REVIEW: ‘The Flash,’ Season 6, Episode 12 – “A Girl Named Sue”

The latest episode of The Flash “A Girl Named Sue,” aired this week on the CW Network. In the previous episode, Iris (Candice Patton) seemed to have walked away from her abduction at McCulloch Tech without much harm done to her. The next morning, she surprises Barry (Grant Gustin) with a Valentine’s Day breakfast. The two decide to celebrate the holiday with a special dinner, which is interrupted by Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff). Amunet is after a particular flower but is unaware that Goldface (Damion Poitier) is also after it. Meanwhile, Frost (Danielle Panabaker) is getting into the holiday spirit and tries to encourage Allegra (Kayla Compton) to reunite with an old flame.

In “A Girl Named Sue,” Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) finally has a lead on Sue Dearbon’s (Natalie Dreyfuss) whereabouts after having spent six months searching for her. In the spirit of a true private investigator, he never gave up looking for her since the day her parents hired him to find her. Ralph eventually meets with Sue face to face but has a hard time bringing her home. Sue insists that Ralph accompany her on a daring adventure, fully unaware of what awaits him. Meanwhile, Iris’ mirror clone makes a request to Barry that could bring about great danger. Also, Iris meets Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor) inside the mirror dimension.

I’ve been looking forward to this episode since Sue’s name was mentioned during the first few episodes of this current season. For those who may not be familiar with Sue, she’s a character from DC Comics and is more commonly referred to as Sue Dibny, She’s married to Ralph and was first introduced in The Flash vol. 1 #119 in 1961. Sue’s character became a major point of conversation after an extremely controversial storyline was written about her. While Ralph and Sue are married in the comics, there’s no clue as to whether their characters on the show will get together. However, there’s clear chemistry with both Sawyer and Dreyfuss, which certainly teases the possibility of Sue being Ralph’s first major love interest.

Along with Sue, viewers were introduced to Eva McCulloch. Eva is a quantum engineer who has been stuck in the Mirror Dimension since the day that the Particle Accelerator exploded during season one. Back in November 2019, it was announced that Efrat Dor was cast to be Eva McCulloch. Along with the announcement, it was teased that her potential friendship with Iris would end up putting Team Flash in grave danger. Many have theorized that she will be the new Mirror Master since Evan McCulloch was a version of the Mirror Master in the comics. I’m interested in seeing how Eva befriends Iris and finds ways to manipulate their friendship. However, I’m still hoping that she doesn’t end up being the big villain of the season. With her husband, Joseph Carver, being a leader of Black Hole, I’m holding out hope that Raijin will be introduced.

I still don’t know how to feel about Iris’ mirror clone wandering around in Earth-Prime. On one hand, her tenacity in journalism and willingness to do whatever to stop villains are characteristics I wish that Iris would’ve had since the beginning of the show. On the other, it’s still disappointing that the real Iris is still trapped in the Mirror Dimension. She still isn’t getting any real character development. The real Iris is still dead set on getting back to her husband and the rest of the team. I would be rooting for her a bit more if her main reason for escaping is to continue her investigation of Black Hole. It looks like her friendship with Eva will only make this even harder.

Aside from Sue’s namedrop during the beginning of the season, I was extremely excited when the Black Hole symbol appearing during episode two. The Black Hole storyline from Joshua Williamson’s current run of The Flash comics is still one of my favorite comic book stories of all time. However, the Black Hole organization has yet to be developed more. With their motives still unclear, I get the impression that it was just included as a way to hype up the season. They would be a much more menacing organization if the show gave them time to make threats upon Central City.

Overall, I enjoyed watching “A Girl Named Sue.” The introductions of both Sue and Eva were handled well and they make perfect additions to the show. The end scene of this episode sets up an even bigger story that will surely lead to some dangerous situations for everyone involved. I really loved Sue’s more comedic dialogue and her carefree nature. Eva’s clearly given up hope but Iris offers the right amount to spark a friendship. With next week’s episode focusing on Grodd, I’m quite interested to see if Grodd’s role will parallel that of the comics during the Black Hole arc.

New episodes of The Flash Season Six air every Tuesday at 8 PM PST / 5 PM EST on the CW Network

Nicolas Soto

Nicolas is a pop culture critic, focusing primarily on film, tv. anime, and manga. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, which shapes the way he analyzes his work.

Twitter and Instagram: @brainstormer609