Intertwining situations cause big (and tiny) problems this week as we learn that there are no coincidences when dealing with evil geniuses.
The episode started off with a pretty random surprise. Cecile can suddenly read minds. Why can Cecile read minds? No one really knows which makes this seem like an issue of a plot device that was not thought through so they just blame it on her pregnancy and the possibility of latent dark matter. Cecile quickly finds the power exciting and begins to read everyone’s mind, annoying, well, pretty much everyone.
Meanwhile, Barry is still chilling in Iron Heights with his buddy, Big Sir. They’ve taken to playing poker and it seems as though Barry has been using his “Flash” powers to cheat. Shame, shame, Mr. Allen. When the game goes awry, it’s revealed that Big Sir is in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Naturally, Barry always needs someone to save, so he tasks the team with finding the man who actually committed the crime.
While Harry insists there are no coincidences, it seems awfully coincidental that the man who actually did the crime Big Sir was charged with fifteen years ago is the same guy who is now shrinking and stealing buildings, cars, weapons, pretty much anything he wants. Sylbert Rundin is his name and he was one of the twelve metas created when Barry exited the speed force. He will soon be known as Dwarfstar.
Joe, Cisco, and Ralph head over to Rundin’s place and find it full of “figurines.” Getting spooked, Rundin reveals his powers by enlarging a gun to shoot at the group and then grabbing a tiny parachute which he manages to enlarge and effectively use to float down from what seems like the fourth-story of a building. When the trio meets him in the alley, Cisco and Ralph get miniaturized. They’re left being tiny until the team can figure out how to super-size them.
Thankfully, they have a genius of their own in Harry, who turns Cisco’s speed force bazooka into what he calls an “enbiggening bazooka.” There really is a reason Cisco should remain the one with the naming rights. Unfortunately, the enbiggening bazooka not only doesn’t make them bigger, but it destabilizes them on an atomic level. Their cells are self-destructing and Katherine gives them ten hour before all their cells explode. What’s a good save without a timeline, right?
In jail, Big Sir is finally starting to feel hope that he may be able to leave prison. He doesn’t believe in “movie endings,” but finally admits that he’d like to see Jiaju, a village in China where monks take a vow of silence. Their heart-to-heart is interrupted by Iron Heights Warden, Gregory Wolfe. He seems upset by the friendship between the two criminals and warns Allen that everyone there is a monster and to not bait them.
After an unsuccessful therapy session for Cecile and Joe, Cecile goes to Iris for advice. Who would know Joe better than his own daughter? Iris points out that reading Joe’s mind is only the surface of the man and that Cecile should be more concerned with how Joe is feeling. After all, this is completely unexpected and incredibly random, so it must be bringing up some emotions as he adjusts to her new mind-reading ability.
Harry sciences his way to an idea to unshrink the mini Cisco and Ralph, deciding they need to be re-exposed to Rundin’s powers. How do they find him? Well, wouldn’t you know Rundin decides right then that he wants a stationary airship because, why not? It will look great in his collection.
With less than eighteen minutes until the guys explode, they hop on a drone and go to meet Rundin…because the Central City’s Weather Service Agency is naturally close by. The foolproof plan is for Iris and Harry to drive a van towards him and when Rundin tries to shrink the van, the two men will intercept the line of fire, therefore getting big again. However, Rundin is not an idiot and knows exactly how his powers work. Rather than risk restoring the two little men, he opts to pull various forms of transportation from his pocket and tosses those at him, resizing the items as he throws them.
When the countdown to Cisco and Ralph exploding hits one minute, Harry takes matters into his own hands and attacks Rundin. After a few purposely missed shots, Harry dares Rundin to shrink him and the villain willingly obliges. As soon as the ray hits him, Ralph and Cisco are back in full-form, having hidden in Harry’s pocket. Before Rundin can react, Iris shoots him with a meta power-dampening collar. Reporters have excellent aim.
There’s only one thing left to do, make him confess that he was the one who committed the murder that Big Sir had been convicted of. Rundin declines. Without his confession, they can’t get Big Sir exonerated which honestly seems like a pretty lame plan to begin with. If your plan relies solely on a criminal deciding to be honest, then you may need a better plan. It seems like there should be enough evidence to gather to prove that he was the one responsible or at least to cast doubt on the possibility of Big Sir being the murderer. All my legal information comes from Law & Order though, so I guess I could be wrong.
After all is said and done, Cecile corners Joe and demands to know how he feels, following Iris’s advice. He can’t hide his thoughts so he knows it’s better to just tell her. Joe admits that her being able to hear “every scared, dumb thought” of his makes him feel vulnerable and he doesn’t want her to see him like that. He’s a protector. To even the playing field, Cecile opens up about her scared, dumb thoughts and promises that nothing Joe could think would ever change her opinion of him. Trouble in paradise is averted.
As for Barry, he can’t let an innocent man continue to stay in prison. He made it his personal mission to save Big Sir. Once the camera is off him, Barry runs, grabbing Big Sir and dropping him off in Jiaju with a note that says, “Sometimes you DO get the movie ending.”
What Barry didn’t know was that Warden Wolfe had become suspect and installed a hidden camera right outside his cell door. His activity of freeing Big Sir had been seen and the warden now knows that Barry is the infamous Flash. Even worse, Wolfe is a dealer of metas. He drugs Barry and takes him to an undisclosed location, locking him in a cell for metas. Wolfe calls up crime lord Amunet to tell her he has a “big fish” to sell her.
I guess it’s true that no good deed goes unpunished. It was wonderful what Barry did for his friend, but the action now has him in an even worse situation than prison. Here’s hoping that Iris being denied access to Barry will be enough of a red flag that the team can save him before it’s too late.