FLASH! AAAHHHH-AAAHHHH! Savior of the Universe!
Here we are folx. The Flash. Season six and we’re going “Into the Void”…literally. Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) barely have time to mourn Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) when a power surge in the time vault destroys Nora’s flash drive with her goodbye message.
RELATED: Recap THE FLASH Season 5 Here!
4 MONTHS LATER
Cisco (Carlos Valdes) is trying to live a normal life now that he has no meta powers, but he still works for Team Flash. And the Flash has been really busy catching bad guys. As a matter of fact, he’s caught so many that the CCPD cannot keep up with him.
Bad guys like Godspeed, but not Godspeed. More like a Godspeed decoy. The Flash has caught four of these decoys, but no one knows who is sending them to the past. The decoys have no language skills so they’re not talking.
Cisco is also working on a new device called a MAC – Mental Augmentation Chamber. The idea is for the chamber to tap into the speed force to help the Flash speed think. That way he can see different scenarios of a situation and catch the bad guys faster.
Team Flash, minus Ralph (Hartley Sawyer), is enjoying some family time at a cookout. Ralph is off on a missing person’s case. To be honest, no one really knows where he is or what he’s doing. Barry brings up the MAC, but Cisco just wants another beer. Barry gets him a tablet instead so he can work on the mainframe.
Joe (Jesse L. Martin) checks in with Barry and Iris. It’s been four months and the only thing keeping them going is knowing they will see Nora again some day when she’s born. Barry gets an alert and rushes off to catch more bad guys. Iris asks Joe about some boxes in the garage, but he cleaned everything out. She leaves to make a call. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) has to leave as well to support a friend. I guess the cookout is over.
THE BLACK HOLE
Caitlin attends a funeral for a friend’s mother. Dr Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is a friend from college. When Caitlin gets a chance to give her condolences, Frostie makes a quick appearance. Caitlin isn’t sure what’s going on so she says she’s not feeling well so she can leave. Ramsey invites her for coffee to catch up.
Iris tracks down the boxes to a junkyard. The yard manager helps her find what she’s looking for. A box with her purple jacket inside. She looks at the jacket and then puts it back in the box. The ground starts shaking and a portal opens up in front of her and the yard manager. She has to grab the manager so he’s not swallowed up by the portal, but the box flies in. She lost the jacket.
The next morning, after Iris stayed at the junkyard all night, Barry and Cisco arrive to investigate. Iris lies and says she was following a story about junkyard robberies. Cisco says the place is littered with gamma races and magnetar fields. He says Iris was attacked by “a frackin’ black hole.”
MAN OF MYSTERY
In addition to catching a lot of bad guys, Barry is overly optimistic about Team Flash. So much that a black hole doesn’t really concern him. Caitlin and Cisco (There’s gotta be an acronym for those too…C squared…CC Music Factory..I don’t know) are very concerned. They talk about all the data they can pull from the black hole when Ralph appears…in a tuxedo! Whoa!
Ralph has actually been in Opal City on a missing person’s case. The parents of Sue Dearbon hired him to find their daughter. He’s been following leads, but hasn’t found her yet. Ralph says it’s a real tragedy.
The team tells Ralph about the black hole and he’s not surprised. Caitlin starts to decode a data stream when Frostie strikes again! This time freezing the keyboard. Caitlin says she’s been having random ‘frost-outs’ all summer. Ralph thinks she’s overworked and needs a break. Caitlin mentions Ramsey’s invitation and leaves to get coffee with her friend.
Joe and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) help Iris find case files on theft reports from the city junkyards. Iris sees a picture of Nora on Joe’s desk and gets sad. Joe gives her all of the files saying it will give her a list of persons of interest. Cecile can sense her sadness, but Iris says she’s just shaken up by the black hole. She leaves and Joe realizes that she saw Nora’s picture.
JITTERY FEELING
Caitlin and Ramsey meet at Jitters and talk about his mom. Caitlin has a lot of praise for her, but Ramsey admits that he thought his mom was a coward. She had cancer and instead of fighting she checked off a bucket list. He won’t run away like she did. Ramsey shows Caitlin his cancer research. It’s a simulation of cancer cells. When injected with a bonding agent, the blood cells are able to fight back against the cancer. Caitlin calls it groundbreaking until she finds out the bonding agent is dark matter.
Ramsey only wanted to talk to Caitlin to ask her for the STAR Labs supply of dark matter. She denies his request saying the dark matter could turn people into meta humans against their will. Ramsey gets a little upset, reminding her that she used dark matter to create the meta cure. Caitlin says that was different because they were protecting people. Ramsey leaves, saying no one has to live with HLH if she would help him stop it.
After Ramsey leaves, the black hole opens up at the doorway of Jitters. It’s bigger than the first time and almost pulls Caitlin in. She calls for Killer Frost, but Frost won’t emerge. Luckily the Flash arrives just in time to pull Caitlin out of the suction from the black hole.
CHESTER P RUNK
Caitlin is shaken up by her experience as everyone but Barry is concerned about the black hole. Cisco says the black hole will appear again and it could be big enough to swallow the entire city. Ralph tries to connect the dots between the junkyard and Jitters, but Iris is one step ahead of him.
Meet Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight) is a scientist. He was arrested and let go with a warning after trying to steal old lab equipment. He’s also got an internet channel where he talks about his science experiments and a Jitters barista named Natalie. Chester is loud, proud, and hyped up on coffee. Ralph loves him!
Chester created a device that he meant to use to make contact with aliens. He built it in his garage using nothing but trash. Cisco calls Chester a legend. But! The device didn’t call aliens, instead it created a mini black hole. Chester touches the blackhole and the video ends. Iris says the EMTs took Chester to the ER, but they don’t have any information after that. The real question is, how does one destroy a black hole.
HIDE AND SEEK
Ralph tries to help Caitlin make sense of why Frostie is hiding. The last time she did this was when Caitlin’s dad died. This time, nothing too out of the ordinary happened. They went to a funeral then almost got sucked into a black hole. They thinks Frostie may be traumatized by death.
Dr. Ramsey, meanwhile, meets a man in the cemetery. He pays the man for a large briefcase. When Ramsey opens the case, there’s a large gun inside.
Cecile locates Chester in the hospital. He’s been catatonic since the accident. Iris tries to talk to Chester, but is getting no response. Iris starts to leave and Cecile stops her. She knows Iris is sad and wants to help. Iris isn’t grieving because she knows she will get a second chance with Nora. But it won’t be the same Nora that they fell in love with. She’s not sure how to put what she’s feeling into words.
That triggers something in Iris. She goes back into Chester’s room. The TV is on the news about the black hole. Chester is tapping his finger on the table. The corona’s flare on the black hole matches the cadence of Chester’s finger.
PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER
At STAR Labs, Cisco created a stellar grenade that they are going to throw into the black hole to make it implode. Iris comes in and tells them what she discovered. They can’t destroy the black hole without killing Chester.
C-squared (Caitlin and Cisco) find two things. The stimuli of Chester’s brain does not travel all the way around his brain. And the energy pulse in the black hole is only travelling halfway around the it’s tendrils. When you put the two images together, the energy travels in a complete circle. Cisco thinks the black hole is appearing in places of attachment for Chester.
Barry wants to find a way to get Chester’s mind out of the black hole and reunite it with his brain. No one knows how to do that without killing Chester. That is unacceptable to Barry. Cisco says it comes down to saving Chester or saving the city. Barry gets upset and yells that he won’t lose anyone else. He tells them to find another way and leaves the room.
SNOW-TRESS OF SOLITUDE
Ralph summons Killer Frost and asks her why she’s hiding in her Snow-tress of Solitude. (Ha!) He thinks she’s afraid of living. Frostie says her only job is to fight the bad guys, keep Caitlin safe and go back to her cage.. Ralph knows what it’s like to sit on the sidelines of your own body. She isn’t sharing memories with Caitlin because the good and bad things happen to Caitlin, not Killer Frost. Ralph suggest that Frostie ask Caitlin to let her live her life too from time to time.
Iris tells Barry that she is having a hard time about Nora. She misses her daughter that was, not the Nora that will be. Barry admits throwing himself into work to avoid the grief. He thought if he could keep people safe, it would make up for missing her. Barry says he will never get over losing Nora.
Iris comes clean about why she was really at the junkyard. She was obsessed with finding the jacket because Nora would need it one day. So when the black hole swallowed it up, a part of Iris wanted the black hole to take her too. Barry says they need to work through their grief together.
INTO THE VOID
The black hole opens up again and as predicted by Cisco, it’s bigger. Cisco says the electrical impulses that make up Chester’s mind are just past the black hole’s threshold. Chester’s energy has a negative charge. That means Barry can use his lightning’s positive charge to attract his energy, like a magnet. His speed force aura should protect Barry. If it doesn’t work, Barry will be crushed by the gravimetric forces of the black hole.
Cisco is concerned about keeping Chester’s mind in tact on its way out of the black hole. He would need super conductive wiring from a quantum computer to do that. That kind of thing only exists in the future. They still have Nora’s back up gauntlet from the future. It has the filament that Cisco needs. Cisco leaves to put the filament into Barry’s Flash suit.
Barry sends Ralph and Caitlin to help CCPD keep everyone safe downtown. Caitlin is excited to use her new suit. It’s chaos in the streets of Central City. Joe is downtown trying to keep the situation contained, but people are being sucked in quickly. Elongated Man and Killer Frost arrive just in time to help.
Cisco finishes the suit. Iris is confused about what Barry is supposed to do with the energy. The MAC is strong enough to contain synaptic energy, so they move Chester into the MAC. That was quick!
KING OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
The Flash runs towards the black hole and Cisco puts on music for the situation. Flash, the theme song to Flash Gordon by Queen. He’s been saving it since day one. And it fits perfectly!!!! There’s the nerdy Cisco we all know and love!
Flash runs into the black hole and sees Chester’s synaptic energy. Iris asks how long Flash will be in there. Cisco thinks it should only take seconds. Either way, Iris is worried. She calls to Barry, but there’s no answer. Everyone holds their breath while they wait for a reply. Nothing. It’s a really intense moment set to the beat of the Flash Gordon song!
The Flash emerges with the energy and rushes to STAR Labs to link Chester’s brain energy back together. The black hole implodes and Chester wakes up yelling, “WHAT UP PARTY PEOPLE!”
BOOK OF RALPH, VOLUME 2
Chester is recovering well…with glowing yellow eyes. Caitlin says his cells need to recover at the sub atomic level so he has to stay in the MAC for about 4-6 weeks. Chester is happy to chill at STAR labs.
Cisco goes back to his normal life with Kamilla (Victoria Park). He gets a ride from Cecile, even though he said it would look like getting a ride from your mom. Caitlin and Killer Frost come to an agreement that Frostie would get a chance to live her own life. Caitlin kind of owes her. Frostie takes over but doesn’t know where to start. Ralph is there to help as a life coach. Starting with the Book of Ralph Vol. 2.
Ramsey didn’t want the gun to shoot anyone with, he wanted the dark matter inside the gun. He inserts the dark matter into his own blood cells. 99% of his cells have a cancer marker. He injects the mixture into his own arm and the cancer markers immediately start disappearing. But Caitlin was right. Ramsey starts to transform as he screams in pain.
CRISIS
Now that Barry and iris realize they need to get a better handle on their grief. They have to lean on each other for support. Barry has a surprise for Iris. They go into the time vault and there is Nora’s jacket on display. He found it in the black hole and brought it back for her. Now they have a shrine to their daughter to remember her by.
The lights go out and the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) appears. He destroyed Nora’s flash drive to discourage Barry from hoping. He warns them that the crisis is coming. Iris says they have five years before Barry disappears. The Monitor informs them that the Flash will disappear on December 10, 2019. Barry says there has to be a way to stop it, but the Monitor says things are already in motion. And Barry won’t survive it. In order for billions to survive the crisis, the Flash must die.
RELATED: GGA Into the Arrowverse: Season Premiere Previews
THOUGHTS
WOW! What a start to season 6. So much happened and we have so much to look forward too. Who’s behind the Godspeed appearances? Who is Sara Dearbon and where did she disappear to? How much did Ramsey change after injecting the dark matter?
The moment that Cisco hit play on the Flash Gordon theme song, this became one of my favorite episodes. That music was perfect for the situation and increased my anticipation and excitement. I love Cisco! He truly represents the nerd in all of us.
How cool was Chester? I’m a fan! I like that he’s going to be in the MAC for 4-6 weeks. Hopefully they will benefit from his scietific knowledge and make him part of the team.
No Harrison Wells in this episode. I’m sure he’ll be along soon. Tom Cavanagh is one of the busiest men in the Arrowverse this season. It’s just not The Flash without him.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E07) I Could Not Prevent It - June 24, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E06) Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light - June 17, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E05) Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape - June 10, 2024
