TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 6 Episode 6: License To Elongate

I’m sure some of you will be rather surprised with what I liked about this episode and what I didn’t like. Because “License To Elongate” had all the hallmarks of a season 5 Ralph Dibny story going into the episode. Meaning that it would be cringe-worthy from start to finish. But surprisingly, it wasn’t, or at least, not in the areas that you would expect.

On the positive side, the Ralph/Barry storyline, that was a straight-up B-grade James Bond film by intention was very fun, very funny, and very self-aware of what it was. Even having Ralph go so far as to call out that this was a Bond film in many ways. But it wasn’t Ralph’s that brought this storyline down, in fact, it was Ralph that made it shine. Yeah, I’m shocked too.

Ralph showing off just how competent he is as a P.I. was great, and seeing Barry struggle with just being Barry Allen in a situation like this was very fun. He’s used to doing things the “Flash Way” not the “finese way”, which is something I’m sure Oliver Queen would appreciate hearing. So having Ralph and Barry take down the bad guys as themselves was really fun to watch, as well as seeing the teases of what’s to come with Ultraviolet’s organization that she’s in. But she’s surely not happy about the Spectre of defeat she again found herself in…see what I did there?

Also interesting was the Nash/Allegra storyline, because that literally came out of nowhere. Yet it worked for the most part. I’ll admit that this was actually Nash’s best episode in my mind. We find out that he doesn’t just break legends, he breaks legends about Gods so that he can give the power of choice to people once again and not just deal in faith. Clearly hinting at a backstory of a “false god’ ruining someone…maybe a daughter? Of course, him trying to break the Monitor won’t go well because we know he IS a god of sorts. So…yeah. Still, it was good outside of an overtly cheesy motivational speech. But you take the good with the bad. Unlike…

Chester! And Cecil too! This storyline was cringe from top to bottom, and it was bad…so bad. I get that Cecil wants to help everyone in her new job, but there are limits. And she was acting more like a schoolgirl trying to hook a friend of hers up than an adult woman trying to save lives. Chester didn’t come off as much better with his “rebirth” sequence and everything that followed. Please don’t bring him back.

The twist with Bloodwork at the end was nice, as was the press conference for both Elongated Man and Barry Allen. Sometimes it’s the simple scenes that are the best.

In the end, “License To Elongate” did its best work when following Barry and Ralph, and did either decent or terrible with the other characters. Let’s see what happens with Bloodwork’s return next episode.

Just remember…a Crisis Is Coming…