FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 6×12- “A Girl Named Sue”

The Flash (6×12)- “A Girl Named Sue”

Written by:         Thomas Pound & Lauren Certo

Directed by:       Chris Peppe

Much like last week, we pick up pretty much where we left off, with Barry and… (Let’s call her) Not-Iris enjoying married life and Iris stuck in the mirror version of Eva McCulloch’s office so what better time to bring back America’s favorite brutal torture GAME? That’s right, Jay!

It’s Good News/Bad News!

Bad News, Iris! You’re still stuck in the mirror.  However…

Good News! You’re not alone! Some lady is in there with you.

Bad news! She looks and acts like she might be crazy but…

Good news! She’s genius scientist, Eva McCulloch! Spin the wheel again!

 Bad News! They’re in a completely empty version of Central City contained in a fractal dimension and Eva says they can’t get out. Now for the bonus round!

Worse news!  She’s had six years to figure this out cause she was knocked through the mirror the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion!  God this is the worst game!

Iris and Eva try the same method of mirror freezing they used to bust Barry out of the mirror he got stuck in when the first Mirror Master came to town but all that does is shatter the mirror.  But hope is not completely lost because when Eva finally has a full-blown freak out one of the shards responds to her and she and Iris realize Eva is connected to the mirror.  She uses her new found power to put the mirror back together and hopefully get them closer to getting out of the mirror dimension.

Let’s take a break from this happy tale to jump visit an old friend… That’s right, Jay!

It’s Ralph and he’s still trying to track down Sue Dearbon after two hundred and seventy-four days.  Good news, Ralph with an episode title like this and a bunch of in focus pictures of Sue I think you’ll find her!

Back at Barry and Iris’ apartment, Not-Iris is looking up the schematics of the Mirror Gun and the Star Labs Archives (I refuse to call it the Starchives, that’s sounds like something this jackass would come up with:)

And she wants Barry to get it for her.  Barry’s a little unsure, probably because every time they pull something that out of storage some villain gets a hold of it and makes life miserable for the team.  But since this is Not-Iris and- well, not Iris, she gets annoyed at Barry about it.

So Ralph has used some tracking methods that several states would consider illegal without a warrant and tracked Sue down to a rattrap apartment complex somewhere in Central City.  When he arrives he nearly gets blown up along with, you guessed it! Sue Dearbon.

They go back to Ralph’s office for some exposition.  Sue got wrapped with a guy named John Loring.  Loring turned out to be an arms dealer and she stumbled onto his business and she’s been on the run ever since.  Which means she won’t let Ralph tell her parents or take her to the cops because she’s afraid people will die so they’re left with only one option: Find the key to toppling Loring’s black market enterprise or die trying…

They have a pretty by-the-numbers detective story adventure with a generous helping of fast-talking-Whedon Speak.  That eventually leads them to a bank vault where, shock of shocks, Sue double-crosses Ralph!  She’s not really trying to topple Loring but steal a diamond the size of a baby’s fist and that’s when things get a little crazy.

Ultraviolet shows up and tries to take the diamond from Sue but she turns out to be a super-thief in a little black number from the Selina Kyle spring collection.  The two have a bit of a martial arts face off before they escape and only then does Barry show up with the cops to arrest Loring and his crew.

Looping back around, let’s talk about what Barry and Joe have been doing this week.  Barry checks in at the Police Station and Joe pulls him aside to take a second look at an old house fire case.  Barry’s confused since it was ruled an accidental fire in the file but Joe’s being a bit paranoid about it and since Joe’s not one for paranoia Barry agrees.

Later, Barry comes to Joe’s office with his finding.  The house fire was not an accident, it was started by high-intensity UV rays.  Which screams Black Hole considering they have not one but two assassins that use UV-related powers.  Joe explains that everything keeps pointing to Joseph Carver which means there is a mole in the station and the only people they can trust is each other.

With this information in hand, Barry gives Not-Iris the mirror gun. Judging by the smirk she can’t hide as she walks away it’s a safe bet Barry’s going to regret that.

Kind of a mixed bag this week.  There was stuff I liked, like whatever is going on with Nash and the specter of Harry he keeps seeing which is still vague enough to hint at several things.  Then there was the further adventures of Not-Iris and whatever she’s planning, I mostly like that she’s clearly enough of Iris to be pointing at problems in the team dynamic and Barry and Iris’ marriage to make it clear that when the real Iris returns they won’t have wasted all these character moments.

 I also liked the growing conspiracy surrounding Black Hole and Joseph Carver as it’s a good through line that is making the threat of this secret organization hopefully big enough to justify it being the big villain of the final half of the season.

However, there was something I did care for.  Scratch that, it was some-one.  Sue Dearbon.  I did not care for her and Ralph part of the episode at all and most of it could be boiled down to her re-imagining character feeling cliché at this point. 

In the comics, Sue Dibny was just an ordinary person with a superhero husband and a knack for solving mysteries.  You liked her and Ralph together and they had fun adventures.  The CW has re-imagined her as half-Catwoman/half-Joss Whedon character and I really do not believe it was necessary.  It is pretty much the fatal flaw of the genre on television.  Everyone gets a power, even characters that were more interesting and could be more interesting now as ordinary people that just so happen to work with the cape-and-cowls crowd.  Of course, I could end up liking her after a few episode. It has happened before but this version of Sue Dearbon starts off in a hole that she did not have to be in.

Still, mixed bag or not, this was a pretty good episode that moved some plot along so I will not complain too much.

Things We Learned:

1. Iris is trapped in a pocket dimension with Eva McCulloch.  Eva has some sort of connection with and (possibly) control over the dimension.
2. Ralph has found Sue Dearbon, however she is a thief that is somehow connected to Black Hole and Joseph Carver.
3. Barry and Joe believe that there is a mole in the CCPD that is also connected to Black Hole and Joseph Carver.
4. Nash is hiding something and the specter of Harry he is seeing knows something about it.

Questions:

1. What is Not-Iris’ plan and why does she need the Mirror Gun?
2. What is Sue Dearbon’s plan?
3. Why does Nash keep seeing Harry?
4. How big is the Black Hole conspiracy? (For Example: Is it possible Captain Singh was involved in Black Hole?)