Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Flash season 8, episode 9, “Phantoms.”
The unanswered mystery of what happened to Elongated Man in The Flash television series seems no closer to being solved. Sue Dearbon (Natalie Dreyfuss) recently returned for The Flash season 8, but no mention was made of her partner in crime-fighting Ralph Dibny (Hartley Sawyer). Rather than explain the character’s absence, it seems that the CW series is hoping to ignore the elephant in the room and avoid making any reference to the Stretchable Sleuth.
Originally introduced in The Flash season 4, Ralph Dibny was a crooked cop turned private investigator who developed metahuman abilities as part of the sinister schemes of the Thinker. Ralph sought redemption for his past as Elongated Man and seemed poised to earn a spin-off after the series introduced Sue Dearbon, the free-spirited heiress whom Ralph married in the comics. Plans for Ralph’s character were abandoned after Hartley Sawyer was fired because of his racist Tweets following The Flash season 6. His character was later injured off-camera by an explosion that left his body badly burned, and was shown to be recovering during his last appearance in The Flash season 7 episode “Mother”.
Sue Dearbon returned to Central City alone in The Flash season 8, episode 9, “Phantoms,” and made reference to the Black Hole group being destroyed once and for all. Curiously, in all the talk that followed regarding what Sue had been doing since the last time she saw Iris West-Allen, no mention was made of Elongated Man and where Ralph Dibny went once the Black Hole group was defeated. This seems doubly strange given that Sue seemed especially curious as to how Barry and Iris’ marriage was developing, suggesting she might have thoughts of marriage to a superhero on her mind. Despite this, neither Ralph nor his superhero alter ego was mentioned once in “Phantoms.”
The problem of Elongated Man’s sudden departure from The Flash has also proven to be a problem for Natalie Dreyfuss. The series took great pains to develop Sue into a unique character with goals beyond being Ralph Dibny’s love interest, revamping the heiress into a skilled spy and one of the best new characters introduced into The Flash. The showrunners are to be commended for reworking the story of The Flash season 7 to allow Dreyfuss to continue on in the role of Sue Dearbon, recognizing that it would be unfair to write her character out of the series because of another actor’s bad behavior.
Despite this, the question of what happened to Elongated Man should be addressed directly rather than being ignored. While The Flash might not want to go as far as recasting the role with a new actor (a real possibility given Ralph’s shape-shifting powers) it would be simple enough to say that he’s busy working on another case while Sue Dearbon is tending to her family’s business affairs. The series writers could also write Ralph out of the show permanently, making reference to his partnership with Sue having come to a close. While this might upset fans of the couple from the comics, it would provide the much-needed closure both characters deserve.
The Flash releases new episodes Wednesdays on the CW.
