- 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.
- Officer Tony Bellows: I'm telling you, Murph, this is worse than the blackout of '71.
- Officer Michael Murphy: Blackout of '71 was one the best nights I ever night spent in my life.
- Officer Tony Bellows: Oh, yeah? Let me guess. Uh, motel room with Michelle.
- Officer Michael Murphy: What? No, that's pretty close. Actually, it was a stuck elevator with the Correlli twins.
- Officer Tony Bellows: The Correlli twins were guys, Murph.
- Officer Michael Murphy: I know, and two of the worst poker players you ever saw in your life, honest to God. 2,600 bucks, one night.
- The Ghost: By the way, who the hell are you?
- [removes Nightshade's mask]
- The Ghost: A colored guy. Who'd have guessed?
- Desmond Powell: Colored? You really are a relic.
- The Ghost: And you're just a tired, old man who's going to bleed to death. And say goodbye to this year's model.
- 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.
- Tex: Killer rack-up, homey.
- The Ghost: What? Excuse me?
- Tex: That's a bad score.
- The Ghost: Bad? I've already shattered the record.
- Tex: Oh, no, no. Bad. Like in good.
- The Ghost: Oh, I see... Orwellian doublespeak like in 1984.
- Tex: Heh. '84? Oh! Hey, I can't remember that far back, man.
- The Ghost: Bad is good. Wrong is right. I like it.