The Flash Season 4 Review – Elongated Journey Into Night

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Ahh, another week and another Flash episodes. Pay attention or you’ll miss the spoiler warning. So our episode begins as Cisco and Gypsy are getting intimate. Well sort of? He realizes he doesn’t know her first name. However she’s not too keen on sharing that. Before things get not safe for work an assailant vibes into his bedroom. Turns out the breacher(also code name) is Gypsy’s dad. He’s also trying to kill Cisco. Sure why not? Protective dad much?

At CCPD the mayor is rubbing elbows for his campaign and makes Joe have a rare awkward moment. While Barry and Joe try to address the missing meta human problem, Barry notices “Joe is glowing”. This become an ongoing joke where we all know he’s going to have another kid. He of course is annoyed and can’t quite speak on the matter. Back at Star Labs, everyone meets Breacher and all the sunshine he exudes. Cisco begrudgingly moves to have a heart to heart with Gypy’s dad over coffee. Strange how this insight comes from Harry. Then again maybe not considering he also a highly over protective father?

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Evidence of the bus affected by dark matter leads some weird clues. The bus driver died for example but more interesting is that evidence leads them to an old acquaintance. Well acquaintance would be a stretch (hah). Any who Barry and Joe arrive to the office of made his debut as Ralph Dibny (Harley Sawyer ) aka Plastic Man. So here  The Flash takes an interesting turn with his origin. Dibny and Barry have bad blood. He was a former cop now private investigator. He’s also something of a sleazy character. In the few minutes he’s introduced, he commands a certain scene presence much like our hero. He’s charisma is parts old school detective and special kind of jerk whom has no filter.

Anyway, the private eye informs our duo he had no contact with the bus. As they take their leave some shady characters confront Dibny. What’s classic is that he answers his door knock with “what’s your price”. A mark of a man that lives from compensation. Next we see the thugs are about to drop him from the top of the building. However he starts stretching until he reaches the street to a surprised Mr. Allen and best TV dad.

At Star Labs, the team confirms that he was granted the ability to elongate himself. In a funny sequence of everyone freaking out, it’s a mess. He can’t really keep himself together, literally. A random has his face all distorted and Detective West losses his lunch as a response. It’s great, I don’t remember the team ever dealing with gross encounters.

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Now at everyone’s favorite coffee shop Cisco, Gypsy and daddy dearest are trying to have a fun time. Now the key word is trying. Every attempt Cisco makes seems to just be a bad one, left and right. Notice how everyone on the Flash loves coffee right? Yeah, not Breacher. Coffee reminds him of when his planet was attacked…feels bad man. So he then warns Mr. Ramon that he will hunt him. Like he did her last boyfriend. As he explains the next 24 hours and their rules, he beings to count down the beginning of the hunt. In cartoon like fashion Cisco actually scurries off.

Cisco sneaks his way into the lab and bumps into Harry. Again Harry serves as a mentor on life. Why run when you can trap the guy with your intellect. Cisco is a mechanical engineering genius, surely he can stand up to a multiverse hunter. While running for his life, the team discusses the elongated man. Barry is set on locking him into the pipe line. Everyone is a little taking a back. He even proceeds to name the group of unknown meta human simply villains. Which Iris is surprised at herself. Barry does logically explain everyone has been using their powers to harm others. However he’s not giving the private eye any benefit of the doubt. Caitlin injects and defends the innocent man. For sure and Barry were in his shoes before. The tension between the two runs pretty deep. So to help Dibny out, they need DNA samples, so everyone heads out on a treasure hunt of sorts.

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Back at his office, they find that he’s been in contact with the mayor. Quite often actually, that’s not suspicious at all. Well searching for a DNA sample we learn of  Dibny’s and Allen history. So as a rookie Barry learned that Ralph had committed perjury. He did so to get a criminal locked up for killing his wife. Barry however lived by the rules. This was still against the law. So our starry eyed hero got him kicked off the force. Again, we have to ask Plastic Man all that bad? Iris and Barry trip a bomb and get nearly killed. Seeing as he has no problem being a lair, he denies an involvement with the mayor…in comedic fashion.

Elsewhere Cisco traps Breacher in a force field. Not just any force field the same one he used on Reverse Flash.  Now what makes Breacher so threatening is that he lives to hunt. Sure enough, he has a blade able to cut through force fields. Sure why not? Mr. Ramon’s probably dead. Back at CCPD the mayor has a chat with our favorite police officers. Like any good politician, he has dirt on him. So it’s just simple blackmail pure and simple. Well it would be simple but our mayor isn’t squeaky clean either. Those thugs earlier in the episode are working for him. He also gives them the OK to whack Joe and Barry. Not exactly, an innocent man here.

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Caitlin helps our private eye get himself back together, literally. Barry decides of course to call him out of his actions. Now Blackmail is pretty bad as bad comes. “Good people don’t destroy other people’s lives” is the running thought her. Dibny’s actions in the past was to stop a criminal lawfully or not. Regardless, he tried to do good and he lost his life for it. He lost it again, with Barry making him a metahuman by accident. Cisco is still on the run by the way.

Back at the loft, our hero mulls over his actions past and present. Although he did the right thing, he had no choice but to  turn in a crooked cop. Yet the matters of following the law hasn’t been in the Flash’s resume. Throwing people into the pipeline and being a vigilante isn’t legal. The question of whether or not he ruined a man’s life plagues his mind. While in deep though 2 semi familiar cops visit the guys. That’s never happened before. The would be assailants turned to shoot them but failed. Now the mayor being dirty is pretty obvious.

Across the city, Dibny meets up with the crooked mayor. However the blackmail doesn’t go the way everyone thought. Dibny changes his mind and reminds himself he’s a good cop and not dirty. The mayor thinks it’s some poor judgement and shoot him. However it’s hard to kill a man that’s made of plastic.

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Elsewhere, Breacher notice the elongated man and mistakes him for an evil alien race. Barry comes to the rescue with Joe. However our would be heroes get blindsided by Breacher, whom is on  a rampage. The mayor escapes with a hostage, detective Joe West via helicopter. Vibe comes in to risk his life against Breacher and stop his madness. With that done, the scarlet speedster pleads with Plastic Man to get stretchy assistance. Fulled with new found heroism he leads Barry to save Joe’s life. Joe take the opportunity to then tell Barry Cecil is pregnant

Team Flash celebrates the announcement and is happy for him. Cisco finally gets Breachers respect. His act to save the guys selfishly earned major points. In the end, turns out Cynthia is Gypsy’s real name, go figure. Towards the very end, Barry and Plastic Man have a serious discussion. He offers the private eye an opportunity to be a hero. He of course warns him that the future training will not be good. Thus they shake on the proposition.

This episdoe was really enjoyable because both Dibny and Barry made it interesting. The episode felt like a good detective and very oldschool campy. One of the best episode of the season so far.

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Jeffrey Rousseau

Haitian. Writer, fan of arts/media. Health/fitness nut. Fashionista, speedster, jjba fan, music addict. Product of Miami, FL.

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