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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 4×04 “Elongated Journey into Night”

The Flash (4×04) – “Elongated
Journey into Night”
Written by:         Sterling Gates & Thomas Pound
Directed by:       Tom
Cavanagh
Yes, yes I
know.  I told you I was going to be in
Kentucky and this would be late.  Can we
just get on with the review? Is that okay?
Okay, we
open on Gypsy and Cisco making out and quickly get to two of the running gags
in this episode.  One, after all this
Cisco doesn’t know Gypsy’s name and two: Gypsy’s father is overprotective and
has powers!  OH MY GOD this is just like
that episode of Three’s Company!
Moving on to
a press conference with the Mayor, after an awkward Joe moment where he seems a
little jumpy at the mention of babies (Pregnant girlfriend will do that, I
reckon.) Barry and Joe head up to the lab and try to work on the “Mystery of
the Bus Ride of Doom” (It’s a working title and I’m not married to it.) and we
see that Barry has replaced his mother’s murder clue board with their growing
evidence collection for this seasons mystery, a nice touch it efficiently shows
Barry’s achieved closure and is a sign of character growth.
It seems
that over nine hundred people rode that bus that days and the bus driver has
been drown in his bathtub since the incident so they won’t have his help.  Which points either to the Thinker taking
someone helpful off the board or severe narcolepsy.  Probably the former but narcolepsy is no
laughing matter.  Best take this
investigation to the lab so they can get the team looking into it AND meet
Gypsy’s dad.  His name is Breacher, he’s
Gypsy boss in addition to being her dad and he’s a hoot, what with the being
played by Danny Trejo in a role that probably had a lot of “Look angry and
growl” direction in the script.
Turns out
Cisco is lying about his place on his team to impress Breacher… Just like that
episode of Who’s the Boss where Tony
tried to impress Angela’s boss by pretending to be a cab driver working for
Danny DeVito!  The shenanigans continue
when Cisco gets dating advice from Harry, just the episode of Facts of Life where Mrs. Garrett gave Tootie
advice about interdimensional travel and dating.
Back on 21st
Century television, Iris and Caitlin have found information on our dead bus driver,
including access to his personal effects. 
Which contained an IOU from Ralph Dibny and Barry doesn’t like him.
Ralph was a
dirty cop and now he’s a private investigator, and since he’s not in Hawaii
driving a Ferrari, he’s a scumbag that his on his clients.  Turns out Ralph thinks about as much about
Barry as Barry thinks about him and it doesn’t go well.  But better than Ralph’s next visit which is
two thugs hanging him off the roof by his ankles.  But hey, good news!  Ralph was on the bus ‘cause he’s a regular
Mr. Fantastic!
Over at
Jitters; Cisco’s attempt at winning Breacher over is not going well… He’s come
to hunt Cisco and presumably kill him, no powers.  I’d name another 80s sitcom but you get the
point I’m making so until intersect with the main plots, this is the last you
hear of this stuff.
At STAR Labs
the rest of the team is trying to figure out how to help Ralph but Barry’s a
bit uncooperative… and by a bit I mean to say that his idea of helping Ralph is
locking him up in the Pipeline and throwing away the key.  Settle down Barry, you’re a hero like DC’s
Captain Marvel. 
Not a
fascist dictator like Marvel’s Captain Marvel.
The rest of
the team agrees that helping Ralph is better than imprisoning him so Barry and
Iris head over to Ralph’s office to find Caitlin some DNA from before the Bus
Ride from Hell.  Once they get to Ralph’s
office Iris convinces Barry to tell her what happened.  Turns out one of Barry’s first cases involved
Ralph as the investigating officer and Barry found out he has falsified
evidence and got Ralph thrown off the Force. 
After nearly being blown up, the pair head back to the Lab with Ralph’s
hairbrush in the hopes that he hasn’t cleaned his brush in at least three weeks…
Gross.
Caitlin and
Barry fight over Barry’s sudden and shocking lack of empathy towards a guy that’s
just had powers thrust upon him but more pressing is that after running Ralph’s
record’s it turns out he’s been talking to the mayor a lot recently. But since
Ralph isn’t Talking, Barry and Joe will have to keep investigating.  Later, Caitlin’s got a fix for Ralph’s
stretching problem and while it’s not a cure it will help him return to a
default shape and take more control of his powers.
At the
police station, Joe and Barry talk to the Mayor in confidence and learn that
Ralph had stumbled across his extra-marital affair and is blackmailing the
mayor.  Which means it’s time for some
Good News/Bad News!  Good News! Joe and
Barry going to talk Ralph out of the Blackmail. 
Bad News!  The Mayor hired the
Thugs and doesn’t care who they have to kill to get him!  Amazing, even at one to one it’s a loss.  First rule of Good News/Bad News; Tie goes to
the runner.
Barry and
Joe confront Ralph and we learn more about this case that’s such a wedge
between them.  Ralph planted the evidence
because the guy that killed his wife didn’t leave enough evidence for a
conviction so Ralph planted the evidence to get the conviction.  After the two argue, Barry throws a punch and
Ralph storms off.
Later Joe
and Barry talk at Barry’s place and he explains that because they’ve played
with the rules so much since he became the Flash he’s feeling guilty because it’s
not all that different to what Ralph did. 
But the two are interrupted by an assassination attempt from the Mayor’s
goons.
Meanwhile,
Ralph’s gone to City Hall to give up his blackmail of the mayor.  And it would have all been taken care of had
Breacher not shown up to kill Ralph because he believes him to be a
Plastoid.  So the Mayor escapes while
kidnapping Joe.  Since Barry’s shaken up
by Breacher and Cisco’s powers would destroy the helicopter he’s escaping in it’s
up to Ralph to save Joe.  The day is
saved so this seems like a good time for Joe to reveal to Barry that Cecile is
pregnant and for Breacher to reveal that Gypsy’s name is Cynthia.
And since we’re
in the revealing stuff it seems that Caitlin’s friends are hoping to see her
again.
In the post
episode scene, Barry offers to train Ralph how to use his powers to help
people.  He’ll just need a name.  Barry also learns that the reason Ralph
blackmailed the mayor was he was tipped off by a man named DeVoe… Dun, Dun,
Duh!
The
silliness continues… But to be honest, as we settle into the season, I’m
starting to get used to it.  Like jumping
into a cold pool, it’s jarring at first but refreshing after a bit.  Again, the Cisco/Gypsy stuff is silly and
basic but the rest of the episode was solid and had some character growth for
Barry, especially the inherent hypocrisy of being a by-the-book cop and a
costumed vigilante.
Hartley
Sawyer looks like the kind of actor that would be tapped to play Ace Ventura in
a direct-to-video sequel so I kept finding myself thinking of Jim Carrey but
that went away after a while.  Also, it
seems one more connection to the old series has been set aside with the writing
off of Mayor Bellows which is probably for the best.
All things
said and done, this episode was fine and that’s about it.
Three Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Barry has made peace with his mother’s murder.
2)     
The Plastoids ravaged Gypsy and Breacher’s
Earth.
3)     
Barry now knows that he’s up against a man named
DeVoe.
Three
Unanswered Questions:
1)      Is
there any avenue for them to find the remaining people on the bus or has DeVoe
taken care of those too?
2)      What
exactly did the Plastoids do to Breacher’s earth?
3)      Will
Ralph find a code name quickly or will the search be Elongated… Man?

Just another guy on the internet.