Your regularly scheduled recapper Carla Day will return next week!

Tonight's episode of The Flash is titled "Girls Night Out", so of course I'm the best possible flavor of recapper to handle this particular hour. While I thought that we'd be tagging along with Iris, Cecile, Caitlin, and Felicity (yes, Arrow star Emily Bett Rickards makes a guest appearance), the episode actually split the party along gender lines for two separate stories that had just about nothing to do with each other for once. That's good because The Flash is currently juggling a lot of storylines, as this week's "Previously on..." makes very apparent.

We've got Caitlin’s shady past under the crime boss Amunet coming back to haunt her, Cecile’s pregnancy and the physical/psychological complications that arise from it, the team’s search for the mysterious DeVoe and the rest of the 12 new metahumans, and the continuing adventures of The Elongated Man, a.k.a. Ralph Dibny. That's a bunch. However, "Girls Night Out" actually checks the boxes on all of these plotlines in different ways, and successfully so, which is a bit of a surprise. The episode does so by letting the ladies and the gents have their own adventures without worrying so much about threading the two together.

Let's get the fellas out of the way, shall we? Essentially, their narrative in this episode boils down to a bro-down. It's Barry's bachelor party and the gang is saved from having to watch Cisco's painstakingly put-together film reels of childhood Barry and Iris by an unexpected guest: Ralph Dibny. Just because he wasn't invited to a quaint gathering at Joe's house doesn't mean that he can't drag Barry, Joe, Cisco, and Harrison Wells off to a strip club, right?

The scenes at "Golden Booty" served to showcase Ralph's personality, which walks the line between charming oddball and outright sleaze. It'll be interesting to see how the Elongated Man fits into the S.T.A.R. Labs group; more interesting still will be how the fanbase responds to his inclusion in the storyline going forward. The standout moments from this side-plot include Barry's very drunk behavior thanks to Cisco's miscalculated cocktail and the surprising reveal that Cecile's daughter Joanie is moonlighting as a stripper/undercover feminist reporter. Not much came of this reveal except for the exchange between Joe and Joanie, who are getting along just fine ahead of the eventual West-Horton union.

The real core story of "Girls Night Out" obviously centered on the ladies of The Flash, with Felicity popping by to add an out-of-town element to the bachelorette party / quiet night at a classy restaurant / fight for their lives against a metahuman. This hour has a half dozen metahumans, though not all of them jump into action. The main two that square off are Caitlin/Killer Frost and her recent employer, Amunet Black, played by guest star Katee Sackhoff. Amunet's name has been dropped in earlier episodes and Caitlin's past with the crime boss has been teased through scenes with Killer Frost and the one-eyed henchman Norvok. That past, and Norvok, catches up with Caitlin quite quickly as it's revealed that the glass eye the thug sports is masking a snakelike tongue (for some ungodly reason) within his eye socket. This reveal would be enough to ruin just about anyone's night.

However, the plot soon turns to Killer Frost's attempts to get out from under Amunet's thumb while Iris, Cecile, and Felicity do their best to keep Caitlin from turning into an actual killer again. And when the ladies discover that Amunet has imprisoned a metahuman dubbed "The Weeper" (Matt Afonso) in order to use his tears as a highly addictive and lucrative drug, the story soon folds his rescue in as well. But complicating things is Amunet's wild card, a metahuman ability that allows her to manipulate metal (specifically a magnetic aluminum-nickel-cobalt alloy) into any form she desires, be it a gauntlet, projectiles, or a Spartan shield. A much better power than "drug tears", if I do say so myself.

But let's talk about Amunet here. I don’t know why she has a vaguely British accent here since Sackhoff is American and so is the DC Comics villain, but perhaps it’s just to add an air of … culture? Exoticness? Her costume, however, is a nice nod to the somewhat ridiculous design of the character in the comics and the powers on display match up fairly well. I don't know who greenlit the idea of having her carry around a bucket of metal shrapnel though. That seems very silly even for a show that now features it's very own version of Stretch Armstrong. Maybe just, I don't know, incorporate the metal into her costume next time? Or, sure, let her carry around that bucket, whatever.

It turns out that Caitlin originally sought out Amunet for help in controlling her powers, in exchange for becoming an enforcer, but a cure never materialized. The final confrontation between the two, with a little help from her lady friends, ends with Caitlin maintaining control over her Killer Frost persona while Amunet flees, promising to ruin something precious to her before it's all said and done.

And everything's wrapped up with a neat little bow! Sure, there's a little emotional resonance at the end, what with Joe and Cecile each admitting how terrified they are over the prospect of the new baby, and with Iris asking Caitlin to be her Maid of Honor (which is more than just a "work friend" thing), but the ladies and gentlemen keep the details of their respective exploits secret from each other. It's a cute end to a fun episode, but I'm wondering how much longer The Flash and his speedy abilities are going to be sidelined. Barry's been present, but not really the focus this season, and other than a couple of fun action sequences, the special effects have largely gone to the supporting cast this year. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

The last thing we see is the Weeper, who I totally thought was going to disappear from the scene (and from future episodes), being chased by The Thinker. The creepily floating hover-chair makes its first appearance outside of the villain's lair as he makes it quite clear that the dozen metahumans he created all have very specific parts to play in his grand scheme, whatever that may be.

Once The Thinker's ultimate goal starts to become a little clearer, I think the season overall will pick a direction and pick up momentum. For now, though, I'm happy just enjoying a season of The Flash that's not so damned depressing.

MVP: Danielle Panabaker

Rating: ★★★ Good

Miscellanea:

Ralph: “Stretch, Ralph. Stretch!”

Barry: “I don’t think one of my greatest enemies is a baby.” Cisco: “Evil killer baby!” HR: “It could happen.” Barry: “You’re right.”

Ralph: “Seriously, Allen, how do you know so many hot girls?”

Joanie: “Hashtag feminism.”

Ralph: “Oh dear God, you’re serious. This wiener fest is your bachelor party...”

Wait a minute, we don't think Felicity is pregnant, do we? Methinks she was just thinking of her unusual relationship with Oliver Queen when referring to Cecile’s statement of, “It’s not exactly what I planned but I couldn’t be happier.” Still...

Norvok: “I was hoping to see you again.” Killer Frost: “Really? So I could give you another scar.”

Cecile: “Your father will kill me if you get killed at your own bachelorette party.”

Barry: “I just went and got peanuts from the bar.” Joe: “But you didn’t even move…” Barry: “Or did I?”

Killer Frost: “I’m sorry, I thought touching without permission is what you wanted.”

Amunet: “I call him ‘The Weeper.’ I love naming metas.” Killer Frost: “I know someone else like that.”

Joe: “There’s a strong, powerful woman who we both love and fear, and her name is Your Mother.”

Amunet: “Kill you later, Caity.”

Amunet: “You and I could have been gods.” Killer Frost: “I used to work with a god. Over it.”

Ralph: “Chicks with white hair … hot. Oh, it’s just Caitlin.”

Caitlin: “I can explain everything.”

Thinker: “I went through a lot of trouble creating you. I can’t have you running away, not until you’ve completed the task for which you were born.”