THE FLASH "SUBJECT 9" REVIEW

Season 4 Episode 14:

Finally, with the Winter Olympics over, we are back with a brand new episode of the Flash, where we see DeVoe's plan develop as he is in Becky's body, and it is racing with DeVoe against team Flash to find the ninth bus Meta-Human, that being the Fiddler. Spoilers ahead for the latest episode of the Flash, let's recap.

Opening up the episode is Barry Allen returning to work at the Central City Police Department after his name was cleared as an innocent man. However, Captain Singh tells Barry that the mayor told him that it is best if Barry takes some time off work, so Barry packs up his things and leaves. At STAR Labs, jobless Barry meets Cisco and Ralph who got a box of forgotten items from the Meta-Human bus. Inside they find a CD which Cisco' vibes and discovers that a woman named Izzy, a country singer was on the bus. Meanwhile, DeVoe discovers that Becky's body cannot handle all the dark matter from the Meta's so he has the transfer bodies once again and Marlize suggests to transfer into Izzy.

At a bar, Barry and Ralph find Izzy after doing a performance. The two tell her that DeVoe is coming after her. She does not believe Barry and Ralph and uses her powers to blow them away. Back in STAR Labs, Caitlins discovers that Izzy can manipulate sound, thus create sonic screams. Meanwhile, back from Earth-2, Harry meets Cecile at Jitters, where Cecile asks Harry if he can build her something to stop her from reading thoughts as she is losing sleep. Back in STAR Labs, the team finally looks on Izzy's website where they discover she is still in Central City. Ralph, Barry, and Cisco suit up and vibe to Izzy. The three greet Izzy and tell her to go with them, however, DeVoe comes out. Cisco tries to take him down, however, with the luck based powers, Cisco, Ralph, and Barry manage to fall over. Izzy uses her abilities to take down DeVoe, who quickly teleports away.

Back at STAR Labs, Barry reveals his identity to Izzy and so does Ralph, trying to gain her trust. Izzy does not want help from team Flash after she has been alone her whole life. Izzy walks out and Ralph chases after her. Ralph tells Izzy that team Flash can help her like they did for him. Crushing on Ralph, Izzy decides to stay and join team Flash. Testing her powers with a new violin to tunnel her power, Izzy manages to take down Ralph. Meanwhile, Harry gives Cecile a device to stop her mind reading, however, it is too big, and Harry has a rage. Six hours later, Barry tests Izzy by throwing discus' at her, Izzy obliterates all of them, except her arm, gets injured.While Izzy gets her arm healed, Barry tells Iris that he is scared of how powerful DeVoe is, after what he did to Becky and the other Meta's. At the West family house, Harry and Cecile have a talk, however, Cecile reads Harry's thoughts. Izzy realizes that she is better alone, so she blows Ralph away who was by her side and goes to confront DeVoe.

Harry goes to STAR Labs and tells the team that he made a new device for Cecile which can be used against DeVoe. Harry calls this device the "Cerebral inhibitor", that immediately triggers Barry and Iris as that is what Savitar said last season. Thinking that they can take down DeVoe, Ralph walks in and tells them Izzy is gone. Cisco tries to vibe Izzy, however, DeVoe stops him and injures him. Ralph and Barry go save Izzy with the Cerebral Inhibitor. Izzy starts to fight DeVoe with her violin, however, it breaks. Barry goes to distract DeVoe, however, he gets a telepathic attack. Ralph attempts to stretch over to put the Cerebral Inhibitor on DeVoe, however, he gets knocked down. While distracted, Izzy puts the Cerebral Inhibitor on DeVoe, taking away his telepathic powers. However, using the powers of Kilgore, the Inhibitor does not work. DeVoe creates a holographic wall. As Ralph and Barry try to bust through it, Izzy is stuck with DeVoe. While looking at Ralph for hope, Izzy gets probed by DeVoe as he transports his consciousness into Izzy. DeVoe transports away in Izzy's body with his chair and Becky's body.

At STAR Labs, Ralph is depressed that he could not save Izzy. The rest of the team is bummed out that the Cerebral Inhibitor did not work. Seeing that DeVoe could teleport away Cisco theorizes that DeVoe's lair is in a fifth dimension, allowing him to teleport anywhere on the planet, giving them a lead on possibly tracking DeVoe. At Jitters, Harry apologizes to Cecile for raging. Cecile reads harry's mind and tells him to call Jesse, to fix things between the two of them. In Devoe's lair, Devoe plays the violin and then anticipates on catching the next three bus Meta's. In Ralph's office, Barry finds a depressed Ralph, who gives Barry a card, which shows Barry as a Private Investigator, giving him a job. Ralph tells Barry that he will do anything he can to take down DeVoe.


Overall, this episode of the Flash was a brilliant, relatively fun start to the rest of the season. What worked in the episode was the tone. The episode started off relatively light-hearted like the overall theme of the show. From the first encounter with Izzy, this felt like it was going to be a fun chase 'em down. From the making fun of not checking the website to the hallway talk and the Ralph stretch scenes, this seemed like it would be a light-hearted episode. The tone of the episode changed for probably the better. In having the darker turn, and lack of hope towards the end there illustrates how powerful of a villain DeVoe is. In having Ralph form a relationship with Izzy, makes all the more of a reason as to why Ralph is with team Flash to take down DeVoe.

The side story in the episode with Cecile and Harry was kept to a minimum, and it was good. In having a slightly interesting story used to pass time between the main story scenes, we saw some set up for the future. Such as the Cerebral Inhibitor. I do think that the Inhibitor will go through many alterations, maybe with help of the Mechanic, after she sees what DeVoe is really like, as seen by his rage in the episode. Also, the call Jesse at the end is a set up for next week's episode where we see Jesse, Barry, and Jay Garrick save Central City. The episode featured some great cinematography. From the standstill shots of seeing all the heroes suited up, this episode has some of the best cinematography in the season.

There were some flaws in the episode. That mostly came from the DeVoe character. It is not the performance that Sugar Beard Lynn gave it came with the writing. The lines that the character had I couldn't really picture Neil Sandilands, the original actor for DeVoe, saying. I felt like the writers wrote DeVoe like Becky was pretending to be DeVoe, instead of DeVoe being in a different body. But for that flaw, this episode made up for it a lot of positives in this episode.

Miranda MacDougall was absolutely great as Izzy Bowin/ the Fiddler. From the writing of the character to the delivery we got a sense for the character and we saw the heroic side to her. From the brief backstory of being abandoned and searching for greatness her whole life, the character showed a range of emotions to make me care for her, and she became a loveable character in the episode, being my favorite from the episode; so when she was abducted by DeVoe, it made all the more heartbreaking, especially with the reaction of Hartley Sawyer as Ralph. That scene was the standout in the episode. The setup, the acting, the lighting it was great.

The cast of the episode was all great in their performances, starring in the episode we had Miranda MacDougall (Izzy Bowin/ the Fiddler), Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/ the Flash), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Hartley Sawyer (Ralph/ Elongated Man), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin/ Killer Frost), Carlos Valdes (Cisco/ Vibe), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), Tom Cavanagh (Harry Wells), Engelbrecht (Marlize DeVoe/ Mechanic), and Sugar Lynn Beard (Becky/ DeVoe).


In conclusion, this episode of the Flash was a great way to start the rest of the season, with a stunning episode visually and in terms of the story and character development, this episode was a fun interesting adventure which was well directed by Ralph Hemecker. I will give this episode of the Flash an 8.5 out of 10. I would like hear what you think of the episode, let me down by dropping a comment below. You can click on the left for the latest Legends of Tomorrow review, and click on the right for the preview for episode 16, and if you haven't already, subscribe. As always thanks for reading, take care.
                           

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