“Someone very smart and very dangerous is coming after you,” says Barry (Grant Gustin) to Izzy Bowin (Miranda MacDougall). Izzy was on the bus the day Barry was brought out of the Speed Force and is now a meta in season four episode 14 of The CW’s The Flash.
As the episode begins, Barry walks back into the CCPD happy to resume his job of being the city’s CSI. After being met with some weird (and rude) looks by some of his co-workers, Barry is told that his boss, Captain Singh (Patrick Saboguni), wants to see him. Barry learns that even though he’s been cleared of all charges, some people feel he doesn’t belong there anymore, including the city’s new mayor. Singh tells Barry he’s on a permanent leave of absence until people in Central City believe that DeVoe is truly alive and well and the conspiracy theories of DeVoe being a meta imposter no longer exist.
Barry heads to S.T.A.R. Labs where Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) tries to reassure him his leave of absence won’t be forever because they gave him his I.D. badge back. She suggests he just try and ride it out.
Iris (Candice Patton) tells Barry this could be for the best and that now with him being The Flash full time he can prove that DeVoe is alive and stop his evil master plan. Barry says they need to focus on finding the last four metas who were created on the bus before DeVoe does.
Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) arrive with a box of things left on the bus that ended up in the lost and found. While going through it, they come across a CD and Cisco vibes it and sees a young female Country singer. He also sees where her next gig is scheduled to take place. Barry and Ralph take off to try to talk to her.
DeVoe – now using the body of Becky (Sugar Lyn Beard) – is in his lair watching the Country singer, but h3’s not that impressed with her. DeVoe’s wife Marlize (Kim Engelbrecht) is concerned because the body of Becky is getting weaker and weaker at an increased rate.
Barry and Ralph visit the singer whose name is Izzy Bowin. She playfully flirts with them, thinking they’re fans. When Barry tells her she’s in danger and tries to convince her to leave with them, she declines and uses her powers to send them flying across the room. It seems that Izzy can manipulate sound waves.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin is checking on Barry and Ralph’s ears, assuring them they should be fine since Ralph’s eardrums stretched and with Barry’s fast-healing abilities, he should be okay in an hour.
Iris checks Izzy’s website at the recommendation of Ralph and finds where her next gig is. This time Barry, Ralph, and Cisco go to talk to her but as their alter egos The Flash, Elongated Man, and Vibe.
Over at Jitters, Harry (Tom Cavanagh) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) accidentally bump into each other. Cecile tells Harry that her new power of reading minds is keeping her up all night because she can’t stop herself from reading Joe’s mind while he sleeps. Intrigued and wanting to help, Harry offers to make something to help her.
The Flash, Elongated Man, and Vibe find Izzy in the parking area outside her next gig and try to warn her someone is after her because of her new powers. DeVoe shows up and uses his new meta powers on Ralph, forcing him to wrap around Vibe and The Flash so he can go after Izzy. Izzy uses her powers to blast DeVoe and send him flying. Marlize shows up and quickly gets DeVoe out of there, almost as though she breached in and out like Vibe.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Team Flash is telling Izzy why DeVoe is after her and why they want her to stay with them. Barry assures Izzy the team can train her to use her new powers to fight DeVoe. Being a little freaked out, defensive, and not wanting to lose her recording opportunity, Izzy tells the group no thanks and starts to leave. Ralph’s sure he can convince her to stay so he follows her and gives her a pep talk, just like Barry, Caitlin, and Killer Frost had delivered when he needed it. Ralph says he understands how she feels because he was where she is not long ago but since he became friends with Barry and his team, he’s not alone. He explains they use the buddy system to help each other. Starting to like Ralph, she agrees to stay if he becomes her new “buddy.”
Cecile finds Harry at Cisco’s work area and gives him his new device back saying it’s way too big and heavy for her to try to sleep in. They fight about it and Harry’s frustrated as Cecile walks out.
Izzy begins training with Ralph and Barry using her violin to focus and aim her sound wave powers, but it doesn’t last and she keeps missing her target (Ralph). Barry, impatient about stopping DeVoe, pushes Izzy too hard and she ends up getting hit with some shrapnel from some of the targets she’s aiming at.
While Caitlin tends to Izzy’s wounds, Iris has her own heart-to-heart with Barry telling him he needs to ease up on Izzy. However, Barry reminds Iris she didn’t see what DeVoe did to the metas he stole powers from and then killed. It still bothers Barry he couldn’t save any of them, especially Becky, and he’s afraid if they don’t get Izzy up to speed fast, her fate will be the same. Iris sympathizes with Barry about what he went through but still insists turning Izzy into a weapon is the wrong thing to do.
Harry visits Cecile at Joe’s house and apologizes for his outburst and angry thoughts. He gives her a new, smaller mental dampener and starts to explain to her how it works when he realizes that Team Flash can use it to fight DeVoe.
Harry rushes back to S.T.A.R. Labs and creates the cerebral inhibitor which, when he tells the group about it, they remember Savitar telling them about how they would create it to fight DeVoe. Barry says with this and Izzy’s new powers they should be able to defeat DeVoe.
Ralph arrives just then and reveals Izzy left after Caitlin treated her wound because Barry pushed her too hard and she went to face down DeVoe alone. Cisco vibes her violin case and sees her location and learns DeVoe is already there. DeVoe senses Cisco watching them and is able, with his new powers, to blast Cisco. Cisco flies across the room and crashes into the wall. He tells Barry where Izzy is while Caitlin rushes over to take him back to the medical bay. Barry and Ralph immediately leave to save Izzy.
The Flash distracts DeVoe so Elongated Man can put the cerebral inhibitor on him, but DeVoe brings The Flash to the ground using his powers to attack his mind. Elongated Man tries to stretch to place the device on DeVoe but he knocks it out of Ralph’s hands and uses puts Ralph in a big dumpster. Izzy gets the device on DeVoe but he uses his new powers to deactivate it. He creates another power cage, like the one he had Barry trapped in, to trap poor Izzy. Barry and Ralph are on the other side and can’t get her out of it.
DeVoe’s hover chair appears and he has a tentacle attached to Izzy’s head. Ralph tells her to look at him and to keep looking at him no matter what. A terrified Izzy looks at Ralph and says his name as the tentacle transfers DeVoe’s consciousness into Izzy’s body. Once done, DeVoe – now in Izzy’s body – uses a button on the hover chair to disappear.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin’s watching over a devastated Ralph while Harry is kicking himself for not being smart enough to stop DeVoe from beating the mind dampener. Cisco realizes with the use of the new device that DeVoe’s lair is in a pocket dimension and tries to find out all he can on how they might be able to locate it.
Cecile meets up with Harry to thank him for the new device, letting him know it works great and she can finally get some sleep. She reads his mind and knows that he’s worried about Jesse who’s still mad at him. Cecile tells Harry to call her and invite her to Central City for a visit.
In the last scene of the episode, Barry checks on Ralph who’s sitting in his P.I. office. Barry tells him if he needs time away from the team because of losing Izzy, he understands. “DeVoe is still out there and until this is over we need to keep this buddy system going,” says Barry to a grieving Ralph.
Ralph admits he thought Barry would say that and hands him a business card that reads “Barry Allen P.I.”. Ralph tells Barry he knows what it’s like to get fired from the CCPD and feel like he’s lost part of his identity. Now, Barry won’t have that problem and the next time they’re out in the field and someone asks who Barry works for, “You won’t have to get all stammery,” says Ralph. “You and I have to stand up and fight back,” he adds. “Just like Izzy would have wanted,” replies Barry. “There’s three more people out there who need our help and we need to find them before DeVoe does. After we do that, I’m going to take DeVoe down,” declares Ralph.
The Flash Season 4 Episode 14 Review:
Engaging, humorous, and emotional, episode 14 titled “Subject 9” continues the season’s main storyline of Team Flash fighting DeVoe and once again gives Ralph a chance for additional growth as a superhero. Hands down the best element and storyline of season four has been the introduction of Ralph aka Elongated Man to the series. Hartley Sawyer has great chemistry with the cast, especially Grant Gustin, and has injected the series with humor that’s been missing since the first season.
Sawyer also delivers the stand-out performance this episode, showing a sensitive and vulnerable side to Ralph as he starts to fall for Izzy and then as he loses her way too soon to the clutches of DeVoe. The scene in which he tells a terrified Izzy to keep looking at him while DeVoe takes over her body is touching and painfully sad.
With Ralph and Barry more determined than ever to stop DeVoe and Cisco working on finding The Thinker’s lair, it should be interesting as well as exciting to see how long it takes Team Flash to finally get the upper hand on their enemy.
GRADE: B
More on The Flash Season 4:
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 1 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 2 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 3 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 4 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 5 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 6 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 7 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 8 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 9 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 10 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 11 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 12 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 13 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 15 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 16 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 17 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 18 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 19 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 21 Recap
– The Flash Season 4 Episode 22 Recap
– Grant Gustin Interview
– Danielle Panabaker Interview
– Candice Patton Interview
– Todd Helbing Interview
– Tom Cavanagh Interview
– Keiynan Lonsdale Interview
– Carlos Valdes Interview
