In The Flash recap, Barry and Ralph disagree about how to handle DeVoe and ‘The Thinker’ comes closer to completing his master plan…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Time has been ticking away until a final confrontation between Team Flash and ‘The Thinker’ Clifford DeVoe and the latest episode of The Flash offered tragic consequences for one beloved character.
Last week, the team was able to capture one of the last two bus meta-humans in an attempt to wrestle them away from DeVoe’s clutches. Now the latest episode puts Team Flash in pursuit of the final bus meta-human in an attempt to flush DeVoe out from hiding with plans to hopefully stop him once and for all.
The great moral conundrum this week boils down to a difference of opinion between Barry and Ralph as they argue about the best way to deal with DeVoe when they finally confront him. Ralph believes that killing DeVoe is the only way to ensure he won’t hurt anybody else while Barry is trying to teach his friend and new partner than people with their kinds of abilities have to find a better way to deal with criminals that capital punishment.
Meanwhile, Harry’s obsession with his thinking cap is beginning to endanger his relationship with the rest of the team and it certainly seems like he could be spiraling towards a villainous role in season 5.
And finally, Caitlin has developed a bond with her alter ego Killer Frost rather than constantly struggling against each other, but by the end of the episode, she no longer has another voice inside her head.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Flash titled ‘Lose Yourself’…
Difference of Opinion
The hunt is on for the final bus meta-human named Edwin Gauss with Barry and Ralph searching everywhere for any clue where he may have gone. During the search, Ralph suggests that once they finally confront Clifford DeVoe that killing him is the only guaranteed way to ensure he will never hurt anybody ever again.
Barry tries to impart some wisdom on Ralph as he’s done all season long by telling him that people with their kinds of powers have to find other ways to solve problems rather than just trying to kill someone that opposes them. Ralph doesn’t seem to fully agree, especially considering the kind of damage that DeVoe has caused not to mention to lives he’s taken during his path of destruction.
The conversation stalls when they find a clue about the final bus-metahuman and they discover that his power is to jump in and out of pocket dimensions — similar to the one that DeVoe has been using to hide in his secret lair.
Meanwhile, Harry has been juicing up his thinking cap with visits to Eobard Thawne’s secret time chamber inside STAR Labs and he’s becoming more and more addicted to the tool he created to stop DeVoe once and for all. While Harry promised not to use any dark matter in the use of his thinking cap, he’s been using Thawne’s super computer to pump himself full of it as he attempts to match DeVeo’s intellect.
Harry’s bad behavior aside, he does manage to track down Edwin at a hippie commune where the members of Team Flash rush to find him before DeVoe can get there first. Killer Frost even joins the party after Caitlin figures out that a rush of adrenaline — like from an injection — will bring her out to play whenever needed.
The team arrives but after finding Edwin, they are confronted by one of DeVoe’s sammuroids that Barry is able to defeat while trying to explain to the final bus meta-human that his life is in grave danger without their help. Edwin ops to return with Team Flash so they can offer protection to keep him away from DeVoe.
Kill or Be Killed
Back at STAR Labs, Harry offers the team another solution to deal with DeVoe when he shows them a weapon he calls the Sonic Scepter. According to Harry, the sonic scepter creates an audio vibration that can disrupt DeVoe even through his powerful shields. One hit will knock him off his chair. A second hit would kill him.
That weapon coupled with DeVoe’s latest attack convinces Ralph that he should go after ‘The Thinker’ and do what Barry isn’t willing to by killing him once and for all. Ralph also finds out that Edwin can not only jump into his own pocket dimensions but he actually jumped into DeVoe’s pocket dimension after first gaining his powers.
Ralph convinces Edwin to transport him to DeVoe’s lab where he will use the sonic scepter to put a stop to him once and for all. When Barry gets wind of this plan, he’s forced to knock Ralph out to stop him from attempting to kill DeVoe. Eventually, Barry finds out that Ralph’s reason for wanting to kill DeVoe comes from the right place — he’s not worried about losing his own life but instead he’s scared that DeVoe will hurt someone he’s grown to love like the people at Team Flash, who have become like family to him.
Barry knows that Ralph’s heart was in the right place but with the wrong intentions.
The one good part about Ralph’s plan was the discovery that Edwin could jump them into DeVoe’s secret lair where they could finally get the jump on him and hopefully stop him for good.
So Team Flash mounts up with Barry, Cisco and Killer Frost prepared to invade DeVoe’s lab to finish this fight.
Goodbye Dear Friend
Barry and the team hop into the pocket dimension under the instructions that Edwin is to open another portal back in 15 minutes. If they don’t return, the rest of Team Flash is supposed to move on without them rather than searching for them or sending another group to DeVoe’s lab to find them. When Barry, Cisco and Killer Frost arrive, they blast DeVoe with the sonic scepter except for one problem — it’s just a hologram.
The real DeVoe and his wife Marlize have taken this opportunity to jump into STAR Labs while the Flash is gone so they can retrieve the remaining bus meta-humans without running into much conflict.
Joe is forced to battle a Sammuroid, Iris has to fight Marlize and Harry attempts to help the team by plugging his thinking cap back into the super computer to pump even more dark matter into his brain but this time things overload and he’s knocked unconscious from the explosion.
Meanwhile, Ralph decides to take on DeVoe himself after discovering that ‘The Thinker’ has not only invaded STAR Labs but he’s taken control of the rest of the bus meta-humans who were tucked away safe and sound in the pipeline. DeVoe then gains the powers of the meta-human who could steal other meta-humans’ powers. He gains Null’s control over gravity and finally he merges with Edwin to be able to pop in and out of pocket dimensions without the use of his chair.
Ralph is enraged to find all the dead bodies so he decides that killing DeVoe is the only way to stop him. He ends up forging a sonic scepter from his own body and using it to knock DeVoe off his feet with the intent to kill him with the next shot. Elsewhere in STAR Labs, Joe finishes off the sammuroid and Iris has to take a sword through the shoulder but she’s able to beat Marlize and activate DeVoe’s chair, which opens up a pocket dimension to bring Barry, Cisco and Killer Frost back.
When they arrive, they rush to the pipeline where Ralph is with DeVoe, who he’s captured and handcuffed rather than killing. Unfortunately, Ralph’s decision backfires when DeVoe undoes the cuffs thanks to the power he received form Kilgore to control electronics as he disabled the dampening handcuffs before they were placed on his wrists. DeVoe then uses Null’s power to flatten Barry to the floor by reversing gravity — instead of making him float, he holds Barry flat to the ground with too much gravity.
As for Killer Frost, she accidentally touches DeVoe, which means he absorbs her meta-human powers.
Finally, DeVoe turns his attention to Ralph, who he touches and then transfers his consciousness into his body as Barry and Caitlin are forced to watch their friend and teammate die. DeVoe becomes Ralph before escaping through another pocket dimension — this time with the power of all 12 meta-humans from the bus as well as all the knowledge that Barry has been pumping into Ralph for this entire season.
There’s a reason why Ralph was left alive this entire time — it was so DeVoe could take him last and not only absorb his body, which can change and morph thus fighting off the disease that constantly eats away at his brain but he could also attain all the knowledge he could ever need on Team Flash.
As for Caitlin, she examines her body after DeVoe is gone and she discovers that all the dark matter that once coursed through her veins has disappeared. She’s no longer Killer Frost because DeVoe has taken her powers.
DeVoe returns to his lab where he then shows off another benefit of being in Ralph’s body as he transforms himself back into the version of the man that his wife knew and fell in love with all those years ago. This was DeVoe’s master stroke — to finish Ralph last and then take his body.
Now DeVoe has all the power he could ever need, he has a body that won’t disintegrate over time and he’s finally ready for the next phase of his plan to destroy Team Flash.
A truly excellent if not heartbreaking episode of The Flash.
The Flash will return next Tuesday night for a brand new episode at 8pm ET on the CW
