After last week’s happy ending, it seemed like Barry’s world had stabilized a bit. Good things never last though. His first day back on the job has him shown right back out. Too many people are unsure about Barry’s innocence, including the Mayor who has asked that he take an indefinite leave of absence. With his new free-time, Barry takes over for Cisco and becomes Ralph’s safe-buddy. Even as adults, the buddy system works.
Checking the lost and found box for the bus the metas were on yields results in the form of a CD with the name Izzy Bowin. By vibing it, Cisco learns that she’s at the Busted Saddle, a local country bar. Ralph and Barry head out together to meet her, finding a girl who fiddles like Lindsey Stirling, sings like Carrie Underwood, and talks like Kellie Pickler. Despite warning her of the danger she’s in, Izzy isn’t convinced and uses her sound wave power to knock them on the rears while she takes off.
Meanwhile, Devoe 3.0 is looking to get a hand on Izzy, as well. His new Becky meatsuit is wearing down too quickly due to all the new dark energy he sucked up from the metas. The body of the fiddle-player must seem a bit sturdier. He makes plans to move into his new vessel.
Cecile and Harry develop a strange friendship over this episode starting by Cecile making him squick when she says that Joe is keeping her up all night. It turns out Joe’s unconscious thoughts and dreams are keeping her from getting a good night’s sleep. Being the friendly neighborhood genius he is, he offers to help.
Izzy Rescue – Take Two has Barry, Ralph, and Cisco showing up in their superhero costumes because men in masks telling you to go with them seems way less scary than plain clothes guys.
Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones who chose that moment to approach Izzy. Devoe 3.0 shows up. He gets to learn firsthand how strong she is, getting knocked backward and experiencing a loss for the first time in forever. Marlize appears quickly out of thin air to drag him back into…wherever it is they go. I’m not sure why she bothers considering the only thing she gets for her efforts is yelling and degradation. I have to wonder how long her blind devotion will hold up under this treatment.
Even seeing Devoe, Izzy is not convinced about her need to hide. She has spent too long building a name for herself and is really close to her big break. She conveniently seems to miss the point that she can’t have a big break when she’s dead. Since Ralph feels a connection, he chases Izzy to the elevator, which takes an astonishingly long time to arrive considering they’re the only ones who would be using it. Really it should have already been on that floor, but oh well. Giving a motivational speech, he convinces her to stay and Barry decides it’s time for her to train.
Izzy learns to use the fiddle as a focusing device for her powers. This way while she sounds amazing, she’s also kicking ass. Eat your heart out, Stirling! While she’s certainly trying, Barry pushes her harder, trying to make her superhero ready overnight. They have to take a break when he throws up a multitude of clay pigeons which she easily destroys but gets hit by shrapnel.
After a failed attempt by Harry to build a “mental activity dampener” that Cecile can sleep in, they two have a fairly hellish argument. It’s really unsurprising considering a pregnant woman and a frustrated genius are both riding high on emotions. However, they work things out when Harry managed to make a smaller version. As they talk about how it works, Harry realizes that if he reversed the polarity, instead of keeping thoughts out, it could keep thoughts in. Meaning, if they can get it on Devoe, he won’t be able to put his consciousness into anyone else.
He introduces the team to the newly named Cerebral Inhibitor. Barry and Iris remember Savitar telling them that the something with that name would be used against Devoe. Convinced, they think they have found the means to his end, they work out a plan. No one seems to care that they have to physically put it on Devoe’s head. It’s like they think he’ll just agree to it.
Arrogance and ignorance lead Izzy to leave the protection of S.T.A.R. labs, convinced she can take out Devoe on her own. Cisco vibes her fiddle case and finds her facing off with Devoe 3.0. He’s able to see Cisco though and throws him across the lab he was vibing in, leaving him in pain with a mental whiplash.
Izzy, dubbed The Fiddler by Devoe, tries to use her instrument against him, but quickly realized how dumb she was to go after him alone. Using Becky’s luck, all the fiddle’s strings break. Barry and Ralph try to help, but fail at getting the Cerebral Inhibitor on Devoe. Thankfully, Izzy apparently moves like a cat and as soon as Devoe turns around from his attack on Ralph, she plants the device exactly where it needed to go.
As it turns out, no one thought this through. Since it was an electrical device, Devoe used Killg%re’s powers to cause the item to malfunction and drop from his head. He’s then able to throw up a forcefield, separating Izzy from her saviors. Within the blink of an eye, Devoe is in his chair and leaving Becky’s body for Izzy’s. This now puts Devoe on version 4.0 for those keeping track.
Through some research, Cisco is led to believe that Devoe’s lair is in a pocket dimension, explaining why it has been so hard to find. It doesn’t even exist in the dimension they live in. Since they’ve lost Izzy and don’t yet know who the last three metas are, the pocket dimension idea is their only lead.
The friendship between Harry and Cecile seem to be going swimmingly. Meeting for coffee and chat is apparently their “thing” now. Having been helped by Harry, Cecil tries to return the favor. She convinces him to reach out to his daughter Jesse, who is apparently in her teen angst stage and hating her dad. It’s been a huge part of Harry’s frustration so he knows he needs to take the chance.
Devoe 4.0 and Marlize enjoy his new fiddle skills and their pocket-dimension hair, which is great for looking evil. Back on schedule, they start their plan to find the three remaining bus metas.
Ralph bums himself out listening to Izzy’s CD and Barry comes to commiserate as someone who has seen someone he cared for die. The tables are turned though when Ralph hands Barry his very own PI business card. Now, he won’t have to lie or accidentally say he works for the CCPD when that’s no longer true. The duo are more determined than ever to bring Devoe down.
Next week’s episode looks to be testing Barry’s stamina. He’ll be using Cisco’s help while trying to outrun a detonated nuke. Here’s hoping he makes it!