What I’m Watching: The Flash

The Flash: Season 4, Episode 4 “Elongated Journey Into Night” (B+)

I’m not sure that this whole Cisco-hunting plotline was necessary, but I guess it’s Halloween and it wasn’t the worst use of time. I’d also argue that the casting of Danny Trejo as Gypsy’s father is fantastic, and I think it would be great to have him back another time on this show. While Breacher did manage to get Cisco pretty riled up, he ultimately ended up admitting that he respected him despite his hatred for him, and he also slipped and revealed Gypsy’s real name, Cynthia, which really isn’t so scary, as well as his own, which is Josh. I would never have expected a character with the ability to stretch his limbs to work well on this show, but this proved to be a fun and relatively inventive episode. There’s no denying that much of Ralph’s newfound stretch features were disgusting, particularly when he sneezed, but his ability to absorb a bullet was awesome, as was his stretching his arm to pull down the helicopter when Joe’s life was in jeopardy. The corrupt mayor and his gangster goons made this feel a lot more like a comic book than usual, and maybe Ralph’s presence on this show as Barry’s new trainee will continue that trend. I didn’t remember anything about DeVoe, but a quick search to confirm the spelling of his name clarified that he’s the Thinker, who we already know is manipulating things. It was sweet to see Joe handing out cigars to the team with the biggest smile on his face, and let’s hope that the Thinker’s plan doesn’t put his new family in any jeopardy.