Throughout Season 4 of The Flash, Ralph Dibny's arc had all the signature Arrow-verse weirdness one could ask for, from the hilariously gross ways he honed his Elongated Man abilities to his pseudo-death via The Thinker. He'll continue dealing with strange things in Season 5 as he gets to embrace the private detective skills that are central to the comic character. And those skills are apparently being promoted throughout Central City via billboards that look like they were crafted by Bob Odenkirk's Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul shyster Saul Goodman. Check it out.
Since being a S.T.A.R. Labs employee doesn't do much for one's bank account, Ralph will be paying his bills in Season 5 by starting up his own private investigator agency (far from the offices of one Jessica Jones), and the best way to get more business is to advertise, right? Granted, privately owned businesses like that rarely have the most gorgeously designed advertisements, since the contact information is the most important part. And it looks like Ralph probably took the Saul Goodman route when crafting that billboard graphic by doing it himself. Or, more likely, by coaxing Cisco into doing it.
To be a true Saul Goodman protégé, Ralph would need to take a more colorful approach to his suit purchases, and he would probably need to point his finger directly at the people looking at the billboard. As such, this would almost be more in tune with the pre-Saul Jimmy McGill, but Ralph's high eyebrow arch and light smirk imply more levity than your average legitimate local P.I. or attorney would show. I mean, I assume that's the case, since there probably isn't a scientific study looking into such matters. (Someone coax Cisco into doing that, too.)
Ralph is putting his face front and left-of-center alongside a big fingerprint on the billboard, which was shared by The Flash Podcast on Twitter. There's nothing out of the ordinary about those elements in general, but in Ralph's specific case, it's interesting. After all, facial features and fingerprints are used for identification purposes, and Ralph is the one main character on this show who can change his appearance at will, rendering both recognition and print-dusting useless. One assumes he'll have to use some questionable appearance-swapping tactics in order to solve some cases in Season 5. Which, incidentally, would be behavior that's right up Saul Goodman's alley.
During San Diego Comic-Con, Flash star Hartley Sawyer explained to CinemaBlend why he thinks Ralph is a lot like Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman and Jimmy McGill, and he had a good point. We shouldn't expect to see Ralph crapping into anyone's open sunroof or anything, but perhaps some other darkly comedic elements will shine through. Maybe we'll even see Walter White show up in the big crossover along with Lois Lane and Batwoman...or not.
The Flash will bring Ralph and quite a few new characters to fans for Season 5 on The CW starting on Tuesday, October 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET. To see when the other Arrow-verse shows will be back, head to our fall TV premiere schedule.
