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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 4×14- “Subject 9”

The Flash (4×14) – “Subject
9”
Written by:         Mike Alber & Gabe Snyder
Directed by:       Ralph
Hemecker
We open at
the Police Station and it doesn’t take too long before we deal with the biggest
long term problem of Barry being framed for murder.  People will still think Barry murdered DaVoe
and that makes him a liability to the Central City Police.  So Singh has suspended him indefinitely. Good
thing Iris still has a job… I think. Here’s a preview of this week’s Unanswered
Questions: When was the last time Iris did anything journalism related on the
show?
But Team
Flash have bigger fish to fry, namely DaVoe is now killing the bus metas and
taking their powers and he has already taken out at least five (possibly six
judging by the end of last week’s episode.) That means they have to find and
protect the remaining bus metas from him if they have any hope of stopping
DaVoe. 
Fortunately,
they have an ace in the hole in the form of Ralph and he’s come through on two
levels.  First by being on the team and
not out in the wild where DaVoe can just up and eat his brain and in the more
immediate sense he’s got some clues for the meta-hunt.
They found
the lost and found box from the bus and it just so happens to have a demo disc
from our guest meta for the week: Hungry up and coming country musician, Izzy
Bowin.
This allows them
to not only get the plot for the week going but to take a shot at country
music, (for the record since the worst episode of this show was the musical
episode maybe the producers and writers shouldn’t be taking any shots at
anybody else’s music.)

So let’s
check in with the DaVoes, they too are on to Izzy and have been for a
while.  Clifford had been waiting for Izzy
to gain more of a handle on her powers but since Clifford’s expanding power set
seems to be killing Becky Sharpe’s body even faster than his previous bodies he’s
going to have to make his move now.
At the
Busted Saddle Saloon, Barry and Ralph meet up with Izzy and she’s less than
impressed with their “you’re in great danger” approach.  Also, she doesn’t seem to have much to worry
about since her powers are control over soundwaves and short of master magnetism
that’s a power that is pretty much as good as it gets.
After a
check in on a Harry and Cecile C-plot about Cecile not being able to sleep
because Joe’s brain is too loud when he’s asleep. The guys try to talk to Izzy
again, this time they suit up and a “You’re in great danger” speech is quite a
bit more convincing by suited-up superheroes.
It’s a good
thing they showed up in the suits because Thinker is here and looking for Izzy
and a fight.  The boys are not up to the
task but Izzy’s powers are (like I said, control over sound is an
underappreciated power set) and they chase the Thinker off before returning to
STAR Labs with Izzy in tow.
Back at the
lab, well Izzy’s not going to listen to them about the danger’s she’s in
despite what she’s just seen because of course she is.  She’s about to get her big break and that’s
way more important than not having her brain eaten and body stolen.
But
surprise! Ralph manages to whip out a pretty-good inspirational talk with the
slow uplifting music and everything.  So
it’s time for a training montage, with a nice callback to a commercial from the
80s that I assume at least half the audience missed:
Meanwhile,
that C-plot with Cecile and Harry has found its way into the A-plot since it
seems in his efforts to help Cecile sleep at night Harry developed the cerebral
inhibitor that Savitar mentioned last year.  But there’s a problem, Izzy’s bailed out
because Barry did what he always does wrong, he broke out Oliver’s playbook and
pushed too hard.
Cisco tries
to find Izzy but DaVoe’s already there and shuts him out.  Hard. 
Which leaves it up to Ralph and Barry. 
Of course, the big problem with giving the Thinker additional powers is
that that he figures out how to use them better than bus-metas ever did.  He uses Dominic’s telepathy to give Barry a
minor aneurysm and Kilgore’s technopathy to destroy the cerebral inhibitor and
defeats Ralph and Barry before taking Izzy’s body and powers and leaving.
Definitely
not a good week for the team.  But there
is a bright spot, Cisco’s finally figured out how DaVoe’s chair travels using
pocket dimensions which means he is one step closer to tracking him.  In the wrap up we get some more growth for
Ralph, most of the last few episodes have been about the team accepting Ralph
but Ralph returns the gestures by giving Barry a business card welcoming him
into Ralph’s detective agency.
Nothing to
special happened this week but still it was a solid episode that highlighted
more or Ralph’s growth from buffoon to someone more like his comic counterpart
and that’s welcome.  Seeing the Thinker
growing as a threat was welcome as well. 
Sure we already knew DaVoe was collecting powers but now we’ve seen what
that means for Barry and company and we are left to wonder what the remaining
powers are and how they will aid DaVoe’s quest.
DaVoe’s
parting line and the teaser for next week suggest next week will something of a
stand-alone so it was a good place to leave things so we have some time to wait
while not going into another two week hiatus. 
So while it
wasn’t special it got the job done, and that’s just as important to me as
blowing the audience’s mind with some gigantic spectacle.  (Considering what I know about next week’s
episode I wonder if those words will come back to haunt me very soon.)
Three Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Barry’s been suspended indefinitely.
2)     
Harry developed the cerebral inhibitor Savitar
mentioned.
3)     
We probably won’t be seeing the writers or
producers of The Flash at a Toby Keith concert any time soon.
Three
Unanswered Questions:
1)      Did
the cerebral inhibitor fail or is it possible they’ve damaged DaVoe and not
know it yet?
2)      Is
the Mayor singling Barry out simply part of a crackdown on perceived corruption
or was this a plot thread for down the line?
3)      When
was the last time Iris did anything journalism related on the show?

Just another guy on the internet.