The Flash Review: Into the Void (Season 6 Episode 1)

If you ever wanted to see Barry Allen fight a black hole then, wow, is The Flash Season 6 Episode 1, “Into the Void” the episode for you. 

To be fair, “Into the Void” is a tremendously strong premiere for Season 6, introducing new characters, setting up big season story arcs, dealing with past issues and giving our regular faves genuine moments to shine. 

But, also, Barry pretty much fights a black hole, and that’s a thing that happens. 

The black hole business is part of the episode’s largely pointless monster-of-the-week plot, in which an aggressively charming YouTube vlogger manages to accidentally unleash a black hole on Central City and tie his consciousness to it. (Just go with it, it largely doesn’t matter to the bulk of the episode.)

The best part of “Into the Void” is its character work, which firmly establishes where everyone as the season kicks off and sets them up for stories to come.

Despite their protests to the contrary, both Barry and Iris are struggling to process Nora’s erasure from their timeline.

Sure, they know they’ll see her again someday–in theory–but whoever that Nora is, she won’t be the version of their daughter they came to love last season. It’s an interestingly specific sort of grief, and one that no one but the West-Allens can truly understand.

Grant Gustin and Candice Patton deserve serious props for the heartfelt and emotional conversation between Barry and Iris on this topic, and Iris’ admission that she was willing to die on the off chance she might save Nora’s jacked is a real gut punch. 

Ralph returns from a summer abroad, working a missing persons case involving a “Sue Dearborn”. Comics fans already know that this is the woman who will one day become Ralph’s wife, and the introduction of Sue–even in an as-yet merely passing form–only helps underline that this version of Dibny has actually become a character who might deserve her. 

(Sidebar: His burgeoning friendship with Killer Frost is one of the sweetest and strangely perfect things on this show. I’m very here for them being buddies.)

Intriguingly enough, it’s Caitlin Snow who gets to set two different plots in motion this week, and her story feels as full of potential as it has at any point since Frost was introduced in Season 3. 

New villain Ramsey Russo is an old friend of Caitlin’s from her medical school days. It’s always nice when The Flash bothers to remember that these people had lives before they ended up in Star Labs, but of course Caitlin’s apparent lone surviving school chum turns out to be a psychopath.

This girl cannot catch a break. Also, did we learn nothing from Game of Thrones? Men named Ramsey should not be trusted.

Anyway, Caitlin reconnects with Ramsey at his mother’s funeral–she’s Caitlin’s former mentor and recently passed away after a painful bout with cancer. Ramsey feigns being devastated, but really he’s just furious. He can’t believe his mother just “gave up”, choosing to enjoy her final days in peace rather than push her research for a cure. 

Ramsey, in case no one has noticed yet, is kind of a jerk. 

This assumption is confirmed when he invites Caitlin for coffee under the pretense of a friendly, oh haven’t seen you in a while catch-up, only to try and exploit her connection with Star Labs. My dude, if you didn’t realize immediately that Caitlin Snow was never going to steal dark matter for you to use in your unauthorized human experiments — have you even met her before??

Actor Sendil Ramamurthy is a perfectly deliberate menacing Big Bad though and, will, I assume, make an amazing Bloodwork.

Will The Flash  will remember his existing connection with Caitlin after this point? Here’s hoping, if only because I’m really enjoying her character having this many touchpoints into the season’s story.

Elsewhere, Caitlin and Killer Frost are working out a new sort of partnership–one that let’s Frost out a bit more often. 

To be honest, the dynamic between Frost/Caitlin is still fairly nonsensical and one of the worst ways the show could have chosen to tell this story. But, now that they’ve committed to it, I have to admit I kind of like where we’re going with the story, even if it does mean we have to watch poor Danielle Panabaker alone in a room talking to herself. 

The idea that we’re finally going to get to explore more of Frost beyond her role as Caitlin’s icy protector is an intriguing one, and it feels like they might actually be trying to get a handle on this character after two seasons of…well, mess. 

And, of course, there’s “Crisis”. All roads this season lead to “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” after all, and the appearance of the Monitor should be pretty expected at this point. Much of the first half of The Flash Season 6 will doubtless be about setting up the crossover, so let’s all hope they stick the landing all around shall we?

“Crisis” or no, however, this already feels like one of the most fully realized seasons of The Flash in a long time. It should be exciting to see where it all goes from here. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• I absolutely screamed when Queen’s “Flash’s Theme” from Flash Gordon started playing and I am neither ashamed nor sorry. 
• Caitlin’s new Killer Frost costume is absolutely gorgeous. 
• I can’t say I care that much about Cisco’s girlfriend whose name I struggle to remember becoming a sort of ancillary Team Flash member. But it does feel strange to me that he gave up being Vibe in some small way because he wanted a genuine future with her, but has now basically sucked her into that Star Labs life anyway. 
• Chester P. Runk is the best name any guest character on this show has ever had. 
• I honestly cannot wait to see how Killer Frost will interact with Ralph’s 2.0 life guide.

What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

5 Things We’d Like to See in The Flash Season 6