TV Review: "Elongated Journey Into Night"

The current TV show The Flash began on the second season of the TV show Arrow. Early episodes of the season featured mentions of STAR Labs building a particle accelerator in Central City, which had previously been mentioned in the first season. Later, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) himself showed up and wound up being the one to suggest Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) wear a mask to disguise his identity as the Green Arrow. His appearance ended with him being struck by a wave from the malfunctioning particle accelerator back home in Central City.

The next season saw The Flash debut as a spinoff TV show. The two shows would further spinoff into DC's Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash would be the first to crossover with sister show Supergirl. The Flash would have its identity as a show about a super-powered hero, his allies, and the many villains he would face in Central City.

Seems like Ralph Dibny would be a perfect fit, right?

Well, in the first season's episode "Power Outage," Dr. Harrison Wells mentions that he'd hurt a lot of people the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion, and mentions Ralph's name with two characters who were confirmed dead, and another character who would be revealed to not be dead later in the season. The general consensus was that this universe's Ralph Dibny was deceased.

Or was he?

As the current season of The Flash went into its last few months, it was revealed they were casting a character who would be a lot of work for the special effects crew. That role was revealed to indeed be Ralph Dibny, who would be officially confirmed to be played by Hartley Sawyer.

How could this be so, though? Well, over its first three seasons, there had been various time travel plots on The Flash that changed details of the past, so Ralph not being dead could easily be explained away. In any case, fans got very, very excited.

Let's just preface by saying that this take on Ralph was going to be very different from the classic version we know from The Flash #112 and onward. This is just about bog standard for the "Arrowverse" shows.

The Season 4 story arc features the riders of a bus being hit by dark energy, becoming metahumans. The STAR Labs team finds a card from Ralph Dibny's private investigation firm in the possession of the deceased bus driver. Wondering if he was one of the riders, Barry and Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) visit the firm to ask if Ralph was on the bus. Ralph denies it, but Joe and Barry soon find that this was a lie.

Barry and Ralph have a history. Ralph had been a senior officer in the Central City Police Depeartment, but Barry caught him forging evidence, which caused him to be fired. Ralph had his reasons as he didn't want a guilty man to get away, but he still made the wrong call. So, this take on Ralph isn't quite the squeaky clean good guy we first met in the Silver Age, but it does play into the original story's themes of Barry being suspicious of him. Just this time, he has valid reasons. Luckily, the episode gives us a redemption arc of sorts, one that promises to play out further through the season.

In addition to Ralph's plot, STAR Labs tech Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes, playing the Arrowverse version of Vibe) meets his girlfriend's father Breacher (Danny Trejo), who decides to "hunt" him for twenty-four hours. If Cisco survives, he can continue dating Gypsy (Jessica Camacho). And by "survive," I certainly mean that.

Hartley Sawyer is incredible as Ralph, and surprisingly, actually looks a lot like the classic character. His hair isn't quite the red we see in the comics, though it does have a ruddy look to it. Considering how loose the Arrowverse is with appearances, it's fine. Sawyer is engagingly entertaining in the role, being comic and fitting in well with the rest of the cast, and I very much look forward to seeing how the character will develop going forward.

The special effects are nicely done and with the usual suspension of disbelief are easy to accept, which is surprising for a TV show. Perhaps they wouldn't work so well if transferred directly to a cinematic movie screen, but on television, they look great.

Overall, "Elongated Journey Into Night" was one great hour of television that left me beaming, and if you're a fan of the character, you'll find a lot to love.

Viewers in the US may view "Elongated Journey Into Night" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire fourth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix in June, 2018. Digital versions of the episode may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2018.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.