The Flash “Subject 9” Review

After a brief hiatus during the Olympics, The Flash is back, and Barry doesn’t want to waste anymore time in taking down DeVoe. When the team finds another bus meta that can seemingly hurt DeVoe, they try their hardest to make it work. Unfortunately, since DeVoe has 6 other meta powers under his belt, he’s just too powerful and outsmarts Team Flash once again.

To Refresh your memory, DeVoe is in Becky Sharpe’s body. Barry was released from prison thanks to Ralph morphing into DeVoe. Unfortunately, DeVoe is still going after the bus metas, so Ralph is in danger.

Now, let’s jump right into “Subject 9”.

Unemployed

Since Barry is now a free man, he’s ready to get back to his normal (I use that term loosely) life. That includes his regular job as a CI for CCPD. Unfortunately, Captain Singh has some bad news for him. Even though Ralph’s apparently been keeping up the DeVoe act and cooperating with the police, the new mayor has forced the Captain to put Barry on an indefinite leave of absence. This, of course, bums Barry out and pushes him to really hunker down on defeating DeVoe once and for all.

Izzy Bowen

While Barry is moping to Iris and Caitlin about getting put on a leave of absence, Ralph and Cisco walk in. They’ve started a buddy system for Ralph since DeVoe is still after him. Anyways, Ralph managed to get his hands on the lost and found box from the meta bus. It’s mostly full of junk, but then he pulls out a CD labeled Izzy Bowen. She’s an aspiring country artists and violinist. Ralph basically cringes at the thought of country music, but the team realizes Izzy is their next bus meta. So, Cisco vibes her location, and the team gets on the job.Barry and Ralph find Izzy doing her thing at a local saloon, but they don’t corner her until after her set out. As any woman would be, Izzy is skeptical about two rando guys trying to convince her that she’s in danger and should leave with them. She’s scrappy, though, and uses her sound wave power to knock them out.

The blow doesn’t deter the guys, however. Later, they find her location again and suit up, this time bringing Cisco/Vibe along with them. Izzy still doesn’t buy their pitch, though. That is until DeVoe/Becky shows up. – It should be noted that earlier in the episode it was revealed that DeVoe’s body is deteriorating faster than expected. Turns out, he’s absorbing too much meta power/dark energy, and that, along with transferring your soul/consciousness so many times, isn’t very healthy. So, he’s desperate for the other metas. – Anyways, since Becky/DeVoe is weak, Izzy manages to hit him hard with a blast of sound wave that knocks him down. Marlize quickly (vibes?) in and removes him before any more damage is done.

The whole ordeal convinces Izzy to go with Team Flash, but not to stay. She still believes she can take care of herself. So, Barry pulls out all the stops by taking off his mask and revealing who he is. Ralph and Cisco also do the same. I guess they assume it would earn some trust points with Izzy, but no such luck. When Izzy leaves, Ralph volunteers to try to stop her with an inspirational pep talk. He informs her that she can trust the team by explaining how they’ve been there for him and even made a buddy system to protect him. They won’t bail. There’s an obvious connection between Ralph and Izzy, and he manages to convince her to stay and let the team train her.

Sleeping Woes to Take Down DeVoe

Meanwhile, Harry returns from visiting Jesse on Earth 2, but he runs into Cecile at Jitters first. She’s having trouble sleeping because she can hear all of Joe’s thoughts/dreams and they’re loud and fast. Harry offers to build her a device to block out Joe’s thoughts so she can get some sleep. During their time together, Cecile learns that he’s having a hard time making friends and throws a lot of tantrums.Later, the first prototype of the “mental activity dampener” is too bulky to sleep in, and when Cecile comments on it, Harry throws another tantrum because of the negative feedback. Cecile isn’t tolerating it. So, he builds a smaller device and apologizes. It’s when he starts explaining the device that he realizes it could possibly be used to stop DeVoe from using his mental powers. He informs the team of his idea, renaming it the “cerebral inhibitor”, and Barry and Iris instantly recognize that name. Savitar mentioned it last season.

Pushy Barry

I’m not gonna lie, I kinda wasn’t a fan of Barry in this episode. I mean, I get he’s feeling the pressure to take down DeVoe and he’s currently unemployed, but his pushiness was a bit much. Even Team Flash noticed, but he didn’t listen to them. He just kept pushing Izzy harder in training. So much so that she got injured. Not really the best way to build that trust, Barry. Izzy certainly isn’t here for getting injured and Barry’s pushiness. Izzy storms off then knocks out Ralph to go take on DeVoe herself. This never ends well.

The team plans to use the cerebral inhibitor on DeVoe with Izzy’s help, but Ralph walks in and informs them that she bailed. So, Cisco vibes her location and sees that she’s at some warehouse. They’re a bit behind, unfortunately. DeVoe/Becky shows up, sees Cisco and mentally knocks him to the ground. Caitlin chooses to stay with Cisco, so it’s up to Barry and Ralph to help Izzy and possibly stop DeVoe.Just as Izzy fires a sound wave at DeVoe, DeVoe uses Hazard’s powers to snap Izzy’s violin strings. This prevents her from being able to direct the sound waves. Barry and Ralph arrive, but when they try to fight DeVoe, she just uses power to trip them up. Ralph still attempts to get the cerebral inhibitor on DeVoe’s forehead, but drops it in the process. While Barry and Ralph are knocked down again, Izzy grabs it and gets it on DeVoe!

Unfortunately, DeVoe is just too smart and powerful. He overrides the device by using Kilgore’s powers. This enables him to also trap Izzy in a forcefield, leaving Barry and Ralph to watch helplessly as DeVoe takes over Izzy’s body. The scene crushes Ralph. He clearly had started feeling something for Izzy.

It’s those feelings, though, that encourages him to avenge her, I guess you could say. When Barry checks on him later, he offers Barry a job as his partner in the PI world. Barry accepts, and Ralph states that he’s going to take down DeVoe.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW!