Catching Up: The Flash Episode 601, "Into the Void"

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Wed, 10/09/2019 - 20:09

While we've seen The Monitor, Mar Novu (LaMONICA GARRETT), make a cameo appearance in the season finale of SUPERGIRL, it's his message during this season opener for THE FLASH that really gets the ball rolling for the December 2019 crossover event, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

As Iris (CANDICE PATTON) and Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) continue to mourn the loss of their future-daughter Nora, The Flash has kept busy chasing down the mystery of mute speedsters in Godspeed suits. Iris realizes she still has something left of Nora in her dad's garage -- but he's cleaned out the garage, sending Iris to dig through the local junkyard. But when she finds the item, it's sucked out of her hands by the sudden appearance of a miniature black hole. Yes, a black hole. Where did that come from? That's the mystery of tonight's episode.

It's not a mystery for long, however, when a similar black hole appears near Jitters, and almost sucking in Caitlin Snow (DANIELLE PANABAKER), who can't switch to her Killer Frost persona since she attended the funeral of a friend's mother. She's saved in the nick of time by The Flash, and the hunt for the common factor between these disturbances is underway. Their search leads them to online science video blogs shot by Chester P. Runk (BRANDON McKNIGHT) -- who appeared in the comics a long time ago as "Chunk" -- an oversized human black hole.

Chester was building a device to communicate with aliens, but accidentally created a mini black hole. Add in some comic book science, and suddenly his consciousness is split in half -- half in his mind, the other half in the black hole, leaving his body nearly catatonic, and the randomly appearing black holes getting larger and more dangerous. Cisco Ramon (CARLOS VALDES) creates a device that will implode the black holes, but while Chester's consciousness is still part of it, destroying the black hole also means killing Chester P. Runk.

This sets the stage for probably one of the most exciting Flash rescues in a long time -- running headlong into a black hole with the intention of running back out of it and save Chester, all set perfectly to Queen's "Flash Gordon" theme.

With Chester saved, we may have a new super-powered member of Team Flash. And just in time, because we have a new potential "big bad" in the form of Dr. Ramsey Rosso (SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY), who becomes the character Bloodwork while using dark matter as a key to curing his hemophilia. And Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER) takes some time away from his missing persons case, searching for Sue Dearbon (his future wife in the comic books), to help Caitlin and Frost come to terms with their separated lives.

But it's the last few moments of the show that get things geared up for the upcoming CRISIS, as Mar Novu appears in the time vault, alerting Flash that the timeline has been moved forward -- and this December, for the multiverse to live...

...The Flash must die.

Grade:

4.5 / 5.0