“Are you guys okay?” asks Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker). “Okay? Okay?! We’re two inches tall, Caitlin,” yells back a very tiny Cisco (Carlos Valdes) after he and Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) are miniaturized by a new meta-human in season four episode 12 of The CW’s The Flash.
As the episode begins, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) are building a crib together when she realizes she can hear Joe’s thoughts. Surprised and a little freaked out, they head S.T.A.R. Labs where Caitlin runs tests on the baby. She tells the anxious couple the baby is fine and there are no traces of any dark matter in the womb, so their baby is not a meta.
After Cecile reads everyone’s minds on how this might be happening, and reads Caitlin’s about the baby being a girl, Caitlin theorizes that Cecile’s pregnancy most likely woke up some residual dark matter in her brain from the first accelerator explosion. Caitlin thinks it will most likely dissipate after the child is born.
A frustrated Harry (Tom Cavanagh) reminds the team they need to be working to find a way to get Barry out of prison.
In Iron Heights, Barry’s playing cards with a few inmates and winning. When the game breaks up, Barry and Big Sir (Bill Goldberg) get to talking about why Sir is doing time. It seems 15 years ago he was arrested for the murder of a security guard. Big Sir tells Barry he didn’t do it and that he actually tried to save the guard but the cops took one look at him and decided he was the guy. So, Barry reaches out to Joe and asks him and Team Flash to look into Big Sir’s case.
Over in another part of the city, the new mayor is giving a short speech about the opening of a new building when suddenly it seems to disappear. Only, it’s not really gone; it has been downsized, as in shrunk by a meta-human named Sylbert Rundin (Derek Mears).
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Team Flash is debating whether or not to investigate Big Sir’s case or if it’s just a waste of time. Harry speaks up and says they have to do it for Allen because it’s the first thing he has asked for since being locked up. It isn’t even for him – it’s for an inmate who might also be innocent. After a little digging, they come up with Sylbert Rundin as a possible person of interest. Cisco and Ralph join Joe as they head out to talk to Sylbert.
Back at Iron Heights, Barry tells Big Sir he has his friends looking into his case and Sir’s not pleased. Big Sir reveals to Barry that he’s learned to live without hope and that hope, especially false hope, is a very dangerous thing to a man doing time.
Joe, Cisco, and Ralph visit Rundin at his apartment and notice his “collectible small figures.” When Joe asks Rundin about a robbery 15 years ago, he makes a break for it by jumping out the window while wearing a parachute. Cisco breaches himself, Joe, and Ralph to the alley to stop Rundin. As they try to take Rundin down, he uses his powers to shrink poor Cisco and Ralph.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin and Harry are trying to figure out a way to return Cisco and Ralph back to normal size when Iris (Candice Patton) arrives with some news. Seems Rundin got his powers because he stole some of Ray Palmer’s Dwarfstar and rode the bus the same day Barry came out of the Speed Force. The gang realize that Rundin and Sir looked enough alike 15 years ago to be mistaken for each other and that Rundin is the one who murdered the security guard.
Harry tweaks Cisco’s bazooka to try to make it an unshrinking gun, but when he tries it out on the two little guys it doesn’t work. What does happen, unfortunately, is that the blast from the bazooka makes Cisco’s and Ralph’s molecules unstable. Caitlin realizes they only have about 10 hours to fix the two before they explode. “But I don’t want to go boom,” says Ralph.
At Iron Heights, the Warden has noticed that Barry and Big Sir have gotten to be friends so he approaches Barry telling him he got a call to have Big Sir’s files ready and that the case is being looked at again. Warden Wolfe warns Barry not to get Big Sir’s hopes up because it could be bad for his health if it goes wrong.
Meanwhile, Iris notices a strain on Joe’s and Cecile’s relationship since Cecile started reading minds. She suggests they visit the same counselor she and Barry went to (Really?! Those sessions never helped her and Barry. What is Iris thinking?!) In perhaps the funniest scene in the episode, Joe and Cecile go to the therapist which backfires terribly when Cecile starts reading the counselor’s mind and realizes she’s making up her grocery list. Joe finally admits to Cecile that he has to deliberately block her from reading his mind with the image of a pink elephant. He feels violated when she reads his mind.
Barry informs Big Sir that his friends have found the real killer. They’ll catch him soon and it’s only a matter of time before he’s a free man. Barry asks him if he has any plans when he gets out, and Big Sir tells him since he has no family he’ll probably go to Jiaju, China, his idea of paradise.
Meanwhile, Harry’s furious with himself for not being able to figure out a way to return Cisco and Ralph to normal size and for not being able to out-think The Thinker, DeVoe. Cisco gives him a pep talk, telling him he needs to stop being his own problem and to focus. While talking, Harry and Cisco realize the way to restore them back to their correct size is to get blasted by Rundin again. The gang get a hit on Rundin who’s at the CCWC museum.
Harry and Iris go together to face Rundin while Cisco and Ralph fly on a drone to try to make sure to get hit by Rundin’s blast. Caitlin stays behind at S.T.A.R. Labs, trying to come up with a cure for Cisco and Ralph in case it doesn’t work. After a few missed attempts, Harry confronts Rundin and tries to shoot him with a laser. Rundin tells Harry he’s going to shrink him to the smallest atom and blasts him, but Cisco and Ralph breached into Harry’s pocket and they’re hit by the blast and returned to normal size – just in time. Iris shoots Rundin with the power-reducing neck brace and he falls to his knees. Joe promises Rundin he’ll get him a good deal with the D.A. if he confesses to the murder of the security guard 15 years ago, but Rundin laughs and says he would rather rot.
Joe calls Barry with the bad news and Barry explains what happened to Big Sir, apologizing for getting his hopes up and for letting him down. Sir smiles at Barry and tells him he didn’t. He’d forgotten what it was like to have hope and that it’s “not such a bad thing.” Later that night, Barry’s in his cell and when the motion camera turns away he speeds out and speeds Big Sir out of iron Heights and drops him off in Jiaju, China. Big Sir, stunned, looks at a little note in his hand from Barry that reads: “Sometimes you do get the movie ending.”
Over at Joe’s house, Cecile and Joe have a heart-to-heart and he tells her how uncomfortable it is for him that she can read all his thoughts, especially the dumb and embarrassing ones. Cecile assures him she could never think less of him and reveals some of her own silly and goofy thoughts. They end up smiling at each other and admit as long as they love each other that’s what matters.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, the team’s feeling good about their win but not Harry who reminds them that all of it goes back to DeVoe’s plan. A plan they haven’t figured out yet but that they need to and get Barry out of prison.
In Iron Heights, Warden Wolfe visits Barry in his cell and tells him he had a new camera installed watching Barry’s cell and he knows he’s The Flash. Before Barry can deny it, he starts to feel dizzy. The Warden admits to drugging the pudding Barry was eating. Barry passes out and the Warden puts him in a new meta-human cell on a different level of the prison. The Warden calls Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff) telling her he’s ready to do business.
The Flash Season 4 Episode 12 Review:
Light, comical, but not all that original, season four episode 12 titled “Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash” seems to take most of its ideas and plot points from big-screen films such as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ant-Man, and The Shawshank Redemption. In the producers’ and writers’ attempts to lighten the show’s tone and get away from the dark and depressing feel of the third season, the series is becoming too campy and silly for its own good.
The special effects do however shine in this episode that deals with showing two-inch tall versions of Cisco and Ralph talking to and interacting with normal-sized Harry, Caitlin, Joe, and Iris. Once again, the effects team more than pull it off. This series really should be nominated for an Emmy for special effects. It’s trying and accomplishing wonderfully visuals and effects on television that no other show has ever dared to try.
With Warden Wolfe about to sell Barry to Amunet, here’s hoping that Team Flash will be fast enough to come to the aid of our hero. Maybe Killer Frost can help Barry break out of prison before he ends up on the black market.
GRADE: C+
More on The Flash Season 4:
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 1 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 2 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 3 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 4 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 5 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 6 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 7 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 8 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 9 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 10 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 11 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 13 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 14 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 15 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 16 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 17 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 18 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 19 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 21 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 22 Recap
– Grant Gustin Interview
– Danielle Panabaker Interview
– Candice Patton Interview
– Todd Helbing Interview
– Tom Cavanagh Interview
– Keiynan Lonsdale Interview
– Carlos Valdes Interview
