[Narrator] Last season on the flash...
Hi, mom and dad. If you're watching this,
it means that something went wrong.
What's happening?
A new timeline is setting in.
- Thank you for everything. - We love you.
[Iris west crying]
[Cisco] Look, kamilla, I don't want to keep this from you anymore.
[Kamilla] It being vibe is a part of the life you want,
I would never get in the way of that.
[Cisco] I want to take the cure.
Killer frost and I are really gonna miss vibe.
[Cisco] Me too.
Dad.
I'd like my replacement to be you, Joe.
- As captain? - Captain Joe west.
None of you can stop what's been set into motion.
Because nothing you can do can alter what's about to happen.
[Alarm blaring]
It's a system-wide power surge.
It's coming from the time vault.
- Are we under attack? - I don't know.
Whatever's going on started the moment we left.
[Nora] I wasn't perfect.
Please remember that I love you both.
And I always will. And I always will.
And I always will. Always will...
[Gasps]
Barry, Nora's message.
Why is it every time I come to visit, there's always a crisis?
Comes with the meta territory.
750 mph, he's getting faster.
- Who is this guy, anyway? - An old family friend.
His name's godspeed, and he's from the future.
- He's like a fake speedster. - [Rapid beeping]
What's that?
The real deal.
Kick his butt, Barry.
Done and done-r.
Who are you, and what are you doing in central city?
[Emitting mechanical whir]
He's just like the others. No language skills, just noise.
Lovely.
What was that?
The fourth godspeed we've caught this summer,
and still no sign of Mr. August heart.
Just another dummy who can't
communicate anything beyond modem speak.
All right. I'm clocking out.
Why don't you drop off g4 at iron heights, Barry.
I don't think we're figuring out this mystery today.
[Iris west] This is nice, dad. We should do this way more often.
Agreed.
Hey, before I forget, congratulations on the citizen.
Yeah, well, you know, there's millions of people in central city,
and I've only got a couple hundred thousand subscribers, you know?
I'm no ccpn.
Well, not yet. But in about ten years,
youfllbe a pulitzer prize-winning empire.
[Scoffs] Baby steps, dad.
[Joe chuckles]
Damn, this is good.
You know, you can't get drunk.
I don't even care, that's how good this is.
Never fear, the party's here!
- [Mimics air horn] - [Chuckles]
We brought my famous ambrosia salad, and veggie dogs for Ralph.
- Guys, Ralph's still in Peru. - Or Monaco. Or Texas?
All that for a missing persons case? That's dedication.
Guys, guys, what are we doing?
Baby Jenna's napping like a little angel,
and I have creamed corn, I have candied yams, I have collard Greens.
[Joe] Mmm.
Baby, let's eat.
[Laughter]
- [Chuckling] - Wow.
- How's the Mac coming? - There's Mac and cheese, too?
[Laughing]
No, the mental augmentation chamber.
Basically, it allows us to tap into the speed force
to boost Barry's cognitive abilities.
It would allow him to see
every possible outcome to a scenario at the same time.
So, speed-thinking?
Which means we'll be able to catch all the bad guys faster.
With all the ones that you brought in this summer, Barry,
the da's office can barely keep up with you.
Hey, since the Mac's done, we should take it for a test run.
Absolutely not. You know we're still working out diagnostics.
We could put in a few hours tonight, get a head start.
Barry, if there's anything I've learned
since leaving vibe behind,
it's that we all have a work-life balance to protect.
And right now, mine is tipping towards more beer.
Besides, I still gotta tweak the mainframe,
and I can't do that without...
- [Scoffs] - [Chuckles]
Every time.
- My tablet. Thank you. - [All chuckling]
I'm gonna go get that beer.
Hey, so the last time I talked to you guys, you seemed good.
You guys good?
We were devastated at first, but Nora's only gone for right now.
We're gonna have kids someday, and then we'll have another Nora.
Yeah. I think knowing that
we have a second chance makes all the difference.
[Cell phone vibrating]
I gotta go. A break-in at east side industrial.
[Sighs] Dad, um, I meant to ask you,
what did you do with those boxes that were in the back of the garage?
Oh, he finally threw them away. Thank you very much.
Okay. I gotta make a call.
Guys, I'm sorry, I actually have to sneak out, too,
a friend of mine from med school needs my support.
Thanks for having me. It was delicious.
Bye, Caitlin.
You notice ain't nobody help clean up?
[Ramsey] My name is Ramsey rosso...
And my mother, Dr. Rachel rosso, was everything to me.
When I was seven, I skidded out pretty badly on a bike
she bought me for my birthday.
Imagine a scared kid with two scraped knees and a bloody nose.
When mum found me, she picked me right up,
she brushed me off
and told me to get back on my bike and ride.
I tried, but I couldn't.
It was almost like I was paralyzed. It hurt so bad.
That's when she told me that I would heal.
That I must never let a little pain
stop me from getting to where I needed to go in life.
And she was right.
I did heal.
Enough to grow up and follow in her footsteps.
And even though a beautiful life was cut short
when she lost her battle to heal herself...
She's still helping me to get to where I need to go today.
[Voice cracking] And for that, I will always be grateful.
Thank you, Jonathan.
Ramsey, hi.
I'm so sorry for your loss.
Your mother was an incredible woman. I'm gonna miss her.
It means so much that you came.
Mum actually saw something of herself in you.
Probably because you're both overachievers.
[Caitlin chuckles]
Your hands are so cold.
Are you all right?
Yeah. Sorry, I'm fine. I'm probably just coming down with something.
I hope not. Doctors make rubbish patients.
- It was nice to see you. - Caitlin...
Things have been a bit, uh, crazy.
Do you fancy coming around for a cuppa sometime?
You know, for a proper catch up.
I could really use someone to talk to right now.
Of course, any time. Just give me a call.
[Man] Well, my log says that your father's stuff
should've ended up somewhere around here.
Here it is.
Must be pretty important.
Yeah, it is. Thanks.
- [Rumbling] - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[Man screams]
Hey! Hang on, I got you!
Hang on!
- [Iris west panting] - [Man gasps]
Are you okay?
What the hell?
[Barry] I missed you last night. Are you sure you're okay?
[Iris west] Yeah.
What were you doing out here, anyway?
I was following up on a lead.
The citizen got a tip that there were a series ofjunkyard robberies.
People file police reports for stolen trash?
Yeah, well, you know, not everything that's here is garbage.
- [Object clatters] - [Cisco grunts]
Everything here is garbage!
I hate garbage!
Okay, have fun with ghostbusters.
- I'll see you at home. - Mmm-hmm.
What do you got?
This site is littered, no pun intended,
with gamma rays and magnetar fields.
What are you saying? Iris was attacked by a...
Yeah.
A frackin' black hole.
That is a whole lot of information to disseminate.
No one's ever extrapolated this much data from a black hole before.
We can be the first.
Come on, we're team flash.
What did you put in his coffee?
Okay, a black hole just showed up and nearly swallowed Iris.
So, let's crunch the numbers, find out where it went.
I'm sorry, are we looking at the same screen?
Creating a search algorithm for this is gonna be
like deciphering a mystery wrapped up in an enigma.
Then it's a good thing that mystery is my middle name.
The name is dibny...
Ralph dibny.
Welcome back, Ralph.
It's good to see you, man.
Nice threads, where did you get them?
Picked this up in the opal.
A missing persons case send you all the way to opal city?
And beyond, my friend.
A summer spend undercover rubbing Rolexes with the wealthy elite.
Did you guys know it's pronounced "yacht" and not "ya-ch-t"?
- Yeah. - God, I missed you.
Anyway, just following any leads that might help explain
the disappearance of sue dearbon.
I don't think I've ever seen you this devoted to a case.
Me neither, but this one is a real tragedy.
Maybe it was the look of desperation in her parents' eyes,
when they begged me to find their daughter.
So, uh, what's new in central city?
- We are trying to track a black hole. - Of course you are.
We were just about to start decoding this data stream.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
[Groans] I'm sorry. Sorry.
I've been having these random frost-outs lately.
- For how long? - All summer.
It's happened twice in the last couple of days.
Cait, you're probably overworked. Maybe take a time-out.
A friend of mine did want to meet for coffee.
- Ramsey? - Yeah.
It's never easy losing a parent. Maybe you should take him up on it.
I'll give him a call.
Ah, found it.
Theft report for leawood and new Brighton junkyard.
- See? I have a system. - You're a hoarder, but I love you.
[Joe] Iris.
[Joe] Huh. These don't seem to have anything to do with the black hole.
They're just run of the mill human thefts.
Well, you have a list of persons of interest in any case.
Yeah, thank you. Um, I'll get right on this.
Iris.
- What's wrong? - Nothing.
I don't know, maybe I'm still a little shaken up from the black hole.
I'll be fine, thank you.
You remembered how I like my lattes.
With a bit of cinnamon, just like mum.
You know, of all her cc hospital residents,
she really took a special liking to you.
She was the first person to realize that I was into cutting-edge tech.
It was her letter of recommendation
that started my career at s.T.A.R. Labs.
I couldn't save her, cait.
I had to watch as her body betrayed her.
Do you know how hlh works?
Then you know the cancer literally boils you from the inside out.
Can you imagine what that must've felt like?
Watching her suffer...
That's my last memory of her.
Don't let it be.
What you said at the funeral, about how brave she was,
remember that.
I lied.
Truth is, she was a coward.
What do you mean?
As a doctor, she knew her chances of surviving were slim.
So, shejust started ticking things off her bucket list.
Isn't that a good thing?
She should've gone down fighting. Instead, she ran away.
I didn't.
In hlh, white blood cells attack the body's immune system.
The median survival rate after diagnosis was two to six months.
Not anymore.
[Caitlin] My god, this is a potential cure.
But what's the bonding agent strengthening the body's defenses?
Dark matter.
I know what you're thinking, cait.
I thought the same thing, too, at first.
But I've been running simulations for months,
and they all show the same results. My cure will work.
Or turn them into meta-humans against their will.
But I can save lives.
I just need the dark matter to start human trials.
And that's why you wanted to get coffee with me.
S.t.a.r. Labs has the dark matter I need to take the next step.
You have access to it.
Ramsey, your research, it's groundbreaking.
But using dark matter, that's a deal breaker.
It wasn't when you made the meta-human cure.
That was different, we were trying to protect them.
[Raising voice] But what about the rest of us?
I'm sorry. I really am.
But my answer is still no.
She didn't have to die, cait. No one with hlh does.
Because you could help me stop it.
- [Glasses rattling] - [Rumbling]
[Howling]
[Customers screaming]
[Groaning]
Frost, where are you?
[Gasps]
[Screams]
[{933931 {panflng]
- How are you feeling? - Like I should be dead.
That's not gonna happen.
We're team flash, we always watch each other's backs.
And we always keep each other safe.
Meanwhile, over here in the real world,
our black hole keeps growing up.
Only next time it pops up, it won'tjust be jitters,
the whole city could be in danger.
Why did this thing show up outside jitters, anyway?
What does a coffee shop have in common with a junkyard?
I think I know who can tell us.
Okay, so I followed up with ccpd's list ofjunkyard robberies.
Ten of them were persons of interest. Nine were career criminals.
But this one guy, a scientist,
was let go with a warning after being caught stealing old lab equipment.
Team flash, meet Chester p. Runk.
Hey, what up, party people?
Welcome to a world where all are welcome
and anything, including the scientifically impossible,
[chuckles] Can and probably will happen.
I'm your boy... [chugs]
- Chester! - I really like him.
[Barry chuckles]
I'm gonna rock your world with knowledge
from the bleeding edge of physics
and beyond. Beyond... beyond... [Echoing]
I've been working on that echo.
And, yes, as usual, I'm fueled by some...
Mmm! Damn fine coffee from everyone's favorite beanerie.
Poured, of course, to perfection by a certain special someone.
Hmm? Huh? Huh? [Chuckles]
No, wookielover77, I...
I have not asked her out yet. But I've got my punch card. Okay?
Three more vibe-accinos and I'm making my move, baby.
I'm making my move, baby. I'm making my move, baby. [Chuckles]
Okay, he talks about Natalie for a while, so... [chuckles]
Here we go.
Is he building what I think he's building?
Behold, believers.
A gravitational wave-emitter powered by a modulating neutrino charger.
In other words, "time to call some aliens." [Chuckles]
He built this in his garage?
Using nothing but trash, what a legend.
Oh, he's turning it on.
Oh, no. No, no, no, that's not supposed to do that.
Oh, crap.
Uh, hold on.
[Yells]
Okay, not exactly getting the supervillain vibe
from our boy Chester here.
He opened a black hole by accident.
And what about Chester? Is he okay?
Well, police reports show that emts took him to the er.
But then after that, the trail goes cold.
Just a tiny question here.
How do we destroy a black hole?
Well, I am not a doctor...
But I'm gonna assume, in this case, that negative means a positive?
Not if it means being clueless about why my powers won't work.
Did anything out of the ordinary happen recently?
I went to my friend Ramsey's mom's funeral yesterday.
Anything unusual about the service?
No, it was a lovely service for an inspiring woman.
And today, I nearly got sucked into oblivion.
Has our frosty femme fatale ever refused to come out like this before?
The last time I can think of is right after my dad died.
Right.
So, you think funeral plus nearly getting sucked into a black hole
equals killer frost is afraid of dying?
Maybe. But I know we're gonna figure this out.
This place creeps me out.
Will this sort you out?
Nice doing business with you.
Whoever pissed you off won't be a problem anymore.
[Iris west] Chester p. Runk is here?
Ward nurses say he's been catatonic since he arrived.
Just involuntary muscle spasms.
Chester?
My name is Iris west-Allen, I'm a reporter.
Chester, can you hear me?
[Sighs]
He was our only lead.
Iris.
You lost something of Nora's last night, didn't you?
Something that Joe accidentally threw away,
it ended up at that junkyard.
I just miss her so much.
Every day, every minute.
And I know that is selfish because...
One day, I'm gonna get to see Nora again.
But it won't be our Nora, you know. The one that we knew, the one that...
We have pictures of, the one that we grew to love. You know...
That Nora is gone forever.
And I guess, because of that, you know, I just...
I don't know how I'm supposed to feel.
Iris, you do not get to cheat the grieving process
just because you know you're gonna see Nora again someday.
Yeah, you're right.
I guess I just haven't been able to put into words how I've been feeling.
Iris.
What is it?
It's Chester.
Oh, my god.
[Cisco] You're looking at the world's first inverse mass
angular momentum disruptor.
But we can just call it the stellar grenade.
Cool. So, this will destroy the black hole?
As long as it doesn't get much bigger,
this will reverse the hole's mass collecting properties,
causing it to implode.
Just toss it in the event horizon,
hasta lasagne, don't get any on ya.
We can't.
If we destroy it, we're gonna kill Chester, too.
[Barry] You sure about this?
Yeah, the corona's flare matched
the exact Cadence of Chester's fingers.
So, the black hole and Chester are connected?
Actually, I think Chester is the black hole.
Watch this. So, normally,
stimuli enters the brain through the sensory area,
goes up to the temporal lobe, and then back around.
But watch what happens in Chester's brain.
It starts in the right area, but halfway through its rotation,
it disappears.
I think I know where it's going.
You're looking at a map of the negative ionic energy
inside the black hole.
Watch what happens when an energy pulse travels along its tendrils.
See how it stops halfway?
The black hole is the other half of Chester's mind.
It's his consciousness.
Maybe it's been showing up in places
that hold an emotional attachment for him.
Like the junkyard, where he stole stuff for his projects.
He had a crush on a girl at jitters.
Okay, so all we have to do is get Chester's mind
out of the black hole, reunite it with his body,
and once his condition stabilizes, the black hole should just collapse.
Right. But they don't exactly teach that in med school.
Okay, but we can't just let Chester die.
We have to do something.
Look, I don't like saying it,
but I think we need to consider it.
Cisco, I know where you're going.
You know we already have a way of beating this
- before it gets any bigger. - We're not discussing this.
You think I like saying this? I don't.
But if we don't find a solution for this and find one now,
we're gonna have to make a choice down the line.
And it's either gonna be Chester,
or it's gonna be everyone in central city.
[Yells] I'm not losing anyone else!
Let's find another way.
[Cell phone chimes]
Where's the meltdown?
We gotta talk.
What is your problem?
My problem is, we needed you,
and you were holed up in your snow-tress of solitude.
You even refused to come out at jitters.
Flash was there, so spare me the little hallway chat.
And I am not afraid of dying.
I know that, but you are afraid of living.
Thomas' death, the funeral,
what happened at jitters, all those things happened to Caitlin.
She also led her high school debate team
to back-to-back championships,
she went to med school, she married Ronnie.
- Those are her memories. - Yes, I know. I was there.
What's your point?
Having Caitlin's memories isn't the same as having your own.
Like you'd know anything about that.
I know it sucked sitting courtside for the thinker show
when he hijacked my body.
And I think that you've been going through something similar
since Thomas died.
And after being at that funeral,
seeing that woman live the last days of her life to the fullest,
I think that made you want to start living your best life right now.
That's not my gig. Okay?
I fight the bad guys, keep caity safe...
And then go back in my cage.
I just have to deal with it.
Have you thought to ask Caitlin how she feels?
What's she gonna say? "Go ahead, frost, take the wheel."
[Scoffs]
There's only one way to find out.
You know, Barry, I think it's time we face the truth.
I can't give up on Chester.
No, I meant about Nora.
Look, I know we keep saying that we're fine.
But I still miss the Nora...
That was, Barry, not the Nora that will be,
and I think that you do, too.
I think that's why you've been working so hard all summer.
I thought if I could keep people safe,
that it would make up for how much I missed her.
Like, all the work this summer, and the long hours,
pushing myself, pushing the team...
It was so I could avoid what scares me the most.
I'll never get over this.
There is no support group for what we're experiencing.
You know why I was at thatjunkyard?
I lost my purple jacket.
And I was obsessed with
getting it back because...
You know, in my mind...
Nora needs it.
You know, she needs it to become xs.
And when that thing swallowed it, just...
Just for, like, a tiny second, I wanted it to swallow me, too.
You know, the only way we're gonna get through this
is if we carry this burden together.
That's the only way, Barry.
[Alarm blaring]
We just ran out of time.
[All screaming]
Okay, so how do we get Chester's consciousness out of the black hole?
Well, the electrical impulses that make up Chester's mind
are just past the black hole's threshold,
but since his synaptic energy has a negative charge...
I could use my lightning's positive charge to attract his energy.
- Like a magnet. - Exactly.
Then what? I mean, how are you gonna survive inside of there?
Your... your speed force aura should protect you, right?
What if it doesn't?
The gravimetric forces will crush you to a subatomic size within seconds.
That's not gonna happen.
The speed force is a billion times stronger than any gravimetric force.
Even if you do survive the entry,
we don't have a way of keeping Chester's mind intact on the way out.
We need superconductive wiring from a quantum computer to do that,
and last time I checked, those only exist in the future.
Nora. Our Nora.
She can still help us.
Oh, my god, her backup gauntlet. Cisco, it's still here.
That gauntlet's gonna have the filament we need.
I'll strip it out and thread it into your suit.
Okay, in the meantime, Ralph, can you and frost
help ccpd evacuate downtown?
Frost is ready to come out and to use Cisco's present.
[All yelling]
Captain, you shouldn't be out here.
It's my city, too. Help these people get out of here.
Yes, sir!
[Groaning]
Run, dude.
You're welcome.
Suit's finished.
Okay, great, so, when Barry gets Chester's consciousness out of there,
what is he supposed to do with that energy?
You remember the Mac?
Yeah, but it's not working.
No, but the structural integrity is strong enough
to contain synaptic energy.
Besides, we already moved Chester into it, so...
I'm sorry, what? We moved Chester?
That's right. I may be small, but I can bench my body weight.
That's it.
- ["Flash" by queen playing] - I've been saving this
for the right moment, since day one.
Really, Cisco?
The guy is running in and out of a black hole.
- Good point. - Yeah.
Flash! A-Ah!
He's a miracle
that's your window! Go!
Flash! A-Ah!
King of the impossible
he's for every one of us stand for every one of us
he saves with a mighty hand every man, every woman
every child, it's the mighty flash
- how long before he comes out? - Seconds.
I think.
- You think? - I think...
Barry?
Barry, can you hear me?
Barry.
Barry, Barry, please, say something.
Babe, please.
Please, Barry, I can't lose you, too.
Flash!
King of the impossible
he's for every one of us stand for every one of us
he saves with a mighty hand every man, every woman
every child, it's the mighty flash
The black hole imploded.
[The flash] Chester.
Can you hear me?
Come back here. To us.
To this body.
To yourself.
What up, party people!
Hey, hey, you're the flash.
With the speeding around and the lightning, and all that.
Big fan, man, big fan. [Chuckles]
Also, where am I?
Chester is doing so much better.
I mean, don't get me wrong,
he's still, you know, glowing in the eyes
with orange dark energy, but he's in really good spirits.
How long until he gets out?
Caitlin said his molecules need to re-stabilize at the sub-atomic level.
My guess is, he'll need to cook in the Mac
for another four to six weeks,
maybe more, until he's back to normal.
Oh, believe me, he's more than happy
to chill here at s.T.A.R. Labs in the meantime.
And when he does get out,
that boy knows exactly what he wants to do.
Mmm, definitely gonna ask Natalie out.
[Cisco] Speaking of going out,
kamilla and I are doing shawarma-Tuesday,
so I'm gonna mosey.
Of course, moseying is a lot harder these days post-vibe.
Showing up to a date in the star. Labs Van, not a good look.
[Cecile] Mmm, no. I'll give you a ride.
And risk looking like my mom just dropped me off?
Or even better, you can walk.
Okay, I'm coming.
It never occurred to me that you might wanna live a life.
That's why I never offered to let you drive.
Not because I think you're only good in a fight.
[Killer frost] You sure? I know it's a really big ask
I don't want you feeling obligated or whatever.
Frost, you have always been there for me, protecting me...
Now, I get to do something for you.
Besides, even though it's always felt like you were a part of me,
for the first time, it feels like I'm a part of you.
Thank you.
Any time.
Guess everything's coming up frosty, huh?
Yeah, I guess.
Where do I start?
How do you, you know, live a life?
With a life coach, of course.
So, first things first, the name "killer,"
it's a little bit too much for some folks.
Have you thought about changing it? My mom's middle name is Anne.
[Groans]
I'll never accept death. Not like you did.
[Gasping]
[Groaning]
[Screaming]
So, what made you believe that
you could carry Chester out of that place?
You made me believe I could do it.
I realized we could be each other's support group.
Even though it's gonna take some time.
If we can carry a memory like this together in our hearts,
carrying somebody's consciousness out of a black hole,
it's a piece of cake.
Besides, how else could I get this back for you?
I know it's not as good as Nora's video.
[Sighs]
It's better.
Now we have something that we can honor Nora with.
She was pretty schway.
What do you want?
For your universe to survive.
The plinth.
You destroyed it. You destroyed Nora's message.
Unfortunate side-effect.
But I needed to discourage you.
From doing what?
Hoping.
Your determination is boundless, flash.
It is one of your greatest qualities.
But you cannot avoid the coming crisis.
Barry has five years before he vanishes.
Nolongen
December 10th, 2019.
On that day, he will answer the call.
And make the ultimate sacrifice.
Soon, this world will fight for the fate of all the known universes.
I'm not gonna leave my family.
There has to be a way to stop what's coming.
I am sorry.
But events have been set into motion that you cannot possibly comprehend.
[Yells] I don't need to understand them!
- Just tell me what I can do. - To survive?
You can't.
In order for billions to survive this coming crisis...
The flash must die.