At least two characters get close to pulling a Gollum and declaring “my precious” in this episode of The Flash: Harry and Ralph. Harry’s very attached to his thinking cap, while Ralph refuses to let DeVoe take the team (people who have become his family) from him.
But is Ralph willing to go too far to stop DeVoe? Barry tries to teach him a very important lesson in being a hero in “Lose Yourself”: they don’t kill. There’s always another way. Sadly, doing that results in the team suffering more than one loss when they go up against The Thinker.
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Good News, Bad Idea
Why not start the episode off with some good news? Barry and Ralph use scanners that Cisco designed to pick up dark matter anomalies on the bus to try to find Edwin Gauss. His residual dark matter reads like he was there one second and vanished the next. (Ralph also finds his Big Belly punch card, which is good news for him and no one else.)
The next bit of good news comes from Harry (and his thinking cap, which he’s wearing everywhere): a Sonic Scepter. It mimics Izzy’s sonic frequencies, which can hurt DeVoe. One strike to the floor and The Thinker is incapacitated. Two strikes, no more Thinker.
When the pocket dimension predictor warns them that one is opening, Caitlin gets to try out her new way of summoning Killer Frost (a shot of epinephrine), but it’s not DeVoe who comes out. It’s Edwin, to mail something, and he falls back into the dimension when he’s startled upon seeing Barry, Ralph, Cisco and Caitlin all suited up.
The team realizes why DeVoe wants him: with his powers, he won’t need his chair to travel through and create pocket dimensions. They have to find Edwin first, and Harry, with the help of his ever-present thinking cap, can separate his pocket dimensions from DeVoe’s in their program.
DeVoe wants him because he currently has to use his chair to create pocket dimensions; with Edwin’s powers, he won’t need it. So they have to find him, and that’s where Harry (and his ever-present thinking cap) comes in to separate his pocket dimensions from DeVoe’s in their program.
Before Joe leaves to check out the half on his, Iris and Cisco’s list, he checks in with Harry about how often he wears his thinking cap. Just for DeVoe, science and omelet-related problems, Harry tells him, so the important stuff. He refuses to let Joe try it out because it’s dangerous — and because he’s one step away from going “my precious” with it, though he denies he’s addicted. He also says he’s kept his promise to Cisco to not use it with dark matter. But Joe watches him go into the Time Vault.
While looking for Edwin, Ralph argues that they need to be willing to do whatever it takes to stop DeVoe, including killing him, like, say, in self-defense, but Barry points out that it’s not self-defense if he’s already thinking about it.
They find Edwin, but they’re not the only ones; DeVoe’s Samuroid is right behind him and stabs Caitlin through the shoulder before Barry stops it. (She frosts out, so her wound heals quite quickly.) With Caitlin okay and Edwin safe, everyone deems the mission a success — except Ralph. He thinks that they need to end DeVoe and, once he finds out that Edwin opened a pocket dimension into his lair, plans to take The Thinker out himself.
However, Barry catches up to him and knocks him out but not before Ralph puts the Sonic Scepter into his body. (Those abilities of Ralph’s just get weirder and weirder.)
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They Lose Some a Lot
Meanwhile, Harry goes a bit crazy when he can’t find his thinking cap and thinks Cisco took it because he never wanted him to build it. But it was Joe who took it, and he forces Harry to take a hard look at his recent behavior. He’s seeing the same signs he saw with his wife, and while he can’t stop Harry from using it, he wants him to consider how he’s treating the people he cares about. Harry’s left holding the cap but with Cisco refusing to hear him out.
When Ralph comes to, he reveals that he’s not afraid of what DeVoe might do to him but rather what he might do to the team. They’ve become his family — “DeVoe cannot have them, they are mine,” he says — and he knows that killing DeVoe would mean throwing away everything he’s done to become a better man, but he doesn’t care if it keeps the others safe. But they like hero Ralph, Barry says, wanting him to think about what his actions would do to them.
Ralph did have a half-good idea, Barry tells the others, using Edwin’s powers to get to DeVoe’s lair. It’s dangerous, but they’re all in. So armed with the Sonic Scepter, Barry, Killer Frost and Cisco go on their way, only to find a hologram waiting for them. DeVoe and Marlize opened their own pocket dimension at the same time into S.T.A.R. Labs.
While Joe takes care of a Samuroid, Harry heads to the lab to grab something he needs (only to be distracted by his thinking cap), and Iris is determined to get to DeVoe’s chair to use it to get the others back. Harry plugs the cap into the Time Vault and has Gideon increase the dark matter to its maximum capacity. He’s zapped and collapses.
Ralph’s waiting when DeVoe goes to the pipeline for the metas, but he’s distracted by an old enemy (the T-Rex). And by the time he takes care of it (with a big punch), DeVoe has gotten what he wants and has Edwin’s body. Ralph fights past DeVoe’s psychic attack to blast him back with the Sonic Scepter (so having it inside his body was a good thing), and then he just needs to strike it one more time to kill him.
Iris loses her gun in her fight against Marlize, but she shows just what she’s willing to do for her husband when she uses the other woman’s sword to stab herself in the shoulder, bring her closer and knock her out. She then uses the chair to send her away and bring the others back.
When Barry finds Ralph, he has DeVoe in cuffs. Ralph recalls what Barry said about having a greater life if he rises up, and he’s ready for it. But DeVoe offers a tip: next time he cuffs a meta, he should make sure the light is the right color. The cuffs come off, and DeVoe immobilizes Barry and sends a video feed to the others so they can see him turn Ralph into his latest victim. Cisco opens a breach, but by the time he and Caitlin go through it, it’s too late. (And is Cisco bleeding from his ear?)
Barry tries using the Sonic Scepter, but DeVoe sends him flying back. He then deflects Cisco’s blasts back to him. and when Killer Frost goes after him, DeVoe says “melt” and she turns back to Caitlin. With that, DeVoe leaves them.
As they quickly learn, however, they didn’t just lose Ralph in the fight. There’s no trace of dark matter left in Caitlin — DeVoe used Melting Point’s powers to untangle her meta DNA — meaning Killer Frost is gone, just as she and Caitlin have begun to talk to each other via Post-its.
Toasting to Success
With Ralph’s powers, DeVoe can now shift into his original form, which delights Marlize. Plus, he siphoned some dark matter from where Harry was charging his thinking cap. “The fire that burns down Team Flash will light the path to the Enlightenment,” he tells Marlize.
Are you sad to see Ralph go? Do you think we’ll see Killer Frost again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
The Flash season 4 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
