The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 13 - Death Falls

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

Plot

Deathstorm attacks each member of Team Flash individually, confronting them as their dead loved ones to feed on their grief and claim Caitlin as his bride.


Influences

Green Lantern: Blackest Night


Goofs

For all their talk earlier in the season about not killing, Team Flash is surprisingly eager to "snuff out" Deathstorm.

Caitlin tries to treat Frost's cardiac arrest with a defibrillator, despite her problem being a slowed heart rate. (Defibrillators are used for restoring a natural rhythm when 


Performances

Jon Cor and Danielle Panabaker have great chemistry as Frost and Chillblaine.


Flash Facts

At one point the fake Eddie Thawne mentions an uncle Robern. In the comics, Robern Thawne was the brother of Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash.

Deathstorm makes reference to being born before Maltus. In the DC Universe, Maltus was the home of the first sentient life and eventually gave rise to the Guardians of the Universe.

The lightning at the end of the episode is tinged blue, in Frost's honor.

Technobabble

Deathstorm is made up of pure thermodynamic energy, so Team Flash use the Mental Augmentation Chamber to harness particles from its home dimension and then beam them into Frost's consciousness. The reaction should transform her into a being like Deathstorm. who can create fire, defy gravity, and consume Deathstorm's fuel source. 

Chester makes reference to the cryo-circuits of the MAC.

Barry puts Gideon to work on tracking extra-dimensional energies and cold fusion anomalies in Central City.

The walls and door of Chester's lab are made of titanium. 

Human beings go hyperthermic at 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chester notes that blood flow starts to decrease in a human body at 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Organs fail and brain function slows at 107.  At 109, the body will die to end its suffering.

The MAC makes use of augmentation receptors. 

Caitlin tries to save Frost by injecting her with cold fusion.


Dialogue Triumphs

Deathstorm: I was born a long time ago-- before Maltus, before the stars, during that lonely, blackest of nights. I was there when the first gas cloud sank and collapsed. I was there when the first beings drew their final, hissing breaths. I am decline. I am entropy. I am the master of death and all of its inhabitants.

Eddie: I thought my sacrifice would mean something. That I could erase the Reverse Flash from existence. That, finally, I could be a hero. But then Eobard Thawne came back, again, and again, and again, and again. What I did didn't matter at all. I died for nothing, and now you've made the same mistake. You sacrificed yourself for nothing.
Iris: I saved Barry, and I helped stop Armageddon.
Eddie: And then, what happened? The timeline got reset, but you're still suffering the consequences. Can't you see? Your death is gonna be just as pointless as mine.

Frost: Boy, was I stupid for ever thinking that was possible, because it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter how many life coaches I get, or if I get my own body, or do a bunch of art, or get my own boyfriend, because I'll always just be a copy of the original. An echo. 'Cause I've never been really alive. And now, that's gonna get Caity killed.
Chillblaine: Frost... If you are not really alive, where does that leave me? You're the only person I've ever cared about more than myself, or at least equal to myself.
Frost: I guess we're both screwed up then.
Chillblaine: Yeah, that's definitely true. Look, the way I see it, you and I have been through a lot, right? And through all of those ups and downs, I, for one, have seen you have loads of emotions-- all kinds-- especially when it comes to Caitlin. You love your sister like crazy. And wherever that love came from-- you know, whether you were born with it, or your dad gave it to you, or you put it together yourself over time, built it with pain and heartache-- that love is as real as it gets. Believe me.

Continuity

The episode begins later the same evening as 812.

Central City is still under a city-wide curfew.

Eddie Thawne, apparently live and well, suddenly shows up in Iris and Barry's apartment.

Chester confirms that he spent six weeks living in the Mental Augmentation Chamber during Season 6.

Cecile says that Caitlin's biometrics are stable, but she can feel her grief intensifying. 

Caitlin says she keeps having visions of her father's death from 519.

Frost calls Chillblaine in to help.

The power in STAR Labs goes out, as Chester is finishing the upgrades on the MAC.

Barry has Gideon working on identifying the cause of Iris' time sickness.

Allegra is confronted by an illusion of Ultraviolet.

Chester is confronted by an illusion of his father.

Barry is confronted by an illusion of his mother, Nora Allen.

Frost is confronted by an illusion of Ronnie Raymond.

The fake Ronnie tells Frost that he isn't appearing to her as anyone she knows because her grief isn't real. He claims that all her feelings are just echoes of Caitlin's and that she isn't really a person.

Allegra and Chester seal themselves in Chester's lab to escape from Ultraviolet. Unfortunately, she fries the temperature controls and the heat starts building up.

The fake Nora tells Barry that there's no cure for Iris and that he is doomed to lose her forever.

The fake Eddie offers to make Iris some of his Uncle Robern's famous chicken noodle soup.

The fake Eddie is able to burn Iris and Sue when they try to go for the exit and their phone respectively.

Cecile tells Frost that Caitlin's vitals are spiking and her temperature is going up. She can also feel the team's grief and says it is being channeled into Caitlin.

Chillblaine broke into Fast Track Labs to get Frost the cryo-circut needed to compete the modified MAC.

The thermostat in Chester's lab burns out at 137 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The fake Nora taunts Barry with the knowledge that if Iris dies, Bart and Nora will never exist either. She also says that his real legacy is heartbreak, rather than heroism.

The fake Eddie torments Iris with how pointless his death was since it didn't really stop the Reverse-Flash.

Sue was able to use her phone to summon Joe while Deathstorm was focused on Iris.

Deathstorm is able to incapacitate Sue with images of her grandmother and Joe of his former partner, Chyre.

The MAC fails to transform Frost. At first, Frost thinks this is because she doesn't have a true consciousness to manipulate, but Chilblaine figures out the chemical reaction is missing one key ingredient to fuel the transformation - grief. Once Frost allows herself to grieve, she transforms.

Frost's earliest memory is of Caitlin being hit by a car as a child.

Frost calls her new form Hellfrost. She has black hair instead of white.

Chillblaine learns Barry's secret identity.

Frost uses HR's image inducer to make herself look like Caitlin to lure Deathstorm in.

Frost is able to kill Deathstorm, but her vitals crash just after she transforms back to her normal self.

Frost goes into cardiac arrest.

Caitlin tries to save her, despite having just gotten out of a coma herself.

The final scene has Caitlin and Barry entering the lounge in silence, with everyone's reactions suggesting that Frost died.

The Fridge Factor

Frost is killed purely to give the team angst and make Caitlin look incompetent for failing to save her.


The Bottom Line

Some of the best moments of The Flash Season 8 have centered around Frost and her development, so naturally the showrunners have to put a stop that by killing her off, in an episode that seems to be both full of padding and yet underdeveloped in equal measure.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 12 - Death Rises

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

Plot

With Deathstorm on the rampage in Central City, Joe comes out of retirement to help coordinate the police response, as Team Flash uses Cecile's empathy powers to try and track the cold-fusion killer.

Influences

Green Lantern: Blackest Night


Goofs

Iris' sudden reappearance in Central City is perhaps the laziest bit of plot convenience in the show's history, as whatever Phantom Girl did to her is forgotten and never explained.

Deathstorm's motivations suddenly shift from killing the grieving to claiming Caitlin as his bride.

It's pointed out that Deathstorm haunts Allegra for no apparent reason. (If this were like Blackest Night, her light based powers might hold the key to beating him. Unfortunately, this plot point is dropped immediately.)

The "ride the lightning" sequence makes the Speed Force lightsabers from the Season 7 finale look plausible by comparison.


Performances

Danielle Panabaker does a great job playing off herself as Frost and Caitlin.


Artistry

As ridiculous as it is, the effects for the "Ride the Lightning" sequence are well-executed.


Flash Facts

The opening monologue by Deathstorm mimics some of Nekron's musings on life being an aberration and wanting to restore the peace of the early universe by killing everyone from Blackest Night. 

The Metallica song "Ride The Lightning" is used in the sequence in which Barry chases after Deathstorm by "riding lightning."

Technobabble

According to Iris, all time existence at once in the Still Force, allowing a person to see their past, present and future. However, for some reason, she was unable to see her future.

For some unexplained reason, Deathstorm's transformation changed the nature of his powers enough that Chester can no longer track him by the energy signature of his black flames.

Team Flash track Deathstorm by using a wireless neurogenic array synced with the Med Lab's synaptic monitoring relay to connect Cecile to STAR Labs' satellites.

Deon tries using a modified version of the metahuman tracking app to track Iris' movements in time and space.

Chester describes Allegra's powers as a light-based detonation on the electromagnetic spectrum which registers as a category-three spectral discharge.

Barry's gold boots can redirect most energy sources. This include currents equal to the kinetic output created when he run. According to Chester, the force of those two equal energies cancel each other out. but would create a sensation like running into a brick wall. Barry uses this to create lightning platforms he can use to chase after Deathstorm.

After being abducted by Deathstorm, Caitlin's vitals are elevated, her blood pressure is lower, and so is her body temperature. The strangest thing, however, is that her cells are in a constant state of regenesis, as if she's stopped aging normally.

Chester says they can use the Mental Augmentation Chamber (MAC) which saved his life and use it to emit cosmic radiation instead of absorbing trans-dimensional particles (i.e. the material that makes up black holes) in order to turn someone into an anti-Deathstorm.

Dialogue Triumphs

(Barry laments that he can't really plan against Deathstorm.)
Joe: A long time ago, I met someone who was as unprepared as it gets. Young, inexperienced, thrust into this whole new world that was sink or swim. You know what happened that he didn't see coming next? DeVoe. Zoom. Cicada. Bloodwork. But you're still standing, ain't you?

Frost: Okay, that's it. I am done waiting around for the Bachelor from Hell to come give Caity a rose. We need to find this sicko and end him, before he does anything worse to my sister.


Dialogue Disasters

Barry: Time to ride the lightning. 


Continuity

The episode picks up where 811 ended, with Deathstorm seemingly trying to burn Caitlin to death.

The Flash chases Deathstorm off, who flees even though Barry's lightning doesn't seem to effect it.

Caitlin does not have any burns when Barry examines her, despite being engulfed in Black Fire.

Caitlin explains to the rest of the team that Deathstorm is not Ronnie but was created by his death.

The cold fusion sphere is confirmed to be destroyed.

Cecile comes to STAR Labs offering to help, having heard about the attack on Caitlin.

Cecile senses that Barry is truly hurting - more than concern for a friend would cause.

Barry tells Cecile about Iris' disappearance and explains he hadn't told the rest of the team yet because he didn't want to distract them from the Deathstorm problem.

Sue texts Barry and tells him Iris is back.

Barry guesses that Iris' time sickness must have pulled her into the Still Force before Tinya could do whatever she was trying to do to Iris.

Iris tells Barry about her apparently accidentally killing Rene Wazoo in 810.

Deathstorm kills an old man who was apparently visiting a loved one's grave.

Captain Kramer uses the pager Barry gave her to summon The Flash for the first time since she received it in 807.

Sue stays with Iris while Barry is away.

The police field multiple reports regarding Deathstorm going on a rampage, kidnapping one man's wife and one body being burned but nothing else around the body.

Kramer says that there have been 10 Deathstorm victims in the past five months before getting reports of three more confirmed downtown, another two uptown, and at least four reported on the lower East side of Central City.

Kramer says she is out of her depth dealing with this.

Joe agrees to help Kramer lock down the city and coordinate the protocols needed to keep the police safe. This includes keeping any cops grieving loved ones off the street.

Some of the officers involved in the effort to fight Deathstorm are Korber, Matlin, Martinez, and Howe.

Allegra says there are no media tips regarding Deathstorm on the Central City Citizen hotline.

Barry hits upon the idea of using Cecile to track Deathstorm.

Cecile risks overloading her neural synapses using her powers in this way, but she says she has to risk it given that Deathstorm has killed over a dozen people at this point.

Caitlin tells Frost that she feels guilty, blaming herself for Deathstorm's rise to power.

Caitlin also says she feels like she's lost Ronnie a second time.

Sue is shown reading Uncaged Desire by Rebecca Silver - a romance novel by Mick Rory's penname. 

Deon shows up and introduces himself to Sue.

Iris' headaches are getting worse.

Deon already knows about Tinya's mom. However, he didn't learn about it until after it had become a part of the past, which is now how the Still Force is meant to work.

Iris' illness has apparently infected the Still Force, as near as Deon can figure. This is why his powers are weakening.

Deon says he will look for Renee Wazoo once he has his strength back, but right now it's taking all he can do to keep Iris and himself stable. As it is, he can see the future of everyone except Iris.

Deon suddenly dissipates into a cloud of Still Force particles, the same way that Rene Wazoo did..

Once Cecile is connected to STAR Labs tracking satellites, Chester is able to locate Deathstorm inside of STAR Labs.

Deathstorm speaks through Cecile and threatens to kill everyone if they don't give him Cailin.

only way they all live is if he gets Caitlin

Allegra is confronted by a vision of Ultraviolet in the hall of STAR Labs.

Allegra knocks herself out releasing a Spectral discharge trying to fight the fake Ultraviolet.

They determine this was another Deathstorm illusion, but have no idea why he would be trying to haunt Allegra now.

Sue once crashed a royal wedding in some country and bought the castle, which prevented her from being arrested. 

Sue talks Iris through her pain by telling her to fight for her future with Bart, Nora and Barry.

Joe makes mention of  The Thinker, Zoom, Cicada and Bloodwork

Deathstorm attacks Frost and kidnaps Caitlin.

The Flash chases Deathstorm to a carnival, Ripley's Wild World, where it burns several people in a crowd.

Deathstorm abandons Caitlin, saying she is not ready yet.

Cecile says she can feel an intense level of grief inside Caitlin

Deathstorm has killed four more people.

Caitlin says that Deathstorm seems to be trying to change her - not kill her.

Barry noticed that when Deathstorm disappears, there is portal and the space behind it resembles the place he saw in 601 when Chester's consciousness became trapped in a singularity. 

Frost volunteers to be turned into an Anti-Deathstorm with the MAC.

The final scene shows something seeming to stalk Iris and Sue outside Iris and Barry's apartment. This is revealed to be Eddie Thawne, apparently alive and well. It is unclear if this is a Deathstroke illusion or a side-effect of Iris' time sickness.

The Fridge Factor

Captain Kramer is made to look completely incompetent. Granting, that's a completely fair assessment given the way the character was hired into a job for which she had no qualifications, she has a breakdown only to allow Joe to come in and save the day.


The Bottom Line

An utterly nonsensical episode, even ignoring all the technobabble.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 11 - Resurrection

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

Plot

Barry and Chester think they've found a way to stop the Cold-Fusion Killer once and for all, but Caitlin may endanger everything when she enacts her own plan, believing the "Black Flame" to be a resurrected Ronnie Raymond.

Influences

Green Lantern: Blackest Night (character of Deathstorm and references to raising the dead.) and Ghostbusters (the Cold Fusion trap resembles the ghost traps)


Goofs

Virtually every character in the show is out of character in this episode. Caitlin, usually the cool, emotionless voice of reason, is pushed to make a leap of faith based on a hunch. Barry, ever the optimist who believes in the power of love, says they can't take the chance Caitlin is wrong in trying to resurrect Ronnie. And every single person who said the sanctity of life prevented them from letting Thawne die six episodes earlier is suddenly all in favor killing Ronnie to prevent further deaths.

Cecile claims she is sure the Blackfire Killer is Ronnie after making mental contact with him. It's unclear how, given that she didn't know Ronnie.

Why did Sue come back to Central City to deliver the news of Iris' disappearance in person? Even allowing that her phone had blipped out of existence, it's not like she couldn't access another phone and call STAR Labs or the Central City Citizen to get a message to Barry. 


Performances

Danielle Panabaker and Robbie Amell have real chemistry in the flashback scenes showing Caitlin and Ronnie's romance. It's a real shame they didn't get to work together more in the earlier seasons of The Flash and their courtship here makes the reveal at the end all the sadder.


Artistry

The design for Deathstorm is nice.


Flash Facts

The Cold Fusion Killer/Black Flame of earlier episodes is revealed to be an entity called Deathstorm. Originally making his first official appearance in Brightest Day #10 in November 2010, Deathstorm was born of a fusion of the Firestorm Matrix and the power of the Black Lantern Corps following Ronnie Raymond's resurrection as a Black Lantern during the Blackest Night event.

The Arrowverse version of Deathstorm seems to have been born as a result of Ronnie Raymond's death. However, it is unclear just what the source of his power is.

Allegra name drops the Blackest Night event, in which the Green Lantern villain Nekkron attempted to take over the universe with an army of the undead. This seems to be teased when Allegra discusses the potential of the Firestorm splicer to resurrected the dead if used improperly.

Technobabble

Chester encodes the Cold Fusion Sphere with Frost and Dr. Tannhauser's cryokinetic RNA signatures. This will enable them to use it to track the Blackfire Killer without risking their lives.

Using the data on the Blackfire Killer gathered from it's brief time within the NCCU, Caitlin determines that the cold fusion radiation readings are 10-to-the-negative 28 watts, aka Hawking radiation. This kind of radiation is only found within a singularity.

The first law of thermodynamics dictates that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. Caitlin theorizes that the pressure from when the horizons of the singularity merged broke down Ronnie's body into pure thermodynamic energy. 

When a human body dies, the brain becomes flooded with ACTH - the same hormone the human brain creates when it experiences grief. Caitlin guesses this gave him an attraction to the same hormone, which is why he's been seeking to merge with grieving people and killing them in the process.

Chester says they can combine the Quantum Splicer that created Firestorm with Eva McCulloch's R-CEM chips to grow a new body for Robbie.

The Quantum Splicer works by bombarding the user's atoms with energy to create fission, but it requires the participant to be willing. If the user rejects the splicer, their atomic structure would become unstable, resulting in an endothermic explosion.

Chester determines that once they trap the Black Fire Killer in the Cold Fusion Sphere, they can kill him by removing the oxidizing agents.

Apart from an occasional irregularity in his amygdala function, Ronnie seems to be perfectly fine according to this post-resurrection physical.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Caitlin reveals that she planned to propose to Ronnie.)
Ronnie: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you were gonna propose?
Caitlin: Yes. Because I love you so much, Ronnie Raymond, it freaks me out. But everything is ruined now.
Ronnie: No, no, no, no, it's not ruined, okay? I know you wanted to go to that bed and breakfast where we first fell in love, but maybe we need to stop trying to recreate the past and focus on the future, okay? Because when I look at you, I see forever, and I want forever to start right now. 

Frost: I'm really worried, Catie.
Caitlin: Then why won't you help me?
Frost:  Not about Ronnie, about you. Look, when Ronnie died, you and me weren't even you and me. I was still in your subconscious. But even then, I could feel your pain the moment you realized he was gone. And that night when you went to bed, and every night after that. But as bad as that was, watching you pull away from everyone who loves you was even worse, and it's happening again.
Caitlin: I'm sorry you felt all that pain. But did you feel anything else?
Frost: I remember how happy you were before he died. Which is why I got this.
(Frost holds up the Quantum Splicer.)
Caitlin: What about Barry?
Frost: Sure, Barry's family, but you're blood, and I will always have your back. (sighs) But you got to promise me something, all right? You will never shut yourself off from me or the rest of the team, all right?
Caitlin: I promise. And, Frost... Thank you.
Frost: You got it.


Continuity

The episode opens with a flashback to 2012, showing how Caitlin and Ronnie met. She mistook him for a plumber when he came down to the medical lab at STAR Labs seeking treatment for a second degree burn while fitting a high-pressure coil.

Caitlin and Ronnie bonded over a shared love of kit building, with Ronnie saying his job is basically him playing with LEGOs of steel and concrete.

In the present, the Blackfire Killer appears to Caitlin and tells her that she can save him. When asked how, he says "memories in the snow."

Picking up from her last scene in 810, Tinya becomes upset, thinking that Iris just killed her mother and runs off.

Iris passes out while having a time sickness seizure.

Sue tries to call Barry, but her phone disappears in a puff of green Still Force particles.

Joe and Cecile went through Captain Kramer's files and found three people who died in a fire of undetermined origin within the past six months. They are Colin Smith, Megan Landa and Veronica Binning. 

Running on the theory that the Blackfire Killer feeds on grief, Joe determined that Megan and Colin both recently lost a parent and Veronica lost her sister as a child.

Caitlin determines that she is the common link between all the Blackfire Killings and tells Team Flash about her encounter with the killer and her belief that it is Ronnie Raymond resurrected somehow.

Caitlin says Parker Stefano, the third Blackfire Killing victim from 809, was her yoga instructor. The first two victims from 808, Stan Mullen and Donna Winters, were working at O'Shaughnessy during Caitlin and Frost's double date in 807.

Caitlin says the three latest victims attended a bio-chem conference where they were all panelists on an Applied Sciences lecture.

Barry points out that they know the Blackfire Killer is telepathic and can read minds after its encounter with Chester in 809.

Caitlin refers to the events of 201 and points out that Ronnie died in a singularity, which is consistent with the energy put out by the Black Fire Killer.

Barry urges Caitlin to take it slow and give him time to double-check the radiation data. She agrees to let him work on it while she talks to her boyfriend, Marcus, about what is going on.

Caitlin tells Marcus that she works with The Flash and that she thinks her husband has come back from the dead.

Marcus cuts Caitlin off before she can give him the break-up speech and quotes Plato before leaving her.

Frost talks to Barry about what's going on, as they both independently decide to prepare the Cold Fusion Sphere.

Frost says she wants to believe Caitlin, but she shares Barry's concerns about why, if the Black Fire Killer is Ronnie, it's just now coming back.

The events of 810 are confirmed to have taken place one day earlier.

Frost points out Barry's hypocrisy for being reluctant to trust Caitlin's hunch, pointing out that he'd be all on-board for taking a chance if it was Iris' life in danger.

Allegra tells Chester that he should sell merch for his streaming series.

Allegra is shocked to find out Chester is sharing the specs for the Quantum Splicer on his show.

Chester defends his actions, saying that science is all about sharing and cooperation. He points to one follower, WookieLover77, who is using his drone design to deliver supplies to refugees in starving countries.

Allegra says there is a lot of difference between a drone and a quantum splicer and that it isn't worth the risk if someone less ethical than Chester used that technology to raise the dead.

Allegra refers to her cousin's death and says that death is a part of life and should not be experimented with, referring to death as "noche mas negra," - the blackest night. 

Chester finally agrees to keep the splicer specs off-line.

As Cecile arrives in STAR Labs, the lights around her begin flickering and she feels great pain as the Blackfire Killer speaks to her and asks where Caitlin is.

Cecile says that she believes the Blackfire Killer is Ronnie, but that he is in great pain and begging to be set free.

Barry tells Caitlin they can't go through with her plan and should try to end Ronnie's suffering rather than try to bring him back to life. He justifies this decision by referring to the events of 301 and the problems caused by Flashpoint and by his inability to cope with his father's death.

Caitlin points out Barry's hypocrisy and recalls all the times Team Flash moved Heaven and Earth to try and save Iris over a lot less evidence than she has.

Caitlin says that if Barry and the rest of the team won't help her, she will work on her own.

In a flashback to 2013, Caitlin and Ronnie plan to celebrate their one year anniversary with a trip to Mapleville, to the bed and breakfast they went to on their first weekend together as a couple.

Ronnie apparently was forced to stay up all night with Cisco waiting in line to get the new Call of Duty game.

Tinya attacks Iris at her hotel room and seems to phase her out of existence.

When Sue asks what Tinya did, Tinya says Sue will find out if she ever tries to come after her again.

After talking with Cecile, Barry decides to use the Cold Fusion Sphere to trap the Black Fire Killer.

Frost offers to talk to Caitlin about what the team has decided.

In the flashback to 2013, it is revealed that Ronnie and Caitlin got stuck in the snow near Piedmont State Park on the way to Mapleville. Caitlin reveals that she was going to propose to Ronnie. Ronnie, in turn, reveals that he was going to propose to her and he already had the ring picked out.

Frost steals the Quantum Splicer and gives it to Caitlin.

Caitlin remembers where Ronnie proposed and guesses that is where he was talking about "Memories in the snow."

A group of campers is attacked by black fire in Piedmont State Park while telling ghost stories.

Allegra creates a light path to guide the civilians to safety.

Frost freezes the Cold Fusion Sphere before Barry can use it.

Caitlin uses the Quantum Splicer and seemingly restores Ronnie to normal.

Barry admits that he was wrong and says he should have believed in Caitlin and Ronnie.

Caitlin says she thinks the rest of the team who never met Ronnie will like him.

Ronnie reportedly played Dungeons and Dragons in college.

Cecile doesn't understand why her powers were so off-the-mark when it came to Ronnie.

Barry goes home, where Sue is waiting for him and tells him that Iris disappeared.

Caitlin discovers Ronnie has gotten out of his hospital bed. As she looks for him, the lights go out.

When she finds Ronnie, he transforms into a man of black fire and introduces himself as Deathstorm. 

Deathstorm confirms that Ronnie is dead and that he was born when he died.


Location

Central City - 2012
Central City - 2013
Coast City - 2022


The Fridge Factor

Caitlin is made to look unreasonable and overemotional throughout the episode, culminating in the reveal that she's responsible for making Deathstorm more powerful than ever.


The Boomerang Factor

Honestly, it's weird that it took them three weeks to figure out Caitlin was the link between all the Cold Fusion killings and that was somehow because nobody told Caitlin about all the victims until now, despite her working on the case for a week!


The Bottom Line

If the writers aren't intentionally trying to make the audience hate Caitlin's character at this point, I'd be shocked. As it is, this episode is a prime example of bending your characters to suit the story you want to tell rather than the other way around. The only thing that redeems it is how cute Caitlin and Ronnie are together and how well the performances make us want to root for them. It is also gratifying to see Caitlin and Frost call Barry out on his BS, even though it turns out he was right all along.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 10 - Reckless

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

Plot

When the Cold-Fusion Killer targets Frost in her own apartment, she begins planning how to use herself as bait to trap them, despite Barry and Caitlin's objection. At the same time, Iris' efforts to help Tinya find her birth mother cause more harm than good.

Influences

Doctor Who (technobabble regarding Iris' time sickness) and Legion of Superheroes comics (character of Phantom Girl).


Goofs

Caitlin is said to be on vacation with her boyfriend in the Wine Country, but returns when she hears about Frost's injuries. It is implied that Barry brought her back to Central City, yet at the end of the episode Caitlin goes to call her boyfriend to tell him what is going on, saying that "He has no idea what happened today" and she hasn't told him about working with The Flash yet. So did Caitlin just leave her boyfriend on the other side of the country with no excuse?

Cold fusion, it should be noted, is not cold. It is cold in that it can occur at temperatures below that found inside a star. It is certainly not "like frostbite, only a thousand times more lethal."


Performances

Danielle Panabaker does a great job playing against herself as Caitlin and Frost. She also gets a great silent acting moment, as Frost, hugging her mother for the first time... looking uncomfortable but slowly settling into it.


Artistry

The black fire effects are more convincing this week.

Technobabble

Deon claims that the temporal mutations he's been tracking are all coming from Iris.

Deon says that he had been treating Iris' condition like a virus giving her symptoms but now it seems that she is the cause of the time fractures forming around her.

An SR37 Alert on the Team Flash warning app is a break-in at STAR Labs' medical lab.

Dr. Tannhauser theorizes that the Black Fire is targeting Frost because her powers are cryokinetic, like the fire.

A fusion containment housing is needed to trap the Black Fire - one that can absorb and amplify Frost's cryokinetic signature. So long as she's in proximity, the unit can amplify her cryokinetic signature and attract the fire.

Chester suggests using the fusion sphere from the Artificial Speed Force to speed up the process.

At one point Chester has to compensate for the possibility of a reconfiguration flip at the subatomic level while getting the fusion sphere set up.

Dr. Tannhauser suggests that two cryokinetic signatures could create a signal too enticing for the Black Fire to resist.

Dr. Tannhauser scanned herself for residual meta-genome signatures in her body, determining that a latent cryogene had been activated. 

After the second attempt, Chester says that with a strong enough signal the sphere could work without someone's cryo-kinetic RNA in close proximity. This means there is no need to use anyone as bait.


Dialogue Triumphs

Joe: Sometimes, the hardest part about being a leader is letting go and trusting the ones you've trained to make the call themselves.


Dialogue Disasters

Frost: Right now I kinda feel like the stupid person in the horror movie who runs into the house instead of running away from it. 


Continuity

This episode picks up right where 809 ended, with Deon talking to Iris about her time sickness.

Deon and Iris figure out that her increasing instability is due to her asking Deon to reverse her treatments in 803. (Curiously, Deon has no memory of this, despite his power.)

Deon says Iris needs to stay in Coast City for the time being to stabilize, but she should be able to move around the city without issue.

Barry offers to stay with Iris, but she insists he needs to return to Coast City and deal with the Cold-Fusion Killer - now called Black Fire.

Frost is attacked by black fire in her apartment, while working on a new art piece.

The black fire's heat is so intense it can make Frost sweat and it burns her trying to touch her.

Joe, Cecile, Barry, Chester and Allegra discuss what they've found, affirming that all the Black Fire victims so far, except Chester, were suffering from depression.

Parker DeStefano, the yoga instructor who was the Cold-Fusion Killer's third victim, is revealed to have been going through grief counseling following the death of her fiancée and to have started dating again before her death.

Allegra has Vanya and Aariz at the Central City Citizen researching the other victims looking for common links.

Joe and Cecile go through all the files Captain Kramer gave them regarding suspicious fires that might be related to the Cold-Fusion Killer dating back to 2013.

Barry finds Frost breaking into the medical lab at STAR Labs, trying to treat her burn herself.

Caitlin is said to be on a wine country tour with her new boyfriend.

Frost says she isn't grieving anyone, so she can't think of why the Black Fire targeted her.

Frost meets with her mother, Dr. Carla Tannhauser, and asks for her help in trapping the Black Fire.

Frost plans to use herself as bait, while Dr. Tannhauser builds something to trap the Black Fire.

Barry doesn't want to risk Frost's life, saying it is too risky to use her as bait.

Frost asks Barry if he really believes Iris isn't risking her life right now and asks how that is different than her doing the same.

Dr. Carla Tannhauser is said to be the world's top specialist in cold fusion.

Carla offers Chester a job, impressed with his work on the trap. He declines, saying he likes working at STAR Labs too much, even though the pay would be better.

The Black Fire senses a trap and knocks Frost out.

Barry gets Caitlin to return to STAR Labs to treat Frost. She is furious Frost is risking her life.

Iris and Sue take Tinya to the agency that handled her adoption. Unfortunately, there's a no-contact rule that prevents them from giving Tinya any information on her birth mother. Only their board of directors could override it.

Sue's uncle Leroy is the chairman of the board of directors for the adoption agency and is also an orphan himself. One phone call gets him to override the no-contract rule.

After Iris, Sue and Tinya leave, all the furniture in the waiting room of the adoption agency blinks out of existence.

Tinya wonders if her mom is even going to want to meet her. Iris reassures her by talking about her making peace with own mother during Season 2.

Frost's stabbing herself to catch Chillblaine in 707 is held up as proof of her reckless behavior.

Caitlin accuses her mother as seeing Frost as a science experiment instead of a daughter and threatens to abandon her mother if Frost dies.

Barry tells Joe he still thinks Frost's plan is too dangerous, but Joe suggests he's really worried about Iris and that sometimes, when you're a leader, you have to trust your followers.

Dr. Tannhauser thinks Caitlin had a point and tells Frost, frankly, she needs to be more of a mother to her. This includes straight talk about her needing to stop being reckless.

Dr. Tannhauser says that Frost is just like her father, who would do anything to protect his loved ones.

Dr. Tannhauser reveals that her cryokinetic metagene was activated after the events of 519. She hasn't manifested powers yet, but has the potential to do so.

Caitlin is not happy about risking her mother and sister, but agrees to help check their plan.

The Black Fire is released after Dr. Tannhauser has a cardiac arrest while in the middle of trapping it.

Joe and Cecile found nothing in the records of all the old fires.

Barry and Chester are confident they can now use the trap to catch the Black Fire without using Frost as bait.

Dr. Tannhauser stays with Caitlin and Frost for the night.

Dr. Tannhauser tells Frost that she loves her and hugs her for the first time.

Tinya's mother is a woman named Renee Wazoo.

Renee reveals that she was an unwed 16 year old when she got pregnant and she wanted to keep Tinya, but her parents were furious and insisted she put the baby up for adoption.

Renee says that giving up Tinya was the biggest regret of her life, which was spent moving from crummy retail job to crummy retail job. She said the only thing that kept her going was the thought that her daughter might have had a better life with a loving family.

Tinya says that didn't happen.

Iris has a seizure and Renee tries to comfort her. Shortly after that, she disintegrates into a cloud of still force particles.


Location

Coast City

The Bottom Line

A filler episode, apart from the final two minutes. It is tolerable, however, because of the focus on Frost and the Phantom Girl storyline being limited to two scenes.

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 7, Episode 3 - Mother

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

Plot

As Mirror Mistress makes her move, Barry is ready to hang up his costume after the damage he did. Thankfully, a new ally with a familiar face emerges to help save the day, as Team Flash rallies to rebuild the Speed Force and save the world.


Influences

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the theme of people being replaced by duplicates) and The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson.


Goofs

Why didn't Eva send her minions to attack STAR Labs directly, when she sent one cop duplicate to try and covert Joe West and Cecile Horton?

It must be noted again that everything that happens in this episode (and indeed the second half of Season 6) is Barry Allen's fault and that the only reason Eva went about abducting and replacing people was because of Barry's efforts to expose her and his earlier refusal to work with the villain who was holding his wife hostage, even though it would be far from the first time Barry tried to find common ground with a supervillain. What makes this more maddening is that Eva gives up after Iris (of all people) tries to show her some sympathy.

Granting that the COVID-19 crisis and the firing of Hartley Sawyer limited their options, it seems incredibly short-sighted for the series to write out Ralph and Sue like they do here. It also seems incredibly unfair to Natalie Dreyfuss, who effectively lost her job because of someone else's mistakes. Hopefully the role of Ralph Dibny will be recast eventually and we'll see them again.


Performances

The scene where Cisco awkwardly says goodbye to Harrison Wells 1.0 is a great moment for both Carlos Valdez and Tom Cavanagh.


Artistry

The fight between The Flash, Frost and Vibe against multiple Mirror Mistress duplicates is the Mirror Master fight fans have been wanting to see for seven years.


Flash Facts

When seeing the melted Ralph Dibny, Cisco declares "Holy Plasmus!" In addition to be a nod to the 1966 Batman TV show's Robin and his habit of exclaiming that various things were holym ("Holy Sardines, Batman!") it's also a reference to the Teen Titans villain Plasmus, who had a similarly molten appearance.

The final scene shows four colors of energy wash over Central City after the new Speed Force is created; red, green, blue and yellow. This may be a nod to the Still Force, Sage Force and Strength Force; three forces which were revealed to be hidden within the Speed Force during The Flash comics run of Joshua Williamson.


Technobabble

When Barry pulled Iris from the Mirrorverse and she resisted, it created a molecular anomaly. All her neural pathways became disjointed, and, according to Caitlin, it looked like her brain had been remapped. 

Light photons are elementary particles that exist everywhere in nature.

According to Eva, the applications of her reflective chip technology are endless and she could increase the crop yield of world-wide agriculture tenfold overnight, ending world hunger.

Wells describe the Crisis as a temporal coalescence.

Ralph Dibny's body temperature after being caught in the McCulloch Labs explosion is 500 degrees.

A mobile biogenic containment unit is used to help Ralph heal.

Barry theorizes that he can recreate the Speed Force by drawing upon his love of Iris and the residual Speed Force energy inside of her from her time as a Speedster. This is accomplished by repurposing the Artificial Speed Force to tap an organic source instead of an artificial one. This requires that the energy coupling be rerouted along with the energy cycle and the fusion sphere being completely remapped. 

Since Mirror Mistress' body is made of quantum protons, which are capable of sub-light speed, she's technically faster than The Flash.

Cisco builds a new super suit which replicates his Vibe powers.


Dialogue Triumphs

Mirror Mistress: I'm not human. I'm something better. That is why I'm showing you mercy.

Wells 1.0: The other Wells may be gone, but they left an imprint, memories, and so let me just say that, whatever is wrong… Let me help you because they would want me to.
Barry: You can’t. This enemy that we’re facing is all-powerful, plus my speed is gone.
Wells 1.0: Aren’t you the Paragon of Love? Look, anyone can save the world with their speed, with their might, but it takes a real hero… A once-in-a-lifetime hero, to do it with his heart.
Barry: What is that supposed to mean?
Wells 1.0: It means run, Barry. Run toward love.

(Cisco and Wells 1.0 are saying their goodbyes.)
Cisco: If Kamilla and I are lucky enough to share half of what you and Tess have…
Wells 1.0: You will.
(There is an awkward pause as they regard each other.)
Cisco: This is weird.
Wells 1.0: Yeah, we just met.
Cisco: Right? It’s like I barely even know you.
Wells 1.0: We barely know each other.
Cisco: I mean, you’re nothing like him.
Wells 1.0: Like who? Oh, the Harrison Wells you used to know.
Cisco: Or the man I thought was Harrison Wells. Of course, he turned out to be a…
Both: A jerk?
Cisco: Yeah.
Wells 1.0: Yeah.
(They both chuckle.)
Cisco: How do you miss someone you barely even know?
(Wells 1.0 shrugs a bit and offers Cisco his hand. He takes it and they shake hands firmly. Cisco turns to walk away but then turns back around.)
Cisco: Before you go, how exactly do you travel in time? 
Wells 1.0:  Easy. Just… like this. 
(Wells 1.0 waves his hand and disappears in a cloud of green particles.)


Continuity

As the episode opens, Barry is in shock and Iris is in a vegetative state, as Cisco, Frost and Allegra come to after being knocked out in 702.

Caitlin takes over from Frost to treat Iris.

Barry refuses to reconnect to the Artificial Speed Force, saying it turned him into something just as bad as Eobard Thawne.

The CCPD is besieged by reports of people being attacked by hands coming from mirrors and loved ones not acting like themselves.

Joe meets with Sue Dearbon's parents, not knowing they are mirror duplicates.

Sue disguises herself as a CCPD cop.

Sue meets with Joe in secret and tells him about the mirror duplicates. This reminds Joe of the fake Iris and he puts two and two together.

According to Sue, Ralph is off tracking a lead.

Eva McCulloch's powers are now strong enough that she can grab people through any reflective surface: not just mirrors. 

Barry suggests they cut power to the city so as to reduce the light available for Eva's powers to work.

Barry is drawn into the Mirrorverse, where Eva says once again that she doesn't want to kill anyone; she wants to build a better world,, but his actions convinced her that humanity doesn't deserve it.

The Harrison Wells seen in 702.manifests inside STAR Labs. He claims to be the original Harrison Wells of Earth-1, who was murdered and replaced by Eobard Thawne.

Wells 1.0 theorizes that when Nash Wells sacrificed himself in 701, the universe required a balance. This apparently led to his resurrection as an energy being made up of multiversal particles.

Wells 1.0 has the knowledge and memories of all the other Harrison Wells. For that reason, he offers to help Team Flash because they would have helped.

One of Eva's mirror duplicates targets Cecile and Joe West, cornering them in Barry's lab at the CCPD.

Ralph Dibny and Sue Dearbon return to STAR Labs after Ralph is severely injured by an explosion at McCulloch Labs.The explosion somehow melted Ralph's face.

Before it blew up, Ralph did recover security camera footage which proved Sue didn't murder Joseph Carver.

While sitting with a comatose Iris, Barry has an idea on how to repair the Speed Force, referring to when Iris had speed powers in 416.

Joe tries to help Cecile escape by sending her into the duct work. Instead she is caught, and replaced by a mirror duplicate.

Cisco, Frost and Barry fight against Eva and her mirror duplicates.

Iris briefly manifests mirror-control powers during the fight against Eva.

Eva surrenders after Iris points out she's endangering the world she claims to want to save.

Eva sends her "children" back to the Mirrorverse and returns all the people she abducted, including Singh and Kamilla.

Wells 1.0 tells Allegra Garcia that someone else will have to train her in using her powers because their paths are heading different ways.

Wells 1.0 originally would have lived to be 92 years old on Earth-Prime.

Somehow, being reborn as multiversal particles has given Wells 1.0 the ability to see the past, present and future along his personal timeline and he can travel to any moment he wants. He considers this ability useless, however, unless he can share it with his wife, Tess, whom he only got four years with before his death.

Wells 1.0 intends to relive the 4 years he spent with his wife until he runs out of time.

Wells 1.0 tells Cisco that he and Kamilla will be lucky enough to share half of what he and Tess had.

Ralph needs to spend a few more days in the BCU before his face heals.

Sue turns down a chance to join Team Flash, saying a do-gooder team is not her style. Besides, she and Ralph have plans to travel the world and take down gangs like Black Hole.

Ralph says he'll be back someday and take Frost on that road trip they planned.

The final scene reveals that when Barry created the new Speed Force, it released red, green, blue and yellow energy over Central City.


Untelevised Adventures

Eva blows up McCulloch Labs off-camera, while Ralph Dibny was inside it.


The Bottom Line

A fragmented mess that does a disservice to some of the best things to come out of The Flash Season 6. The best thing that can be said about it is that at least its over and from here on out we'll get to see what the showrunners really had planned for Season 7.