'The Flash' Season 6: Ralph Dibny's encounter with his mother will probably help him prepare for his meeting with Sue Dearborn
This article contains spoilers for 'The Flash' season 6 episode 3: 'Dead Man Running'
We may have not met Sue Dearborn, Ralph Dibny's (Hartley Sawyer) wife in episode 3, but we do meet a warm-hearted, cheerful woman in Debbie Dibny (Amy Pietz), who happens to be Ralph's mother. The episode opens with Barry explaining the 'Crisis' to team Flash when Ralph gets a call from Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) asking him to come to the station. Once there, he meets a suspect accused of robbing a pawn store who is none other than his mom.
However, Debbie coolly says she wasn't the one involved in the robbery. She also reveals she had 14 other allegations against her but was not convicted for any of them. To prove her innocence, Ralph, DA Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet) and Debbie head to the store to check the security footage, however, they are declined unless they pay up $5000. Cecile and Debbie plan to keep the crowd busy by involving themselves in a game of poker and drawing attention while Ralph manages to get his hands on the security footage.
Upon seeing the footage, he learns that his mother met up with Marc Perez - a man that she used to date. She reveals that she lied about all of her boyfriends dying after Ralph's father left, but that she did so to protect him from being hurt. The mother and son have a heart-to-heart and agree to be more open to love.
For Dibny, this is a move in the right direction when it comes to introducing Sue. It also makes sense to put him in a place where he comes fully prepared to actually open up to a person. It wasn't exactly a smooth ride for Ralph since he was introduced in season 4 as a piping hot mess.
This theory is supplemented by the actor's interview with EW where he said: “Since I started playing Ralph, the number one question has probably always been, ‘Where’s Sue? What about Sue?’ We did talk early on in season 4, because I brought that up, and the plan had always been all roads lead to Sue and we’re going to get there, but he has to be ready for that, because that’s such a serious relationship in comics and a big relationship,” says Sawyer. “I can’t see the guy he was in season 4 meeting Sue Dearborn and that becoming what you know it needs to become.”
Looks like the series is taking one step at a time to flesh out each character arc in detail.
'The Flash' season 6 airs Tuesdays 9 pm on The CW.
