The Flash (TV Series)

Ghost in the Machine (1990)

John Wesley Shipp: Barry Allen, The Flash

Quotes 

• Desmond Powell : Slow down, Speedy. We got to have a plan. Hop in.

  [opens the door to his car] 

  The Flash : No. Bad for the image.

  [runs off] 

• Barry Allen : What made you do it? Why'd you become The Nightshade?

  Desmond Powell : Someone had to be. When I came home from Korea, this was town was being squeezed between the mob and a corrupt administration.

  Barry Allen : And making the law your own, enforcing it with your own gun, that was okay?

  Desmond Powell : After Korea, I couldn't kill anybody. But, heh, I sure as hell could put 'em down for the count. I modified this gun to shoot tranquilizer darts.

  Barry Allen : Okay, but running around in a... Why'd put on a mask?

  Desmond Powell : Well, I was workin' outside the law. I was black. Nobody was gonna give me any medals. Besides, I had to...

  Barry Allen : Protect your loved ones.

  Desmond Powell : Yeah. You're pretty sharp, Allen.

  Barry Allen : Well, I was born and raised in Central City. How come I never heard of Nightshade?

  Desmond Powell : Ah, I was good copy for a while. Then I quit, right after The Ghost. Thirty-fives years from now, who'll remember The Flash?

  Barry Allen : Well, I don't know. He's done a lot of good for the city, don't you think?

  Desmond Powell : Yeah, but...

  [Barry helps him with his coat] 

  Desmond Powell : Thank you. So did Nightshade. People forget. Trust me.

  Barry Allen : It looks like you were havin' the time of your life though.

  Desmond Powell : At the expense of everything else. My health, my family. My fiancee, she left me. She knew she had a rival.

  Barry Allen : The night? The danger?

  Desmond Powell : Pardon me?

  Barry Allen : Well, it must have been kind of addicting.

  Desmond Powell : Livin' a double life nearly destroyed me. You take Garfield. He's one of my closest friends. I've taken the lead out of him at least a dozen times. But I still can't share my secret with him.

  Barry Allen : Yeah, I guess now. But tell me about The Ghost.

  Desmond Powell : He used this crude form of two-way television. He could secretly make a set turn into a sort of camera. To case buildings for possible burglaries. To spy on people, to blackmail public officials. Finally, he planted bombs all over the city. Rigged to detonate on a TV signal.

  Barry Allen : And held the city for ransom.

  Desmond Powell : Aah. But I rigged this in '55. Jammed his transmission. I thought for good. Terrifies me to think what he can do with the technology he stole from S.T.A.R. Lab.

• Barry Allen : Sabrina, you want some coffee?

  Sabrina : Yeah, yeah, I'd love some. And take Julio with you, okay? Before his eyes pop out of his head like a couple of golf balls.