TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 04 Episode 04: Elongated Journey Into Night

While certainly better than last weeks episode, “Elongated Journey Into Night” was as uneven and stretch as the new character that came to town. Ralph Dinby, aka the Elongated Man, longtime DC Comics character, and now…the newest meta to be created by Flash’s bus incident.

On one hand, I really dug how he was not only on the bus, but wasn’t a full-on villain like KillG%re and Hazard were before him. I also like how Joe and Barry both knew Dinby beforehand, as it added to the character story. But, I don’t know if I like how they portrayed him here. The idea of a dirty cop turned hero was intriguing, what we got instead was easily the most hateable man in the world who isn’t a supervillain. Dinby is mean, mean-spirited, willing to take shortcuts for glory, and blames others for his problems.

While this would be ok for some characters, I don’t think this was great for Elongated Man. Not every hero is noble like Barry or Cisco, but they didn’t have to THIS dislikeable. Now, I will give credit, the special effects for Dinby’s elongated powers were actually really cool, especially that sneezing scene. The Flash isn’t known for having the biggest special effects budget, but it was put to good use here.

Unlike the return of Mayor Bellows. This is another case of Flash doing “dramatic” scenes or twists with no basis or reason. Having Mayor Bellows be blackmailed by Dinby was clever, and helped sell Dinby as low. But, then having the mayor hire thugs to kill him, say “What do i care about cops? Waste them.” THEN have said thugs try and kill Barry and Joe in their own home? Seriously? There was literally no basis for this, and it felt like a true waste of a character.

Which…brings us to Breacher, another DC Comics character getting a live-action debut. This one is tricky. Because on one hand, Danny Trejo is legend, and he does play the perfect overprotective father. However, his action scenes were anything but, he was incredibly stiff, and his powers seemed to work in spite of him. This is supposed to be the greater hunter in the multiverse, or one of them, yet half of the time he was just holding his arms up trying to be menacing. Ok…

I did like Cisco and Harry’s scenes here, and Harry THANKFULLY is back to true form as he gave good and hilarious advice about how to deal with Josh…I mean…Breacher.

What’s really sad is that Caitlin’s storyline came back this week…for all of five seconds. Hopefully we get more of that later.

But, I am glad to see that Dinby’s reveal of Duvoe’s name sparked Barry’s memory, and puts Team Flash on track to at least try and take him down.

In the end, “Elongated Journey Into Night” brought two DC Comics characters into existence with mixed results. I really feel that Flash is falling into old habits, and that’s not a good thing.