The Flash – So Long and Goodnight

By: Malasha Parker

Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger) is asking Maurice (Andrew J. Hampton) about Sunshine (Natalie Sharp). Maurice mentions how Joe (Jesse L. Martin) is obsessed with connecting him to Sunshine, Ultraviolet and Dr. Light. They’re waiting for their guest who they show a picture of Joe, telling them to kill him.  

Barry (Grant Gustin), Evil Iris (Candice Patton), Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Evil Kamilla (Victoria Park), Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) and Joe are having a game night at the West house. They pick on Barry as he tries to draw the Eiffel Tower when Joe gets a call from Chief Singh (Patrick Sabongui). He tells him that he can’t get Sunshine to talk, but when Joe asks to let him take a crack at it Singh refuses. He is quickly convinced and Joe leaves to go to the precinct. 

Iris tells Eva (Efrat Dor) she thinks she found a way out of the mirror because now she’s been in there a while and the monitors are into focus she can read them. Eva realizes that she’s adapting. Iris read some of Eva’s notes and saw that someone could pass through the mirror if their molecular structure was destabilized. She thinks if she can get in contact with Barry then he could pass through. She reveals Barry is The Flash (Grant Gustin). She thinks he can phase them out and Eva agrees, but says she needs to recharge because she’s exhausted from controlling the mirror. Iris leaves to do more work. Eva opens the mirror to talk to Evil Iris. She tells Eva that Joe is still looking into Carver. Eva says to make sure that The Flash’s powers are drained. Evil Iris asks why she cares about The Flash. Eva states she doesn’t, but that she doesn’t want The Flash taking her revenge on Carver away.

Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) called Cisco to help him track down Sue (Natalie Dreyfuss). She’s been going to events and striking their servers. Ralph found her next hit and needs Cisco for hacking. Cisco agrees because he knows how hard the case has been on him and he feels bad about not helping. 

Joe is driving when his car and brakes start to malfunction. A creepy laugh is heard while he’s swerving through the street. He jumps out of the car before it crashes and goes up in flames. Joe tells them it felt like somebody cut the brakes while he was driving. Barry says he’ll find out. Joe tells them he thinks Carver is behind all of this and Singh suggests getting him into witness protection. Joe refuses and Singh agrees to let him continue to work on the case. 

Ralph and Cisco are at the brunch when Cisco goes to start the hack. He does it easily, but quickly gets caught by January Galore (Rebecca Roberts). He gets away from her, but when he mentions who he ran into Ralph realizes they have a problem. The tablet starts beeping and they see that the servers are dead. They find a mask of January’s face on the floor and Sue comes out from behind the servers. Ralph says she’s going down, but Sue easily escapes through a sky window. Cisco sees something and says that if Sue used it then she has access to all the banks.

Joe talks to Millie Rowlands (Natalie Sharp) and shows her an image of what happens to people if they fail Carver. He says she’ll probably be next if she doesn’t make a deal but she doesn’t want it. 

Barry tells Evil Iris the only way they could cut the brakes like that is if they could squeeze in while the car is moving. Barry pulls a hair from the debris and says unless it’s a metahuman who can squeeze into tight spaces. He shows her and she realizes that it’s Rag Doll (Troy James).

While Joe’s questioning Millie, Rag Doll emerges from a box and tries to attack Joe. Joe shoots at him, but Rag Doll ricochets the bullets back at Joe. The Flash races in but isn’t able to stop all of the bullets and Joe gets hit in the shoulder. When Flash looks back, Millie and Rag Doll are gone. Barry turns and apologizes to Joe. 

Joe tries to go back to work after getting bandaged. Barry, visibly stressing about the situation, stops him. Joe doesn’t listen and they start to argue. Eventually, Joe decides to leave the room. Evil Iris walks in as Joe walks out asking Barry what happened. Barry tells her he wasn’t fast enough to stop all the bullets and he blames himself. She notices his speed monitor’s colors. She tells him and he says he knows. Evil Iris starts to badger him about how he promised he was going to keep her dad safe. Barry recalls and tells her that he’s going to do everything to catch Rag Doll. She looks at his monitor again as it changes from yellow to red.

Joe leaves papers with Carver’s picture and his badge on the lounge bar. Carver is at home looking at a photograph of him and Eva. Joe rings the doorbell and confronts Carver about trying to kill him. Carver deflects, but Joe brings up Rag Doll. He says the last he was seen was breaking into McCullough Industries about a year ago. Carver accidentally says how Rag Doll popped out of a box and tried to kill him. Joe says he never mentioned that. They try to make deals with each other. Joe shows that he recorded their conversation, but Carver uses his tech to erase it. Carver says he can get rid of him and his family, so Joe punches him. Carver’s guards come out, but Joe leaves a laughing Carver behind. 

Barry is yelling at Joe about him taking off his badge and leaving S.T.A.R. labs without a warning. Joe is terrified that he can’t protect his family and Barry doesn’t want him getting hurt in the process. Barry knows that Carver has unlimited resources and wants him to think about witness protection again. Joe grumbles.  

Sue is in a meeting with a bank when Ralph bursts in outing her real name. The woman leaves them to talk. Sue asks if he’s there to make a super-citizens arrest. Ralph has figured out that her parents are being extorted. He’s deducted that Carver is the one extorting them. Ralph starts to question Sue when she tries to leave, but she tells him to stop talking about her parents. He asks to help and she agrees. She also apologizes for tricking him by saying that she didn’t enjoy it and felt “pretty crappy afterwards.” Ralph says that she’s a good person despite everything and Sue mentions how decent he is. She tells him that his good guy thing is tolerable and she gives him the huge diamond she stole. She wants him to look into it because he might find something interesting.

Allegra (Kayla Compton) comes to Cecile worried about what happened to Joe. Nash (Tom Cavanagh) joins them and says he’s there to keep them safe and Allegra quickly leaves with a snarky remark. He goes after her to see what he can do to fix things, but Allegra isn’t ready to forgive him. She tells him to walk away and leaves. She goes to the office lounge where the lights are broken. She gets a flashlight and steps on a broken bulb. She looks up to see Rag Doll who tries to attack her, but he gets to Nash first. He goes for Allegra, but she shines her ultraviolet lights at him. He makes his way to Cecile who starts to feel pain before he gets there. He tells her she will bring so much suffering. 

Joe goes to Barry showing him a video Rag Doll sent of Cecile bound to a chair in a warehouse. Barry quickly tells Joe it’s a trap and says he won’t stop until he gets Cecile. He flashes them down to the location. They immediately find Rag Doll and Barry tells Joe to find Cecile. Joe locates her, but she’s shaking her head no before he sees. He opens the door and a pressure bomb begins to count down. When he takes the tape off Cecile she tells him not to touch her because if she moves it’ll go off.

The Flash is looking everywhere for Rag Doll as he’s being taunted. Rag Doll (voiced by Phil LaMarr) wraps his arms tightly around Flash and begins crushing him. Joe calls Allegra and Nash to get help defuse the bomb. Nash tells him which wire to cut, but all the wires are the same color. He hangs up saying that he has this and then devises a plan with Cecile that lands him in the chair. It also makes the bomb’s countdown lose a minute. 

Flash gets out of Rag Doll’s grasp and handcuffs him to a pipe. Flash says he’s going down no matter how much Black Hole is paying him. But Rag Doll says he doesn’t care about the money. He’s doing it for release. He wants to suffer because he has nothing left and any second release will come with a kaboom. The Flash races away to Joe and Cecile and Joe tells him to take Cecile back. He does and then he has to race back to save Joe. Joe cuts one of the wires seconds before it goes off and isn’t in the chair when The Flash arrives back. When he looks to Joe, he is at the window saying he should go into witness protection. 

The police arrive on the scene and Chief Singh is telling Joe how he’ll be in witness protection until the Carver situation is figured out. Barry tells Joe that Iris isn’t answering the phone, but the people are already there for Joe. He wants Barry to tell Iris he loves her and he turns to tell a crying, worried Cecile goodbye. Barry assures Joe that he and Iris are going to take down Carver and Black Hole. Joe says, “Keep her safe,” and they hug. Joe gets in the car and Cecile cries in Barry’s arms.

As Singh leaves the scene he looks into his mirror and says that Joe West is out of the way as requested and success is assured. Eva appears, thanks him and says if anyone is going to make her husband pay for what they did it’ll be her. 

Carver is speaking to someone on how Joe will no longer be a problem. The caller says someone must have overheard the news because he has a package. He goes to open the gift to reveal a mirror. Eva appears and tells him that he’s a hard man to get a hold of. He tries to break the mirror, but she stops him. She says all she wants is an apology, but Carver laughs. She says she was trying to save the world and he’s letting her rot in the mirror. He took everything she created and she had a vision for humankind. He yells that he did too and that he’s making it a reality. She tells him that this is his last chance, but he says he’s untouchable and she’s just a phantom. He breaks the mirror and it shatters as they continue to stare at each other through broken glass. Eva backs away from it with a smirk on her face.

Evil Iris is waiting for Barry at the loft. She tells him she talked to Singh and he should have come to get her, but Barry says there was no time. She tells him he can make a second last a minute and she demands to know where her father is. Barry explains he doesn’t know but he’ll be back when they catch Carver. Iris responds angrily. He tells her what happened but she doesn’t care and wants him to take her to her dad. Barry defeatedly says she knows he can’t anymore. They start yelling at each other and Barry tells her how he feels like he’s barely hanging on. Iris sharply says, “Now we have something else in common, we both lost our parents. I hope that was worth it.” She walks to open the door telling Barry she wants him to leave. Barry looks stunned, but she says he always makes the decisions and everyone has to deal with the fallout. Therefore, she’s done. He believes they can fix this. He tells her, “You’re my home,” but she replies, “Not anymore.” He walks out and she slams the door in his face. Barry solemnly walks away from the loft.