SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Into the Void," The Flash Season 6 premiere.
Barry Allen got a new suit in The Flash Season 6 premiere, and he has a good reason why. When he needed to enter a black hole to save someone, Cisco whipped up a new suit capable of surviving those conditions.
The episode introduced viewers to Chester P. Runk, who -- in the comics -- is a longtime Flash villain and occasional ally. Like his comic book counterpart, Chester has the ability to transport matter from one dimension to another. In the premiere, he accidentally gained that ability he created a gravitational wave emitter, which formed a black hole. When he brushed it with his arm, he split his consciousness between his body and the black holes.
Throughout the episode, Team Flash encountered black holes that steadily became more powerful -- and more dangerous. Though Cisco devised a method of closing those black holes, Barry refused to use it; he wanted to try to reunite Chester's consciousness and save him. In order to do that, though, Barry needed to enter one of Chester's black holes, grab his consciousness and return it to his body.
"The electrical impulses that make up Chester's mind are just past the black hole's threshold, but since his synaptic energy has a negative charge --" Cisco started, for Barry to finish, "I can use my lightning's positive charge to attract his energy!"
When Iris asked how Barry could survive inside a black hole, Ralph supplied, "Your Speed Force aura should protect you, right?"
Iris wasn't sold on that, and Caitlin's explanation of what could happen to Barry didn't help: "The gravometric forces will crush you to a subatomic size within seconds."
"Even if you do survive the entry, we don't have a way of keeping Chester's mind intact on the way out," Cisco mused. "We need superconductive wiring from a quantum computer to do that, and last time I checked, those only exist in the future."
"Nora. Our Nora. She could still help us!" Barry realized.
"Oh my God. Her backup gauntlet," Iris supplied. "Cisco, it's still here."
"That gauntlet is going to have the filament we need," Cisco agreed. "I'll strip it out and thread it into your suit."
And so he did, creating the new suit that Barry will wear for a least the first half of Season 6. He finished it in just the nick of time. The suit helped Barry survive the conditions of the black hole and capture Chester's consciousness long enough for it to be reunited with his body in the M.A.C. machine.
Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW, The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Nicolet and Hartley Sawyer.