TV Review: "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured"

While Ralph has been appearing in these episodes of The Flash, his roles were smaller in comparison to the main plots.

In "Liberation," Barry (Grant Gustin) realizes that Iris (Candice Patton) isn't really herself as Eva (Efrat Dor) sets her plans in motion using the mirror images of Iris, Kamilla (Victoria Park) and Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) to reach a certain metahuman for help.

Meanwhile, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Ralph visit Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) only to find her suffering from a strange case of hypothermia. They do what they can to help, but it's clear that they need to reach out to Caitlin's mother.

Ralph and Cisco were also seen trying to help Barry with the artificial Speed Force generator.

The Caitlin plotline stretched into "Pay the Piper," in which Killer Frost is awarded a "Dib-ploma" in a very sweet scene with Ralph as she feels nervous about meeting Caitlin's mother.

It felt like this should've been in the previous episode, and maybe it was originally planned, but with some reshuffling of the season's filmed episodes due to COVID-19, perhaps they had to split that plot over two episodes to fit it in at all. (It was, of course, a way to write out Caitlin/Killer Frost as Danielle Panabaker was taking maternity leave.)

The main plot of "Pay the Piper" saw Godspeed (voiced by BD Wong) return to Central City to take Barry's speed. To help take him out, Barry enlists the help of Hartley Rathaway (Andy Mientus), the Piper, who hates The Flash due to how a past run-in left one of his accomplices. With little of his own speed remaining, Barry has to take down Godspeed and help Hartley.

This brings us to the defacto season finale, "Success is Assured."

As Eva prepares to kill her husband, Joseph Carver (Eric Nenninger), Barry and his team prepare to defend him, convincing him to go into ARGUS custody. However, Eva manages to get Joseph's metahuman assassins on her side, so it's going to be quite the task.

Meanwhile, Ralph meets with Sue's parents (Mark Brandon and Nancy Hillis as Richard and Penelope, respectively), confronting them that he knows Joseph Carver was blackmailing them. Sue arrives and tells them that Carver had a change of heart, but Ralph is suspicious and later discovers that Sue is actually working for him, the true cause of his "change of heart," with her own intent to kill Carver. And yet the finale holds one more twist for Sue...

It is certainly unfortunate that The Flash wasn't able to wrap up the season, yet keeping the cast and crew safe and healthy was more important, and should everything work out, we will eventually get the end of the story.

As it is, the wrap up of the season suffered from having to rework everything into the episodes they were allowed. They told a coherent story, but some plots were cut too short while others felt bloated. It'll be interesting to see if several deleted scenes pop up on the eventual Blu-Ray release.

As it is, follow your local COVID-19 guidelines and hopefully, we can get The Flash Season 7 sooner rather than later.

Viewers in the US may view "Liberation," "Pay the Piper," and "Success is Assured" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes 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, 2020.

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

TV Review: "So Long and Goodnight"

It's taken awhile for The Flash to get back to Ralph and Sue. In fact, it took awhile to get back. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production halted on the show and is unlikely to resume for some time. This season will be cut short by three episodes. Only three more will air after this episode.

The mysterious Black Hole organization is targeting Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), sending Rag Doll (Troy James) as an assassin. Barry (Grant Gustin) is trying to keep Joe safe, but due to the Speed Force dying (in a Ralph-less episode), his speed is dwindling, and there's only so much he can do. Not helping matters is Iris' mirror doppleganger (Candie Patton) working to force Barry to use up his speed.

Ralph enlists Cisco (Carlos Valdes) into helping him hack into a security system at a socialite breakfast when they run into Sue again. Using clues Cisco found, Ralph begins to deduce why Sue treated him the way she did in her last episode.

I was disappointed that Ralph and Sue got only two sequences, but they were really good, and hopefully, Sue gets to meet more of Team Flash. The non-Elongated Man portion was really gripping, building up a lot of tension. Hopefully the editing crew can use the remaining three episodes of Season 6 to do a great conclusion.

Viewers in the US may view "So Long and Goodnight" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes 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, 2020.

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

TV Review: "A Girl Named Sue"

Well, Ralph didn't pop up in "Marathon," the first episode of The Flash to air post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. Would've been nice to see him with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) puzzling over the timeline and geography of the new Earth Prime. Nor did he pop up in "Love Is A Battlefield," although Frost (Danielle Panabaker) did name drop him and his efforts to help her become a better person.

So, that brings us to "A Girl Named Sue." Guess who we meet here? Luckily, the CW released a bumper crop of photos marking the debut of Natalie Dreyfuss as Sue Dearbon, and I'm trying to use them all.

Well, currently Iris (Candice Patton) has been trapped in a Mirror Dimension, witnessing a Mirror version of herself interacting with Barry (Grant Gustin). However, she meets Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor), the wife of the head of McCulloch Industries who was sent into the mirror six years ago during the Particle Accelerator explosion that created the Flash. Remembering their run in with a different version of Mirror Master in Season 3, Iris tries to help Eva escape.

Ralph, meanwhile, finally finds Sue after searching for her for nine months, which about lines up with the date of the Season 5 finale to now. He finds her in an apartment and manages to be there when there's an explosion. She manages to jump away from the blast.

Questioning her, she reveals she's being targeted by her ex, John Loring, a rich man running a criminal empire in the area. She is trying to get him exposed and captured so she can finally go home to her family without worrying about him targeting them.

Meanwhile, the Mirror Iris is up to some strange plot to reveal McCulloch Industries, but also runs into Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh), who's been holding down STAR Labs while Cisco's away, but is also seeing visions of Harry Wells, his counterpart from the former Earth-2. Barry is also working with Joe (Jesse L. Martin) on some leads from Iris, which reveals moles inside Central City's police department.

So, "A Girl Named Sue" delivers a very different Sue from the one we knew in the comics. No longer is she just the woman with a rich background who wants to sit out cases. She wants to be in the thick of it, and as she and Ralph discover, they have points that complement each other.

Natalie Dreyfuss is deliciously energetic and clicks with Hartley Sawyer right away, which works very well for the storytelling. I look forward to seeing more of them and their relationship develop!

Sue's plot looks as if it will tie into the big bad story arc this season, and I look forward to seeing her hopefully work more with Ralph and Team Flash.

Well, given how large Team Flash has become, the show is having to have some cast members not appear in each episode (Danielle Panabaker wasn't present in this episode as either Caitlin Snow or Frost, and Tom Cavanagh only appeared in one scene), I might have to retract my determination to do biweekly reviews and just blog when we have an episode that uses Ralph. I will hold off if an episode just has him there and doesn't notably use him.

Viewers in the US may view "A Girl Named Sue" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire sixth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix by June 2020. Digital versions of the episodes 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, 2020.

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

Who is Natalie Dreyfuss?

From Natalie's Instagram story

Yesterday, it was announced that The Flash had cast their Sue Dearbon, actress Natalie Dreyfuss. Checking her Instagram story, new posts from her revealed she was excited to begin her first day of filming on her new job. Meaning that we can expect her first episode very soon when season 6 resumes after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Natalie is the daughter of actor Lorin Dreyfuss and Kathy Kann, born on February 25, 1987. Her first role was at age 2 in an uncredited bit part in Let it Ride, which starred her uncle, actor Richard Dreyfuss.

At age 6, she began pursuing dance as a career, which she followed for ten years, working with New York's American Ballet Theater and Philadelphia's School of Rock. Her dance career was sidelined by an ankle injury.

She attended California's Moorpark College and trained with Yale graduate Gregory Berger-Sobeck. She would later say that aside from acting, her career choice would be a preschool teacher.

Her acting career took off in 2007 when she began a long series of guest roles on TV series and had a bit part in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. She would find recurring roles on the CW's The Originals, The Secret Life of an American Teenager and Glory Daze, which also featured Hartley Sawyer. She also had a featured role in the short lived series Rita Rocks.

You can follow her on social media on Twitter and Instagram.

We're looking forward to seeing her bring Sue Dearbon to life for the first time ever on The Flash next year!