The Flash – Into the Void

By starrymag | October 15, 2019

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) are walking into S.T.A.R. Labs immediately following the events from last season as the alarms blast throughout the building. They locate where it’s coming from and race to the time vault. Nora’s (Jessica Parker Kennedy) video is still playing and then glitches as it sparks out. They lose her message. 

 

Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Kamilla (Victoria Park) are in the cortex directing The Flash as he chases Godspeed. Kamilla asks, “Why is it every time I come to visit there’s always a crisis?” Cisco informs her about Godspeed as The Flash catches up to him. He gets to Godspeed (Ryan Handley) and unmasks him. He asks who he is and why he’s there, but he’s just like the others– without language skills and just noise. Cisco and Kamilla leave the cortex while Barry drops the fake Godspeed off at Iron Heights. 

 

Iris tells Joe (Jesse L. Martin) they should cookout more often. He congratulates her on The Citizen, even though she becomes modest about it. He tells her she’ll have a Pulitizer Prize soon. The rest of the team starts to filter into the backyard, aside from Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) who is still traveling for his missing person’s case. They all gather around the table to eat. Barry asks how the MAC is coming along, so Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) explains what it is to Kamilla that it is a device that will allow Barry to see multiple outcomes at once. It’ll help him capture the criminals faster. Barry’s been bringing a lot more criminals in lately and he suggests working on it with Cisco. Cisco doesn’t want to, but Barry flashes off to get it anyway. Joe asks Barry and Iris how they’ve been. They offer uncomfortable looks, but say that knowing they have a second chance at having another Nora someday will make a difference. Iris asks Joe about some boxes in the back of the garage when Barry leaves. Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) says he threw them away. Iris leaves to make a call. Caitlin says she also has to go, leaving Joe, Cecile and Kamilla at the table to clean up the mess. 

 

Dr. Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is giving the eulogy at his mother’s funeral as Cailtin listens. He talks about how his mother encouraged him to keep going and he would heal after a fall on his bike. He said he did and that’s how he knows he will now. He will always be grateful. Caitlin joins him after the funeral. He grabs her hand as he’s thanking her and mentions how cold her hands are. She turns away as she’s having a frost-out moment that she can’t control. Before she leaves he asks her out for a coffee with him because he could use someone to talk to. 

 

A man tracked down the boxes Iris has been searching for. She spots the box and grabs an item out. It’s her purple jacket that Nora will wear in the future. Suddenly, a black hole opens up and Iris holds onto the man leaving the box on top of the trashcan. The black hole eventually sucks the box into it as Iris watches in slow motion. The hole closes on its own as Iris looks at the now clear spot in devastation. 

 

Barry tells Iris he missed her the night before and asks why she was in the junkyard. She says she was there to follow a lead about junkyard robberies. Not everything there is garbage, but Cisco disagrees as he yells as much. Cisco deduces that a black hole is what attacked Iris. 

 

Barry, Cisco and Caitlin are looking at the black hole’s data and Barry is very optimistic about figuring out what’s going on with it. Caitlin and Cisco aren’t eager to figure it all out. As Cisco is explaining what they have to do Ralph makes his appearance into the cortex. He tells them that he’s still searching for his missing person. Caitlin starts trying to decode the data stream but gets stopped when her hands freeze the keyboard. She says it has been happening all summer so Ralph tells her to take a break. She goes to meet Ramsey for coffee. 

 

Joe, Cecile and Iris find a theft report for the junkyard, but they don’t see anything that has to do with the black hole. They tell Iris she at least has a name now, but she is withdrawn as she looks at a framed article about XS. She starts to leave, but Cecile stops her to ask what’s wrong. She says she may still be shaken up by the black hole and leaves. 

 

Ramsey and Caitlin are at Jitters enjoying a coffee and talking about his mother. He says his mother took a liking to her and Caitlin acknowledges that she was the first person to realize that she was into cutting edge tech. He tells Caitlin that he couldn’t save her. He starts talking about how her cancer couldn’t be stopped. He says that is his last memory of her, but when Caitlin tries to tell him to think of the positive he says his mother was a coward. His mother didn’t fight. He tells her he didn’t stop looking and shows Caitlin everything he’s been working on. It’s a possible cure for cancer; however, the binding agent is a dark matter. He says his cure will work. She realizes getting more dark matter is the only reason he asked her for coffee. He gets infuriated when she tells him it’s too dangerous and she refuses to help him. He says no one has to die with HLH because she can help him stop it and leaves. Caitlin gets up and suddenly feels a rumble that shatters the windows of CC jitters. A black hole opens in front of the doors almost pulling Caitlin in as she tries to drag Killer Frost to the forefront to save her. Thankfully, Barry comes in right before the hole closes and saves her. 

 

Caitlin, Cisco, Ralph and Barry are in the lounge after the black hole encounter. Barry’s still being optimistic about their successes. Cisco mentions that the next time it opens up the whole city could be in danger. Ralph asks what’s common between the two incidents and then Iris walks in with a video saying that she may know who could tell them. She followed up on the CCPD files and found a scientist that was let go with a warning after stealing old lab equipment. She turns on a video of Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight). He’s doing a live stream in the video while he builds a gravitational wave emitter. He turns it on, but it starts to do things it’s not meant to and a black hole opens above the machine. When he tries to touch it, it shocks him and the video cuts out. It was an accident and Chester was taken to the ER afterward.

 

Ralph is in the med bay trying to help Caitlin figure out why her powers aren’t working. He asks if things have been out of the ordinary, but she says, “No,” aside from a funeral and almost getting sucked into oblivion. The last time this happened was right after her dad died. They’re not sure if this was a trigger. 

 

Ramsey exchanges money for a suitcase with some sort of gun inside with a man in the graveyard.

 

Iris and Cecile go to the hospital to see Chester. Unfortunately, he’s been catatonic since the incident and that doesn’t change when Iris tries to speak to him. Iris starts to leave out, but Cecile confronts her about losing something of Nora’s that was accidentally put in the junkyard. Iris begins to shed tears as she admits how much she misses Nora. She may get to see her again one day, but even then, it won’t be their Nora. The one that they grew to love. She tells Cecile she doesn’t know how to feel about it all, but Cecile tells her, “You don’t have to cheat the grieving process just because you’re going to see Nora again someday.” Iris agrees and says she just hasn’t been able to put into words how she’s been feeling. This sparks something in her mind regarding Chester. She looks down at Chester’s fingers that continue to tap as another black hole is being shown to have surfaced on the news.

 

Cisco is showing Barry his “stellar grenade” that will destroy the black hole. He tells Barry to just throw it into the hole, but Iris comes in to stop them – telling them if they destroy the hole they’re going to kill Chester, too. 

 

Everyone gathers in the cortex to devise a plan. Caitlin says that Chester is the black hole because the rotation in his brain stops. Cisco shows them the inside of the black hole viewed next to the other side of Chester’s mind’s consciousness. The occurrences are taking action at places close to him. Barry deduces that they have to get his mind out of the black hole and put it back into his body. Cisco thinks they need to just go with their initial option. Barry shuts that idea down, but Cisco thinks they should make the tough choice now because if they don’t they’ll have to make a harder one down the line. Barry frustratingly yells, “I’m not losing anyone else!” 

 

Caitlin gets a text from Ralph saying he needs Killer Frost now. There’s not really a problem and he asks Frost what’s been going on with her. She tells him she’s not afraid of dying but Ralph counters her argument by saying she is afraid of living. He starts listing off a lot of Caitlin’s memories and tells her that having Caitlin’s memories aren’t the same as having her own. He thinks maybe she should ask Caitlin to let her make her own memories.

 

Barry and Iris are standing out on the lounge balcony. Iris tells him that it’s time they start facing the truth about Nora. She knows they still miss the Nora they knew and that’s why he’s been working so hard all summer. Barry thought that if he could keep people safe then it would make up how much he missed her. But he’ll never get over this. Iris says, “There is no support group for what we’re experiencing.” Iris tells him why she was at the junkyard. She says that in her mind Nora needs the jacket to become XS. Her voice cracks as she says when the black hole swallowed it for a tiny second she wanted it to swallow her, too. They embrace in a hug and Iris tells Barry the only way for them to get through this is by doing it together. An alarm goes off and they head to the vortex. They’ve ran out of time and a huge black hole has opened over Central City. 

 

They’re going to use Chester’s negative charge to draw towards Barry’s positive charge. They’ll use Nora’s backup gauntlet to help Barry get Chester’s consciousness out and not be crushed when he enters the black hole. 

 

Killer Frost and Elongated Man go downtown to help save people while Barry, Iris and Cisco prepare. They’ll use what they have of the MAC to put Chester’s body in so that they can connect him with the other part of his consciousness. Cecile’s already moved his body into it. The Flash races through Central City towards the black hole. It’ll only be a few seconds before he comes back out. Iris and the rest of the team watch on. Iris starts to get visibly scared and tears up when he begins to take too long saying, “Please, Barry. I can’t lose you, too.” Right after he flashes out of the black hole and races to STAR Labs to Chester’s chamber. The hole implodes and Chester wakes up with a loud, “What’s up, party people?” Then, he starts to fanboy about seeing The Flash. 

 

Chester’s doing great but still has glowing dark energy eyes. It’ll take some time but he’ll be back to normal in four to six weeks. Cecile gives Cisco a ride to his date with Kamilla so they leave the lab. 

 

Caitlin is talking to Killer Frost and she’s decided to give Killer Frost a ride in the forefront of their body. She transforms into Killer Frost as Ralph walks in with another Book of Ralph volume to help her. 

 

Ramsey is in the lab, injecting himself with the formula he’s been trying to create. He says he’ll never accept death. The HLH in his body starts to decrease, but his hand becomes encased in blackness. 

 

Barry tells Iris that she made him believe. He realized they could be each other’s support group. And then he reveals the reason it took him a little longer to come out of the black hole— the purple jacket. He shows it to her in the time vault. Iris says it’s a better way to honor Nora. As they’re looking at it the lights flash out and The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) appears. He says he wants for their universe to survive and says he only destroyed the video because he needed to discourage Iris from hoping. The Flash is set to vanish on December 10, 2019. Barry says he’s not leaving his family, but The Monitor says events have already been set into motion. The Monitor informs him, “In order for billions to survive this coming Crisis, The Flash must die.”