The Flash Recap: Here's Everything You Missed in "Masquerade"

Something's not right

The episode opens at the West house. Joe is looking into Kristen Kramer's background but keeps running into redacted files. Cecile is able to offer him a lead as one of her clients apparently served with her in the military though her file has no record of that service. As Joe leaves, Cecile's eyes go white and we cut to another Cecile trapped in a cell in a mental health facility.

At STAR, Chester is making the lab his but he is still pretty insecure about the transition and taking over Cisco's role with the team. When something he's set up fails, he goes to the archives to get it and runs into Barry and Iris in a compromising position. Barry goes to meet with Cecile at her office and while there Barry suddenly starts to feel weird. Turns out it's not really Cecile. Whoever it is, traps Barry in a mindscape with presumably the real Cecile -- in what looked like the mental institution earlier.

The Return of Psycho Pirate

At STAR, they realize that if Barry doesn't come out of his coma soon he won't ever come out and Chester suggests Cecile use her powers to see if someone is in there with him. She soon says she sees something glowing gold like a mask. Chester goes to the villain binder and pulls the card for Psycho Pirate and Cecile confirms that's what she saw. Turns out the mask is going on display at a museum in Central City. Chester explains that the mask feeds off the mind of its host and they devise a way to save Barry but they need the mask there. Cecile suggests that it's too bad they don't have the mask, spawning the idea that the team should steal the mask.

A prison of the mind

In the mindscape, Cecile reveals that she's been trapped there since she was struck by lightning in the Force Storm. Barry discovers he has no powers in the mindscape and he surmises that they are in an old memory. Suddenly the door opens. Cecile panics, but they leave the room looking for an escape. They try all the doors but they are all locked. They turn a corner and find a portal out but it vanishes and they encounter another Cecile, this one deranged and in a straight jacket. She whammies him.

Sue's back

Sue shows up to help with the mask heist. There's a complicated security protocol in place and Chester suggests that Cecile could use her powers to get the security guard to just open the vault for them. Chester is convinced she can do it and Cecile agrees. When she leaves to go find an outfit, Sue suggests to Chester that the whole situation seems way too easy, but Chester insists the team has this.

Heist time. Sue uses some sweet ballet skills to get beyond the security lasers so she can disable them then Cecile drops in. She gets the security guard to open the vault, Sue tranqs him, and then Cecile takes the mask. About that exact moment everyone figures out what's going on and that "Cecile" is not really Cecile, but it's too late. "Cecile" is now fully Psycho Pirate.

A plan forms

At STAR, Sue is hard on Chester for his mistakes he made and Chester is in turn hard on himself. Iris later talks to him in his lab and he tells her that acted confident and brave even if he didn't know what to do and he is struggling to live up to Cisco because he doesn't know Team Flash very well. While they're talking, Chester realizes where Psycho Pirate Cecile is going — the Thinker's chair.

In the mindscape, Barry wakes up and confronts Cecile about where they're trapped. She reveals that they are in a psychiatric hospital outside of Houston where she was once a patient. She explains that during her first year of law school she got a job interning for the DA and her mom got sick, but her mom encouraged her to keep working. Cecile was at court when she got the call that her mom had died. Cecile blamed herself for her mother dying alone and it sent her into a dark spiral of anxiety and depression. She had a breakdown and ended up in the hospital. She was ashamed and afraid so she just pretended that it never happened and has been living with the pain ever since. Barry gives her a pep talk and they realize that if she can confront her past, she can get them home.

Showdown

Psycho Pirate Cecile gets to the chair and plans to create a permanent bond with Cecile. Iris shows up and they engage in a fire fight Meanwhile, in the dreamscape, the Mask takes Barry down and tells Cecile she will never check out. Cecile stands up to the Mask, but the Mask counters, tormenting Cecile with her mother's death. However, Cecile says she's no longer ashamed of that part of herself and defeats the Mask while in the real world, Chester attacks the chair with a samurai sword. The Portal opens and Cecile and Barry escape.

A shocking revelation

The mask gets taken to ARGUS. Sue apologizes to Chester and decides to stick around in Central City for a bit as Ralph is still busy. Cecile thanks Barry for his help and then goes home to talk to Joe. She tells him about her depression and anxiety and Joe is very supportive. He then tells her that he found out that Kramer never finished her last army mission as she led them into an ambush and was the only one who survived. Joe thinks she was working for the enemy.