The Flash, Season 6, Episode 6: License to Elongate

It's the Elongated Man episode now, after the previous couple of episodes focuses on Killer Frost and Vibe (twice!). I do think that we did get a relatively decent buildup to Ralph's motivations here, with the past two or three episodes establishing that Ralph's out-of-sorts and not even chasing down leads for his Sue Dearbon case, but otherwise this one feels a bit more filler-y. Not quite as much as "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach", which was far more detached from the Bloodwork plot or the Crisis plot, but still.
A good chunk of the first two-thirds of the episode is the hilarious James Bond parody with Barry and Ralph suiting up in tuxedos, entering a weird little conclave of super-rich criminals with obvious pastiches on villains the superspy genre. We get so many random homages to the Bond franchise like having a sulry lady called "January Galore", or the huge supervillain laser, or the giant satellite weapon they're selling in the auction, or the "Dibny, Ralph Dibny" introductions, or their encounter with the villain through a game (mahjong instead of poker, but still). Villain-of-the-week Remington Meister hams it up, and it's neat hijinks even if the Bond homages end up feeling quite thin by the end of their little confrontation (Ralph even outright groans when Remington straight-up quotes a line from Goldfinger).
The actual content of the heist is honestly pretty much throwaway -- Barry and company basically try to get Ralph out of his depressive funk at the thought that his buddy Barry is destined to die in a couple of weeks fighting some immense crisis. Barry (and Joe) wants to basiaclly do this whole announcement in front of the police to give the Elongated Man a direct passing-of-the-torch moment. Ralph's sort of given up on the Sue Dearbon case and everyone's basically poking and prodding him to get him out of his funk, which leads to the aforementioned Bond parody. It is admittedly not the freshest material out there, and there's even shades of last season's Goldface episode with how Barry accidentally tips off the bad guys that they're undercover superheroes by being a bit too impulsive in stopping the bad guys, but ultimately it's a neat little romp, even if it's somewhat questionable just how many people in the world has a generic "meta dampener" device installed in their supervillain lair, and, conversely, how many supervillains don't have such a device.
Ultimately, after a fight involving a timer and a satellite superweapon (that of course comes with a self-destruct button), we get an absolutely batshit-silly fisticuffs fight with tuxedo Barry and Ralph fighting Remington Meister and Ultraviolet (her costume is so edgy in all of the best ways) set to Muse's Supremacy. It's silly. Basically the episode ends up with Ralph Dibny telling Barry to accept both identities or something, leading to the little police department scene where the Flash passes the baton to the Elongated Man, who, in turn, decides to honour CSI Barry Allen for his services. The themes are a bit forced but it's so earnest and sweet.
While all of this is going on, the B-plot is Nash Wells, who is just still a walking plot device who I only vaguely care about because he's played by Tom Cavanagh. Nash's still convinced that the Monitor, the extra-dimensional god-like entity full of enigmatic motivations... is hiding behind that metal wall in the sewers, and apparently he needs the help of some sort of ultraviolet powers in order to get past the Monitor's Eternium wall trap or something. And this leads to Nash Wells popping up in Iris's office, encountering Allegra and quickly baffling the poor girl's mind by telling her about multiverses and doppelgangers and whatnot. It's... it's actually kind of funny to see someone who's as attuned to all this comic-book nonsense like Nash deal with Allegra, who's honestly just overwhelmed by metahumans alone.
It's a serviceable sequence, I suppose, and Allegra's been sort of this character that's slowly rising into prominence amongst the cast, but while it's not the most interesting story, I do really like how beyond just being a "I want the truth but my boss is hiding stuff from me" wet blanket, Allegra's also got a fair amount of personal angst because she's afraid using her powers will make her be like her cousin Esperanza. Nash manages to convince Allegra to help decipher the code before dropping her off (and also spoiling the Flash's secret identity in the process; Nash really gives no shits), hinting that Allegra reminds him of someone else. His own version of Jesse Wells, I guess.
The C-plot of this episode finally brings back Chester "Chunk" Runk, the black hole kid from the season premiere that was sort of set up to be part of the supporting cast but has been completely ignored until this episode. Cecile uses her powers to basically be kind of her wingman as Chester tries to ask Jitters barista Nicole out on a date. It's cute for what it is, and I especially loved Killer Frost sitting on a nearby couch snarking about how terrible Cecile's advice is while bringing up the Book of Ralph. Ultimately it's another "be yourself" message for both Chester and Cecile. Not particularly noteworthy, but cute.
Anyway, a pretty cute and somewhat standalone episode. Ramsay, absent throughout most of the episode, shows up at the end to attack Elongated Man and give us our cliffhanger. S'neat!
DC Easter Eggs Corner
- Elongated Man's comic-book logo makes an appearance in the badge that Flash pins on him in the announcement.
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