The Flash Recap: A Pain in the Glass — Plus, Sue Dearbon Makes an Entrance
This week on The Flash, Iris learned a bit more about the strange world inside of which she is trapped, while Ralph learned to be careful about what he wished for, in finding Sue Dearbon.
Pounding on the other side of the loft mirror, struggling to get Barry’s attention, Iris was startled to be found by Eva McCulloch — and vice versa! Eva assured Iris that she was not dead, but trapped, as she herself has been for six long years, ever since the particle accelerator explosion blasted her into her office mirror. Eva, a scientist, explains that she and Iris are inside a “fractal dimension” that humans can’t see, a mirror world where everything is backwards (except hair parts, I guess). Eva is overjoyed to finally have someone to talk to, but Iris is more interested in freeing them from this realm. Eva is skeptical, having tried 1,322 times already to escape, but Iris offers an idea co-opted from the Sam Scudder days, to transform the mirror’s state via liquid nitrogen. Eva has some handy, but alas all that does is shatter the mirror into hundreds of shards.
Eva launches into a rant, about how foolish she was to think this time would be different — and how glad she is to not have that cockadoodie mirror to look into any more. But as she gets heated, one of the shards floats into her palm. Recognizing that Eva has a power of some sort, Iris nudges her new gal pal to command the shards to reassemble — and they do, allowing Iris to peek in on Barry, who seems to sense he is… being watched? “I’m still with you,” Iris assures her husband.
Elsewhere….
SUE-PRISE, SUE-PRISE!
Some 274 days since he was first hired to find Sue Dearbon, Ralph gets pinged when the missing lass lays down a deposit on an apartment in Central City. Arriving at her door, Ralph is nearly killed when the flat explodes — ‘cept Sue saves him. Back at Ralph’s office, Sue claims that she fell in love with John Loring, whom she discovered was a ruthless arms dealer, and now he wants her dead, because she knows things. Sue is on the hunt for damning evidence against her ex, in the form of a ledger. Ralph and Sue case the building where Loring’s office is, then sneak in to find only a safe deposit box key. Approached by guards, Ralph reveals his meta power to streeeeetch them to safety down below. Afterward, Sue suggests that they act now with the key, by breaking into the bank. Ralph expresses his reservations, yet is coaxed into helping, as long as Sue promises to deliver the ledger to his pals at the CCPD after. Alas, after sneaking into the vault (posing as Joe and a bank guard) and opening the box, Sue pulls out not a ledger but a big ol’ diamond, before KO-ing Ralph. In short, everything she told him was a lie, and if he keeps her secret from her parents — that she is a thief — she will keep mum about Elongated Man. After locking Ralph inside the vault, Sue finds Loring and his armed goons waiting for her in the bank lobby. Before they can riddle her with bullets, Ralph snakes in through the sprinkler system pipes and stretches his fist into a giant protective shield. Once the bullets stop flying, Ralph opens his hand to reveal 1) Sue has changed into one wowzers of an Emma Peel-like catsuit, and 2) the goons are all knocked out — by Ultraviolet! Sue and UV trade words and then exchange blows, but Sue manages to slip away with the gem UV seeks. In the “bonus” scene, we see Sue put the gem under a microscope and regard the Black Hole symbol etched on it, with photos/news clippings about John Carver nearby. “Game on…,” she says.
GIMME THE GUN
Barry is still (and quite conspicuously) sore from the run-in with Amunet and Goldface (is his strength/healing compromised by not having his true “lightning rod” around?), and Iris is busy investigating Black Hole. To that end, Iris asks to see the Mirror Gun stolen from McCulloch and now kept in the Starchives. Barry, however, balks, saying that if Black Hole got their hands on so powerful a weapon, who knows what would happen. Iris instead sneaks into the Starchives and has just found the gun when she bumps into Nash. She lies about misplacing Nora’s journal, while Nash (with the “specter” or whatever of Harrison Wells looking on/taunting him) lies about doing inventory. When Iris departs, gun-less, we see that Nash was retrieving Harrison Wells’ diary. At home later, Barry delivers the gun to Iris, saying that after learning from Joe that Carver and Black Hole have been having lotsa dirty doings covered up for years, it’s important that she have every resource possible to take them down faster. “I don’t trust the world, but I do trust you — with everything,” he says.
What did you think of the episode “A Girl Named Sue”?
I immediately and wholeheartedly disliked Sue… I pray to all the Holies that she’s only around a lil bit… She feels like wish-fufillment for some folks Still not sure what Siri is up to…. I felt for Eva… But after 6 years why is she wearing a silk blouse and pants and heels?… Are there no clothes in this mirror world
And what’s she been eating for six years? If there’s no people then where does the food come from?
Where did the buildings come from? The furniture? McCulloch’s lab? The same place all of the material goods come from–reflections of items in this dimension. Find a place with a reflective surface that has food.
If that were true wouldn’t there be reflections of other people too.
fun episode!
What was up with all the camera closeups and smirks with Smug Dearborn?? Also her eyes getting all buggy.. And dear show I don’t care if Smug Dearborn is also trying to fight Blackhole… We don’t need or want her… Or.. If you really wanna put Sue and Ralph out there.. Give em their own show so I don’t have to watch it
Somebody’s mad
sue is just starting out, she needs time to grow as a character. I hope Eva become one of the good guys, imagine her and Sam Scudder aka the first mirror master facing off against each other.
Yeah.. I really was surprised by how visceral my reaction was.. All I know of sue is that her and ralph are a pretty canonical couple in the DC universe… But she was so smarmy and cutesy.. I kept wondering what man baby who wrote this thinks her behavior is endearing? She screws ralph and before leaving him with a very dangerous meta assassin whom she apparently knows she has time to show off the diamond and smile… I guess if I thought the show planned to make her a villain.. But with the ending and her place in the canon.. Its more likely she’ll be on the heroes side
I’m not sure what’s happening but I’m really losing interest in this show. Used to be one of my favs but I’m just finding these last few episodes really bad.
Iris ruins everything. It’s too much Iris. Worst character in the verse formerly known as the Arrowverse.
Can’t totally disagree. I like Iris as a secondary character but whenever they focus on her, the show seem to lose some of it’s zip. No offence to CP but the writers just don’t seem to know how to make her character work as a center point.
Too much Iris? You people are a bunch of complainers. She didn’t have a big story in the first half of the season, and now Eric Wallace wants to her giver her a proper journalism arc. God forbid she finally get her due. She had two centric episodes to set up this Mirror plot, but tonight’s episode was Ralph-centric. We’re getting to see the entire Mirror world through Iris’s eyes, and they’re not using her as a reactionary character, for a change, but are allowing her to be proactive in the main Black Hole plot, which clearly is also going to have ramifications for Barry, given that his powers are going haywire. If you know anything about the Black Hole story-line in the comics, you’d know that it’s a big Barry AND Iris story-line, and that Black Hole siphons the speedforce for their nefarious deeds.
Plus, Candice is doing amazingly in the double role, thus far, playing Faux Iris just a hair off of our Iris, so that we can clearly see something is not right. We’re also seeing so little of S.T.A.R. Labs, and the show is actually capitalizing on Barry’s CSI work. Barry and Joe working together was great. And unlike in the past, all three plots this episode connected seamlessly into the overarching Black Hole plot. You don’t have to like it, subjectively, but it’s a load of nonsense to try and say Iris ruins everything, when objectively the material that they’re giving her is the most interesting stuff they’ve ever given her character. And trust me when I say they couldn’t give this material to any other characater of actress other than Barry/Grant.
I love your rant Marie. You speak nothing but the truth.
That being said, i don’t give a damn about Iris haters . Their hatred is very much racially motivated. Their arguments/reasoning never make sense, there’s no use to talk to them. They are just being dishonest .
As an Iris West/Candice Patton fan, i’m just glad she’s finally getting her due (reporter storylines). i don’t waste my time arguing with bigot, I’ve better fish to fry quite honestly.
I adore Candice and Iris West-Allen. I was much more intrigued and interested in her plot than the other storylines. I still enjoy The Flash but it has kinda lost it’s thrall this year. All the storylines seem to be all over the place, I’m sure everything will come together at the end, but right now it’s pretty messy.
GO MARIE!!!
Thank you Marie, I love Iris and am a fan. Candice Patton is a great actress and her and Grant are fab together. Get over hating Iris she is here until the show ends. Excited about what is happening just want Iris back with Barry, he knows something is wrong. He will need her soon something is going on with him, but let’s finish one story before we go to another. Can’t wait to see Wally too.
Wrstgirl, I have to agree. I hate the new direction of the series and it has been on a decline since the producers decided that “Iris” should lead team Flash. It just feels that this series has slowly degenerated into a woke TV show. I know how much everyone hates that word but I enjoyed the first season the best, although I had an extreme hate over the whole “monster/villain” of the week. The series has become way too preachy and it feels like the producers are trying to drop the budget by focusing on the other characters into of “The Flash”. This season has been the worst and I also felt like the Crisis on Infinite Earths was neutered in comparison to its original source material.
Sue Dearborn was completely adorable before the vinyl suit. After that…more.
Was a good start for Sue. She has an arc similar to Ralph’s arc when he started. She has room to grow . This was the third episode in a row that was light on Barry. Hope he is featured soon. I noticed that Barry only kisses fake Iris on the cheek and never on the lips. If Barry is unaware that this is not his wife, why the lack of affection ?
Anyone miss the “My Name is Barry Allen ….” intro? Is that another Crisis change? I don’t think it has been used since the show came back from Winter break.
I don’t understand why Flash has become a side character on his own show. For the past couple of episodes we have only seen him in like two or three scenes. Was Grant occupied with something else when these were filmed?
I liked the introduction of Sue, though, she was really fun. The fake Irish story line is interesting but they need to drop some hints to what her endgame is. I have a feeling that she is, either a evil reflection of Eva, roaming the real world without her knowledge, or Eva is playing Irish, by taking over her life on the outside, to get revenge on her husband.
All the Arrowverse shows have to do a few “star lite” episodes that can be filmed while they are working on the crossover not to mention less Flash saves on the budget that was pushed to that event.
I miss the pre-crisis show, in fact i miss it for ALL DC series. Ever since then the shows have just been a jumbled mess. I just wish Crisis didn’t happen or they go back and change it.
Same thing happened in the comics.
I missed Caitlin and Frost…well mostly I miss Caitlin, she’s had no character development since her dad reappeared!
Overall this ep was boring. No Star Labs, no Cisco, no Caitlin and very little Wells.
The Joe/Barry stuff felt out of place and random.
The only thing I really enjoyed was Ralph and Sue…although she felt very ‘Series of Unfortunate Events. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
It sure seems the producers and writers of Flash have lost their ways, especially since the weak Crisis mess. Who do they think is even interested in following all these too clever for their own good paths the show (and other Arrowverse shows) are stumbling along. Frankly, I’m just about beyond caring, or watching any longer.
Someone needs to remind the writers that the name of the show is The Flash, not The Iris or the Elongated Man. This is the second week in a row that Barry was barely seen.
It seems to me that they had to give Cisco the week off and mostly Barry… Shows with large casts in this day and age often give characters weeks off from a major story line in an episode..
Sue was a piece of work… definitely a Digby kind of woman.
I like the idea of Cecile as Digby’s “Watson”.
Wife or not (literally), Barry had no business given that mirror gun to Iris. Joe suggesting it was out of character.
I didn’t enjoy this episode as much as the previous two, but I still thought it was a lot of fun, and what I particularly like about this episode is how well-connected all the story-lines were. They all came back to the central Black Hole/Joseph Carver story, so props for that. Plus Sue is a firebrand, and I love her already, and I’m really intrigued by how Iris is going to be affected the longer she stays in the mirror. I’m curious if it will really test her sanity in the upcoming episodes.