'The Flash' Recap: 'Elongated Journey Into Night'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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If there’s one thing that stuck with me after last week’s supremely lighthearted episode of The Flash, it’s the fact that for the first time ever, we were finally in the company of a ‘villain’ that wasn’t quite composed of pure evil and foul intentions. That stuck with me, simply because it opened a world of possibilities for the show storytelling wise and thankfully, the Writer’s Room also saw the potential for this new idea since last night’s episode, ‘Elongated Journey Into Night’, took this refreshing concept to a whole new level.
 
Because not only did this episode deliver unto us another Meta Human that wasn’t hell bent on world domination and/or murdering Barry, it gave us a tale of redemption by introducing us to a man named Ralph Dibny, a former C.C.P.D. Detective who left the force in disgrace after Barry discovered the fact that Dibny falsified evidence to close a murder case and well, Dibny is for all intents and purposes a scumbag for a fair majority of this episode and as for his powers, well he also just so happened to be on the bus that fateful day when Barry returned to our world and gained the ability to stretch his flesh following his exposure to dark matter.
 
But what made this a tale of redemption was the fact that Barry was able to break down the walls surrounding Dibny and draw out the good that was once at the forefront of his personality when he first joined the force and in doing so, Dibny was able to actually help save the day and he may even find a home with Team Flash and man, what a great twist. It was so unique to see a Meta view their newfound powers as a nuisance for a change since Dibny was focused on keeping his life as normal as possible, and it was incredibly uplifting to see Barry inspire a Meta and allow at least one of them to see what kind of wonders they can accomplish.
 
However, while that storyline was inspirational enough to put a smile on all of our faces, the show wasn’t quite done feeding our grins just yet. After all, season four has been all about the fun and the laughs and that all came about by way of the side storyline this week involving Cisco meeting Gypsy’s father, Breacher, who…hunted Cisco in an effort to see if he was worthy enough to date his daughter and my goodness, this was brilliant. First off, having Danny Trejo (who played Breacher) come in to do some serious comic relief needs to happen in television more often and every single moment he was on screen and interacting with Cisco was downright magical and I do hope we see more of Gypsy’s father as the series rolls on, especially considering the fact that he’s willing to remove the mystery surrounding his badass daughter since we now know her name is Cynthia…and also that Breacher’s real name is Josh.
 
Yet, all of the laughs and feel good moments aside, there is the overreaching arc regarding our mysterious villain to deal with and an idea that Harry posed recently, in that all of the events thus far this season seem carefully connected, came to fruition last night when we learned that a man named DeVoe called Dibny regarding the Mayor’s shady dealings, which in essence brought Dibny to Barry and considering the fact that we heard DeVoe’s name mentioned a couple of times last season and now that we have a name to go off of, it’s clear the series is drawing nearer to officially revealing our big bad on screen as Clifford DeVoe, a.k.a. The Thinker and that’s going to be a delight to comic fans everywhere when it happens and it should be interesting to learn what his master plan is in the coming weeks and I can’t wait to watch Barry and the team figure out a way to stop him and his evil machinations. Until next time. 

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