The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 17 - Keep It Dark

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

Plot

Barry goes off the grid to track down a new meta criminal, as Allegra pulls out all the stops to protect a story source.

Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (creator of Dr. Meena Dhawan/Fast Track), The Silence of the Lambs (Barry interviewing Thawne in his cell) and Assault On Precinct 13 and other "base under siege" stories.


Goofs

Taylor is awfully high and mighty about journalistic ethics for someone who had a contact illegally break into sealed juvenile records to dig up dirt on her supervisor. 

Given that Sunshine and Dr. Light are already wanted for multiple murder charges, it really shouldn't make a difference that their running the Arañas is revealed to the public in a CCC Media report and there really shouldn't be anything stopping them from killing everyone at that point. 


Performances

Tom Cavanagh's performance as Thawne here is brief, but delightfully unhinged. 


Artistry

Danielle Panabaker's direction is suspenseful. 


Flash Facts

This episode was directed by Danielle Panabaker, who plays Caitlin Snow and Frost.

The episode title was taken from a song by the band Genesis. 

Jenna West's backpack has a Batwoman logo on it.

This episode features the first appearance of Dr. Meena Dhawan. She was originally meant to be introduced during The Flash season 7, but her storyline was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her existence was teased, however, with 701 opening with a scene where Chester was reading a book written by Dr. Meena Dhawan.

First appearing in The Flash Vol 5 #3 (September, 2016), Dr. Dhawan was a scientist at STAR Labs who put in charge of a new Speed Force Testing Center after a series of storms began giving random Central City citizens speed powers. This included Dr. Dhawan, who started assisting The Flash in fighting crime and adopted the codename Fast Track. She chose this name due to a unique ability she developed that allowed her to sense other sources of Speed Force energy.

Meena and Barry Allen briefly became romantically involved before she mysteriously disappeared. She reemerged later ,as an agent of the Black Hole crime syndicate, having been brainwashed by Gorilla Grodd. She also became the avatar of the Negative Speed Force and took on the identity of the Negative Flash.

The Arrowverse version of Dr. Meena Dhawan apparently created her own process for moving at super-speed independent of the Speed Force. She seems to be much the same character as she was in the comics, in terms of idealism and knowledge, though she works for her own company, Fast Track Labs, rather than STAR Labs.

Technobabble

Chester confirms that the new speedster doesn't use the Speed Force by tracking tachyon readings using STAR Labs' satellites. 

Barry figures out that the fire in Ivo Labs was started by the mystery speedster, based upon the friction generated by their movement and the low flash point of the acetone used as an accelerant. 

Ivo Labs' Newton Battery is a strong electrochemical cell which requires a temperature-controlled polymer case.

Chester designed a AI-generated filter program that will conceal Lydia's voice and face while she is on camera.

Chester also designed a photo-kinetic energy shield which is bullet-prof, teleport-proof and basically everything-proof.  However, he only designed it to be a temporary measure until help could be summoned, so the enemy could potentially wait out the clock.

Chester says he can build an oscillating transmitter which can block a cell phone jammer.

Thawne cannot sense connections to the Negative Speed Force anymore.

Sunshine is able to use her powers to alter one of Dr. Light's bullets so that it can break the bonds of the photo-kinetic energy shield.

Dr. Meena Dhawan explains that she stole the Newton Battery because she thought it could extend how long her temporary speed powers last and that she borrowed it rather than spend four years calibrating sodium nitrate cells.


Dialogue Triumphs

Allegra: Look, I know you're scared, but the Arañas, they operate in the shadows. The only way to take away their power is bring them into the light.

Dialogue Disasters

Continuity

As the episode opens, The Flash responds to reports of multiple fires at Ivo Labs.

By the time The Flash gets to Ivo Labs, the fires are all out.

The staff think that he's come back and describe a speedster carrying them to safety and creating a wind funnel that extinguished the fires. This leads Barry to conclude that there's a new speedster at work.

Barry checked and made sure August Heart was still locked up in Iron Heights and Eobard Thawne is still powerless and under heavy guard at ARGUS. He also confirmed that all the Velocity X drugs are secure inside STAR Labs.

Barry still cannot contact Speed Force Nora or any of the other Force avatars. 

Caitlin is not returning Barry's calls.

Joe tells Barry that he did the right thing trying to stop Caitlin's experiment but he points out that he may have caused her to lose all hope.

Cecile and Joe are busy with Jenna's kindergarten interviews, so they can't help Barry with this case.

Allegra is running the Central City Citizen in Iris' absence and is currently overseeing a profile regarding the retiring Judge Hankerson and the closing of the nearby Fort Delaney.

Taylor proposes an expose on the light-empowered meta who works with The Flash. She has pulled photos of her revealing that her face is always obscured by lights in security camera footage, but she thinks she can get the images cleared with the right resources.

Allegra shoots down the expose idea, even after Taylor claims Iris approved of it before she left.  Allegra tries to stall and tells her to wait until Iris comes back.

Allegra gets a text from Lydia - the old friend and former gang member she helped in 808.

Lydia tells Allegra that their old gang, the Arañas, are expanding out of Keystone and are trying to pull her back in, because of all she knows about the group.

Lydia also tells Allegra that the gang have become cold-blooded killers under their new leadership, as opposed to the simple car thieves they once were.

Allegra asks Lydia to help her expose the Arañas, promising to quote her as an anonymous source. 

Allegra and Lydia are filmed by a member of the Arañas in Jitters, who takes the footage to the gang's new leaders - Sunshine and Dr. Light.

As Barry and Chester are examining the Ivo Labs fire scene, they discovered an open case with a biometric lock. This leads them to believe the fire was meant to distract from a theft.

Barry decides to go off the grid for a while to talk to Thawne about who the mystery speedster might be, since he has no other leads and it seems clear this speedster isn't a hero.

Allegra outlines how Ultraviolet founded the Arañas as a teenager, before gaining light powers and teaming with Dr. Light and Sunshine as the Assassins Three of the Black Hole Syndicate. She asks for Taylor, Aariz and Vanya to help her with the interview.

Taylor objects to the fact that Allegra is only citing one source regarding the Arañas story and that there's no way of collaborating it. Allegra does not mention that she knows because she fought Ultraviolet and is a former member of the Arañas.

Aariz and Yanya agree to help.

Chester shows up to help with some advanced shielding tech for the interview.

Chester asks Allegra if she told her reporters why this story is so important to her. Allegra says no, because she's afraid they won't trust her anymore if they know she's a former gang member and car thief.

Dr. Light tries to shoot Lydia through the window as Sunshine appears in the CCC Media offices.

Chester is able to blind Sunshine with a flash-bang and sets up a force field around the building that will keep her and Dr. Light out.

Allegra covers Chester's advanced tech by saying that Sue Darbon hired him special to secure their building because he's more than a simple IT guy.

Yanya tries to call for help but discovers her phone isn't working. Chester concludes that Sunshine and Dr. Light must be using some kind of signal jammer to block their phones.

The reports question Allegra about whys he knows so much about Sunshine and Dr. Light's power limits when she starts trying to come up with a plan to counter them.

Thawne mourns the loss of his powers, saying he was once able to run around the world in 5 seconds.

Thawne knows about Frost's death, but says she was in over her head from the beginning.

Yanya writes a letter to her children in case they get killed. 

Lydia wants to surrender herself to Sunshine and Dr. Light in the hopes that they will spare everyone else.

Taylor is in favor of Lydia surrendering herself.

Allegra refuses to let that happen, saying that reporters are supposed to protect their sources. 

Taylor says she saw the code Chester typed into his shield generator so she can shut it down, but she tries to talk Yanya and Aariz into turning on Allegra.

The scene which Barry and Deon saw in the Still Force of Allegra and Taylor arguing in 815 plays out, with Taylor revealing that she learned Allegra used to be part of Arañas after one of her contacts broke into her sealed juvenile records.

The reporters turn on Allegra, saying she can't be trusted since she tried hiding her past from them.

Allegra tells Chester that she was never meant to be a leader and that the whole reason she and her cousin wound up being arrested in the first place was because of her mistakes trying to plan her first idea for a job. 

Both Lydia and Chester say that Allegra is a born leader and that she has to be the one to get them out of this.

Thawne mocks Barry for not being able to figure out an obvious truth about the mystery speedster and refuses to answer Barry when he asks if he ever sensed a mystery speedster hiding themselves in 2022 during his travels.

Barry eventually goads Thawne into explaining it by going on about how this new speedster is going to replace Thawne as Barry's worst enemy.

Thawne says that it's clear that the new speedster created the fire by accident, saved the people because they honestly care about not hurting other people and that they are hiding because they can't control their powers and were afraid of The Flash coming after them. 

Allegra reveals her powers to the other reports and confirms that she is the light meta who has been working with The Flash for the last few years.

Allegra fights Sunshine and Dr. Light as Chester and the other reporters get ready to send out a signal with Lydia's story.

Allegra is shot by Dr. Light but she somehow uses her powers to heal the wound.

Sunshine and Dr. Light flee once they see the news report identifying them as the leaders of the Arañas.

There are APBS out for Sunshine and Dr. Light across the whole state and the information Lydia provided allowed the police to freeze their accounts and seize their assets, which shuts down the gang forever.

The story on the Arañas is CCC Media's biggest yet with 20 million views over the first few hours.

The reporters agree to keep Allegra's identity a secret - even Taylor.

Taylor is stunned that Allegra isn't firing her, but Allegra says that she's a good investigative reporter and she was only trying to save everyone's lives - not just her own.

Taylor reveals she got the photos of Allegra helping The Flash from a social media app called Chirper.

Chester tells Barry about Allegra being an awesome leader, describing her as a combination of Captain Janeway, AOC and Angela Davis.

Caitlin calls STAR Labs and says she's not sure she can ever come back that in person. She tells Barry that she's still not sure how to feel, but she's hurting, and she's going to stay with her mom while she figures some things out.

Barry confronts the mystery speedster at Ivo Labs as they are trying to return the battery they stole.

The speedster can run at the speed of sound, but The Flash is much faster. She also reveals that her speed is temporary, lasting only a few minutes.

The speedster makes reference to creating her speed source with an associate.

The speedster claims to have invented the Newton Battery whens he was a young engineer working at Ivo Labs. This leads Barry to figure out that she is Dr. Meena Dhawan - the CEO of Fast Track Labs.

Barry has read her book - Quantum Gravity and the Universe - three times.

Barry offers to mentor Dr. Dhawan in mastering her powers and helping people.


Location

The ARGUS secure facility on Lian Yu.


Untelevised Adventures

Chester reportedly started a fire by overcooking chicken tenders in the microwave in the STAR Labs lounge. According to Barry, it took forever to get rid of the smell.

Reference is made to The Flash using a wind tunnel to stop The Hotness - something that did not happen in his previous encounters with The Hotness in 416 and 808.


The Boomerang Factor

When you get right down to it, this is another Arrowverse story where the conflict wouldn't exist if people didn't keep needless secrets.


The Bottom Line

Well directed and well-acted, but certain aspects of the story don't make sense if you think about them for more than a second. Despite this, this is one of the best episodes in recent memory.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 2 - The Speed of Thought

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

Plot

The Artificial Speed Force gives Barry a new power in the form of speed-thinking, which he feels may hold the key to saving the captives of the Mirrorverse. Cisco, however, is skeptical, and fears there may be a downside to Barry's new power. Meanwhile, Eva must face a harsh truth about herself.


Influences

JLA: Tower of Babel (mention of Babel Protocols and explanation they are plans to disable various superheroes.)


Goofs

Why didn't Cisco destroy the Artificial Speed Force while Barry and the rest of the team were away during their fight? He was all alone in the Speed Lab and had enough time to do it.


Performances

Grant Gustin is unnerving as the completely logical "Spock" Flash.

Carlos Valdes gets some great silent acting moments throughout the episode, as he is seen to be thinking of things and reacting to Gustin's increasingly unstable unemotional state.


Artistry

The special effects for the Frost vs. Flash high-speed fight are phenomenal. 


Flash Facts

Despite Nash and the Council of Wells dying one episode earlier, they are still included in the title card sequence for this episode.

Cisco makes mention of having expanded the Babel Protocols so they are no longer entirely tech-based. This is a nod to the JLA: Tower of Babel storyline in the comics, which was written by longtime Flash writer Mark Waid. In it, Ra's Al Ghul enacted a plan to cause wide-spread chaos using towers that broadcast a signal which hindered humanity's ability to understand spoken or written language. To ensure the Justice League did not stop him, he utilized a series of plans, formulated by Batman, to disable Earth's greatest heroes. The same storyline was adapted to make the animated movie: Justice League: Doom, but in the movie it was a newly formed Legion of Doom led by Vandal Savage that attacked the Justice League with plans stolen from Batman rather than Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Assassins.


Technobabble

Cisco says he thought he could use Atlantean technology to tackle the problem of perpetual motion and open a portal to the Mirrorverse.

According to Chester, there are two big problems that need to be solved to fix Cisco's Mirrorverse portal. First, they have to find the method to reconfigure the molecular stability of the dimensional barrier that damages organic matter. Next, quantum entanglement from reversed Higgs boson particles disrupts the geospatial algorithm, preventing them from being able to locate people inside the Mirrorverse. This means they have to know precisely where their friends are in order to retrieve them.

Barry determines that Iris' neural pathways have likely achieved an equilibrium with the harmonic frequency of contained within the fractalized dimensional plane and this is why she was able to use the computers in the Mirrorverse to send messages.

According to Cisco, Barry's neurons are now constantly firing at super-speed ever since he became bonded to the Artificial Speed Force, with synaptic connections that are off the charts. Barry is now capable of thinking faster than a quantum computer, resulting in enhanced cognition by way of a Speed Force booster shot. In short, Barry can think faster than ever, in addition to running fast.

Cisco invents a Quantum Ball - a ball which amplified kinetic energy, firing in directions that can only be described as unpredictable. Unpredictable, that is, except to Barry with his new speed-thinking powers.
 
Bloodwork's unique cells created a polar covalent bond with the molocules in Eva's mirror portal. This is why she needed his blood; to create a bio-friendly skin on the interdimensional barrier.

Barry says they do not need Bloodwork's blood, because it would have bonded with the electro-negative particles and become dark matter photons. These particles would not just stay on the mirror portal - they would have attached themselves to Eva as she passed from the Mirrorverse into the real world.

Cisco says if they could collect those particles from Eva, they could use those to open their Mirrorverse portal, but it would take them years to build a prototype to do it. Barry is able to fast-track the process, by integrating the neural net in the Thinker's chair to synch to a nanite bridge, fed into the Tachyon enhancer's non-reductive loop. 

Factoring in geographic analytics and concealment probability, Barry is able to locate the remaining Black Hole safe-houses in Central City and estimates with a 97.6% certainty which one Mirror Mistress will attack. 

Barry creates a cure for the light attack that injured Frost; a cryogenically fortified paracetamol cocktail that fortified her cellular walls. 

When asked why he allowed Frost to get shot, Barry says there was a .0002% chance that the Tachyon Enhancer would be damaged by his attempting to save Frost, while the odds that he would fail to find a way to heal her injuries were much smaller. Logically, the best thing to do was allow her to be injured and then trust that he would be able to heal her.

Barry says Frost should recuperate from her injuries for 14.2 minutes. 

McCulloch Technologies' black box servers run a hybrid theorem-proving system with model checking. 

Gideon says it will take 18.4 hours to run the quantum computations needed to analyze all the temporal-spatial data behind the Mirrorverse portal. Barry suggests the data can be processed more quickly by inverting the Feynman shortcut and applying it to one-half mass times velocity squared, compensating for tachyon decay. This allows the numbers to be processed in seconds.

According to Barry, the longer someone is in the Mirrorverse, the more dark matter photons are rquired to pull them back to reality. Unfortunately, the quantity that they have limits them to being able to retrieve Kamilla and Singh or Iris.

People brought into the Mirrorverse using the mirror gun develop a condition similar to neural dissonance, which causes them to feel intense physical pain. Iris somehow knows this, for no apparent reason.

Eobard Thawne used negative emotions to stabilize his Negative Speed Force machine. To avoid the same mistakes he made, Cisco used an inert substance - an argon-xenon hybrid - that would generate no emotional fallout in constructing their Artificial Speed Force. Unfortunately, in doing this, Cisco accidentally wound up making it so that the ASF increased Barry Allen's cognitive function by a factor of 1000, but his emotional responses have decreased by the same factor.

The anti-speedster gun Cisco built releases a charge of what he calls Velocity-Zero, which temporarily dampens a speedster's speed.


Dialogue Triumphs

Barry: (voice-over) He was the most brilliant mind I ever met. They all were. Whatever the problem, you could count on a Wells - a council of them - to have the answers. Now, they're all gone. And we've got to find the answers ourselves.

Cisco: Why does it always feel like for us to win some of us have to lose?

(Barry has explained his plan to build a jerry-rigged device to absorb the particles they need from Mirror Mistress herself, using two blackboards worth of formulas.)
Allegra: But isn't Eva still holed up behind McCulloch Tech's forcefield? We'll never get close to her!
(Barry's jaw drops and he gestures with his marker.)
Allegra: (sighs) You're going to bring out another board?
(There is a woosh as Barry runs off to get another blackboard.)

(Cisco explains that the Artificial Speed Force has enhanced Barry's intelligence, but is repressing his emotions by an equal factor.)
Barry: I am better this way. The team is safer this way.
Cisco: (putting a hand on Barry's shoulder) Look, man. I know you think your heart has been used against you. But's not a weakness. It's makes you human. I mean, without it...
(Cisco glances to one side and sees the targeting screen for the Mirrorverse portal. There is a long pause as the significance of it hits him. Still, he hesitates to ask what he already knows.)
Cisco: Why is the portal target set to Iris?
(Barry does not respond.)
Cisco: What about saving the others?!
Barry: We do not have enough dark matter photons to save all three of them.
(There s another long pause as Cisco mulls this other, blinking.)
Cisco: So... instead of consulting your team, you just decided on your own?
Barry: I've already seen the outcome of this debate. You eventually vote to save Kamilla and Singh.
Cisco: Like hell! I would never vote on something like that! If you had come to me,  would've told you we'll find another way. That's what we always do!
Barry: Your emotions are making you irrational. 
Cisco: And your lack of them are making you wrong! 

(Frost has just landed on a car after being sent flying several blocks by a super speed punch.)
The Flash: Your defeat is inevitable. The Velocity-X in your system is nearly depleted. Your time as a Speedster is coming to an end.
Frost: (panting) Maybe. But I'm not only a Speedster.
(Frost suddenly spins around in imitation of Barry preparing to throw lightning. As she does so, a ice blue bolt mixed with lightning jumps from her fingers, racing toward Barry. He is unable to dodge as the thunder shower blows him back off his feet. As he goes flying, Allegra runs out from behind a car and hits him with a smoke bomb. Suddenly he is on the floor in the Speed Lab, where Cisco Ramon is waiting and shoots him again with the Zelocity-Zero gun.)


Continuity

Team Flash have created a memorial space in STAR Labs, which has displays for every friend they've lost in the fight against evil. 

Cisco says the memorial room is nano-engraved with the names of the fallen, so that even if reality is rewritten and the timeline changes they will not be forgotten. 

The displays in the Team Flash memorial room include Captain Cold's goggles, Ronnie Raymond's jacket from his Firestorm costume, XS' costume jacket, Jesse Quick's jacket, and a large display holding Harry Wells' glasses, HR Wells' drum sticks, Sherloque Wells' magnifying glass, and (after Cisco adds it to the mannequin in the center) Nash Wells' bandoleer satchel. 

Allegra still has the picture of her alternate self and Nash, which she took in 701.

Allegra gets the message which Iris sent to Jamilla and Singh, telling them to meet her ni the Speed Lab at STAR Labs at 19:00.

The technology Cisco retrieved from Atlantis (which he left to get in 618) doesn't work like he'd hoped.

Chester is apparently visiting his grandmother, but is continuing to do some science work in between rounds of bingo.

According to Cisco, Eva used Bloodwork's blood to tackle the first problem they have with creating a Mirrorverse gate when opening her portal in 617; they need something to recofigure the portal's natural tendency to destroy organic matter.

Barry begins to have visions of the complicated concepts Cisco is about to explain before he can explain them.

Allegra tells Cisco and Barry about Iris' message.

Sunshine says she thinks Eva looks like she hasn't slept in some time and that she has a look in her eyes similar to the one that her husband had when she was hiding something from his followers. Eva denies that she is hiding anyuthing.

Sunshine refers to herself, Ultraviolet and Dr. Light as The Assassins Three.

Eva elects to go after the next Black Hole safehouse herself.

Cisco invents a quantum ball to test Barry's newfound ability to think quickly. Barry is successfully able to predict exactly where an allegedly unpredictable ball will bounce.

Using his new speed-thinking powers, Barry is able to figure out that the particles they need to open their portal can be taken directly from Mirror Mistress, builds the advanced technology they need to do that and predicts the next Black Hole safehouse she's likely to attack, which can be the setting of an ambush instead.

Iris finds Kamilla outside STAR Labs, spray-painting a message for her on the wall outside the building.

Iris thinks she's been in the Mirrorverse long enough that she's gained the ability to manipulate the realm. 

Kamilla says she wasn't able to find Singh at the hospital.

Kamilla and Iris go off to look for Singh together.

Barry called Frost back earlier, to have her act as a distraction while he absorbed the particles they needed from Mirror Mistress.

Barry's plan works, but he hesitates as Mirror Mistress attacks Frost with another focused light blast. Cisco sees Barry not move as Frost is shot.

Barry creates a cure for Frost's injuries after running 2,371 tests in his head in a span of seconds.

Barry describes superspeed thinking as experiencing a barrage of images flying at him or having a scene play out in his head.

Based on Iris' message and the warning that Eva is watching, Barry says the next step is thinking of a solution to that problem and making sure Eva doesn't try to stop them from rescuing the Mirrorverse captives.

Allegra tells Cecile that she's always rejected father figures in her life, since her dad abandoned her before she could walk. This was why she resisted Nash trying to get close to her.

Cecile's grandfather was the first Black paralegal in Oklahoma. Her mother was the first female independent counsel in the state of Texas. She keeps her grandfather's filling cabinet and mother's briefcase as mementos of them. 

Barry figures out that Eva is a fractal clone of the real Eva McCulloch and how to hack her computers to find the video file Joseph Carver left behind. He did this after overhearing her refer to herself as a phantom, thinking back to Carver's dying words in 619 about Mirror Mistress no really being his wife, and going on to analyze her behavior patterns, body language and graphological handwriting.

Eva appears on a local talks how, The Arielle Atkins show, to talk about her plans to develop fresh water, healthier crops and clean renewable energy.

Barry elects to broadcast the hacked security footage of Eva McCulloch's death. This leads Mirror Mistress to have an emotional breakdown on live television, destroying a glass which cuts the face of Arielle Atkins and Eva fleeing the show set, disappearing into a reflection.

Sunshine abandons Mirror Mistress. 

Barry says there were 141 ways to distract Mirror Mistress. Exposing her to the world was the most effective way to ensure she'd be unable to stop them from opening their portal. Barry says making their enemies emotionally upset makes them prone to making mistakes, despite Frost and Cisco saying getting Mirror Mistress upset doesn't seem like a good idea.

Barry determines, and confirms with Gideon, that there are only enough dark photos to safely retrieve either Iris or both Kamilla and Singh. He then runs a simulation to see how the rest of the team would react to this news. Unsurprisingly, they all vote to save the larger number of people and leave Iris in the Mirrorverse. As such, Barry elects not to tell them and tries to open the portal and retrieve Iris on his own.

Cisco determines that the protocols he put into the Artificial Speed Force to prevent Barry's emotions from influencing the device have instead repressed his emotions while enhancing the logic centers of his brain.

Cisco notices, as he is explaining his mistake to Barry, that the portal is set to target Iris and no one else.

Barry denies that his decision to save Iris is based on emotion - it's because Iris has knowledge of Eva they need to fight her. As such, Singh and Kamilla are expendable.  When he uses that word, Cisco pulls a gun from one of the cabinets in the speed lab and calls in Frost and Allegra.

Allegra enters the fight wearing a white bandoleer satchel, similar to Nash's.

Frost injects herself with Velocity-X, temporarily giving her super-speed to combat Barry in a running battle across Central City.

Allegra is able to ambush Barry with one of Nssh's teleporting smoke bombs. This sends him back to STAR Labs, where he falls on the ground and has the wind knocked out of him, giving Cisco time to shoot him with another blast of Velocity-Zero.

Cisco makes mention of the Babel Protocols, which were first mentioned in 402. Originally limited to a self-destruct mode built into The Flash suit, they now consist of multiple plans to take down Barry Allen (and, presumably, other superheroes) in case of an emergency.

The Quantum Ball Barry threw at the start of the fight hits Cisco, knocking him out and causing him to accidentally blast the crystal Allegra is holding - the same one Nash gave her in 619 that causes a person to relieve their worst memories, when Allegra uses her powers on it. This causes Allegra to blast herself, which causes her to blast Frost and knock her out before she passes out from shock.

As Barry opens the portal, Iris is in the middle of trying to get Kamilla and Singh to the medical bay.

Iris refuses to go and leave the injured Singh and Kamilla behind. Shockingly, Barry did not predict this happening. 

Barry forces Iris to come through the portal, but seems to injure her in the process as she passes out once the portal is closed.

The realization of what he's done thanks to his hyper-logic leads Barry do throw lightning into the Artificial Speed Force, destroying it. This also seems to cause a feedback loop, which causes Barry to experience a debilitating electric shock of blue lightning. 

In her office, Mirror Mistress begins muttering to herself that this isn't her world anymore, but it can be.

At CCPD HQ, one of the cops is grabbed by Mirror Mistress, through her reflection, while in an elevator.

The final scene, labeled "Once Upon A Time..." replays the flashback scene from 117 where Eobard Thawne replaced the original Harrison Wells of Earth-1. This time, we also see Thawne burying Wells' remains in a shallow grave. The scene ends with a focus on the grave as green specks of energy appear around the grave, rebuilding the body of the original Harrison Wells, before fading to black and giving us a "To Be Continued..." notice.


The Bottom Line

A step-up over the last few episodes, thanks to a smart script and some solid performances. The opening scene gives the Wells the send-off they should have gotten last week and the last scene suggests Tom Cavanagh isn't quite done with the show yet. Between that, we get some great CGI fights and a reminder of how smart these characters are meant to be... ignoring that Cisco probably could have shut down the ASF while Frost was running around with Barry. 

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 19 - Success Is Assured

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




Plot

With Eva McCulloch free and out for revenge, Joseph Carver turns to the CCPD and STAR Labs for help after all of his bodyguards mysteriously vanish. But as Sue Dearbon returns to Central City with a new wrinkle in her case and Iris becomes increasingly unhinged in the Mirrorverse, can Barry bring himself to protect the man who threatened his family? Even if he manages that, can he stand against this new Mirror Mistress to save Carver?

Influences

Charlie's Angels (the theme with the three female assassin/bodyguards and the editing of their fight with Team Flash) and The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson. (Black Hole organization.)

Goofs

The central conceit of this episode - the team's conflict regarding Barry considering allowing Eva McCulloch to have Joseph Carver just to save Iris - doesn't ring true. Ignoring Nash being the one to call Barry out on this (even with how much he's changed, Nash is still the most amoral member of the team), he complains that every version of Wells in his head says it isn't like the Barry Allen they know to negotiate with a villain. Clearly they weren't paying attention last week when Barry cut a deal with Pied Piper to get his help fighting Godspeed, to say nothing of all the other times Barry let a villain he knew to be a killer walk free in the name of protecting his loved ones. (i.e. every time he cut a deal with Captain Cold, his letting both Amunet Black and The Mechanic walk in The Flash season 4.)

Nash's line about Iris not approving of Barry doing something questionable to save her doesn't ring true either. Or was the timeline rewritten so Iris didn't kill Savitar to save Barry and herself in the Season 3 finale?

While Barry says he couldn't use his super-speed to save Carver from the Mirror Singh without revealing his secret identity, he doesn't seem to have any concerns about Carver getting the chance to know that Ralph Dibny is Elongated Man.

Nash gives Allegra instructions on how to neutralize Sunshine's powers only for Allegra to not fight Sunshine.

Granting that Carver seems more like a corporate weasel than a scientist, you'd think even he would be smart enough (or paranoid enough) to think that a reflective computer screen might be accessible by a mirror-manipulating ex-wife. He also has liquor bottles and drinking glasses in his panic room.

There is no logical reason, other than pure plot contrivance, why Eva McCulloch doesn't just release her hostages once Carver is dead. She's already proven she can outmaneuver Barry in terms of raw power and his refusal to bargain with her seems to be fueled more by his outrage over having Iris taken away than any real righteousness about Carver's being murdred.

Come to that, why doesn't Eva reveal the truth of what happened to the world and how her husband was an abusive jerk who got what was coming to him? Any decent lawyer could make a case that her killing him was self-defense given the deadly technology at his disposal or cop a temporary insanity plea. Effectively, what he did was no different than forcibly confining his wife in the basement for six years and faking her death to collect her inheritance. 

The revelation that Eva framed Sue Dearbon comes out of nowhere and seems like a hastily written excuse to keep her in the series for another season and to make Eva do something actively villainous to turn the audience against her. (Given how the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, it probably was.)

Performances

Again the chemistry between Hartley Sawyer and Natalie Dreyfus is perfect and you really wish the show was focused on Ralph and Sue instead of Barry and Iris.

Artistry

The editing of the fight scenes is tight and well-styled.

Technobabble

Eva McCulloch has a special suit that is speeding her acclimation to the real world when she is outside of her special reflection modulation chamber.

Nash describes the diamond Sue Dearbon gave Ralph as a Triangulation Cartograph - a treasure map.

Joseph Carver claims that the Mirror verse is incompatible with the human brain and it warps people until they are no longer the person they once were. Nash later says this is possible, having come across an alternate Earth in his travels where visitors suffered neural dissonance - a traumatic psychological state.

According to Dr. Tannhauser, the stoichiomnetric ratio of Frost's blood is manifesting in an abnormal way.

McCulloch Technologies has a biogeneic ionization field that can surround their building.

After Iris was abducted, Carver had the mirror she was taken through coated with protective nanites.

Nash notes that Sunshine now has two bracelets that act as solar energy battery packs, allowing her to use her powers at night. He says the cells can be overloaded by increasing their internal temperature.

The stone that Nash gave Allegra, used in conjunction with her powers, generates a ray that causes a person to relive their worst experiences.

Dialogue Triumphs

Ralph: You're not here to rob the place. And Carver didn't have a change of heart on your parents. You... you offered to take their place in Black Hole. 

Sue: Carver agrees. I'm more valuable than my parents.  

Ralph: Sue, you... you don't have to do this. 

Sue: Yes, I do. I've been trying to collect leverage on Carver for over a year. He's untouchable. 

Ralph: Untouchable unless you have one of those handy-dandy Black Hole pins. You joined Black Hole to get close to Carver. Because you're gonna kill him. That's why you're here, isn't it? 

Sue: Carver's never gonna let my parents go. 

Ralph: Sue, damn it... 

Sue: It's the only way it ends!. 

Ralph: You gotta listen to me. There... there is always another way. Do you understand what happens if you kill Carver? Every time you look in the mirror, you won't recognize the person looking back. You'll lose yourself. 

Sue: Why do you care? 

Ralph: Because I believe in you! And I know there's still good in you. I can see it. 

Sue: I'm sorry about this, slick. 

(Sue pulls out her breath spray and sprays it into Ralph's open mouth. Ralph breathes reflexively and starts to sniff franatically.)

Ralph: Oh, come on. 

(Ralph collapses to the ground as Sue turns and continues down the hall.)

(Eva shatters the mirror that once trapped her and looks at Joseph Carver.)

Carver: Let's talk about this. 

(Eva raises her right arm and a laser cannon forms around it. She chuckles.)

Eva: About what? How you weaponized my technology? Extorted charitable donors? Kidnapped and blackmailed innocent meta-humans like Kimiyo, Esperanza, and Millie? This is me talking!

Carver: I did what I had to do. 

(Eva looks at him sadly and powers down the laser cannon.)
Eva: (sighs) Then I'll do what I have to do. Good-bye, Joseph. 

(Eva raises her hand. The mirror shards on the ground begin to float up, pointing at Carver.) 

Carver: No, Eva! Wait! 

(The shards fly but The Flash runs in at the last second, throwing himself between Carver and Eva, screaming as the shards embed themselves in his costume.)

Eva: No! What don't you understand? He's not worth saving!

The Flash: (strained) Maybe... But it's not your decision. 

Eva: (determined) Oh, yes, it is.

(One of the larger shards begins to push through the Flash's shoulder, coming out through his back, striking Carver dead on in the chest.)W

Eva: My husband... let me rot in that world for years! He does not get to live in this one. 

Carver: You're not my wife! (choking) My wife died in the particle accelerator explosion!

Eva: Well... I've never felt more alive. 

Continuity

The Chief Singh Mirror-Clone is explaining his absence from work by claiming to be with his sick mother.

Nash, Allegra and Cecile help Frost with packing for her trip to the Arctic Circle.

Frost and Allegra are established as friends and Frost agrees to let her borrow one of her jackets while she is gone.

Cecile senses Frost's anxiety over meeting Dr. Tannhauser.

It's been 24 hours since Eva McCulloch was last seen.

The artificial Speed Force still isn't finished.

Barry meets with the rest of the team at his lab at the CCPD Headquarters as he has a backlog of CSI work to finish.

Barry speculates that Eva McCulloch was being literal when she said she had unfinished business to attend to. This leads Ralph to reveal the diamond that Sue gave him in 616. Ralph says that Black Hole's logo is embedded inside the diamond.

Allegra senses serious UV energy coming out of the diamond.

Projected onto a map of Central City, the diamond points towards a warehouse on 42nd Street and Darby which turns out to have five subterranean levels.

Allegra says she doesn't like coffee, but this later revealed to be a lie. She just didn't want coffee Nash had made in an effort to be nice to her.

All five guards in the Black Hole warehouse were stabbed to death when Ralph and Barry get there.

The warehouse apparently holds all the blackmail material Joseph Carver had on various people, including Sue Dearbon's parents. The box with their name on it contains bank statements and finanical records, which Ralph intends to take with him.

Other boxes Ralph finds are labeled with the names Garcia, Rawlins, Hoshi and Merkel. These are the last names of Ultraviolet, Sunshine, Dr. Light and Ragdoll.

Barry smells gasoline and follows the scent to discover the Singh clone in the middle of dousing the warehouse. 

The Singh clone says that Eva is not interested in The Flash's brand of justice and explains that Joseph Carver was there the night Eva became trapped in the Mirrorverse. He was well aware of what happened to her and made no effort to rescue her, instead using her inventions to create Black Hole and become rich selling her technology as weapons and blackmailing people.

Singh uses a flare gun to ignite the gasoline. Barry and Ralph are forced to flee the warehouse after Barry proves to be too slow to create a vortex that can extinguish the fire.

The warehouse is burned to the ground along with all of its contents.

Joseph Carver meets with his lawyer at CC Jitters. After confirming everything that might incriminate him has been destroyed, he instructs him to replace all the items but not to use "The Three" as they can't find out they are "off the leash." This is a reference to Dr. Light, Sunshine and Ultraviolet, who we find out later in the episode were all being blackmailed into working for Carver.

Joseph Carver meets with Barry at CC Jitters. He knows that Barry is married to Iris, but has no idea he is The Flash. 

Carver admits to knowing that Iris was abducted into the Mirrorverse weeks ago, but didn't tell anyone as Eva abducting her solved one of his problems - i.e. nosy reporter investigating his connection to Black Hole.

Carver claims he had the greatest minds in the world study the Mirrorverse and they all concluded that it drove anyone who entered it went insane near-instantly and that the woman claiming to be Eva McCulloch was a thing that thought it was Eva McCulloch rather than a real person.

Carver denies owning the warehouse at 42nd and Darby and says he needs no help protecting himself.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris sees a map of the city on a screen and sees a thermal energy scan that she thinks is Chief Singh's location.

Ralph meets with the Dearbons to let them know that the blackmail material has been destroyed. However, he is cut off by the sudden arrival of Sue Dearbon, who claims to have been at a retreat in India for the past year.

Ralph tries to tell Sue that the blackmail material Carver had on her parents was destroyed. Sue says it doesn't matter because Carver called her last week and said he had a change of heart.

Eva McCulloch is able to draw all three of Joseph Carver's bodyguards into the Mirrorverse using reflective surfaces in his house.

Carver figures out what happened after finding a burn mark on the mirror, where Dr. Light tried to shoot a reflection of Eva.

Carver goes to Barry and requests federal witness relocation protection. He promises to call off the killers he has hunting Joe West if that happens.

Caitlin's mom bonds with Frost. They both agree they'd like to get to know one another better.

The Captain Singh clone shows up to intercept Barry taking Carver to meet the feds. He makes an offer on behalf of Eva McCulloch - hand over Carver, and she'll set Iris free.

Nash uses his teleporting smoke bomb to take everyone back to STAR Labs.

Harry Wells appears to Nash and says that the Barry Allen he knew would never agree to trade another person's life for Iris. 

Team Flash shows Carver the footage of the Mirror Camilla sacrificing herself in 617 to explain the idea of Mirror Duplicates.

Carver says that he has a panic room Eva doesn't know about and a force-field that can prevent anyone from getting inside the McCulloch Technologies building.

Nash knows a away into McCulloch Technologies using the sewer system.

Nash confronts Barry over the fact that he let a mirror duplicate get that close to Carver 

Barry defends his actions, saying he had to protect his secret identity and that any husband would do whatever it takes to safe his wife. Wells agrees, but asks what Iris would think of Barry trading another person's life for hers.  

Carver stole protective nanites from PalmerTech to make the mirror in what was Eva's office safe.

The panic room Carver thinks Eva doesn't know about is hidden in the AV3 room that was her office. It has concrete walls, no mirrors, and a bank of monitors watching the whole facility.

Nash gives Allegra a rock and tells her to blast her UV rays through it if things go bad during the fight.

Ralph recognizes Sue Dearbon in the crowd at McCulloch Technologies.

Sue cut a deal with Carver to become a Black Hole agent in exchange for him stopping the blackmail of her parents.

Ralph figures out that Sue only took the deal so she could get close to Carver and kill him.

Sue knocks Ralph out with some kind of narcotic breath-spray so she can hide in the building and kill Carver one he thinks she's safe.

Sunshine, Dr. Light and Ultraviolet start working for Eva McCulloch, having learned that she destroyed all the blackmail material Carver had on them. They also want a chance at revenge as well. They fight Team Flash and Carver's bodyguards as Eva makes her move against Carver.

Eva uses the Singh clone as a skin-suit to enter McCulloch Technologies, knocking Barry out when he goes to start the back-up generator.

Nash saves Allegra from Ultraviolet

Allegra is able to use the stone Nash gave her to neutralize Ultraviolet, causing her to have visions of being experimented on by Black Hole.

Sue joins the fight and disarms Dr. Light.

Eva attacks Joseph through the monitor in his panic room and eventually kills him with the broken shards of the mirror she was trapped in, despite Barry trying to throw himself between her and Carver.

Eva orders The Three to let Team Flash go, though she does warn Barry to get off her property before she calls the police.

Eva calls a press conference saying she was held captive for six years by an international crime syndicate and watches as her inventions were weaponized. She lies and says her husband continued looking for her before he died saving her.

Dr. Light is at Eva's press conference in her civilian guise, apparently now working for Eva officially.

Sue is framed for Joseph Carver's murder, requiring she stay in hiding in Central City.

Barry gets a chance to talk to Caitlin and wish her well before she goes to the Tannhauser base in the Arctic.

Barry promises to take a whitewater rafting trip with Frost when she and Caitlin get back.

Allegra confirms she does, in fact, like coffee.

Allegra seems to be warming up to Nash.

Joe West joins the rest of Team Flash in Barry's lab, having been released from Witness Protection on account of Carver being dead.

Iris figures out that Chief Singh is at Central City Hospital in the Mirrorverse, just before she suddenly screams, crystallizes and vanishes.

The Boomerang Factor

The central conflict of the episode (and, apparently season 7) would evaporate completely if Barry were willing to negotiate with Eva McCulloch or she let her hostages go once she killed her treacherous husband.

The Bottom Line

A bit of a mess and that's only partially due to the episode being hastily rewritten and reedited to turn it into the Season 6 finale because of the coronavirus outbreak cutting the shooting for the planned finale short. In truth, Barry comes off as more pig-headed than usual and becomes almost slavish in his efforts to protect Carver, despite Carver's allowing Iris to be kidnapped and his threatening Barry's family. It doesn't help matters that, until the final segment of the show, Eva's motivations, bloody though they are, are wholly sympathetic and comparable to Barry's reaction to the Reverse Flash. Still, the whole thing feels rather slapdash and fans will always be left wondering what we might have seen had there been time for the actual finale to be finished. Of course given that it was apparently going to end with the return of Eobard Thawne, we may, ironically, be better off with this ending.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 15 - The Exorcism of Nash Wells

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




Plot

As The Flash contends with a dangerous new Black Hole assassin called Sunshine while trying to conserve the last of the Speed Force energy, Cisco and Cecile try to find a way to force Eobard Thawne's mind out of Nash Wells' body.


Influences

The Indiana Jones movies (Nash and his world's version of Allegra having a relationship like Indy and Short Round, Nash having a signature hat), Fight Club (Cisco compares Nash's seeing the other Harrison Wells to Tyler Durden in this movie) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (title, exorcism theme).


Goofs

Granting that Cecile has often been a source of well-meaning comic-relief on the show, her bringing vampire-fighting gear to help with a scientific inquiry is just idiotic.

Iris evokes the name of the Ringmaster and Cicada in talking about how metahumans have limits. Strictly speaking, Cicada was a wielder of meta-tech rather than a true meta and the classic Ringmaster in the comics used technology, not metahuman powers. (Of course given that this is the fake Iris, this may be meant to be another hint that she isn't who she says she is.)


Performances

It is a credit to Tom Cavanagh's skill as an actor that he can wring so much drama out of a scene where he talks to himself and says nothing more than "It's not my fault" and "It's all your fault" over and over.


Artistry

The fight scene between Sunshine and the CCPD is well blocked and thrilling.


Flash Facts

Thawne, posing as Nash, talks about having once stopped a swarm of psychic starfish on Earth-26. This is a reference to the classic Justice League villain Starro The Conqueror.

Sunshine is an original villain to the Arrowverse, but her powers - teleportation, invisibility and melting things - are exhibited by the classic Dr. Light in the comics. Unlike Dr. Light, however, Sunlight is dependent on ambient sunlight and does not generate energy on her own.

Iris makes reference to a villain called the Ringmaster who is nothing without his rings.This is a nod to an obscure Pre-Crisis Flash villain called The Ringmaster, who was an author named Beau Baer that had been hypnotized by the Golden Glider and outfitted with special ring-based gadgetry and made to become a rival superhero to The Flash. The Glider also abducted Iris West-Allen and tried to make her love the Ringmaster, before killing her and framing Flash for the crime. Once Baer was freed from Glider's control, he retired The Ringmaster and he was never seen again.


Technobabble

Eva McCulloch created a device she calls the Prismatic Refractor, which is capable of converting ambient light into energy.

Cisco hacked every Quantum Kinematic database on Earth-Prime and nobody knows anything about building an artificial Speed Force apart from the fact that The Reverse-Flash managed to do it in the future.

Cisco designs a Speed Gauge which measures the intensity of the velocity Barry generates whenever he uses his powers. The Speed Gauge lights up one of several colored lights based on how much energy Barry is using. Black is neutral, green is a small amount of energy, going through yellow and orange to red for maximum output.

Caitlin says that Nash's brainwaves appear to be multiple brainwaves woven together intricately when viewed as a three-dimensional pattern.

It is never explained just why Thawne was able to appear to Nash despite not being a true Wells. The most likely explanation is that Thawne was dragged along for the ride along with everyone else in a body that scanned as a genetic match for Nash Wells, given that Thawne did

Thawne, posing as Nash, claims to have a neuro-splicer in his belongings. He says that he doesn't think it could be used to separate thousands of brainwaves but Cisco thinks it could if it were super-charged using the EMP in Nash' gauntlet at 1500 volts per meter.

Whatever the device in Nash's belongings actually is, it knocks Barry, Caitlin and Cisco out long enough for Thawne, in Nash's body, to get to the STARchives and Rip Hunter's Time Bubble. Cisco later identifies this effect as a recoil loop.

Caitlin says there's no way to know what effect Velocity-X would have on Barry now, given how his powers have evolved in the past few years.

Cisco says that Thawne is just a series of negative tachyons that have gotten into Nash's body. Hitting Nash with positive tachyons should drive Thawne out, which leads Cisco to build a PTD (Positive Tachyon Device) capable of doing the job.

Cisco uses Cecile's empathy powers as a Thawne-detector, sense all she can read from Nash is pure hatred when Thawne is controlling him.

Without a physical body of his own, Thawne has to inspire negative emotions in his host to draw upon the Negative Speed Force.

Thawne's negative tachyons proliferate at a rate far faster than the output capabilities of the PTD. This means that it will only be a matter of time before he takes over Nash's body, according to Cisco, unless they find a way to help Nash fight back and stop feeding Thawne negative emotions to feed off of.

Cisco can't find any trace of Thawne's negative tachyons inside any organic matter on Earth, but he and Barry think he's just been dissipated - not destroyed.  Cisco compares him to a "red-eyed, pissed-off Voldemort.

Nash describes being possessed by Thawne as like being underwater - you can see and hear what's going on at a distance, but you aren't really in control of anything.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Barry runs into his lab at the CCPD, with Sunshine in hot pursuit. She easily cuts through the lock on the sliding metal security door and walks inside.)
Sunshine: Come out, come out wherever you are.
(Sunshine chuckles as the steel security shutters slam down over the windows. At the same time, Joe comes in behind her, closing the door as he draws his gun. Sunshine shrugs and raises her hands, getting ready to draw on her powers as the last of the shutters slide into place over the skylight, plunging the room into darkness. Our point of view shifts as everything goes green and several officers armed with laser-sighted rifles emerge from the corners of the room, with their sights set on Sunshine. They are wearing night-vision goggles, as is Barry, who grins as he emerges from behind a support column.)
Barry: Yep. You're helio-kinetic. So without access to sunlight, you're just an ordinary thief.
(Sunshine looks around, knowing she's beaten as four laser sights move around her chest as Barry holds up a pair of meta-dampener cuffs.)
Barry: Limits suck, don't they?


Dialogue Disasters

Caitlin: Nash needs help. Not maiming.

Iris: Metas are the ones with limits: not people.


Continuity

The opening scene reveals that Kamilla has been replaced with a mirror duplicate like Iris was.

Eva McCulloch is apparently capable of creating duplicates of items in the mirror universe, but to finish her R-CEM machine she believes she needs the original Prismatic Refractor. She tasks the mirror duplicates with retrieving the original and bringing it to her.

The R-CEM is central to Eva McCulloch's long term plans.

The original Prismatic Refractor was sold to Mercury Labs several months earlier.

Joe and Chief Singh meet at C.C. Jitters to discuss Joe's RICO investigation into Dr. Carver. 

Joe and Chief Singh agree they have to investigate the possibility of a mole in the CCPD working for Carver independent of Internal Affairs.  

Joe tells Chief Singh that The Flash is aware of the investigation as well and thinks there's a dirty copy at work in the CCPD as well. 

Nash says that he's been seeing other versions of Harrison wells from the Pre-Crisis Earths and they've been talking to him. He mentions the Wizard Wells (Earth-13), the French Wells, the New York Wells (who he likes) and Harry Wells of Earth-2.

Thawne poses as Nash as part of a plan to escape. Barry catches him before he can steal Rip Hunters' time bubble. 

Barry nearly looses his temper and vibrates his hand through Nash's chest as Thawne taunts him about how he failed to save his daughter the last time they fought in 522.

Caitlin sends Barry away since they can't trust him to maintain his cool around Thawne and that is draining his powers faster in his current condition.

Cecile brings holy water, garlic, a wooden stake, salt and a Ouija board when Cisco asks for help getting Thawne's mind out of Nash's body.

The alternate universe version of Allegra Garcia whom Nash Wells raised like a daughter was named Maya. Nash began teaching her everything he knew after finding her rooting through his tent looking for food and she found a secret hidden inside the Blood Bloom - an idol he had just stolen from the mouth of something called The Wollip..

The Blood Bloom contains a gem worth three-times more than the crystals on the surface.

Nash's first rule is that the prize is everything. Another one of Nash's rules is you don't give anyone anything for free. He gives Maya his hat as thanks for her finding the gem for him.

Thawne is somehow able to access Nash's memories and traps him inside his worst one, which involves being in a cave where he can see blinding daylight outside. This causes Nash to suffer, which Thawne can draw upon to tap the Negative Speed Force.

A new metahuman with light powers robs Mercury Labs while the Iris and Kamilla clones are trying to steal the Prismatic Refraactor.

Frost goes to fight the robber, who introduces herself as Sunshine.

The Velocity-X samples are kept inside a vault hidden inside a fake pinball machine in the main room of STAR Labs. It is unlocked by pressing your thumb against a hidden fingerprint scanner inside the change slot.

Sunshine has the power to teleport across short distances, can seemingly become invisible and has the ability to melt steel with her bare hands. She also reopens the wound Frost got from the Dr. Light in 610.

Barry's body rejects the Velocity-X outright.

Sunshine's real name is Millie Rawlins. She's a former US Army soldier, who was transferred to covert ops after she developed the metahuman ability to bend sunlight in her immediate vicinity following the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion. Sunshine was her call-sign.

Joe recovered the Prismatic Refractor and refuses to let it out of his sight until ARGUS picks it up. The Iris clone tries to get it stored at STAR Labs but Barry says that he can't stop Sunlight so there's no point in trying to hide it at STAR Labs.

Joe tells the Iris clone twice that she should check on Barry as she keeps asking him about the Prismatic refractor.

The Iris clone tells Barry that maybe The Flash can't fight Sunshine, but maybe Barry Allen can out-think her.

Cecile says she can barely feel Nash through all the shame and guilt after Thawne traps him in his worst memory.

Thawne is able to connect to his Negative Speed Force and nearly escapes his bonds before Cisco puts a pair of meta-dampener cuffs on him and Cecile knocks him unconscious with her Ouija board.

Chief Singh shows up to oversee the transfer of the Prismatic Refractor to ARGUS personally, saying he now agrees with Joe's assessment that there is a mole in the CCPD.

Sunshine is revealed to have been in Joe's office the whole time he and Chief Singh were talking.

Barry sets a trap for Sunshine, luring her into his lab at the CCPD, which has steel shutters that can be locked over the windows and skylight. Once the windows are closed, she has no source of power.

Chief Singh suggests that Sunshine may have been spying on the CCPD all this time and altering the records for Carver instead of there being a mole.

Cecile's mother died in 1995.

Cecile describes the feeling she reads from Nash as being paternal, like how she feels about her daughters, but also being tinged with her feelings for her dead mother. This leads her to conclude that the alternate Allegra was Nash's daughter (or something close) and Thawne is feeding on Nash's feelings of loss regarding her death.

Barry suggests they use the MAD 2.0 to access Nash's mind and help him drive Thawne out, similar to how they used it in conjunction with Cecile's powers to access The Thinker's mind in 423.

Maya died trying to grab a memory cell from a sonic emitter from the highest peak of Corto Maltese on Earth-13. Rather than lose hold of the cell and pull herself up off a ledge, she lost her grip and fell off the mountain while Nash was helpless to do anything but watch.

When Nash admits that Maya's death was his fault, it cuts off the pain that Thawne was feeding on, causing his energy to erupt from Nash's body as a red lightning storm.

Cisco says there's nothing he can do to stop Nash from seeing and hearing the other Wells doppelgangers. He says that he'll be able to draw off their knowledge, however.

Cisco gives Harry back his picture of himself and Maya.

Harry goes off to explore and find some new adventure on Earth-Prime.

Cisco suggests that Nash should try and reach out to Allegra, noting that he never got along with any version of Harrison Wells at first but eventually he became good friends with every incarnation of them he worked with.

Harry Wells appears to Nash and tells him that what Cisco said was what he was trying to tell him.

Barry apologizes to Caitlin for not following her orders.

Barry says that the start for building their Speed Force is in Nora's journal, thinking that Thawne must have taught her how to make her own Speed Force.

The Iris and Kamilla doppelgangers stole the Prismatic Refractor while the CCPD was distracted fighting Sunshine and replaced it with the copy.

Eva McCulloch says her ultimate goal is liberation.


Location

Earth-719, 8 Years Ago.
Earth-13, 1 Year Ago.


Untelevised Adventures

The flashbacks reveal Nash Wells' history with an alternate universe version of Allegra Garcia, who is confirmed to have been his protege and basically his daughter and to have died because she couldn't let go of a prize.

Iris mentions a never-before seen villain called The Ringmaster.


The Bottom Line

A weak script that is salvaged only by the performances of the strongest actors in the show and the fact that most of the extraneous characters from this season aren't included in the story. It is somewhat saddening, however, that the return of the Reverse Flash is more of an annoyance than a major event but that's Season 6 of The Flash in a nutshell - everything is a distraction from the main plot and it's almost impossible to single out the main plot.