The Flash – The Elongated Man

By: Stacy Miller

Barry (Grant Gustin) begins his prison sentence at Iron Heights. But that doesn’t stop The Flash from using his super speed and putting out a fire due to a small revolt outside his cell.

Meanwhile in Central City, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) deals with a bank robber (Eduard Witze), who demands and echo friendly getaway car, a private plane and a salad (because he’s counting calories) and warns that he better not see The Flash either because he has a bomb and will blow up the hostages. When he turns around, the hostages are gone. The robber is surprised to see Ralph (Hartley Sawyer). “Who the hell are you?” the bank robber asks. Ralph replies that he’s just his friendly neighborhood superhero.  Unfortunately, Ralph doesn’t have a superhero name yet. And also Ralph’s cells makes him unable to be hurt; when he swallows the bomb, it just gives him a case of heartburn when it goes off. Ralph happily does the press thing and gives interviews. But he doesn’t like being called “The Stretchy Man” when interviewed by a news reporter.  Back at Star Labs, Iris (Candice Patton) warns Ralph that he could have been hurt. Ralph disagrees; his cells make him indestructible. Now, all he needs is a cool superhero name.

At Iron Heights, Barry runs into Axel Walker (Devon Graye), whose father (The Trickster) once kidnapped Henry Allen. Axel questions Barry about his (Barry) imprisonment for murder of a college professor (DeVoe). “What he do, give you a bad grade or something?” Axel asks. “I didn’t kill anybody,” Barry insists. Axel offers Barry some of his pudding; the lunch lady seems to like him and gave him extra. But the pudding seems to be making Axel sick. After Axel Walker leaves, Barry trips and accidentally spills mud on another inmate’s shoes. Warden Wolfe’s (Richard Brooks) arrival stops the other prisoners from retaliating against Barry. Warden Wolfe tells Barry that the first week in Iron Heights is usually the toughest. Barry’s one thirty visitor is there.  It’s Iris. Barry assures his wife that Iron Heights isn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Plus as a member of the prison’s new janitorial staff, he’s the fastest mop alive Barry jokes. Iris tells him that they have been watching the DeVoe and she has also been going over the court evidence with her father and promises that they’ll get him out of there.  She just wishes she could touch him again.  “You will,” Barry says before the visit ends.  Meanwhile in the infirmary, Axel Walker is complaining of stomach cramps and hurls all over the floor. “Looks like he ate the pudding,” a nurse, who is not Nurse Hill the regular nurse says. “How do you know that?” a guard asks. “Because I sent it to him,” she answers before tranquilizing him. Joe arrives at Iron Heights to investigate Axel Walker’s escape. He sees Barry mopping the floor and Warden Wolfe allows Joe to talk with Allen. Joe tells Barry about Axel Walker’s escape. Barry says that he’ll be able to phase out of the prison and help with the case once Cisco figures out the security system. But Joe tells Barry that he needs to stay put and watch his back.

Joe returns to Star Labs and tells Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) and Harry (Tom Cavanaugh) that the nurse that helped Axel Walker escape is Zoey Clark (Corrine Bohrer).  She was the girlfriend of Axel’s father, the original Trickster. She was Bonnie to the Trickster’s Clyde and went by the name Prank back in the day when they used to terrorize Central City. She also became pregnant by Walker. It looks like Zoey broke her son out of prison to make up for lost time.

Zoey brings Axel to their hideout, what’s left of Clark Toys. She wants to leave Central City as soon as it’s nightfall. Zoey reminds Axel how she was his only real parent while his father was out committing crimes. She tells her son that his father doesn’t care about him.  But Axel Walker plans to revive The Trickster and make daddy proud.

A group of prisoners accuse Barry of snitching to the police (they heard he was talking with Joe) and corner him.   But fortunately, another prisoner saves Barry from a beating.

Ralph confronts Axel in the street of Central City. None of the things that Axel throw at him work until The Trickster shoots him with an acid that burns through Ralph’s skin. Cisco comes through a breech and drags Ralph away just in time.

At Iron Heights, Barry asks the prisoner who saved him why he helped him. The man tells him that Barry’s father once saved his life.

The acid burned through Ralph’s suit to his skin. Team Flash realize that Axel used deadly chemical in the acid that was able to react with Ralph’s cells. Meanwhile, Axel and Zoey’s crime spree continues as they have taken hostages and are playing a game called The Wheel of Misfortune. But as an agent hasn’t been created yet to counteract the acid, Ralph refuses to suit up and help save the hostages. “Were you only doing this because you thought you couldn’t get hurt?” Iris asks Ralph. Of course he was is Ralph’s response. Iris tells Ralph how last year she thought she was going to die but that didn’t stop her from helping people.  Ralph comments that Iris is made of stronger stuff then he is.  Later that night, Ralph stretches his way into Iron Heights and tells Barry that he’s there to break him out. Barry reminds Ralph that there are cameras around and the guards would know that he was missing. Ralph says that this is a job for The Flash. He tells Barry that Axel created some kind of acid that can kill him and he’s not ready to die.  Barry reminds that being a superhero has a way of making you believe that you are invincible. He reminds Ralph that having the ability to save people and doing nothing is worse.  Barry tells Ralph that he has to believe in himself. After Ralph leaves, Barry finds Big Sir (Bill Goldberg) and asks why the prisoner helped him with the other prisoners.  Big Sir tells Barry that Henry Allen saved him by convincing Warden Wolfe to perform life-saving surgery; now his debt has been paid. But when Big Sir leaves the exercise room, he’s cornered by the other prisoners and they start pounding on him.

Cisco and Killer Frost arrive at the abandoned Clark Toys but are soon captured by Axel and Zoey.

Barry finds the prisoners beating up on Big Sir and runs to stop them. He uses his super speed as The Flash to move the prisoners’ fists so that they end up punching each other.

Axel and Zoey are surprised to see Stretchy Man’s return, complete with a new costume.  Ralph tells them that a good friend reminded him that a real hero must rise above their own fears in order to save others. Axel attempts to burn Ralph with the acid again, but Dibny is able to stretchy and knock him out.  So Zoey decides to burn Cisco and Caitlin instead. Putting his fear aside, Ralph stretches his body over Cisco and Caitlin’s creating an umbrella to protect them from the acid that rains down on them. Lucky for Ralph, he doesn’t die because Harry was able to create a neutralizing agent in the nick of time. “You know what they say, the family that slays together stays together,” Zoey tells Joe as she and Axel are arrested. Axel asks his mother can they go on a crime spree again in ten to fifteen years. But Zoey promises that she’ll break them out in two. When reporters interview him and call him Stretchy Man, Ralph tells them that’s not his name.  He adds that he doesn’t stretch, he contorts. “I enlongate man,” Ralph says. So the headline gives Ralph a new name: The Elongated Man. Ralph doesn’t like this moniker.

At Iron Heights, Big Sr. thanks Barry for saving him and tells Allen that his father never called him Big Sir, he called him by his real name Dave.  Iris visits Barry in prison and tells him that whatever he said got through to Ralph. Barry realizes that he’s still helping people so being in prison doesn’t seem any different than being out there. Except they can’t together each other, Iris reminds. Barry uses his abilities to super speed up time and phases his hand through the glass so he can touch Iris’ hand.

Cisco takes Ralph to Jitters for a celebratory cup of coffee.  Ralph is a little bummed that because he wears a mask, no one will know that he is a superhero. Cisco and Ralph meet and pretty and smart girl who is later seen writing strange systems in a notebook. Who is she and what is she writing?