The Flash Review: A Girl Named Sue (Season 6 Episode 12)

After nearly two-thirds of a season of searching, Sue Dearbon finally arrives on The Flash Season 6 Episode 12, “A Girl Named Sue,” and if her introduction is anything to go by, it seems as though her character will prove to be well worth the wait. 

Ralph Dibny’s entire storyline this season has been subsumed by finding Sue. Actor Hartley Sawyer has been MIA onscreen for weeks because Ralph’s ostensibly been out on the road looking for her.  The pair make up one of the most famous romances in comics, and fans have been waiting years to see this pairing play out onscreen. 

And, granted, The Flash takes more than a few liberties with Sue’s character as many fans will have understood it. Here, she’s a double crossing jewel thief who uses her future love to get access to a diamond she wants to snag for herself. But she’s also not presented as a bad person, or as someone with no morals. Merely someone in a difficult position, who…also happens to be busy investigating the very same company that Iris has been digging into.

Also, they didn’t spent months casting this character to have her not get with Ralph. Just saying. 

Natalie Dreyfuss is spunky and lots of fun, bringing a welcome jolt of energy to the screen whenever she’s on it. it’s got to be more than a bit intimidating, coming on board a long-running series like The Flash to play a character that much of the fandom has been clamoring to see for literal years. No pressure, right?

But, at least in her debut installment, Dreyfuss seems more than up the challenge, deftly balancing Sue’s sarcasm, smarts nad  devil may care attitude with hints that there’s a real person with real depth underneath. She and Sawyer have a remarkably easy chemistry, the banter between the two is charming, and they seem primed for many more adventures to come. 

There’s also something to be said for casting Ralph as a reluctant role model of sorts for Sue, particularly given how much he struggled to get started on his own hero’s journey. But we’ve already seen that Ralph isn’t just a good hero, he’s also a good man, and one has to hope that his growing bond with Sue will help her get there too. 

Smartly, The Flash balances out the goofy noir detective adventures of Ralph and Sue with the more serious mystery involving Iris. (Or Irises, if you want to get technical.)

Our Iris, the one trapped in the mirror dimension, discovers that she’s not exactly alone there. Eva McCulloch, presumed dead for the past six years, is also a prisoner there. And being trapped on her own in an empty world for that long hasn’t exactly been kind to her. 

In fact, to put it kindly, the loneliness and emptiness of the mirror world seem to have driven her more than a little mad. Yet, even as we all slowly realize that her strange — ahem — mastery of mirrors hints at what we’ll surely be her ultimate role this season, it’s hard to do anything other than pity poor Eva. 

In the end, she’s just another victim of the particle accelerator explosion too. (That’s what pushed her through the mirror in the first place.)

In the real world, Mirror Dimension Iris is busy doing…something that feels fairly shady. Last week, this “other” Iris still felt pretty much like “our” Iris, despite being from another dimension. Just maybe a bit more sure of herself and confident in voicing her own needs and desires.

(Not for nothing, but real Iris could really take some life tips from her mirror version, is all I’m saying, at least when it comes to pushing back against Barry’s more overbearing tendencies.)

Yet, now, Mirror Iris is busy skulking around, trying to get her hands on a mirror gun for…some as yet unexplained reason. One has to assume it’s got something to do with making the Iris Swap permanent, but that’s just a guess. 

It’s certainly fun to watch Candice Patton finally get so much to do, and her ability to distinguish between the two Irises in her performance style is pretty great. (Mirror Iris, for example, is wound up so much more tightly than our version.)

But what’s most intriguing about what’s happening on The Flash right now is that it feels like all its major plot threads — Sue’s arrival, mirror dimensions, multiple Irises and the threat of Black Hole — all feel vaguely connected, as if we tug on any one of them and everything will pull itself that much closer together. 

We haven’t gotten a Big Bad arc that’s this interconnected with everything happening on the show in quite some time, maybe all the way back to Eobard Thawne in Season 1. It feels meaningful, in an exciting and fresh way. Let’s hope that it’s just the beginning. 

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Anyone got any ideas why Ralph apparently completely forget that he has superpowers when he was getting drowned by that dude during their fight? I mean, I’m as down as the next gal with letting the women save the guys more often in this show, but not when it’s because the dudes are idiots. 
• I have no idea why Nash is seeing The Sixth Sense-style visions of his dead Earth-2 alter ego, but wow, Harry looks a m a z i n g.
• After a whole half-season of OMG BARRY IS GOING TO DIE, I really wouldn’t mind it if the character took a backseat for the rest of the season, much as he did during this episode. The show feels stronger for focusing on other characters and stories. 
• I do like when various The Flash actors have to play themselves as Ralph being disguised them. It’s hilarious. 

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

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

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