph:  Where have you been? A-and why did your apartment explode in my face?
Sue: Yeah, hate it when that happens.
Ralph: Look, I'm serious. Now who set that bomb? Why are they trying to kill you? And how long has this been going on for?
Sue: Uh, my ex. Because I know too much. About nine months. You done?
Ralph: No, I'm most certainly not done!

(Ralph starts to get out of the car outside of Loring's warehouse. Sue starts to come with him.)
Ralph: Where are you going?
Sue: I'm going with you.
Ralph: No, no, no, no, no.
Sue: Oh, look, I get it. Chivalry's your brand.
Ralph: You're an MIT grad, speak six languages, and you play polo. You belong in a country club, not in the field.
Sue: You belong in the 19th Century with your Victorian, save-the-damsel-in-distress crap.

Ralph: So you mind telling me how you know martial arts?
Sue: My parents sent me to Kyoto for a summer. Trained with a blind sensei. Taught me everything I know.
Ralph: Really?
Sue: No. (scoffs) I trained with a guy named Frank at a YMCA.

(Sue and Ralph run along the rooftop. Sue gets to the edge and realizes there's no fire escape.)
Sue: Whoa! Uh, we have a problem.
(Ralph looks behind them. Loring's men are not far behind.)
Ralph: Do you trust me?
Sue: Define trust.
Ralph: (grabbing Sue) Hang on.
Sue: Are you crazy?!
Ralph: Sometimes? Don't let go.
(Ralph reaches out with one arm and grabs the ledge of the opposite roof. He jumps as he half-swings/half rappels away from the roof. Sue screams as he controls their fall, bring them to a gentle stop just as they reach the ground. Sue is flabbergasted.)
Sue:We just... You just... You're the Elongated Man?!
Ralph: Yeah, I'm just full of surprises.

Sue: How... how did you become the Elongated Man, anyway?
Ralph: (intensely) I was brutally experimented on by a covert organization for years. They forced me to consume rubber-based polymer compounds.
Sue: Seriously?
Ralph: No. (chuckles) I rode a bus.

Sue: Listen... I want you to know how much I appreciate you trusting me with your secret. It means a lot.
(There is a long pause and a definite something there as Sue comes closer to Ralph. Clearly shaken, Ralph changes the subject and tries to get back to business.)
Ralph: Uh...I can call my friends at CCPD and get a warrant for Loring's deposit box. Shouldn't take more than a day.
Sue: We don't have a day. Loring's already spooked. He could move that box at any minute. I feel like our only chance at....Nah, it's too crazy.
Ralph: Come on. Share your thoughts with the class.
Sue:What if ...WE break into CC Mercantile Bank now? Just us. And take the ledger for ourselves.
Ralph: Believe that's called stealing.
Sue: Oh, come on, Slick. You're also a P. I. You can't tell me you've always operated by the book.
Ralph: No, but I can't commit a crime.
Sue: (sadly) I get it. And I respect that. But Ralph? I'm not a hero. So if this is the only chance I have to see my parents again? I have to take it.
Ralph: Sue... being a hero... it's about helping innocent people. I'm not gonna let you do this alone.
Sue: (smiling) You're not?
Ralph: No. But we do this my way. We get inside, get the ledger, and immediately bring it to my friends at CCPD. Deal or no deal?
Sue: Deal.

(Sue hast just locked Ralph in the bank vault.)
Ralph: We are this close to taking down Loring. Sue, why are you doing this?
Sue: Who cares about Loring? I don't even know the guy. I do, however, know where he keeps his valuables.
Ralph: There never was a ledger.
Sue: Keep going...
Ralph:That's why you rented an apartment in Central City. You knew I was keeping tabs on you, so...so you lured me in. You rigged your own apartment to explode for for what? Just to sell the story of of sympathetic socialite running for her life?
Sue: You bought it. But don't feel bad. You're a good guy. And a hero. You probably see the best in everyone. Me, I see what I want and I take it.
Ralph: You used my detective mind to track down Loring's deposit box. You played everyone. Your parents are desperate to find you. Do they even know what you really are?
Sue: No. That's our little secret. If they found out their only daughter was a thief, they'd be devastated. So you keep your mouth shut about who I am, I keep mine shut about who you are. Deal, Elongated Man?
Ralph: Sue, was anything you told me real?
Sue: Yes. And no. See you around, Slick.

(Sue and Ralph are staring down Ultraviolet.)
Ralph: Is there anyone that doesn't want to kill you?
Sue: Not really.


Dialogue Disasters

Every scene with Cecile in this episode is painful and it's clear the writers are struggling to find ways to include her in the narrative.


Continuity

Iris meets Dr. Eva McCulloch inside the Mirror World - a plane that is a copy of Earth-Prime which exists on another dimension.

Eva is a quantum engineer who was working on a way to open doors to other planes of existence. She became trapped in the Mirror World on the night of the STAR Labs' particle accelerator explosion.

It has been 274 days since Ralph took the case to find Sue Dearbon.

Sue hasn't found any leads on Sue's location since 606.

Cecile offers to work with Ralph on finding Sue, citing their team-up in 506 as proof they work well together. Ralph declines her offer.

Ralph tracks Sue to 24 4530 10th Avenue

As Barry and the fake Iris are eating breakfast, the fake Iris is reading a copy of CatCo Magazine, where the cover story shows Lex Luthor winning the Man of Tomorrow award. This occurred in S510.

Barry is still sore after the fight with Amunet Black and Goldface last week.

The Mirror Gun was last seen in 522. It is being kept in the Starchives.

The fake Iris asks Barry for the Mirror Gun in the Starchives. He refuses, saying it is too dangerous.

Sue Dearbon says that she's been on the run for the last nine months because she learned too much about the operations of John Loring - a black-market weapons dealer, whom she used to date before learning how he earned his fortune.

Sue is hunting John Loring, trying to get the evidence she needs to prove his crimes before she goes to the police.

Sue claims that John Loring is watching her parents and that he has police on the take in every city where he does business, watching for her to make sure she doesn't call her parents or contact the police anywhere charges could be pressed.

Eva attempted 1,322 different plans to escape the Mirror World over the past six years.

Iris suggests they can escape by freezing the mirror to Absolute Zero, the same way that Barry was able to escape being trapped by a mirror by Sam Scudder in 304.

Joe asks Barry to take a second look at a case involving a house fire on Batton Street and bring anything unusual he finds directly to him.

Sue knows six languages, graduated from MIT, plays polo and knows martial arts.

Sue saves Ralph from being drowned in a rain barrel by one of Loring's henchmen.

Cecile says that she can barely tell Ralph and Sue apart on an empathetic level with her powers.

Iris and Eva break the mirror when they freeze it. This does nothing to get them out of the Mirror World.

Fake Iris runs into Nash Wells while trying to search the Starchives on her own for the Mirror Gun.

Nash lies about being asked to do an inventory of the Starchives while Cisco was out of town. As he tells the fake Iris this, he sees Harry Wells again, who accuses him of being a liar. He also makes reference to Nash having unfinished business and knowing what it's like to lose a daughter.

Fake Iris claims she was looking for Nora's journal. She says it's the only thing left that she has of her daughter.

Nash promises not to tell Barry that he saw Iris in the Starchives.

Nash was actually looking for a book labeled The Diary of Harrison "Harry" Wells.

Ralph finds a key to a safe deposit box at Central City Mercantile Bank while searching John Loring's office. He guesses this is where the ledger Sue wants is kept.

Ralph reveals his secret identity to Sue when he lowers them from the roof of Jean Loring's office building with one stretchy arm.

Sue starts calling Ralph "Slick" as a nickname.

Sue persuades Ralph to help her break into the bank rather than wait a day for him to get a search warrant to check out John Loring's safe deposit box.

Barry determines that the fire on Batton Street was started by a focused UV blast, same was what Ultraviolet and Dr. Light generated.

Joe says he's found several cases where it looks like people associated with James Carver and McCulloch Technologies died mysteriously in a fire that was quickly dismissed as an accident and not arson.

Eva is somehow able to summon the broken mirror shards to her hand.

Ralph disguises himself as Joe West and Sue disguises herself as a beat cop so they can sneak into CC Mercantile Bank after hours.

Sue learned French at the US Embassy in Paris and had horseback riding lessons.

Sue is revealed to be a jewel thief who used Ralph to track down a diamond in John Loring's possession. She tells Ralph she'll keep his secret identity a secret so long as she doesn't reveal her secret life to her parents.

Ralph saves Sue from John Loring's men, who are apparently knocked out and/or killed by Ultraviolet.

Ultraviolet was last seen in 606.and has apparently escaped from prison again.

Sue speaks Spanish.. Ralph does not.

Sue has encountered Ultraviolet before and Ultraviolet recognizes her as well.

Sue escapes with the diamond.

Ultraviolet can apparently use her powers to teleport.

Barry shows up in the nick of time to save Ralph from John Loring's men.

STAR Labs satellites finds no sign of Sue Dearbon in Central City. 

Ralph becomes determined to bring Sue to justice.

Barry gives Fake Iris the Mirror Gun.

Eva is able to mentally restore the broken mirror inside the Mirror World. She then somehow summons an image of Barry in his and Iris' apartment.

Barry seems to sense Iris watching him through the mirror.

Sue analyzes the diamond she stole from John Loring in some kind of private lab and finds the Black Hole emblem inside in. She also has a newspaper article on McCulloch Technologies being compromised and a picture of John Carver.


Location

The Mirror World


The Bottom Line

If it were just Ralph and Sue, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, while the lion's share is devoted to the Nick and Nora Charles of the DC Universe snarking at each other, too much of the episode is devoted to Cecile being comically quirky and Iris browbeating a deranged woman who has gone crazy after six years of isolation.

Still, it's a solid episode despite its flaws and the new take on Sue is easily the most interesting supporting character introduced into the show since Ralph himself. Hopefully they'll get their own spin-off in a year or two rather than be forced to fight for screen-time amid all the other people hanging around STAR Labs these days.