The Flash concluded its 4^th season with a fast paced episode which brought an end to the conflict with the Thinker. In a set up that was kind of Inception-ish, as pointed out by Cisco, with the fight scenes with DeVoe copied from the Matrix, this was perhaps one of the weakest season endings The Flash has delivered. The previous seasons ended with one or another cliff-hangers but this one was kept different with only the identity of the mystery girl being revealed as a set up for the things to come in season 5. After a whole season of conflict with Clifford Devoe the ending seemed quite unimpressive with the script unable to throw any surprises at us. But even with all these shortcomings, this was one speedster of an episode with lots of comic book style plotting and action along with a few good emotional touches.

The episode begins with impressive visual details as DeVoe launches the satellites and team Flash is left without any option to stop the enlightenment planned by him. Then Iris brings Marlize to Star labs and as expected she joins team Flash to stop her husband. The reason why The Flash cannot take help from other heroes in the Arrowverse is also effectively addressed as Marlize explains that DeVoe ensured that his powers will be able to defeat any other hero who might come to help. Marlize decides to send Barry into DeVoe’s mind with the help of Cecile’s powers to find her husband’s good self so that DeVoe’s bad self can be stopped. Through most of the season, Cecile’s powers were sometimes funny and sometimes downright irritating but finally writers were able to put some purpose behind those powers. The team follows the plan with Barry wandering around in Devoe’s mindscape searching for his good self. He then finds Ralph Dibney (or Ralph’s conscious mind) wandering around in that space and both are delighted to find each other. The fact of Ralph being alive does not come as a surprise as his death never seemed permanent in its true sense.

They find the good self of DeVoe murdered and the evil side of DeVoe tracks them down.  Barry then comes up with an idea that Ralph is alive as DeVoe needs his body to stay alive and if he can escape from DeVoe’s mind, then DeVoe will fall apart. Barry and Ralph then take on DeVoe together while trying to escape out of his mind while in the real world, DeVoe attacks star labs and is about to kill Cecile. The two escapes from DeVoe’s mind just in time to stop him and Ralph take control of his body by expelling DeVoe out of it. Ralph’s character is brought back to life and will surely be a part of the team in the coming season. After all that he goes through in this season, the writers will hopefully be able to work on some interesting developments with his Elongated Man character. It can be assumed that though Ralph is alive, all the other bus metas are permanently gone. There is nothing much to think about the plot-lines here but the way DeVoe’s ending is portrayed it does appear underwhelming. In the end it is team work and love for each other that brings an end to DeVoe’s cold logic and reasoning.

DeVoe had another back up as he comes back in his digital self and send the satellites hurting back to earth by increasing its mass, looking to cause much damage. Marlize destroys the carrier to get rid of DeVoe once and for all but she could not stop the satellite. While Cisco and Ralph helps to move the citizens out of harm’s way, Barry plans to destroy the satellite with a sonic punch. He succeeds but is helped by another speedster in the process, who he could not recognize. Meanwhile Cecile gives birth to a girl child under Caitlin’s care. The action scenes being interspersed with scenes of Cecile giving birth seemed an attempt to impart more drama in the narrative but only breaks the rhythm of the action. In the end the team gathers for a celebration in the house with Wally coming back to welcome her baby sister. Then the mystery girl turns up and reveals that she is Nora who is Barry and Iris’s daughter from the future. She says that she made a mistake and as we have already seen, playing with timelines has plenty of adverse side effects in the show. So it remains to be seen how this is addressed in the coming season and the new villain is brought in.

A highlight of the episode was the interactions between Harry and Cisco which carried a lot of emotional weight for both the characters. Harry has lost his identity completely and he still puts the thinking cap to help the team for one last time. Finally Marlize devises a equipment which is supposed to bring back Harry’s intelligence but it could not bring back the genius that he was. But Harry is happy as what he lost in terms of intelligence; he gains in terms of emotions. He exchanges a fast goodbye with the team and leaves for his earth to go to his daughter. Tom Cavanagh is not leaving the show and will be back in the next season as the executive producer of the show Todd Helbing discusses here. This is definitely good news as the show will be much poorer without his presence. The issue of Caitlin’s past links with Killer Frost was not advanced any further and that too will be a part of the coming season.

Overall, though “We Are The Flash’ was a decent episode, this was not one of the best seasons of Flash and even though it introduced the first non speedster villain and high stakes, the presentation could not deliver the impact of the same. I will still say that the plot lines need to be much tighter if The Flash wants to stick to its 23 episodes per season plan. The DeVoe arc never had enough material to justify the entire season which resulted in some very ordinary episodes. The performances have always been a strong part of the series and it was no exception this season though most characters lacked any interesting development. The ending was not dark and sinister like the earlier seasons and we ended with the team drinking champagne and a tease of something interesting coming up. Season 5 will come up in October and let us hope that it delivers more fun and excitement than this one.

 

 

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