As Barry settles, reluctantly, into prison life, Ralph steps up to pick up the heroic slack. He’s invincible! He can’t be hurt! All he needs is a name! And a nemesis!

And then, he gets both…

Cometh the hour, cometh the Ralph. This is just straight up and down delightful as we get a deep dive into the world of Team Flash’s stretchiest, most morally flexible member. Hartley Sawyer, front and centre, carries the episode on his elongated shoulders form the first gag to the final reveal and he’s brilliant throughout. This is Ralph on his way to becoming the gentle, wildly eccentric detective that so many know and love. He’s still spiky, disrespectful and cheerfully a bit squalid but his heart shows through this episode in a way that surprises both him and us. And, well, everyone else.

But every good hero needs a good villain and, probably to the mild surprise of everyone too, Ralph’s turns out to be The Trickster. Broken out of prison by his mom, Axel vows to make his absentee father notice him by taking down the City’s greatest hero…Stretchy Man!

Axel, played by Devon Graye, is allowed to have real emotional depth here. He’s still both evil and profoundly disturbed but his actions have context in the exact way Fallout’s didn’t last week. Plus Graye attacks the role with visible gusto. Only he could make the line ‘Burn, Stretchy Man, Burn!” land as well as it does. Better still, Corinne Bohrer returns from the original 1990s series as Prank. She’s amazing, a dialled down, calmer but no less wild version of Harley Quinn and the dynamic between her and Axel is unusual, sweet and deeply strange. Much more of both of them please.

Over in the prison plot, Barry befriends Big Sir, played by Bill Goldberg and discovers how he and his dad knew one another. That’s honestly pretty much it for the prison plot, which is obviously building to something but isn’t there yet. Nonetheless Gustin impresses, especially in a pep talk he gives Ralph that really shows off how much Barry has grown. Better still, Goldberg, a solid actor almost never given the chance to show it, gets that chance here. His massive physical presence is balanced by a nicely laconic sense of humour and he and Gustin make an instantly likeable double act.

Verdict: This, as it should be, is Ralph’s time. The Elongated Knight has finally risen and with him comes a snazzy new suit, a new attitude and a name he’s going to… well… grow into. More power to his stretchy elbow. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart