The Flash “Run, Iris, Run” Review

Say it with me now, Iris West-Allen is a super hero in a different sense of the word. Iris may have a few haters, but “Run, Iris, Run” proves them all wrong. The episode also has become another one of my favorites of the season. It proves that Iris is just as valuable to Team Flash as those who have powers. Not only is she the best leader behind the comps, but she makes for a total badass speedster with purple lightning. 😉

Get Your Thinking Cap On

Still obsessed with the whole DeVoe thing (even more-so than Barry), Harry has been spending his days and nights trying to figure out how to outsmart DeVoe. Well, it seems that he may have finally found what he needs by finding footage of DeVoe during the accelerator explosion. He sees DeVoe’s thinking cap. He wants to design his own, but he needs the team’s help. Everyone, but Cisco believes it’s their best shot. Cisco says absolutely not because blasting your brain with dark matter is too dangerous obviously.

Negative Ralph

Ralph is seriously annoyed that they aren’t going to go forward with Harry’s idea when it seems to be their best lead thus far. I mean, I get it because his life is being threatened since he’s a bus meta, but it seems like every week he’s essentially quitting the team. He’s become quite whiny and annoying, in my opinion.It only gets worse when Iris tries to talk to him. She tries to tell him that she understands his feelings, but he just isn’t listening. He basically tells her that she’s useless to the team and never puts her life on the line like the rest of them. She’s always at the lab behind the comps running point. Listen, Ralph, I get you’re in a Debby Downer mood, but chill. No need to take your frustration out on Iris.

When they get a call, Ralph hides in his room while Iris goes to run comps again. There’s a new meta in town that can burn through bank vaults. But wait! There’s also one that can take other meta’s powers away! This guy stopped the bank robber but disappeared before giving a statement to the cops.

The Switcharoo

The team manages to track down this meta (Matthew Kim) that took the other meta’s powers. He’s an EMT at the hospital. Feeling the sting of Ralph’s words, Iris volunteers to go with Joe to talk to Kim. This throws Barry for a loop and leaves him with nothing to do at the lab.When Joe and Iris confront Kim, though, he believes they’re threatening him or something. He grabs Iris and holds a scalpel to her neck. Dang, dude. Take a chill pill. Iris slyly presses the SOS alarm on her phone, and Barry arrives in seconds. He quickly gets Iris out of Kim’s grasp, but in the process accidentally pulls a switcheroo on Barry and Iris. As Kim runs off saying that they did it to themselves, Barry tries to race after him, but realizes his powers are gone. And guess who has them… Iris!

Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin has run all the tests, and everything is normal with Barry and Iris. The only difference is that Iris has all of Barry’s powers. And boy, is she enjoying them. Barry, on the other hand, not so much. He confesses to Iris that he feels like DeVoe is taking everything from him now that he’s jobless and powerless. Iris reminds him that he hasn’t lost everything. He’ll always have her. 😊

Later, Iris gets to go on her first call. A building is on fire and there’s still people inside. She speeds to the scene and is able to save all the people. However, Barry doesn’t seem to be the greatest teacher in crisis mode. He tries to explain how to put the fire out, but the arm-rotating doesn’t work. In fact, it makes it worse. Barry doesn’t know what to do and Iris ends up getting trapped under a beam as the building starts collapsing. Barry literally starts panicking under the pressure when he can’t explain how to phase through the beam. Cisco ultimately has to breach her out and back into the lab.The whole ordeal causes Iris to believe that maybe Ralph was right. Maybe she is only useful behind the comps. She confesses her feelings to Barry, and he tries to assure her that Ralph was wrong. She then opens up saying that she’s also trying to prove to herself that she’s still as fearless as she was when doing field reporting. Ever since Savitar, she admits to hiding behind the comps a bit, which is understandable, but she doesn’t want to anymore.

Side note: Caitlin convinces Cisco to help build the thinking cap under two conditions: no dark matter, and Harry can’t start acting like a smarty pants.

Proved You Wrong

Remember how Kim took that bank robber’s powers away? Well, without realizing it, he transferred it to another guy who also wants to rob banks. Kim tries to stop the guy, but this guy really doesn’t care. Iris races to the scene and throws some meta-dampening cuffs on Kim for the time being.

She then tries to take on the robber, but his flames get up to lava level heat. While the team tries to think of what she can do, the dude creates a massive fire cyclone. With the help of the thinking cap, Harry states that the only option is for Iris to create a massive (controlled) tidal wave. Iris worries she’s not fast enough to run on water, but Barry gives her a pep talk like the supportive hubby he is. He believes in her. “Run, Iris, run!”

With the help of Barry’s instructions, Iris creates the tidal wave and draws it to the bay and takes out the fire cyclone and the robber. Woohoo!Back at the labs, Barry and Iris are ready to switch back to normal with Kim’s help. Barry leaves it up to Iris if she really wants to or not, and she does. Kim makes the transfer and the team convinces him to help take down DeVoe. This should be interesting considering what happened last time they tried to use a bus meta to their advantage.

A joke is made by Joe about how Barry has never created a tidal wave before, and they all share a laugh and Caitlin says “you go, girl” to Iris. Barry asks Iris if she wants to teach an old dog a new trick, and they make plans for training at 6 a.m. in cute hubby/wifey banter. 😊

Ralph heads back to his room, but Iris catches up to him first. He admits that he was wrong in saying she never puts her life on the line, and says that she makes a badass flash in and out of the field. She states that she understands what he’s going through because when Savitar came after her, she was terrified. The only way she got through it was to realize that hiding meant that he won. So, she chose not to give into fear and to keep living.

Destiny and the Thinking Cap

Barry returns home from getting pizza (Cecile’s late-night craving) to find Iris on her computer. He tells her that he never would have made her give up the speedster power. Iris knows, and claims that being the Flash is his destiny because he’s “the light everyone needs when the world goes dark.” And he’s the type of person who always wants to help. Journalism is her destiny, and she’s getting back into it with her blog on the Flash. 😊Meanwhile, Harry puts on his thinking cap, or, as he calls it, “intelligence booster”, and gets the last two names of the bus metas! Looks like his cap worked!