Devoe is still running the show on The Flash this week. It’s really starting to get old, but I say that about most villains who seem to know everything. So, this episode is heavily themed. Loss, grief, and how people deal with it are the name of the game today.
Harry learns the effects of using dark matter are catastrophic and irreversible. He’s losing his intelligence. Eventually, he will have to relearn everything he already knows.
Barry and Iris visit Dr. Finkle, their counselor, to discuss losing Ralph. Iris is able to talk through it, but Barry says he’s fine. Is he trying to be macho and hold it in or is there more to it than that?
Marlize brings a drink to Devoe…I guess he’s Devoe 6.1 now? Anyway, he prepares to drug her, but is able to use his powers to sense that she is truly happy, so there is no need. He honestly seems surprised by her happiness, but in her mind, she has her husband back. Unfortunately, he is not interested in playing house and after telling her to quit thinking (that’s his job), they are to get to work.
Since Harry’s Thinking Cap worked so well, Cisco wants one of his own and his reasoning is actually sound. Two heads are better than one and if those heads are geniuses than even better. Harry tries to talk him out of it, but he can’t argue with logic, so he agrees to make Cisco one.
Three different pocket dimensions opening in Keystone and then they all close just as quickly. The team deduces that Devoe is looking for Fallout, a nuclear meta that has been in the care of Dr. Tracy. They decide to take him somewhere where Devoe can’t find him. To do so, they need to keep him cool. (Caitlyn losing her powers suddenly makes sense as a plot device.) With Caitlyn out of commission, they run over to Earth-X and grab Leo Snart, saving him from Siren-X. Unfortunately, she doesn’t give up easily and follows them through Cisco’s breach.
After laying out the plan for Leo, he’s totally on board, but for no more than twenty-four hours. He has a wedding to get to tomorrow…his own. Yes, Ray and Leo are tying the knot. (Don’t mind me as a sob with happiness and envy! Envious because The Flash can have a gay wedding and yet Supernatural can’t even have two men admit their feelings ten years into an unspoken relationship. Ugh! Sorry, got off-track there.)
Harry creates Cisco’s Thinking Cap and they give it a try. A piece fails, a piece that they cannot get a replacement for anytime soon. It seems that Harry is trying to keep from making a true Thinking Cap for Cisco. The question is why. Does he not want to share the knowledge? Has his intelligence already dropped so dramatically that he can’t figure out how to make another Thinking Cap? Or is he worried that Cisco will end up going down the same path he did and end up with the same results?
Since Marlize couldn’t talk her husband into actually acting like a husband, she does what any lab assistant/housewife does. She dresses up in a nice dress, heels, hair done, and tries to win her husband’s affection with her looks. Sadly, Devoe 6.1 is above trivial things such as lust and reminds her again that she should not be thinking, but doing as she is told until The Enlightenment. The show is really winning us over to Marlize’s side.
Leo picks apart Barry for not grieving over Ralph, but Barry says they have a job to do. The rest of the team joins and they all head to Keystone, complete with some kind of inoculation that should moderately help if Fallout’s suit fails. They won’t be the only ones going though. Siren-X has a power that our Black Siren from Arrow hasn’t learned yet, sonic hearing. She listens to their plans and knows where to find them and that they will have a human nuke in their possession.
It seems that Leo is the unofficial grief counselor for Team Flash. After talking to Barry about confronting his feelings, he reminds Caitlyn that it’s okay to grieve someone she’s lost, even if that person was a part of her.
Talking gets brought to a halt though when pocket dimensions open all around them and the truck and its occupants suddenly lose gravity. It’s only for a moment before it gets dropped back to the ground. Killg%re’s power takes out the coms, keeping Iris from being able to share any info she has. The ordeal has Fallout turning green and not from sickness.
Devoe 6.1 shows up, taunting Barry about how he knows all about his plan. Barry uses the tuning fork. However, Ralph’s elasticity allows the sound waves to merely stretch him without causing harm. When Devoe uses Ralph’s voice, Barry suddenly loses his mind and gets lost in his own thoughts and grief. Devoe intends to use this moment to do something to Barry, but Siren-X shows up and sends them all hurtling through the air. Devoe takes off through his pocket dimension and our new Siren takes control of the truck and its occupants.
Cisco goes to grab the Thinking Cap that Harry made him because he just happened to find a replacement for the piece that failed. Harry is completely against this and keeps telling Cisco to stop. Finally, he takes the cap away and breaks it into two pieces. He, at last, admits his reasoning for not wanting Cisco to have a cap. He’s doing it to protect him. He also admits that he used dark matter, despite promising Cisco that he would never do that.
Devoe is mad. He calculated everything from Snart to Siren-X, but the outcome was not what he planned. Barry was supposed to defeat Siren-X, but his grief caused him to freeze up instead. It’s interesting that Devoe is mad over something he himself caused and he can’t even see it. Complex human emotion is apparently still beyond his understanding. Marlize points this out because if anyone knows, she does.
Siren-X, who apparently is petty, decides to take her human nuke, Joe, and Caitlyn to the CCPD. She makes him take off his helmet and cops start dropping like flies from the radiation pouring off him. Siren-X intends to use her siren scream to detonate Fallout, but super-hero Joe tackles her. It only grants a momentary reprieve. Hearing Barry coming, Siren-X is able to take him out, quickly followed by Snart and Caitlyn who were trying to cool down Fallout with cold guns.
With Leo yelling grieving tips at him, Barry has a weird montage moment of Ralph dying before he finally gets his crap together and is able to take out Siren-X. Together, Caitlyn and Leo are able to cool down Fallout and get him back in his suit.
Barry’s grief finally catches up with him. He feels that Ralph’s death is his fault. Ralph trusted him and he couldn’t save him. He let him down. That kind of guilt can be overwhelming so it finally makes sense about why he didn’t want to deal with the feeling. On his own, he makes an appointment with Dr. Finkle.
Leo says his goodbyes with compliments for everyone. He even makes Cisco blush when he compliments his hair. After his farewell, he heads back to his Earth to get married. {sigh, sniffle}
Caitlyn decides that even though she can live without Killer Frost, she doesn’t want to. After running some more tests, she realizes that while the dark matter is gone, there is a still a cryogenic anomaly in her DNA. Killer Frost is still there; they just need to figure out how to make her appear.
Harry decides to head back to his Earth since he’s losing the only thing of value that he brings to the team. Cisco explains to him that he is more than just his intelligence and they will figure out a way to stop what’s happening, but it’s going to take everyone working together. He needs to tell the team and he says he will, but when he’s ready.
Much to Devoe’s pleasure, Fallout ends up right where he wanted him, at an Argus facility that is supposed to be so off-the-grid that it doesn’t exist. Except it does and Devoe knows where it’s at. He tells Marlize that she should be able to see how useless emotion is, even referring to it as abhorrent. She admits that she can see it now as she turns away with tears rolling down her cheeks. Seriously, can she just turn already? I mean, I know Devoe will probably end up killing her before she can do anything since he’s always a step ahead, but still. She needs to try!
Well, after watching the scenes from next week, it seems like Marlize does at least try to talk to Devoe, but it’s still useless. It looks like Gypsy is back and may not survive. That won’t make Cisco happy.