Life after Crisis has people on The Flash shook up. Cisco is worried about unknown threats, Barry invents a mystery to avoid dealing with Oliver Queen’s death, Iris recklessly chases down a story, and everyone grieves for the death of the multiverse.
It seems like Barry and Iris are both moving and working non-stop. It appears that they were so revved up for Crisis that they don’t know how to go back to normal. While the central part of the episode focuses on Iris and her investigation of an underground organization called Black Hole, Barry and Dig check out what could be the last warning from Oliver.
Dig pays a visit to Barry to give him a mask that Oliver bequeathed to him in his will. It’s the mask that Barry made him, and since Oliver wasn’t given to sentimentality, Barry believes that there’s more to the mask than it seems. He practically begs Dig to help him investigate.
While you can tell from Barry’s manic behavior that he’s inventing the mystery to avoid dealing with Oliver’s death and life post-Crisis, there is a moment where it seems like he might be right.
He finds traces of Lian Yu and the Mirakuru super solider serum on the mask, so he and Dig check the island to make sure any surviving serum doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
But when they get there, there’s no trace of any more of the serum, and Barry almost can’t accept Oliver’s mask for what it is: a gift. It is a reminder that life isn’t about the mission and to enjoy life and the people in it.
It’s something that Barry definitely needed to be reminded of.
Iris and Team Citizen investigate a nefarious organization on The Flash
Back in Central City, Iris and Team Citizen begin the real work of uncovering the secret organization responsible for meta-trafficking and the murder-for-hire business that Carmen’s cousin Esperanza got caught in.
Iris speaks to an informant who used to work for McColloch Technologies, who puts a name to the organization: Black Hole. He witnessed Malcolm Strombard handling a proto-type infrared photon rifle the night before both he and the rifle disappeared.
This man is the same person Iris tracked down and confronted about transporting meta-humans. He was later killed for speaking to her, and to prevent him from revealing anything more about Black Hole.
Iris arranges an interview with the CEO of McColloch Technologies Joseph Carver and confronts him with the information she has about the robbery of the photon rifle and the involvement of Black Hole.
He has a story about spies from Obsidian Industries being responsible for the theft, but Iris doesn’t believe it. She tells him that she is going to run the story with or without his comment.
Unsurprisingly, McColloch Technologies sues Central City Citizen for defamation. And in a more extreme reaction, a meta-assassin with a photon rifle is sent to kill Iris. While she escapes the first attack, she is attacked again when she meets with her contact to warn him that he’s in danger.
Of course, her contact gets zapped, but not before he gives her a McColloch key card and manages to say the word “mirror” before he dies.
By the time Iris gets back to STAR Labs, she is running on high alert and refuses to take even a second to stop the investigation. Of course, she’s been injured and ends up fainting, so even if her mind won’t give up, her body forces her to take a break.
Iris gets injured in the line of duty, but was she just being reckless?
Joe lectures her on her reckless methods, saying that the story won’t get solved in a day. Now that Crisis is over, there’s more time to investigate and do things the right way.
Iris realizes that Joseph Carver is involved in Black Hole and goes to confront him. Black Hole uses the same optics technology as McColloch, linking the organizations pretty directly.
She can’t stop Black Hole yet, but she tells Carver that she set up a deadman’s switch. If her or any of her loved ones gets hurt, the information she has linking him to Black Hole will be released.
Carver calls his assassin and tells her to stand down, just in time to save Frost from a terrible death.
Meanwhile, Cisco is struggling with the new unknown threats caused by the timeline change and partly blames himself for Crisis. He decides to take some time away and do some legwork to find out how things have changed compared to how they used to be.
As an olive branch, he asks Nash Wells to keep an eye on things while he’s gone.
Nash has a secret of his own, with a secret multiverse connection to Allegra, so becoming part of the STAR Labs family will give him a chance to get closer to this version of her.
Back at home, Iris and Barry catch up and admit to each other that they’ve both had trouble adjusting to post-Crisis life. They both need to slow down and enjoy life at a normal pace again instead of living every day like it’s their last. So they stay home together and take it easy.
Later that night, however, Iris has a revelation about her informant’s mirror clue and goes back to McColloch after hours to investigate. She finds a secret room and ends up getting pulled into a mirror when two silver hands reach out from it and grab her.
There’s plenty in The Flash’s 2020 promo that didn’t happen in this episode, so we have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks, including more Ralph Dibney and the return of Amunet.
Watch The Flash on Tuesdays at 8/7 C on The CW.