Catching Up: The Flash Episode 412, "Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash"

"Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash" is one of those episodes that is full of amusing action and heart-warming hope that ends on a seriously dramatic note for our hero that gut-punches you because you've had your guard down for the past hour.

The show opens with Cecile Horton (DANIELLE NICOLET) talking with Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN) about their pending baby, when it is discovered that she has developed a super-power: she can read minds. Caitlin Snow (DANIELLE PANABAKER) runs tests, and confirms there is no dark matter in the amniotic fluid, and Cecile was definitely not on the bus of people struck by the second dark matter wave unleashed by the machinations of Clifford Devoe. Her theory is that she had latent dark matter in her from the first explosion, triggered by the pregnancy, and that it will likely go away once the baby is born. We'll see.

As Team Flash worries about how Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) is doing in prison, we learn that he's doing okay. He's playing poker with inmates Big Sir (BILL GOLDBERG) and former-mayor Anthony Bellows (VITO D'AMBROSIO). Through this, he learns the reason why Big Sir is in prison, and believes him to be innocent of the crime. So much so that he asks Team Flash to look into the case and see if they can find the real murderer.

Meanwhile, the new Central City mayor is giving a speech at Kord Industries about the new technology they've developed to prevent super-powered theft, the likes of which has struck so many tech companies in Central City the past few years. And as she speaks, the entire skyscraper shrinks out of existence (someone has apparently seen the trailer for ANT-MAN & THE WASP), to be picked up by our Villain of the Week, Sylbert Rundine (DEREK MEARS, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.).  He's seen on a surveillance camera pulling a Chevy Chevelle out of nowhere, and identified by Team Flash to go to question him.

Rundine's apartment is filled with miniature scale models of awesome machines, which impresses Cisco (CARLOS VALDES) but not so much Ralph (HARTLEY SAWYER) who sees them as toys. When Joe sees an older picture of Rundine, he asks him about the old Mercury Labs robbery that resulted in the murder that put Big Sir in prison. That's when Rundine bolts, jumping out the window and suddenly producing a parachute. Cisco breaches the team to the street, where a fight ensues, and Rundine blasts both Cisco and Ralph to Atom-size.

The remainder of the episode is Team Flash trying to re-size Cisco and Ralph, and botching it. Badly. The first attempt by Harrison Wells (TOM CAVANAGH) ends up setting off a chain reaction in the two that will end up killing them within hours. They have to find Rundine and force him to blast them again to replenish the energy that he took out of them.

At Iron Heights, the warden (GREGORY WOLFE) warns Barry about giving Big Sir hope. He relates a story from the past about an inmate who tried that, and when it failed the one he tried to help ended up stabbing him. He warns Barry that everyone in this prison is a monster. That warning turns out to have broader scope than one might first imagine.

Eventually Rundine is captured, and Cisco and Ralph are restored. But given the opportunity to confess to the Mercury Labs crime, with many deals from the D.A., Rundine refuses to give a confession. He knows that Big Sir got sent up for that crime, and laughed about it. Barry has to break the news to Big Sir that he won't be getting out after all.

But that's not good enough for Barry. That night, watching the security camera go back and forth, he waits until it is facing away, and then super-speeds Big Sir to a village in China he dreamed of retiring to, then zips back to prison before the camera swings back. All well and good.

Except the warden has planted another camera after warning Allen about giving Big Sir hope. And it captured Barry super-speeding out. The warden knows Barry Allen is The Flash...and he's taken the precaution of drugging him before revealing this. "I did warn you," he says, as Barry passes out. "Everyone in here is a monster."

Barry is locked up in a cell for metahumans. But that's not the worst of it. The warden then makes a phone call--to Amunet Black (KATEE SACKHOFF), who buys metahumans. He's planning to sell her The Flash.