Hartley Sawyer Talks Changes For Ralph Dibny Going Into Flash’s Fifth Season

 

In The Flash‘s fourth season, Ralph Dibny was re-imagined as a disgraced Central City detective who blamed Barry (Grant Gustin) for his dismissal from the force and his slovenly lifestyle. But over the course of the season, he came to respect Barry and learned to be a hero in his own right. Which, according to Hartley, will lead to a “very, very different” Ralph in Season 5.
“He finally got to the point where he was really willing to sacrifice himself for something greater than himself,” Hartley told comicbook.com during Comic-Con International: San Diego last month. “Which is the family, the team that he considers family, Team Flash. And I think doing that, I don’t think he expected to come out of that. But he did. And so I think he’s just a very different person than he was when we met him in episode four last year.”
The character will also get the opportunity to use his top-notch detective skills a whole lot more than when he was being hidden from The Thinker last year. Which is great as Ralph was by the far the best addition to the show last year. In fact, his apparent death toward the end of the season packed far more of an emotional punch than anyone was expecting. Which made his survival all the better. Now freed from the constant threat to his life, Ralph will have to face the hero’s way in a more philosophical sense while avoiding the temptation to take the easy way out; which should still be present even if he made a fundamental change to his life through the events of the previous season.
The Flash returns October 9th on The CW.