In ‘The Flash’ recap, Team Flash goes up against a meta-human who can shrink anything and anyone while Barry tries to help a friend in prison…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The writers behind ‘The Flash’ promised a much lighter tone to season 4 after such a dark and ominous season 3 that was focused on Barry stopping Savitar from killing his beloved Iris.
Well season 4 has definitely been a lot more jovial, despite the fact that Barry is currently locked up in prison after being falsely convicted of killing Clifford DeVoe aka ‘The Thinker’.
That leaves the rest of Team Flash to deal with the meta-human problems in Central City including a new villain this week who can shrink and expand any item — or as it turns out any person who gets blasted by his powers.
Of course watching Cisco and Ralph get miniaturized was definitely the comedy twist this week, but admittedly I’m missing the more emotional storylines that made up so much of season 2 and season 3. Of course it’s nice not to have down in the dumps Barry at all times, but the gravity of his battles against Zoom and Savitar carried so much more weight than what’s transpired this season.
That being said, the writers finally pulled at one thread in the plot of The Thinker vs. the Flash that may be the big payoff at the end of the season. In other words, stick around because hopefully this battle of mind against matter will finish strong because otherwise this season of ‘The Flash’ has honestly been my least favorite thus far.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash’…
Down Sizing
While Barry toils away in prison playing his fellow inmates — including the former mayor he helped put behind bars — for pudding snack packs, Harry is starting to lose his temper with the rest of Team Flash and the inability to find a way to prove he’s innocent. Nothing is turning up on the DeVoe’s and Harry’s beginning to run short on ideas that could finally free Barry from captivity.
More than anything it’s clear that Harry doesn’t enjoy the fact that Clifford DeVoe has been able to out smart him at every turn and he just can’t seem to find a way to beat him.
Meanwhile, Joe is dealing with his own problems at home when Cecile suddenly develops meta-human powers where she can read anybody’s mind. When Caitlin gives her a check up, she deduces that Cecile may have had some dormant dark matter cells still swirling around inside of her after the original STAR Labs particle accelerator exploded and being pregnant might have jostled them loose. The good news is the condition is temporary. The bad news is it’s driving Joe crazy.
Honestly this was a rather pointless plot twist, perhaps they’re going somewhere with this but otherwise it just felt shoehorned into the episode for no real reason.
As for the meta-human of the week — at the unveiling of a huge new Kord Industries building (a tie into ‘Arrow’ as well as a reference to Ted Kord, who is also Blue Beetle in the DC Universe) that is supposed to be meta-proofed. The building was designed to withstand an attack of any kind from a meta-human and the new Mayor sounds excited to reveal this structure to the press until a giant blast of light is seen surrounding the building and a second later it just seems to disappear.
Rather than vanishing, however, the building has been shrunken down to miniature size and a man walks by with a smile on his face as he picks it up and puts it in his pocket as he gets away.
As for Barry, he’s trying to make hard time easier while commiserating with his new pal Big Sir (played by WWE superstar Bill Goldberg). Last week, Big Sir put his neck on the line to save Barry after Henry Allen saved his life in prison several years ago. Now he’s becoming buddies with Barry but when the former mayor taunts him about his reason for being in prison, Big Sir shuts down and walks away.
Barry finally gets Big Sir to tell him why he’s in prison.
According to Big Sir, he was convicted of shooting an unarmed security guard outside of Mercury Labs but he explains in reality he was just passing by when he heard gunshots. He ran to find the guard bleeding on the ground but when the cops showed up the only witnesses identified him as the shooter because whoever actually did this shared a striking resemblance to him. Add to that, the bullet that killed the guard matched a weapon that was owned by Big Sir at the time of his arrest.
Still, Big Sir maintains his innocence and Barry decides to help him prove it despite his objections.
Barry puts in a call to Team Flash to dig into Big Sir’s case, which unfortunately doesn’t give them much to go on considering the case has been cold for 15 years. As it turns out, however, Barry’s case and the meta-human shrinking buildings coincide with each other after Joe, Ralph and Cisco track down the bad guy using surveillance footage outside the Kord Industries building and they find him based on the license plate of the car he used in his escape.
When they arrive at his house, Sylbert Rundin answers the door and Cisco is blown away by all the miniatures decorating his place. Joe also notices a photo hanging on the wall of Sylbert from a few years back when he looked like a bodybuilder — almost exactly like what Big Sir looked like when he went away to prison.
Before the can confirm anything, Sylbert realizes what they’re up to and he expands a gun, fires a few shots and then leaps out the window to make his escape. When Joe tries to stop him, Sylbert fires a shrinking shot and not only takes out his cop car but also targets Cisco and Ralph before getting away.
Cisco and Ralph are now about six inches tall and Team Flash is no closer to catching this meta-human much less figuring out if he’s the one responsible for Big Sir being in prison.
Shrinking Universe
Ralph and Cisco end up living in the Lego set that was used as a model when Barry and the team were trying to figure out how to stop Savitar while the rest of the team tries to figure out how to track down Sylbert and stop him.
The investigation leads them to look into Mercury Labs where they carry a rare element known as Dwarf-star — the same substance that powers Ray Palmer’s suit to make him go mini-sized on ‘Legends of Tomorrow’. It turns out, Sylbert stole some of this Dwarf-star from Mercury Labs and had it on him when the dark wave matter hit his bus when Barry returned from the Speed Force.
Thus Sylbert was not only transformed into a meta-human but his cells merged with the Dwarf-star to make him capable of shrinking or expanding anything he wanted.
This all adds up to the team realizing that Sylbert is not only responsible for stealing the building but also for framing Big Sir all those years ago.
The only problem is getting him to confess to the crime so they can free Big Sir from his imprisonment.
Harry tries his best to reverse what Sylbert did to Cisco and Ralph but instead he speeds up their destruction as his formula ends up causing their cells to self-destruct, which means they only have hours to live before they literally implode.
Big
Sylbert is attempting secure his way out of town when facial recognition software picks him up so Team Flash gets ready to after him. Harry does manage to figure out the way to save Cisco and Ralph so long as they can get directly in the path of one of Sylbert’s shrinking rays and it should reverse what he did to them the first time.
When Team Flash arrives, Sylbert begins tossing miniaturized cars at them and then expanding them big again. A battle ensues but Harry’s able to trick him to fire a shrinking ray in his direction, which allows Cisco and Ralph to get in the path so they can return to normal size. A second later, Iris clasps a meta-human collar on Sylbert’s next to control him from using his powers any longer.
Everyone is back to normal, Sylbert has been stopped and the day is saved. Unfortunate when Joe tries to get Sylbert to confess to his crime from 15 years ago that got Big Sir convicted, he refuses to play along. Sadly that means Big Sir will have no chance to get out of prison.
The good news is that Sylberg will be going to Iron Heights where he will join numerous other meta-humans sent there recently after that bus created a whole lot of new bad guys. That’s when Harry starts to piece things together — why would DeVoe go to all this trouble to create new meta-humans and then watch as they all went to jail? Add to that, Harry can’t let it go that Barry went to prison, befriended this guy Big Sir and the person responsible for his imprisonment is another of the meta-humans from that bus. It all start to tie together that DeVoe has a plan involving not only Barry Allen but these meta-humans in prison. Harry isn’t sure what’s happening just yet but he’s starting to put the puzzle pieces together.
Of course, Big Sir is disappointed after Barry got his hopes up as he dreamt of leaving this place and retiring in a small village in China where he always wanted to go. Barry can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for getting Big Sir’s hopes up only to have them dashed.
So Barry decides to take matters into his own hands by running at super speed, taking Big Sir from his cell and dropping him off in that idyllic little village in China. When Big Sir realizes where he’s at, he’s overjoyed at the start of his new life.
Unfortunately, Barry’s good deed does him no good.
The warden tells Barry that he placed a secondary security camera in his cell and he discovered that he’s actually Central City’s savior, The Flash. Before Barry can argue with him, he passes out from the drugs the warden put in those pudding snack packs he’s been gobbling down.
Barry is placed into one of the special meta-human cells where he can’t escape while the warden makes a call. On the other end of the phone is Amunet Black — the arms dealer who has been selling meta-humans to the highest bidder — and apparently she’s been getting at least part of her stock from Iron Heights prison. Now the warden has a new specimen for her and Amunet will surely pay top dollar to get the Flash.
‘The Flash’ returns next Tuesday night at 8pm ET for a brand new episode on the CW.
https://youtu.be/taZiZOKfd9E
