The Flash is wrapping up its fourth season next week, and this week’s job was to put all the pieces on the table: Mrs. DeVoe had to flip, the satellites had to hit space, Cecile’s baby had to be ready to crown. But aside from moving all the chess pieces, how did the episode fare as an episode of television? Keep reading to find out.
1. Training Day!
I love how this show will state something as emphatic fact, and then undo it almost instantly. Barry says, multiple times, “it will take months to train you, I cannot train you in 10 hours.” And yet? He trains Cisco and Caitlin in 12 hours! I must admit, I really dug the teamwork needed to save the hostages in the Castle, even though there was no way DeVoe wasn’t going to launch his satellites. That had to happen to push the story along.
But I want to focus for a second on Cisco. He’s always been the heart of this show, and this week he stood up to Barry in a really important way. When Barry was feeling sorry for himself because of the Ralph situation, Cisco put himself right up, if not in front of Barry, on the blame train. Cisco admitting that he created the bus metas, therefore Ralph, therefore he started everything, was a powerful moment.
Another powerful moment was the opening sequence, of DeVoe just simply owning everyone in the Castle, set to Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” Sure, it was an on the nose musical selection, but it worked like a charm.
Also: Diggle puking post-speed travel gets me every time. It’s so dumb, but I love it.
2. Mine says dude!
Danielle Nicolet (Cecile) got to pull a Tom Cavanaugh this week and ‘play’ a number of different characters, from Caitlin, to Joe, to Spicolli’s second cousin who is a pizza guy in Central City. Giving Cecile meta powers is still one of the weirdest decisions the show has ever made, and having them keep being important is just as odd. Last time she used them to help Harry, and I thought “oh, okay, that’s why she has them!” But now, it seems like she’s inevitably going to need to use them in the finale. My guess? She gets inside DeVoe’s head and reveals how to stop the Enlightenment.
3. World’s best therapist? Or world’s worst?
Dr. Finkel, the therapist of choice for all of Team Flash, is either the world’s best or worst therapist. First of all, someone needs to tell the team about confidentiality. They can tell her they are superheroes – hell, everyone else already knows! That would lead to less awkward moments like Caitlin having to try to explain Killer Frost without saying “I turn into a freezing meta.”
But has anyone else noticed that she never really gives any advice? That’s either genius – let them work it out for themselves, be a good listener – or incredibly cold.
Either way, I’d love an episode of just her writing notes on these fucked up, vague sessions.
4. So…satellites?
Did the team really not think of DeVoe being able to hack other satellites? Or, at the very least, why didn’t they have Amunet make them five projectiles, so that it would be that much harder to launch his protocol. This seems like they were focused on the absolute simplest part of the plan, instead of trying to stop the crux of the problem, which is that DeVoe is essentially the most powerful meta alive.
Side note: am I blanking on how DeVoe got out of the forcefield thing that Marlize put him in, or are we just supposed to believe that he’s so smart he just found a solution off camera?
5. Well, that changes things
Caitlin’s memory of being Killer Frost as a young girl changes, well, everything. It means one of three things: either metas existed long before the particle accelerator, Caitlin is from an alternate Earth, or the show hasn’t figured it out yet, but wants a semi-cliffhanger for the season that isn’t Barry-centric for once.
Either way, this was an enjoyable hour of television. See ya for the finale!
