At STAR Labs, the alarm goes off indicating a system-wide power surge. Barry and Iris determine that it's coming from Time Vault, just as the power goes out. They speed to the Time Vault and find the video of Nora playing on repeat on the plinth... and then the plinth burns out.
Four Months Later
As Kamilla looks on, Cisco monitors Godspeed as he races through Central City. Flash pursues him through the streets, up and down buildings, and Kamilla yells through the radio at Barry to kick Godspeed's butt. Flash slams into Godspeed and removes his mask, revealing a stranger. He asks who he is, and the man releases an electronic warble. Flash calls Cisco and says that Godspeed is like the others: no language skills and just noise. Cisco tells Kamilla that it's the fourth Godspeed they've caught that summer, and there's no sign of the real one: August Hart.
Later at the West house, Joe and Iris are grilling out. He congratulates her on her work with The Citizen. Barry and Caitlin join them. Cecile, Cisco, and Kamilla come out with more food, while Ralph is out of town on a missing persons case.
Everyone sits down to eat and Barry mentions the Mental Augmentation Chamber (MAC) that he's working on it. Caitlin explains that it lets Barry tie his brain into the Speed Force so he can see every possible outcome. Cisco suggests that they have to balance their life and work, so Barry shouldn't be in a hurry to work on it that night. Barry gets Cisco his tablet so he can work on the mainframe, and he goes to get a beer. Joe asks Barry and Iris if they're good, and Barry figures that one day they'll have another Nora. Barry gets a text about a break-in at Eastside Industrial. Once he speeds off, Iris asks him what he did with the boxes in the back of the garage. Cecile says that he finally threw them away, and Iris excuses herself. Caitlin says that a friend from med school needs her.
At a funeral service, Ramsey Rosso talk about his deceased mother. Caitlin is among the mourners, and Ramsey talks about how he was paralyzed with fear after falling off a bike. His mother told him that he couldn't let pain stop him from where he was going in life. Ramsey grew up and followed in her footsteps, and says that his mother is still helping him to go where he needs to be.
Afterward, Caitlin hugs Ramsey and offers her condolences. Ramsey thanks Caitlin for coming, saying that his mother saw something of her. He notices that Caitlin's hands are cold, and she turns away as her eyes flare white. As Caitlin starts to go, Ramsey suggests that they get coffee together and catch up. Caitlin agrees and tells Ramsey to give her a call.
That night, Iris goes to a scrapyard to get the boxes that Joe tossed out. She finds a purple jacket in one of them, and tells the manager that it's important. Iris says that it is, and the area starts to shake. A black hole appears, sucking the manager toward it, and Iris grabs him. The case with the jacket falls into the void, and then the black hole disappears.
The next day, Barry, Iris, and Cisco examine the junkyard. Iris says that the Citizen got a tip that there were robberies there. Cisco finds traces of gamma rays and magnetar field indicative of a black hole. They go back to STAR Labs and Barry is eager to find out what created the black hole. Ralph comes in and says that case took him to Opal City to rub elbows with the elite. He's been following leads on the missing Sue Dearborn, and Barry explains that they're trying to track a black hole. Caitlin starts to decade the data stream, and her cold powers briefly go out of control. She says that it's happened twice in the last couple of days. Ralph suggests that she's overworked, and Caitlin goes to have coffee with Ramsey.
At the station, Joe and Cecile check on robberies at junkyards. Iris notices that Joe has a clipping of an article about Flash and Xs. Joe says that all of the thefts didn't involve black holes. Cecile asks Iris what's wrong, and she says that she might be a little shaken up from confronting a black hole.
Caitlin and Ramsey go to Jitters for coffee and they talk about Ramsey's mother. Ramsey says that he couldn't save his mother and had to watch as her body betrayed her. The HLH cancer boiled his mother from the inside out, and he was forced to watch her suffer. Caitlin tells Ramsey not to let it be his last memory of her, and Ramsey says that his mother was a coward. She just started ticking things off of her bucket list, and Ramsey thinks that she should have gone down fighting. Ramsey shows Caitlin a tablet revealing that he's come up with a potential cure to HTH. The bonding agent is dark matter, and Caitlin warns that it could turn people into metahumans against their wills. He figures Caitlin can provide him with access to the STAR Lab dark matter so he can take the next step. Caitlin warns that dark matter is a deal-breaker, and Ramsey reminds her that she came up with a metahuman cure. She tells him that the answer is no and Ramsey says that no one with HTH has to die but now they will because of Caitlin.
As Caitlin gets up, Jitters shakes and a black hole portal opens. Caitlin is pulled toward it but manages to grab a post. She calls to Killer Frost but her alter-ego doesn't appear. Flash rushes in and gets everyone to safety, and the black hole disappears.
Back at STAR Labs, Cisco points out that the black hole keeps growing. Iris comes in and says that one guy, a scientist, was let go with a warning after stealing old lab equipment. She has video of the scientist, Chester P. Runk. Chester does an Internet video about the wonders of science, and drinks coffee from Jitters. He talks about how he's in love with a barista, Natalie. Cisco realizes that he's building a gravitational wave emitter using nothing but trash. When Chester turns it on, the device creates a miniature black hole. EMTs took Chester to the ER and after that he disappeared.
Later, Caitlin has Ralph check him to determine why she can't get manifest Frost. Caitlin figures that Frost is afraid of dying and Ralph says that he knows where to figure it out.
At the cemetery, Ramsey is standing over his mother's grave. An arms dealer, Gat, arrives and gives Ramsey a case. Once Gat leaves, Ramsey looks at the weapon inside.
Cecile and Iris find Chester in a hospital lounge, catatonic after the incident. Iris tries to talk to him but Chester doesn't respond and only taps his fingers. As they leave, Cecile realizes that Joe accidentally threw something of Joe's away and it ended up at the junkyard. Iris admits that she misses her future daughter, and when they meet her eventually she won't be the same Nora that they knew. Cecile tells her that she doesn't get to cheat the grieving process just because she knows she'll meet Nora again, and Iris admits that she hasn't been able to put into words how she's feeling. She then gets an idea and goes back into the lounge. She realizes that Chester is tapping his fingers in time with the pulsing of the black hole on the newscast.
Cisco shows Barry a "stellar grenade" that he's developed. He explains that it will destroy the black hole as long as it doesn't get much bigger. All Barry has to do it is toss it into the event horizon. Iris comes in and says that if they destroy the black hole then they'll kill Chester. The others gather and Iris explains what she discovered. Caitlin figures that Chester is the black hole, and Cisco determines that the energy pulses in the black hole are his consciousness. The black hole has been showing up at places where Chester has an emotional attachment. Barry figures they have to reunite Chester's mind out of the black hole and reunite it with his body, but none of them know how. Cisco suggests that they use the stellar grenade, but Barry angrily says that he won't lose anyone else. Once he leaves, Ralph texts Caitlin saying that he needs Frost to deal with a fusion meltdown.
Frost emerges and goes to where Ralph is waiting in the reactor room. He tells Frost that they need to talk. Frost insists that she isn't afraid of dying, and Ralph suggests that she's afraid of living. He figures that Frost has Caitlin's memories but hasn't lived them, and now she wants to live her best life. Frost insists that she fights the bad guys, keeps Caitlin safe, and goes back into her "cage". Ralph asks if she's asked Caitlin how she feels. Frost doesn't believe Caitlin will let her live a life, and Ralph tells her that there's one way to find out.
Iris tells Barry that it's time to face the truth about Nora. She admits that she still misses "their" Nora, and figures that Barry does as well. Barry admits that he thought that if he could keep people safe, it would make up for missing her. He tells Iris that he'll never get over Nora's loss, and Iris explains that she went to the junkyard to find her purple jacket. She was obsessed with getting it back because she believes Nora needs it to become Xs. When the black hole swallowed it, Iris wanted it to swallow her as well. Barry hugs Iris, and she says that they can only get through it if they carry the burden together. The alarm goes off and Cisco says that they've just run out of time.
A giant black hole appears in downtown Central City. Cisco suggests that Barry use his positive electrical energy to attract the negative impulses of Chester's mind inside of the black hole. Barry figures the Speed Force can protect him from the gravimetric forces, and Cisco says that they need superconductive wiring from a quantum computer to contain Chester's consciousness, and that only exists in the future. Iris and Barry figure they can use the wiring from Nora's back-up gauntlet. Ralph and Caitlin head downtown to help the CCPD evacuate downtown.
Joe goes to check the black hole, and Elongated Man snags a man who is being pulled into the black hole. Frost deflects a newspaper kiosk flying toward Joe.
Cisco finishes the wiring and suggests that they use the MAC. They've already moved Chester's body into the MAC chamber. Flash races into the black hole, absorbs Chester's consciousness into the wiring in his suit, and emerges, running back to STAR Labs. He then places Chester's consciousness into his body, and the black hole implodes. Flash begs Chester to come back to himself, and Chester wakes up. He tells Flash that he's a big fan and asks where he is.
Later, Cecile tells the others that that Chester is doing better. His molecules need to restabilize before he leaves the MAC, and Chester is glad to stay there for the four to six weeks necessary. Cisco leaves for a date with Kamilla.
Caitlin talks to Frost, explaining that she never let "drive" because she never thought Frost wanted a life. She says that it feels like part of her, and Frost takes over. Ralph comes in and Frost wonders where she starts to live a life. He offers to be her life coach with The Book of Ralph Vol. 2, and suggests that she get a name other than "Killer Frost".
Ramsey energizes the HTH cure and injects himself with it. He promises himself that he will never accept death life his wife did. The HLH in his body cures, and Ramsey's flesh crawls as he screams in pain.
Barry tells Iris that she made him believe that he could get Chester out of the black hole. He then shows her the jacket that he got back for her, stored in the Time Vault. Isis tells her husband that now they have something to honor Nora with. The power goes off briefly, and the Monitor appears in the Time Vault. Barry asks what he wants, and the Monitor says that he destroyed the plinth to prevent the couple from hoping. The Monitor explains that Barry cannot avoid the coming crisis. On December 10, 2019, Flash will answer the call and make the ultimate sacrifice. Barry vows not to leave his family and insists that there has to be a way stop what's coming. When the Monitor understands that he can't understand what will happen, Barry tells the Monitor that he doesn't need to understand them. He asks what he has to do, and the Monitor says that for billions to survive, Flash must die.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 9, 2019