The season finale is finally here! Team Flash is on their last hope when it comes to defeating Devoe and this episode does not disappoint. It was so action-packed that it was basically a double-feature that hit its mark.
We start off on a high-note with the police captain leaving a message for Barry about getting his job back. Before he even finishes his message, the dark matter being projected from the satellites causes all power in the city to shut down. Light, cell phones, cars, anything powered by technology turns off. Cecile and Joe were on their way to the hospital because Cecile is in labor, but their car stops so they join the group at the lab.
Cisco is trying to get S.T.A.R. Labs up and running again and does somehow manage it. I guess we will ignore the fact that they apparently have a backup system that dark matter is not affecting. While checking Gideon’s room (who is also not working), he and Barry realize that Harry was Devoe’s guinea pig, making sure that dark matter could indeed reboot the brain.
They’re left with no idea what to do, but Iris shows up with their new secret weapon. That weapon is Marlize and she does have a plan. She wants Barry to go into Devoe’s mind and find Good Devoe so he can overpower the Evil Devoe. (Seriously? We’re going with “the bad guy has a conscience” plot?) Cisco says he’s never been able to vibe Barry into Devoe’s mind and Marlize says that his powers are not needed. Cecile’s are.
Proving she’s a badass woman, Cecile agrees to set up the link while she’s in labor. She will basically be the door between Barry’s mind and Devoe’s. Once Barry is in the floaty chair and Cecile locks onto Devoe’s mind, sending Barry hurtling inside. As soon as he is there, Evil Floaty Chair Devoe shows up and Barry hides. He’s able to communicate with those in the outside world and Marlize tells him to go to their house. Unfortunately, there’s nothing there.
The link falters as Cecile has a contraction. Since her powers are linked to her pregnancy, Marlize says they need to stop the labor as Cecile is the only one who can get Barry back out from Devoe’s mind. Caitlyn goes to get a labor-suppression drug, but not before Cecile grabs her arm and says something in a creepy voice about Thomas. This seems to have no significance in this episode, but I imagine it will in the future.
Since Harry helped them find Marlize, Cisco thinks he could help them find the Good Devoe and runs off to find him. He finds him in the lab, staring at the Thinking Cap. He has lost most of his verbal language abilities and can only say, “Help. Please.” At first, Cisco refuses to let him wear the cap again, but he can’t say no to Harry’s pleas. When the cap turns on, for a moment, nothing happens, but as Cisco moves to turn it off, Harry grabs him and says to tell Barry to go to where Devoe first fell in love with Marlize.
Before he takes the cap off, Harry says, “There’s one more thing.” He leans forward and pulls Cisco into a tight hug. (I didn’t think they were gonna kiss at all or roll my eyes when they didn’t.) Cisco turns off the cap and Harry just sits there, doing nothing, the last of his intelligence gone.
With Harry’s idea relayed to him, Barry goes to Oxford and finds the remnants of the picnic where Marlize and Devoe had their first dance. He wasn’t there though. Instead, he finds Ralph. (Happy dance! Please let him be real!) Barry asks Ralph if he’s seen the Good Devoe, but Ralph hasn’t. They are interrupted by Evil Devoe who tries to shoot them, but Barry grabs Ralph and runs. When they stop, Ralph suggests that Good Devoe will be back at the very beginning, when he was just a history professor.
Cecile has another contraction and her link to the minds are lost. She says that Devoe is on his way to S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco grabs Harry and they all prepare for Devoe’s arrival.
Devoe comes down to the speed lab where they are set up, but can’t get to them as Marlize has activated the force field that the chair provides. Being the evil genius that he is, he admits that having Barry in his mind allows him access to the speed force and time. As if his knowledge needed to become more robust. Marlize whisks them off to Devoe’s lab in the pocket dimension (because he wouldn’t think to look there?) saying she bought them some time. Harry starts spouting off rhymes to the word “time” as that is currently the extent of his intelligence.
In Devoe’s mind, Ralph was right. They find Good Devoe sitting at a desk on stage in an empty auditorium. Unfortunately, he’s been killed. With the last of his hope waning, Ralph tells Barry that he should go and leave him behind, but Barry refuses. That’s when he realizes that the Good Devoe was not the only good left in him. Ralph is there and he’s good. It’s Ralph’s body that he is in and it’s the only reason Ralph is being kept alive. The drawback to that for Devoe is that if Ralph manages to take back control, then Devoe will cease to exist. All that Ralph has to do is walk through a portal that Barry has set them inconveniently a hundred yards from. Naturally, before they can traverse that distance, two Devoes show up for them to fight.
Out in the real world, they are out of labor-suppression medicine and Harry is still rhyming away.
Barry is finding it hard to fight Devoe using his speed since Devoe can read his mind because they’re entwined. Ralph is finding himself in a similar situation. He comes up with a workaround like he normally does. Instead of thinking about his next move, he thinks about something he loves and manages to hit Devoe. They manage to take out the two Devoes, but an army of them begins to come out Agent Smith style.
Devoe finally finds the pocket dimension the group is in and before Marlize can hit the forcefield, he sends her, Cisco, and Caitlyn hurtling through the air. He freezes them and turns his attention to Joe who is pointing a gun at him. Using his powers, he has Joe turn the gun on himself. Weirdly enough and to Devoe’s surprise, Joe fights the power and is able to turn the gun back. Never underestimate a man’s desire to protect his family. That just gets him plastered to the wall though and then dropped on the floor, knocked out. Now all Devoe has to do is end Cecile.
Ralph and Barry manage to take out a pack of Devoes by swinging Ralph around and knocking them out. Of course, another pack is fast approaching. Taking the opening, Barry grabs Ralph and rushes them to the portal (like they should have done earlier, but whatever). It’s not a moment too soon either as Devoe had begun choking Cecile. He had to let her go to try to retain control of the body. Back in his own body, Barry watches as Devoe struggles, finally losing control to Ralph. (Yay! Ralph is back!) With Devoe’s abilities gone, Marlize is able to stop the satellites and the day is saved. All the power is restored to the city.
They rush back to the speed lab and Cecile’s water breaks. When they all head to the Med-Bay, Devoe’s floaty chair lights up with Killgore’s powers. We’re only thirty-six minutes into the episode so I knew it was too good to be true. If that makes us lose Ralph again, I’m going to be so upset.
While everyone rushes to make sure the world is back in order, Devoe shows up again in his floaty chair (though he appears to be a hologram), and takes over the lab. Marlize pulls a piece of hardware from the chair and Devoe is completely gone. Team Flash has access to their tech again. That seemed especially easy. Turns out it was because Devoe had a fail-safe. By ending him, it caused one of the satellites to increase in size and start plummeting to the Earth. They have three minutes until the satellite hits Central City (because why would it hit literally anywhere else on Earth?) causing catastrophic damage. Barry, Cisco, and Ralph work to clear the impact zone as pieces begin to fall. With the largest piece descending, Barry builds up speed for a sonic punch to destroy it.
Just as Barry touches the satellite, time reverses and he’s left in the moment before he decided to do the punch. Naturally, he tries again, and this time someone is helping him – someone with purple lightning. The punch works and the satellite explodes. After a round of applause from the citizens, they go back to the lab and meet the new addition to Team Flash who came about while they were all busy, Jenna Marie West.
With everything settled, Marlize hands Cisco a device to restore Harry’s mind. She is offered a place on Team Flash, but she has plans for getting back to her roots and using technology to help others who have nothing. After she goes, Barry admits to Iris that another speedster helped him take down the satellite, but he doesn’t know who.
Using Harry’s thinking cap and the device Marlize gave them, they try to restore Harry’s mind. It works, though for a moment, Harry acts like it doesn’t before finally winking at Cisco (who, by the way, he has had his eyes on the whole time) and gives him another hug. Unfortunately, it looks like not all of Harry’s intelligence returned. Harry is just excited to be a functioning human being again, but Cisco is distraught. Harry assures him that everything is perfect because Cisco has given him a balance between his brain and his heart and he likes it better that way. Feeling like a better human being, he makes the immediate decision to return to his Earth so he can see Jesse. He walks away, leaving them all speechless before returning for a group hug. I guess he’s still learning how to be a normal human after all.
Harry tells the group he loves them and when the hug ends, Cisco tells him that even with a million Harries in the multiverse, he was one of a kind. Harry grips his shoulder and tells him that he loves him, too. After that, he leaves to go home and I am just devastated.
At Joe’s house, they’re having a welcome home party for the new baby. Even Wally has shown up to meet his new sister and tells Joe that being a Legend has helped him learn how to be comfortable just being himself. I wonder if he will be coming back to Team Flash next season or if he’ll remain with the Legends.
Iris almost sends Barry into a panic attack when she suggests that they’re next to have a baby. She just meant eventually, someday, and Barry is able to breathe again and get his voice back to a normal octave.
A knock on the door interrupts their party and the mystery girl from previous episodes walks right in and says they have to talk. The team realizes they have all seen her at different times in the past year and she finally admits that she is Barry and Iris’s daughter, Nora, from the future and she thinks she made a very big mistake. I have a feeling that this may be about her little time rewind, but it looks like we will be waiting until next season to find out for sure.
I’m not too concerned about it though. This gives Harry and Jesse a reason to return. They can show Barry and Nora how to have a good father-daughter relationship. Then Cisco can be happy again. Most importantly though, Ralph freaking Dibney is back that is all the world really needed. See you next season!