In The Flash recap, a new meta-human accidentally gives Barry’s speedster powers to Iris and she’s tasked with saving the city while Harry continues to work on a plan to defeat DeVoe…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s safe to say that the past two weeks of The Flash have been the best of the season.
The latest installment splits the episode largely into two parts — one with Iris turned into a speedster when she’s accidentally handed Barry’s powers and the second focused on Harry’s obsession with out thinking ‘The Thinker’ Clifford DeVoe.
Both played very well against the back drop of the big bad this season, who we actually haven’t seen for the past two weeks. Because DeVoe isn’t the same kind of ominous threat that Thawne, Zoom or Savitar were in the first three seasons, it’s probably a good idea to give him some time off the canvas while the team tries to figure out a way to beat him.
The result have been two very strong episodes in a row.
This week, the search for the last remaining bus meta-humans continues with the team stumbling on one of them and that results in Barry’s powers being transferred to Iris.
Iris becoming a speedster lets her take on a whole new persona, especially after she was taunted by Ralph about how she was never in danger because she was never in the field. Of course it was an unfair criticism but Iris took it to heart and it made her begin to reconsider how she could best serve Central City that didn’t always involve sitting behind a desk.
Meanwhile, Harry has started to really lose himself in an attempt to beat DeVoe at his own game and it’s making him take risks that he probably shouldn’t take. It’s entirely possible that by the end of this season, DeVoe is defeated and Harry begins his own descent into villainy. Something to think about.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Flash titled ‘Run, Iris, Run’….
With Great Power
Team Flash is still trying to figure out a way to get to DeVoe with the main objective right now revolving around finding the last three remaining meta-humans who were created from the bus being bombarded by dark matter when Barry returned from the Speed Force.
Harry finally formulates a plan, much to Cisco’s chagrin, when he suggests building an ‘intelligence enhancer’ similar to the one that DeVoe used during the STAR Labs explosion several years ago that helped him gain his superior intellect. Harry wants to make his own thinking cap that will allow his brain to operate with the same power as DeVoe but there’s only one small problem — he would also have to blast his own brain with dark matter to boost the power of the intelligence enhancer to match ‘The Thinker’.
Cisco is totally against the plan while the rest of the team seems on board regardless of the dangers than might befall Harry for trying something so risky.
As for Ralph, he’s more or less shut off from the team as he begins to worry more and more that he will be the next target of DeVoe so he’s been staying put inside STAR Labs and refusing to go out on missions. To make matters worse when Iris attempts to give him a pep talk, he shoots her down and then accuses her of always playing it safe because she’s behind a desk calling the plays rather than out in the field risking her life.
Ralph is off base but Iris takes his jab to heart because she begins to reminisce about the days when she was a reporter for the Central City newspaper and she was always in the thick of the action.
As for Barry, he’s still shut out from returning to the Central City Police Department until the mayor gets a face to face with Clifford DeVoe to prove he’s alive and well after miraculously appearing in court a few weeks ago.
The team finally gets called into action after a bank robbery goes wrong — a meta-human with the ability to melt anything is trying to steal a vault full of money when another meta touches him and suddenly his powers are gone. The meta who stopped him warned the criminal that he shouldn’t use his powers for evil but when the guy refused to leave, he was forced to take his powers away.
When Joe and Cisco arrive, they question everybody but can’t seem to find the one guy who helped stop the robbery.
Back at STAR Labs, a search of deposits in the bank that day matched against witnesses who were question leaves one person — Matthew Kim, an EMT working at the Central City hospital. Joe and Barry prepare to go question him but Iris suddenly volunteers to help with the interrogation.
When Iris and Joe arrive it doesn’t take Matthew Kim long to figure out why they are there to question him and he reacts. Matthew grabs Iris, puts a scalpel to her neck and threatens to kill her if they don’t let him go. Joe presses his panic button and Barry arrives in a flash (pun intended).
Unfortunately when Barry quickly removes Matthew from threatening his wife, the meta-human touches both of them at the same time. Suddenly Barry’s powers are gone and they’ve been transferred to Iris.
The Thinking Man’s Cap
Harry begins working on his thinking cap without Cisco’s assistance and he seems to have a breakthrough while Ralph is attempting to help him. Harry puts on the machine and suddenly his neurons are firing at rapid speed and he’s able to prove his brain power is working at a much faster rate but unfortunately that also causes the ‘intelligence enhancer’ to overheat and catch on fire.
To make this machine work, Harry is going to need Cisco’s help so he finally concedes to assisting him under certain conditions — the main one being they will not use dark matter to bombard his brain to try and match DeVoe’s mental ability.
Harry agrees and Cisco signs on to help him build the thinking camp in an attempt to finally gain an edge over DeVoe.
The Fastest Woman Alive
With Iris now imbibed with Barry’s speed, she has to train to get ready to save the city should an emergency arise because as of now, Caitlin has no idea how to switch the powers back to their original owner.
A building fire requires Iris to jump into action and she quickly runs to save the five people left alive inside but then she faces a problem when she’s unable to put out the blaze. Instead, Iris ends up being trapped by a falling beam and when she can’t figure out how to phase herself free, Cisco is forced to breach into the room and pull her out again.
Iris is concerned that should another emergency happen, she won’t be able to do what Barry has done so many times in the past. Barry encourages her to keep at it because after all she’s been leading this team for quite some time now and she knows exactly what it takes to succeed in the life saving business.
Iris gets her next chance when the bank patron who accidentally received the melting powers ends up attacking the same place to steal the money that the other crook failed to take. The Central City police are no match for his powers so that forces Iris to run into action — complete with a new speedster suit made specifically for her.
While she is unable to get close to the fiery meta-human, Harry suggests putting on his thinking camp, cranking things up to the highest level and see if he can devise a plan that will work. Sure enough as Harry’s brain starts firing on all cylinders, he deduces that Iris needs to create a tidal wave in Central City harbor and carry that water to put out the fire breathing bad guy in downtown.
With some helpful encouragement from Barry back at home base, Iris is able to run faster than she’s ever ran before to create the tidal wave that she then carries back to douse the meta-human known as ‘Melting Point’.
The day is saved thanks to Iris West-Allen.
Back in the Field
After the latest meta-human threat has been stopped, Team Flash tracks down Matthew Kim, who apologizes for threatening Iris because he’s been scared of what might happen next. In reality, Matthew was just trying to help people but he still doesn’t really understand his powers.
The team tells Matthew that he could be a massive asset in their fight against DeVoe if he really wants to help. Matthew agrees and his training begins so that he can truly harness this power that could possibly help defeat DeVoe once and for all. Matthew also switches Iris’ powers back into Barry so he’s once again The Flash.
After being a speedster for a day, Iris says she was happy to give up those powers because Barry is the perfect person to be the Flash because he imbibes what it means to be a hero and a hope for the people of Central City. Iris realizes that she has another calling as well — as she fires back up her blog “SavedbytheFlash.com” where she starts penning a new column for the first time in years.
Back at STAR Labs, Harry pushes the limits with his new intelligence enhancer along with Cisco and he finally has a breakthrough. Harry is able to figure out who the final two meta-humans created by the bus accident and now the hunt is on to get to them before DeVoe does.
‘The Flash’ is off for the next few weeks but returns with a brand new episode on Tuesday, April 10 at 8pm on the CW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SILg4wtGxIQ&feature=em-uploademail
