The Flash stretches out and has (even more) fun as another DC superhero enters the fold…
In ‘Elongated Journey into the Night’, The Flash hit perhaps its best episode so far this season. With one entertaining guest spot and a major new character introduced, there was lots for fans to enjoy.
The big thing to talk about is the arrival of Ralph Dibny. One of The Flash’s major allies in the comics, it’s surprising that it took him four years to enter the Arrowverse (though he did get a namecheck as someone who was affected by the particle accelerator explosion back in season one – let’s chalk up that discrepancy to Flashpoint!).
So what do we make of the yet-to-be Elongated Man? Well, I have to say I found him to be completely obnoxious – but obviously that is exactly the point at this stage, so Hartley Sawyer deserves a congratulations for his spot-on performance. He’s got great comic timing and he should go someway to filling the role of Barry’s rival that has been going vacant since Julian left. The only thing is that it’s a bit odd that, following all the work done over the past few episodes to thin out the herd, a new Team Flash member has been immediately introduced.
We also got a return for judgmental, douchey Barry – who we got to know so well in season three – as he took an instant dislike to Ralph due to his previous dodgy policing tactics. This led to some interesting discussion about if what Team Flash do – holding criminals without a trial in tiny cells, for one – is any better than tampering with evidence. This is something us fans have been talking about for years so it’s nice that this has finally been addressed in the show.
On the B-story side of things, Machete himself Danny Trejo arrives on Earth-1 to give Cisco a hard time for dating his daughter Gyspy (or should I say Cynthia?). Breacher (or is it… Josh?) is a walking stereotype of an overprotective dad taken to the extreme but Trejo’s deadpan delivery and tough guy attitude really help to make this plot a lot of fun.
All in all, ‘Elongated Journey into the Night’ continued the light-hearted antics of earlier episodes but actually felt like it was moving things forward as well. Apart from Elongated Man, we also got a namecheck for DeVoe AKA The Thinker. What’s the super-brainy supervillain really up to? I smell a mystery. *nose twitch*
Speed Thoughts:
- The Flash‘s Elongated Man actually has the sleazy jerk personality of Plastic Man, another stretchy DC hero. This is probably why that character gets a namecheck towards the end of the episode.
- Anyone notice the machete Cisco picks up when looking for weapons to fight Breacher with?
- It’s a bit of a shame that Mayor Bellows turned out to be crooked. This is an alternate version of Tony Bellows from the 1990 The Flash series, who was a bumbling but good-natured cop.
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