The Flash - Subject 9 Television 

Five Thoughts on The Flash‘s “Subject 9”

By | February 28th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

After taking most of the month off for the Winter Olympics, The Flash is back! Let’s get right to it.

1. The Fiddler

Of all the absurd Flash villains the show has introduced, this one actually worked with slightly few tweaks. The whole ‘everyone on the bus is a meta’ thing hasn’t really extended to many professions yet, in terms of their profession benefiting from their new powers. But that’s exactly what happens here: the Fiddler, aka Izzy Bowin (GET IT, BOWIN? LIKE BOWING A VIOLIN RDRR), can use her musical abilities to her professional advantage, or her ‘kicking DeVoe’s ass’ advantage.

She also, unlike most people on this show, showed the exact right amount of skepticism with Barry and Ralph. If I was minding my own at work and two studs walked in, claiming I had to go with them for my protection, I’d call bullshit, too. But once she learned who they were, she was willing to play ball. This seems like a reasonable response, unlike most folks who either refuse to help or are way too quick to join them without reservation.

That’s a long winded way of saying that she seemed like a normal person struck by dark matter. So many of the shows other metas were all shady characters, made more shady by their new powers. Even someone like Becky Sharpe were caricatures before becoming metas. Izzy seemed, in her limited interaction, a normal person, and that is something this show has been remarkably light on.

2. Barry as pusher?

I found the storyline about Barry pushing people too hard a little untrue to what we’ve seen Barry do thus far. This seems like a plot point created to give Barry something to do this week, as “Subject 9” was far more Ralph and Harry focused. But that’s ok! Let Barry take the backseat now and then. Especially now, with some breathing room from DeVoe, due to Ralph’s shapeshifting, and with a lot of free time on his hands due to being on a leave of absence, Barry should be more willing than ever to let people do things at their own pace.

Speaking of that leave of absence, I hope this isn’t the case, but hear me out: the season ends with Ralph dying, and using his last bit of energy to shift into DeVoe, letting the police see him dead “for real” before shifting back to himself after Team Flash gets him back to S.T.A.R. Labs. That’s, as far as I can tell, the only way to really clear Barry and put the DeVoe story to bed.

3. Harry and Cecile

Harry and Cecile are a new pairing for the show, and one that more or less works. They are both part of Team Flash because of someone else – Joe and the Earth-One Harrison Wells. They are both quite a bit older than the average member of the team, and both are concerned parents. While Cecile’s pregnancy induced ESP is still weird as shit, at least they are giving her and Harry something to do.

4. How to stop DeVoe

So, it appears that DeVoe needs not just metas, but bus metas, to take control of when their bodies begin to fail. It seems to me that there are two ways this can end, and both are reasonably quick: 1) find the other three bus metas, lock ’em in S.T.A.R. Labs, and let his body die. Or, alternately, just let him eat those those metas and, once he’s exhausted them all, he will die.

But here is what is going to happen: remember what I said two paragraphs ago about Ralph? He’s targeting Ralph as the last meta, because his body is the strongest and will hold up the best. But somehow Ralph will retain control, or at least be fighting, the transformation, leading to the scene I described above. Mark my words, people.

5. Giving Ralph some respect

The loss of Izzy and the visual of him witnessing her transformation was a strong experience for Ralph. This was the first time that he seemed to have some humanity and pathos to him, instead of the goofy asshat that he is most of the time. The final scene with Barry was the most subdued we’ve seen Ralph all season, and I fear that his time on the show is limited. If it isn’t, please, please let him not be so annoying next season. And for Rao’s sake, give him a Sue!


//TAGS | The Flash

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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