THE FLASH "INTO THE VOID" REVIEW

Season 6 Episode 1:

The Flash is back with its sixth season, which introduces so many plot lines that we will see in the season to come, from the main villains, and the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover this December. This episode was directed by Gregory Smith, so with that out of the way, let’s get onto the recap of the episode, so spoilers ahead.

Recap

The episode opens with Barry and Iris in STAR Labs at the end of last season wherein the time vault, Nora’s last recorded message on the chip burns out, thus Barry and Iris lose all their last memory of Nora.

Flash forward four months later, Barry Allen is suited up as the Flash as he is fighting Godspeed in Central City. Barry catches Godspeed, however, when he unmasks him, it is a regular man who can only scream. Barry com's in Cisco, as they say, that they have not caught “August Heart” yet.

At a team Flash dinner, we catch up with the members of the team, as we learn that Cisco has been developing a chamber for Barry to think at superspeed. Caitlin leaves to go to a friend’s mother’s funeral, meanwhile, Iris goes to a junkyard to try to retrieve some stuff.

At the junkyard, Iris finds Nora’s jacket which Joe accidentally threw away. At the junkyard, a black hole opens, which swallows Nora’s jacket. The next day, Cisco and Barry investigate the scene and confirm that it was, in fact, a black hole that did appear. 

Caitlin goes to Jitters to meet with Ramsey Russo (who’s mother’s Caitlin went to) who tells Caitlin that he can cure a type of cancer, however, he needs dark matter to do so. Caitlin does not want to take part in any more experiments with dark matter, so Ramsey leaves. A black hole then opens and nearly sucks up Caitlin, however, Barry runs in a saves her, and the black hole closes.

At STAR Labs, Ralph has come back (from a case of trying to track down Susan), as he joins the team as they find that an internet personality, named, Chester Punk, from Central City, has a connection to the junkyard, and Jitters, and created a black hole. Iris goes to the hospital to visit Chester, who can not speak. Iris realizes that Chester is communicating with the black hole.

At STAR Labs, Caitlin and Cisco match up energy signatures from the black hole, and Ramsey to find a match that his neuron flow connects from his brain to the black holes. Cisco and Caitlin suggest that fact that they might have to kill Chester to save everyone from being sucked into a black hole, however, Barry does not want to lose anyone else.

A black hole opens up in Central City, Cisco uses Nora’s gauntlet to shut off Ramsey’s neuron flow in the black hole, however, Barry has to run through it to shut it down. In Central City, Killer Frost, and Ralph save civilians from being sucked into the black hole. Cecile takes Ramsey from the hospital and places him in the speed thinking chamber.

Cisco plays the Flash Gordan song as Barry takes a device that Cisco built and runs into the black hole. In the black hole, Barry activates the device which stops the neurons in Chester’s brain from flowing into the black hole and closes the black hole. Barry runs to STAR Labs as Chester wakes up with his lingual skills back, however, with yellow lightning glowing eyes. 

The episode ends with Barry showing Iris that he saved Nora’s jacket from the black hole and placed it in the time room. The Monitor shows up and tells Barry that he does not have five years left, however, that in exchange for billions of lives to be saved, Barry will die on December 10th, 2019.

Review

With the recap done, let’s go through some of the prominent plot points in the episode.

      Godspeed

The first scene taking place in present-day being Barry chasing down Godspeed was an incredible introduction to the season. It came out of nowhere. Last season we were introduced to Godspeed in 2049, where Nora and her friends confronted him. Godspeed was pivotal to Nora discovering her power. But since that future has been rewritten, Godspeed would have been displaced and have a different path in 2049, and potentially have his origin occur earlier in the timeline. 

The Godspeed mystery was rarely touched but the things that we know of Godspeed in his current form in this timeline is that:

• There are multiple versions of Godspeed who have no communication abilities
• Team Flash knows that Godspeed is August Heart like in the comics

I am interested to see what happens in the future with Godspeed. I do not believe that this season he will wind up being the main villain. However, I believe that in a future season, he will be the main villain, and the build-up we see this season will strengthen his appearance in the future.

      Elongated Man

We did not catch up too much with Ralph in the episode as he was bought in halfway through the episode, with his James Bond-style intro, however, we know that he was searching for a woman named “Susan”. This is a reference to Ralph’s long-time partner in the comics, Susan Dibny. Her introduction in the series was teased at the end of last season, however, it seems like some time soon, hopefully, we will see her on-screen.

      The Voids

At first when the black holes started to appear, I thought that it was the fabric of the universe recorrecting itself. What I mean by that is that I thought that everything that Nora interacted with was going to get thrown out of existence as Nora no longer exists. 

But I did like the twist that the episode took with the black holes being controlled by a meta human.

      The New Suit

The new suit that Barry Allen sported last was my least favorite suit that Grant Gustin has worn as the Flash on the show. This season’s suit for the Flash is a vast improvement. The trend of the brighter red was a great base color to keep, it keeps with the comics. The gold highlights running through the torso of the suit is also a neat addition and adds so much to the suit, giving it more vibrancy and life. And of course, the chin strap is back. Looking back, the absence of the chin strap was a little weird.

      The Monitor’s Warning

One of the most pivotal characters in the Arrowverse leading into the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover is the Monitor. The god-like figure who is the good counterpart to the crossover’s villain, the Anti-Monitor. The Elseworld’s crossover was about the Monitor preparing Earth-1 from the Crisis by giving a mad man a book of near-unlimited power. But in the season premiere, the Monitor is preparing the Flash by shattering his hope, such as the hope Barry has of seeing his daughter. The Monitor also warns Barry that he will die on December 10th, 2019. 

Much like the comics, Barry Allen may seemingly die in the Crisis crossover event. With the Elseworlds crossover last year, it did appear as though that Oliver Queen would meet his end in exchange for Barry meeting his, however, what we have been told so far is not the case.

This is the date that the Flash part of the crossover will take place, however, it is not the finale of the crossover. The Flash episode will be the third part of the crossover, with Supergirl, and Batwoman preceding it and then Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow concluding the crossover in January.

In the comics, Barry Allen did die in the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, and that is what the shows are teasing. However, Oliver Queen, in the crossover last year did make an unknown promise to the Monitor for saving Barry and Kara. This lead many people to believe, including myself, that in the show’s adaptation of the storyline that Oliver would die instead of Barry. But, whatever happens in this crossover, I am excited to see how it unfolds, and how it is further teased.

In conclusion, this episode of the Flash was a really strong start to the season. I really enjoyed the direction that this episode was taken in as it did set up many plot lines that will be explored in the season later on, and will be addressed in the upcoming crossover.

      Rating: 8.5/10

What did you think of this episode? Comment below your thoughts and opinions down below. You can click on the left for more DCTV, or on the right for the Rick and Morty season four trailer, and also subscribe. As always thanks for reading, take care.