TELEVISION EPISODE REVIEW: The Flash S4 EP22 ‘Think Fast’

DeVoe makes his final move, trapping himself in a facility with a nuclear explosion waiting to happen; Team Flash only has one option…think fast, or DeVoe wins. Unfortunately, with so many things happening at once, as well as inconsistencies made…this episode chocks up to be fun to watch, but a lousy build-up to the season finale.

Directed By: Viet Nguyen
Written By: Sam Chalsen and Kristen Kim

What You Need To Know:
Marleze left DeVoe, because his true love for her had fled. Joe and Cecile are pregnant, as well as Cecile has mysterious powers that appeared without explanation. DeVoe has the power, and the tools, for the enlightenment, or so we were lead to believe. Team Flash teams with outsiders of Central City for help looking for DeVoe. Leaving us where? Well, in the same, immovable place as usual…Team Flash two steps behind DeVoe.

What You’ll Find Out:
So, we’re what, a few episodes away from the season finale? Whoop whoop!
Is that such a good thing? Well, going over what we’ve gotten this season…a mix of ups and downs, filler and exclusive, amazing content…it’s really hard to determine whether I am excited to see how it ends, or see it end.

Okay, so the opening; can we talk about this? The sheer beauty of and nuance of this scene is awe-inspiring and absolutely gorgeous. In my lifetime, I’ve only seen a handful of amazingly captured moments on-screen (Dr. Strange opening, X2: X-Men United opening, being a few). This scene makes the list for sure. We are lead straight in, thinking officer John Diggle of ARGUS is making a little visit to Fallout, the radioactive busmeta. Seeing Johnie boy was a refresher…but the nods as to who he really was was too enticing to stand. Once he gains entrance, he shows his identity, after a snarky comment about the musical choice of a certain guard. It’s classical, and a very eccentric choice of music; and of course, DeVoe makes himself known. It’s the part following that was mind-blowingly great; we see DeVoe break into the ARGUS facility, with classical on the background. He absolutely OWNS a handful of ARGUS guards, showing an awesome use of the variety of his abilities. He takes on bullets, grenades, hand-to-hand interaction; all like an absolute beast. This scene was the most visually stunning scene I have seen this entire season.

Coming to his intentions of being here, he is unable to stop a young woman working in the room where Fallout was being kept to send out a ‘DeVoe Alert’ out on the internet. Unfortunately, DeVoe catches her off-guard but doesn’t seem too interested on taking care of her. Instead, he admires Fallout, and his own pure awesomeness (I think).
Then, he delivers a line that fits the situations so perfectly, that shivers were sent up my spine.
“And God said, “”Let there be light.”
Quoting scripture from the Bible is typical philosophical/humanitarian baddie. In DeVoe’s case? He quoted it, as he deactivated Fallout’s cage, as well as meta-dampener collar, and Fallout begins melting down; and DeVoe watches in pleasure.

I apologize for utterly fanboying over that; it was just an amazing experience, especially after last week’s o-kay but underwhelming episode, returning with an opening so amazingly shot, scripted, and placed was refreshing, to put it simply.

But, as we go forward, things seem to get crowded. We receive a clever moment between Team Flash, as they discuss the recent goings-on; Harry barges in, tripping over a chair, and going on about someone posting about DeVoe and his plans everywhere on the internet!

Iris coolly let’s him know- that was her, and he proofread the article for her that morning. Harry is really starting to lose it, poor guy. It’s shortly after that Team Flash is alerted of DeVoe’s break-in, thanks to the young woman who was able to post the alert on Iris’s blog.
(Also, there was an AMAZING little reference to the Legion of Supervillains/ the Super Friends, of course, said by the reference master, Cisco)

We jump into this episode awfully quick; we transition of Team Flash to Caitlin, who is at a therapy session (with the same woman who apparently is just a freelance advice-giver/listener. Caitlin addresses her Killer Frost problem, trying not to make it sound as if she’s gone crazy. The therapist is pretty chill (heh) about it; suggesting the key to Killer Frost may be something Caitlin’s mind has pushed away or seemingly forgotten, a memory perhaps. Caitlin shoots down this theory, because she knows how she became Killer Frost, and it wasn’t due to her childhood.
Caitlin is alerted (word of the day) of the newly developed problem, and ends her session. Team Flash doesn’t know WHICH ARGUS base was broken into though; so they bring in an expert.

Diggle! The real one this time, I promise! Of course, as Barry zooms off to get him, Caitlin and Cisco prepare for what every visit with Diggle usually brings.
Dig keeling over and hurling into a trash can. And he didn’t disappoint; of course, whooshing him without his consent would need to be forgotten. They needed help finding the ARGUS base. Now…if Felicity were here, she would have put out full scans for any radioactivity within a 1,000 mile radius; but a team of scientists needs help locating the base in order to figure out there is a massive amount of radioactivity happening. But, Diggle serves his purpouse for the five minutes he guests, and Team Flash has an idea of what’s happening. DeVoe has “activated” Fallout, and he was unable to be helped at the point he was in. But, he was being contained, because DeVoe needed his radioactive energy to power his satalites. (I call bull-crap! You’ll see why later on)

So, the stakes are made; 12 hours until DeVoe begins the Enlightenment. Again, things from here are so rushed. Not necessarily scenes, but the actual story. It’s pushed aside for filler content that is just plain CRAP. Why do I say this? Because the next scene, we find Cecile and Joe readying to go to the hospital, and Cecile has a breakthrough with her mind-reading abilities; she develops a pizza man’s personality when he arrives with a pizza.

This leads to them of course going to see Caitlin, who figures it’s her hormones, seeing as she’s so close to birth, affecting her powers, and stretching them further to the brink of actually developing other’s personalities. She gives Cecile an inhaler, after Cecile takes on Caitlin’s personality, in which is filled with a calming medication. I just asked myself why, over and over and over again. Why in the world is this even relevant at this time? This episode is meant to lead to the big turn-out, the finale!!! But we are sidetracked with this? Are they still waiting to use Cecile for something big? Maybe get her close to DeVoe, and develop his personality for some reason? I HAVE NO IDEA! But IF they plan on using her for something other than to bring in at the worst possible moments, I can’t tell, because all they’ve done is sideline the two lovers and for some reason make this power things not only seem unimportant but irrelevant to anything.

Going on from that, Iris is on a different job. While Barry figures out what to do with DeVoe, Iris figures finding Marleze is important; but her reasons why are completely mixed up. She claims she wants her in custody because she’s still dangerous, even without DeVoe. So, this isn’t about that she MIGHT want to help fight her husband, because she left him? This is a personal vendetta out to make Iris feel better.
(My head hurts from the amount of shear nonsense; yeah, it plays into the story as to why they didn’t seek Marleze for different purposes…but just…ugh. It’s another thing to distract from the bigger picture, and one that doesn’t even MATTER! But hey, anything to put Iris there in the spot-light again.

So, we finally get back to what SHOULD be the only thing that matters; the schematics of the ARGUS facility show traps, keeping people from entering without triggering electric shocks through panels on the floors. They switch up every few hours, so randomly running around a few wouldn’t work. So, Barry figures Flashtime is the only way to get in, absorb the energy shocks from the panels, and use them to his advantage. That is, until he finds out there are hostages. The absorbed shocks would cause an explosion, and he couldn’t save them and catch DeVoe.

So, Cisco and Caitlin to the rescue; remembering when Flash brought them into Flashtime in a previous episode. Unfortunately, they’d grow tired quickly. This seems to be forgotten in this episode, because Caitlin and Cisco pitch an idea. The idea is that Barry can generate a sort of aura, caused by the speedforce. If he transfers this onto them, they could move in Flashtime with him. This defies everything that the episode where Barry used Flashtime to try and stop the bomb set out t make clear! They wouldn’t get any less tired moving on their own, because their bodies still aren’t used to moving at that speed. This is a big complaint I’m gonna have throughout the episode; consistency errors. There are a few of them.

So, into Flashtime training! Barry sends an electric aura through Cisco and Caitlin, allowing them to move milliseconds at a time. This of course, isn’t easy. Their plan is the open a breach in Flashtime, and get the people out before they can explode. Testing this, Cisco isn’t able to open a breach in Flashtime, just like he wasn’t in the previous episode. But, for some reason, now they think he’ll be able to? It doesn’t make any sense! But, Cisco is thrown out of Flashtime because he slowed up. Taking a break…sounds good!

During this break, we come back to Iris, who is searching places where Marleze may be hiding (was anyone else’s immediate thought the place she first met Clifford, or was that just me?).

Harry proves to be really losing his mind in these moments, rambling about Marleze’s feelings. It’s a good transactions from how he “learned to care” in the previous episode, and now he based his thoughts on the feelings of another person, and how they may have or may be feeling. Iris was getting a little pissy though. Harry of course suggests thinking like Marleze; and popping the question which was suggesting the possibility of Marleze being on their side. Iris refused to believe that; she had attacked them all personally and just plain evilly countless times. Whether she left DeVoe or not, Iris didn’t trust her as far as she could throw her. Harry insisted on giving it a chance, and Iris refused, stomping out to think on her own, at her home.

Flashtime: Take two- marker, and set!
The second time is the charm, or so they thought. Cisco is able to open a small breach (somehow) and admires the baby breach. Now, Caitlin’s turn. An ice gun, which she planned on using to counteract the concussive blow of the floor, protecting the civilian as best as possible. Unfortunately, moving that fast, the ice gun wouldn’t work. Then, she begins to slow up…and something happens. A flashback occurs, which freaks her out, and flings her out of Flashtime. The flashback contains interesting content…including a young girl on her bike, and a car heading straight at her.
Caitlin, luckily, is fine. But It’s at this point Barry refuses any further training. The probability of actually getting Caitlin and Cisco out of there without any problems was highly unlikely, and he knew it. He refused to set their lives on the line.

Smart move, in my opinion, Barry.
Moving on…yet another scene with Cecile and Joe, where Cecile takes on Joe’s personality. Grabbing Joe’s katana is when Joe decides Cecile was getting him way too weirded out. So, a nice sit-down, and a calming sedative chat. He asks he to image the ocean, the waves splashing up onto her body. But the waves weren’t who she was, looking up; she was the single, bright star in the sky. She was Cecile, and that was that. She snapped out of it. Joe reveals he used the Lamaze method of calming her, and getting her back to normal. (The inhaler Caitlin gave her didn’t work, surprise surprise)
Ugh; I just don’t know what to say beyond ugh. It’s so unneeded, these scenes. They are placed in the worst possible times of the episode and don’t in any way connect to anything going on.

Iris is busy studying Marleze, when a knock at her door comes; at least, at A door. Harry calls for her, but when she opens her apartment door, she finds him pounding and yelling at the door down the hall. This moment of comedy is priceless; the chemistry between two is hilarious. Seeing Harry figure out it was the wrong place, then barge in without Iris’s permission is hilarious. Harry keeps trying to convince Iris, putting herself in Marleze’s shoes. And this time, Iris is fed up with Harry; asking him to leave HER house in a demand is all she can come to. HER house, the place she felt comfortable and loved. The place she was free to think, alone, without anyone.
And in this moment of pure oddness, Iris realizes; Marleze went home.

(Again, the places Marleze and DeVoe called home would have been the FIRST places to look; but common sense isn’t a thing I guess!!!)

Barry is running out of time; and refusing to train Cisco and Caitlin was what he was sticking to. But, Cisco disagreed. This leads to a heated argument between Cisco and Barry. Barry reveals he can’t put more lives on the line, he can’t build more people up for disaster. Not again; he let Ralph go up against DeVoe without consideration, and that got Ralph killed. He couldn’t make the same mistake again. But Cisco tells him it’s not up to him; the weight of this entire situation was more on Cisco than Barry. Cisco brought Barry back out of the speedforce, Cisco created the bus-metas…he was responsible for so much that was happening. But putting his life on the line wasn’t up to Barry; it was something they needed to decide to do for themselves. Sidelining them wouldn’t help anything…

The acting in these moments is phenomenal; the confliction between Cicso and Barry is played out amazingly by the two actors. That being said, the acting throughout the episode, from banter among friends to interactions between whomever, I couldn’t catch a moment of just bad acting. It was really well done.

Barry concedes to his friends, and decides, if they want to help, it’s what was going to happen. Iris tells her husband she may have found Marleze, and he gives her the last breach-opening device they had and trusted her to get whatever needed to happen done. Meanwhile, Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco were ready.

What if I told you everything DIDN’T happen as planned? You’d probably think, “Oh, again?” But…what if I told you the opposite???

The plan works; Caitlin is made ice-gauntlets, at some point, and she uses them alongside Cisco to free the suspended ARGUS agents, while Barry absorbs the energy of the plates on the floor.

Wait…I thought the whole reason they couldn’t get inw as the entire floor was covered in randomized plates of death? Apparently not… apparently there are only a select few with the civilians above them. But, everything seems to go as planned, as Barry makes a run for DeVoe. But, DeVoe had already shrunk and contained the amount of radioactive power he needed, and he opened a portal to leave. Barry caught it, this time though. Before it shut, Barry jumped through, following DeVoe.
The plan had worked, and the Flash was on it.

(This part gets WAY too confusing, so bare with me alright?)

DeVoe appears in the smack middle of the city; and his satellites are a-go. He picks them from his pockets, they’re shrunken after all, and levitate’s them into the air, enlarging them as they go. The Enlightenment was happening, and things couldn’t be going any faster. But, speaking of fast, the Flash caught DeVoe off-guard, and runs out of the still-open portal, and rushes to stop A satellite. Using the piece of sharded metal Amunet gave them, Barry chucks it at a satellites, destroying it! Apparently (though it was never disclosed) DeVoe needed EVERY satellite operational in order for the Enlightenment. But, now he had less than what he needed, and Barry had stopped him.

DeVoe confronts Barry, and tells him he’s only prolonged the inevitable, quoting someone I am not smart enough to remember. But through this conversation, Barry tries to talk sense into the maniac. The Enlightenment would cause mothers to forget their children, husbands to forget their wives. Any kind of emotional connection would be diminished! And DeVoe agreed happily; emotions, feelings, were a disease to him, and it would be one of the many things forgotten by the human race. Everyone everywhere would look up from their wretched cell phones and curiosity would rule. In other words…DeVoe would be there to lead them all.

Of course, DeVoe makes his leave rather dramatically after…leaving way too many questions. Was that it? Really?

Well, apparently. But, we’ve got another part of the story to be finished. Harry and Iris breach to Oxford, England. They arrive in the place Marleze and DeVoe first lived together; but it looks empty. A warm tea pot proves otherwise, though. Iris takes control of the situation, holding up a laser gun to show how peacefully they come, and demand Marleze to show herself. Well, Marleze listens, seemingly appearing out of no where, with her super powered katana. She threatens Iris; though something stops her. Harry shows signs of his degrading mind, and Marleze is astonished. But, she makes it clear, helping take out DeVoe is meaningless, because she was right. Man would never treat emotions with respect, nor technology. She shows she did support him once, and the idea he stood for still somewhat mattered to her. But, Iris being Iris, is able to convince her that this wasn’t the way. She was hurt, but this was madness, and DeVoe needed to be stopped.

It was a simple scene, and not exactly believable; why would Marleze just agree right off the bat after previously disagreeing? Hm…

Well, things were alright, it seemed. Back at ARGUS, the police were taking care of things, along with Vibe and Caitlin. But, Caitlin wanted something from Cisco; she told him before, during training, she had a flashback. Something she couldn’t remember, because her mind indeed has repressed it. She wanted to know what it was, and she wanted to vibe it. Cisco ultimately agreed to it and vibed her.
The memory is made clear; Caitlin in a bike wreck, below a halted car. A man yelling at her not to look, to be calm. But, small Caitlin picks a mirror up, and sees herself; or, should I say, sees Killer Frost.

Caitlin had had Killer Frost inside of her BEFORE the Particle Accelerator explosion…she was a meta by birth.

With this revolation, again, things speed along quickly, to STAR Labs. An alert sounds, after everyone seemingly agrees the worst was over, for the moment. STAR Labs Satellite had been activated…and was moving into position with DeVoe’s satellites. DeVoe had taken control of Star Labs, he was here.

We find DeVoe in Reverse Flash’s secret hideaway, having taken control of Gideon. And, from there, he quotes yet again…

“And God said, “”Let there be light.”” As he activates the satellite, a purple beam winds through each satellite in space. And, the episode ends with Barry pounding on the entrance, and DeVoe continuing, “God saw this…and said it was good.”
He had gotten what he wanted anyways…and Barry hadn’t ever really stopped him.

What Just Happened?
Confused? Yeah, I am too. DeVoe spent episodes upon episodes, constructing specialized satellites and things to power them. Heck, through this episode he was powering Fallout until he was nothing more than a cloud of radioactivity. But, what happens to that? He obtained the shrunk container of radioactive energy, but we don’t see him use it. But then, he infiltrates STAR Labs, and uses the Dark Matter tube he stole from the Thinking Cap Charger in the chamber a few episodes ago, and uses that to power the Enlightenment and the STAR Labs satellite. So, ultimately, none of the satellites were special in any way. Nor was the premise of DeVoe’s action in this episode. They all lead to things happening out of coincidence. DeVoe used a satellite that was in no way connected to anything he had built. Then there was the fact he wanted Fallout’s radioactive energy, and was never shown using it.

If you weren’t confused before, you probably are now, because it doesn’t make sense; his entire motives relied on his works and what hew as building…but that all ended up falling upon things he obtained because his original plan failed. Was it because he was so smart he could just do whatever he wanted by now and no one could stop him? This episode built up DeVoe’s enlightenment, and ended up screwing the entire plan over after he was seemingly stopped, and used a random satellite because I guess none of it mattered.

But, if having a random satellite worked, then why not use the US Government’s satellites orbiting the earth? There are quite a few up there; seeing DeVoe take control of the Governent’s satellites, and using them would have been a more entertaining device in his plan instead of taking all this time to make and power his own. It served absolutely NO purpose; other than seeing DeVoe falling further into insanity, as well as getting the better of Team Flash. If this is all there is to DeVoe…to his plans, then I am extremely disappointed. He’s gone from outsmarting the Flash in the most intricate and extremely well-written ways…to just being OP’d because he’s the Thinker, and apparently anything he does goes, with now little to no explanation.
So we got an episode full of basically filler content, and downgraded the entire villain’s plotline, leaving us with DeVoe winning under the most typical, and uninteresting circumstances.

Acting? Humor? Scenery? Beautiful. Actual consideration for the weight that should have made this episode likable and a well-done leading up to the finale? Meh…

Rating: 7/10
Final Thoughts:
Contradictions are abundant throughout this episode; previous episodes and the facts they set into place are overwritten and thrown in the mud. DeVoe’s plan went from intriguing to see how it would play out, to downright confusing and just simplistic. SO much filler content has been shoved into these episodes, it draws away from the attention DeVoe and Barry should have had, building a hateful relationship, as well as the building of DeVoe’s master plan. He obtained everything with ease, yet everything played out without what he was out to get anyways. Now…the reason I gave it such a high rating, is because there are two episodes left in the season. There is time to shed light on the seemingly inconsistent things that occurred, as well as build off of DeVoe’s supposed victory. I may be asking for too much; maybe not. I won’t be able to tell until next week; but acting wise, scenery wise, and humor wise, this episode blended it all together amazingly well. It was a good episode, but things were either conflicting or confusing, until it all ended with the eye-rolling, typical surprise ending. The villain got what he wanted anyway even though it doesn’t match with anything we’ve been lead to believe he truly needed for his plan to work.

But, again, due to the unneeded filler content, such as Cecile/Joe moments, those could have been spent building more story around DeVoe and his finalized plans, Marleze, and Barry. I understand why they want to shed light on characters that may come into play later on, and there is still this mystery girl running around, as well as the Killer Frost problem. This is the beginning of the end, and it’s not off to a super great start DUE to the filler content forced down our throats since the mid-way point of this season.

The Flash airs Tuesday nights on the CW Network. Check your local listings for times.

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