The Flash, Season 4, Episode 20: Therefore She Is
Mmm. I'm not a big fan of this episode at all. On one hand, it does help to fill in a lot holes in the backstory and motivations of our main villain, the Thinker. On the other hand... it's such a weird contrast to what we already know about the Thinker that I'm not sure if the hypocrisy is intentional or if the writers just really don't give a shit anymore.
See, earlier this season, the DeVoes were motivated by the 'enlightenment' of humanity wasting their intellectual potential, and all the talk about educating the masses and teaching them seems to imply that the DeVoes are trying to get them to 'see' the world in the same way that he is, albeit maybe keyed to the Thinker's own rigid and presumably despotic rule. But here, we get the revelation that Marlize and Clifford are both just insane anti-technology luddite even before their plans for the 'enlightenment', and their big plan is to use multiple satellites to... turn everyone dumb? Wouldn't turning everyone dumb increase all the crimes and violence in fighting over whatever scraps of technology that is left? I can buy the Thinker wanting to make everyone smart and equal, or subservient to him the way he did to Marlize. Love-triumphs-over-cold-mechanical-intelligence is not a storyline I find compelling, but it's at least something that's relatable. Thinker's newly-revealed motivations just flies in the face of common sense, and if we're being honest -- everything we know about the Thinker throughout this season as well.
And, yes, the flashbacks do raise some good points. Clifford's distrust for technology is believable, and the incident in some third-world country where the village Marlize was working on was attacked by militia who slaughtered women and children to get to a water purifier is a pretty harrowing experience that'll break anyone. And... and that somehow causes Marlize to jump ship to "technology is bad, let's turn everyone dumb"? And to do this, they've been... using really, really complex technology? Including a pocket dimension, a hover-chair and the weird thinking cap? I'm sorry. Nothing here makes sense, and this comes from someone who is willing to handwave the bullshit plans of many other CW-DC big bads.
The episode mostly has Thinker and Mechanic be ahead of Team Flash in every way shape and form as they steal all the fancy technological shit they need for their plan. To this end, Team Flash decides to recruit Gypsy to do some double-vibe pre-anticipation of Thinker's movements, unaware of the strains in Cisco and Gypsy's relationship due to Cisco being ambivalent about accepting Breacher's offer of being the leader of the Collectors. And, of course, Barry fucks everything up by trying to play relationship doctor and just shoots everything straight to hell. It's done relatively well, with the conflict being delivered a lot better than the weird Thinker stuff, but it's not that exciting. The episode ends with Gypsy and Cisco breaking up due to their differences, and it's... okay? I have to admit that I don't really have any investment in this relationship that the show forgets half the time, so the fact that it's over doesn't really change much.
Meanwhile, the C-plots are... kind of there. Harry is struggling with his dumbing-ness, but thanks to his babysitting of Cecile and Cecile's mind-reading, they are able to salvage Harry's thoughts before his brain forgets them, causing them to figure out Thinker's dumbification plan. Oh, and there's a baby shower in the middle of it all, including yet another appearance from the mysterious Totally-Not-Barry-And-Iris's-Time-Travelling-Daughter, who shows up with a baby basket. I'm not sure if she'll end up being relevant in the climax. Oh, and Caitlin wants to try and jerk Killer Frost back online with adrenaline. Okay?
Meanwhile, while the Thinker has all the stuff he needs for his master plan, Marlize has been so disgusted with Clifford's casual murder of random security guards and near murder of Gypsy (she's okay with murdering the other metas, though?) that she ends up stealing Thinker's chair and leaving him in the pocket dimension. Okay, so... um... did Clifford just run out of Weeper tears or some shit? I feel like there's an episode that's lost somewhere in-between this all where Marlize starts to actually break free from the Weeper control, as this is all very abrupt, with the last episode we see them having Thinker dominating Marlize's mind and keeping her docile with the Weeper tears. It's really odd, and this season ends up feeling more and more like a trainwreck.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The Accelerated Man, with his distinctive purple lightning, can be briefly seen in the Collectors' base.
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