In The Flash recap, Clifford DeVoe’s plans are finally revealed as Team Flash tries to stop him from gathering the last pieces he needs for his weapon…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
After a season spent with Clifford DeVoe out thinking everybody on Team Flash, he has finally revealed his grand plan.
Last week’s episode began hinting at DeVoe’s revelation about what he’s been orchestrating behind the scenes all season long as he continues to stay one step ahead of the Flash at every turn.
Now we know that for all the technological terrors that DeVoe has been using to combat Team Flash, it’s actually those same weapons and advancements that he despises.
Meanwhile, Cisco is forced to make a decision regarding his job offer to work alongside Gypsy at the Earth-19 collection agency, which brings their relationship into question as well.
And finally, Harry is forced to reveal his condition to the team but thankfully he gets some help from Cecile to assist him in discovering DeVoe’s plans before his brain is fully compromised.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Flash titled ‘Therefore She Is’….
Thinking About the Past
The latest episode of The Flash spent a big part of the time in a series of flashbacks that showed the origin of Clifford DeVoe’s relationship with his wife Marlize.
It turns out they were both professors on a shared panel at Oxford University as Marlize was mesmerized by the technological advancements that have changed the world over a very short period of time while Clifford objected by saying that every major technological change has also led to some sort of disaster or weapon of mass destruction.
The back and forth exchange ended up as flirtation for the two professors as they ended up dating and then eventually moving into together.
Unfortunately on the day they moved into their new apartment, Marlize stumbled upon Clifford’s private diary that read more like a manifesto of one man’s war against technology. It seems Clifford believes the world would be better off with everybody’s mental acuity being reset so that future technological advancements won’t result in death and destruction.
Marlize doesn’t want to believe what Clifford has written but when he returns home and explains in even more graphic detail how he would like to see everybody’s brain power reduced to zero so they could evolve away from these technological terrors, she breaks up with him.
At some point down the road after Marlize has taken a job with the Peace Corps, she’s managed to develop a water filtration system that will help people in these nearby villages have clean water to drink. Sadly, rebels storm through her camp to steal the technology and Marlize is left injured with a broken arm.
Clifford rushes to be by her side and after witnessing how technology can lead people to such horrific actions, Marlize is finally on board with her future husband. The only way technology can be stopped is by preventing people from having the brain capacity to develop it.
Not Exactly Vibing
As DeVoe begins his hunt for the items he’ll need to exact his plan, he first appears at a company where he steals some material that’s being made for solar panels. In the midst of the robbery, DeVoe forces the security guard to shoot himself in the head, much to the chagrin of Marlize, who sees no reason to kill an innocent man.
Regardless, Team Flash gets to the scene and Barry’s only recourse is asking Cisco to vibe on the gun used to see if he can figure out where DeVoe is headed next. The downside is vibing objects affected by DeVoe end with Cisco being mentally blocked so Barry theorizes that perhaps if he teamed up with his girlfriend Gypsy, they could combined their powers and have a better shot of breaking through DeVoe’s block.
The only problem with that plan is Cisco has been more or less avoiding Gypsy after her father made him a job offer to join her as a collection agent following his retirement. Cisco hasn’t told the team much less come to a decision on working with Gypsy.
So when she arrives from Earth-19, Cisco and Gypsy’s powers combined are able to get a flash of where DeVoe is headed next but because they weren’t in sync, the team arrives and ‘The Thinker’ has already stolen the item.
The incident forces Cisco to come clean with the team about the job offer but more importantly he has to tell Gypsy the truth. He doesn’t want to join her as a collection agent but he desperately wants to spend more time together as a couple.
Mind Your Business
As Harry’s brain continues to diminish as a result of the dark matter that he bombarded himself with to try and increase the power of his thinking cap, he’s finally forced to tell the team what happened and what will eventually unfold as he loses more and more of his memory.
Caitlin and Cisco vow to help save Harry but with each passing day, he’s losing more and more of his mind.
To help keep his thoughts on other things, Joe has Harry serve as a distraction to Cecile while he plans something special for her — which is hard these days considering she can read minds. While Cecile is hanging out with Harry in the lab she notices that he’s struggling more and more to put his thoughts down on the blackboard while trying to figure out what DeVoe is building with all those parts he’s been stealing.
That’s when Harry realizes that the more he thinks, the quicker his memories are fading. Thankfully because Cecile is able to read his mind, she’s able to extract what Harry is thinking before it disappears and together they are able to figure out what DeVoe is building.
They also deduce that there’s one more piece to the puzzle that DeVoe will need and that’s a series of quantum computers, which will send him to Mercury Labs so the team has one last chance to stop him from getting everything necessary to unleash his plan on the world.
Without Me
The team arrives at Mercury Labs just as DeVoe has shrunken down the quantum computers to steal away to his own pocket dimension. Thanks to the element of surprise, Barry and Gypsy are able to knock Clifford down and maintain a hold over him with the vibing powers.
Unfortunately, Marlize getting the upper hand on Cisco forces Gypsy to save him, which distracts her from DeVoe long enough that he’s able to regain his composure. With his gravity control, DeVoe quickly stops everybody from moving except he doesn’t see Caitlin coming at him with the freeze gun. She uses it to turn DeVoe into a block of ice, but he quickly breaks free and puts everybody on Team Flash under his control
That’s when DeVoe grabs Gypsy and decides to use her as a lesson to stop coming after him as he begins to crush her throat with his powers. Marlize is finally able to convince him to stop torturing the girl as they quickly escape to the pocket dimension while Team Flash checks on Gypsy.
Following that encounter, Gypsy returns to Earth-19 for one final goodbye with Cisco after he’s force to tell her without this relationship advancing any further, he just can’t be with her anymore. They break up and she stays on her Earth while Cisco returns home.
In the aftermath of the battle, the rest of the team returns to STAR Labs where Harry and Cecile reveal the breadth of DeVoe’s plan.
He wants to use those satellites to gather and then fire concentrated bursts of dark matter back onto the Earth, infecting every person’s brain and eventually reducing their mental capacity down to nothing, just like what’s been happening with Harry. It seems DeVoe’s plan is to eliminate technological advances by ensuring no one has the brain capacity to develop anything else.
As for DeVoe, he goes back to the lab satisfied that he has all the pieces for his weapon but he’s still not that happy with his wife’s unwillingness to kill for what they want. That’s when Marlize finally realizes that her husband doesn’t want to just eliminate technology by eviscerating everybody’s brain power — he then wants to rule the world.
So Marlize finally breaks apart from her husband after throwing up force field that even he can’t break through as she uses his chair to zap out of their pocket dimension once and for all. As the season has progressed, I’ve believed that Marlize would be the key in stopping DeVoe and now it certainly seems like that is unfolding.
A Speedy Goodbye
Before the episode ends, Joe reveals his big plan to surprise Cecile with a baby shower where everybody gathers to celebrate the latest addition to the family.
In the middle of the party a knock on the door is heard and Joe answers to find a familiar face holding a gift for them. It’s the mystery girl who popped up just before Barry and Iris’ wedding as well as a few episodes back when she ran into Caitlin and Harry at CC Jitters.
There have been a ton of theories about the mystery girl — is she Barry and Iris’ daughter or granddaughter from the future?
Well in this instance she tells Joe congratulations on the new baby and then informs him that the child will arrive in 21 days (which is also the date of the season finale of The Flash for anyone keeping score at home). Before Iris can spot her, the girl makes a quick getaway as Joe wonders who gave them the gift?
Around the corner, the mystery girl breathes a sigh of relief before racing away because she’s actually a speedster! And even more interesting is that the girl’s speed lightning shows flashes of yellow and purple — the same colors as Barry and Iris when they’ve been speedsters.
Is this actually Barry and Iris’ relative from the future or something else? We’ve been guaranteed to find out her identity by the end of the season as she’s supposed to play an even bigger part in season five!
The Flash returns with a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW
