The Flash Season 4 Review: 4.4: Elongated Journey Into Night

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

This week’s episode of The Flash season 4 introduced Elongated Man aka Ralph Dibney. Hartley Sawyer did an outstanding job as Ralph. The show absolutely nailed the character. He has a pathetic sleaziness that’s really fun and sets him apart from the other members of Team Flash. I was very happy when the episode established he’d be sticking around.

Meanwhile, the episode took a big swing with a subplot about Cynthia Reynolds’ father Breacher straight up hunting Cisco Ramon. Breacher was played by Danny Trejo because if you’re going to do a plot about a protective father hunting someone down, you should go all in.

By the end of the episode, Cisco proved himself worthy of Breacher’s approval. I enjoyed this plot a lot, but I’m hoping to also get some more low-energy scenes of Cisco and Cynthia just hanging out. I love seeing Cisco happy, but I wish we had more insight into what makes this couple really work now that they’re beyond playful flirting.

All of The Flash season 4 so far has had an infectious energy that the last couple seasons lacked. It’s great seeing them come up with these creative episode concepts and then execute them so well. There’s so much levity and joy in this season. Scenes like the one where Team Flash celebrated Joe West and Cecile Horton’s new baby are a refreshing delight.

The only bad thing I have to say about this episode is that it was a return to Barry Allen’s weird and troubling morality. He insisted that Ralph is a bad enough person that he needs to be pre-emptively locked up. He even wrote “villains” over the list of people effected by the bus crash. Hopefully Ralph being on the team will be the start of them sorting out Barry’s terrible views. But, it seems like just another example of his arbitrary standards when he’s playing judge and jury.

Be sure to check out my review of last week’s episode.