After a few weeks off, The Flash returns! Just before the break, things were not looking too great for Barry. Sure, he managed to finally be released from prison (thanks to Ralph shapeshifting into the deceased DeVoe and testifying that he was “still alive”), but most of the metahumans from the Dark Matter bus accident were now absorbed by DeVoe, adding more powers to his collection. We still don’t know DeVoe’s endgame, but we know that he wants to kill and take the powers of everyone who was on that bus, which means that Ralph might be next.
The episode begins with Barry trying to return back to his normal life as a CSI for the Central City police department. We should have known just from the side eyes and dirty looks he was getting from his former coworkers that it wasn’t going to be that easy. He is immediately called into the captain’s office who tells him that many take DeVoe’s return as “fake news,” and the new mayor of Central City wants to project a new image. Barry had a very public trial, with his name dragged through the mud, and it won’t be so easy for him to return back to the life he once had. As a result, Captain Singh orders Barry to take a permeant leave of absence. The unemployed Barry now has a lot of free time to work on stopping DeVoe.
With a target on Ralph’s back, Cisco has opted to being his babysitter. While Cisco is not a fan of Ralph’s lifestyle, he’s still a pretty cool private eye. Ralph decides to go through the metahuman bus’s lost and found to see if they can figure out who else will be on DeVoe’s watchlist. They discover “Subject 9,” a country singer named Izzy. Ralph and Barry go to her incognito to try and warn her of DeVoe and offer her their protection. She quickly reveals her power and shows why she might not need their help. Izzy has the ability to create a sonic scream. While her scream might have killed a normal person, Barry and Ralph recover quickly thanks to their powers. After tracking her down again, they once again try to talk with her. This time, Ralph takes the lead and tells her just how good Team Flash has been to him (don’t kill Ralph!). Izzy decides to come on board to Team Flash. Barry opts to train her in preparation for DeVoe (after she manages to knock him in Becky’s body). However, Barry is very driven to stop DeVoe and has to be reigned in for how much he’s driving her, alienating her in the process.
Harry has returned from Earth-2 and runs into Cecile in the coffee shop. She is having problems controlling her pregnancy-induced mind-reading powers as she not only can ready mind when people are awake, she can also do that when they are asleep. Joe’s been having dreams that are keeping her awake. Lucky for her, she’s friends with one of the brightest minds in the multiverse. Harry opts to create a device to help her. Then Team Flash realizes that he’s creating the cerebral inhibitor that Savitar mentioned last season. Savitar mentions that this device stops DeVoe, so Team Flash now thinks they have an ace up their sleeve.
Thanks to Barry’s training and Ralph’s pep talks, Izzy believes that she has the ability to stop DeVoe and goes on her own to take down the Thinker. Knowing that even if she has the ability to hurt DeVoe, this is something that’s already been thought of and planned through. Ralph and Barry go to try and help Izzy. As they fight DeVoe, they aren’t just fighting him. They are fighting all the metahuman powers he absorbed, making it still an uneven fight in the Thinker’s favor. They manage to use the cerebral inhibitor on DeVoe, who then uses Kilg%re’s powers to electronically burn out the device. So much for Savitar’s promise that it would work. Ralph and Barry and beaten by DeVoe who then turns his attention to Izzy. DeVoe uses his chair to attack Izzay, transfer his consciousness into her body, absorb her powers, and kill her. Ralph, who obviously liked her is forced to watch in horror as she dies.
All is not lost though. Cisco manages to discover that when DeVoe teleports in and out of the area, he’s actually traveling vie dimensional teleportation. Now that they know this, they can find a way to track where DeVoe’s secret lair in another dimension is. Maybe, just maybe, Team Flash can finally have the upper hand to take him on.
Next week, Barry has to try and stop a bomb. The only problem is that if he slows down, it’s going to go off.
