Welcome back to another episode of The Flash.  Honestly, the last couple episodes haven’t been great.  Now that we are nearing the end of the season will things pick up?  Read on to find out.

The Bus — Now that they are on to finding the last bus meta, Ralph and Barry decide to go to the impounded bus in order to find more clues regarding the last meta.  This would have been a wonderful idea in order to find any of the bus metas…I did find it odd that upon their return to STAR Labs that they didn’t share their findings with the team, or maybe I missed it and they glanced over it.

The Sonic Scepter — Wells creates a futuristic tuning fork in order to use the sound waves to incapacitate, and take down DeVoe.  While the invention is wonderful, the team begins to notice Wells’ obsession with the thinking cap. Joe confronts Wells over his addiction, which still leaves suspicion. Could this lead to Wells being a villain again next season?  I wouldn’t mind the idea.

(Photo Courtesy of The CW.)

Mind Over Matter — Caitlin looks to be on the trail of finding a way to control her powers.  Immediately following, she, Vibe, The Elongated Man, and The Flash find where the final bus meta (Edwin Gauss) is and go to apprehend him.  Unlike a majority of the others, he does not use his powers for evil. Gauss has the ability to create pocket dimensions, which DeVoe does with his chair.  DeVoe needs Gauss in order to create these pocket dimensions on his own.  As the team goes to find Gauss, Caitlin is stabbed through the shoulder by a Samuroid.  Barry leaves with Caitlin while putting Ralph in charge of bringing Gauss back.  It may have been helpful for Cisco to be there to vibe them out.  He went the first time to get Gauss, so why wouldn’t he go this time?  It’s as if they left him out this time just to create more conflict, but it is once again poorly executed.

Caitlin’s stab is quickly washed over with her “frosting out” which helps her heal quickly, and everything was good.  Seems like a wasted opportunity.  It appears as if Gauss has been in DeVoe’s headquarters before through his pocket dimensions.  Ralph wants to try and take advantage of the possibilities of Gauss’ powers. As he tries to get Gauss to take him to DeVoe’s lair, Barry stops Ralph and tells him about Cisco installing more sensors in STAR Labs.  One of the issues I have is the quick resolutions to some of the conflicts.

Usually, there is an issue and the team either says a brief statement, or uses some type of scientific jargon which takes care of the problem.  It’s taking the easy way out. Ralph and Barry fight as they have not been seeing eye-to-eye about how to take down DeVoe (sound similar to Oliver vs. Diggle on Arrow?).  The originality the writers had in Seasons 1 and 2 appear to be gone at times. Even some of the humor seems forced rather than the natural humor used in earlier seasons. After a quick reconciliation, Ralph confides in Barry to tell him that this isn’t about him, but Ralph saving the team because they are the closest he has had to a family since the death of his mother.  The team decides to take on DeVoe with the help of Gauss.  As Barry uses the Sonic Scepter on DeVoe they find out it was only a hologram and…

DeVoe Comes To Star Labs — DeVoe and wife (with that Roman Reigns hair) come to the Flash’s turf floating around in her supped up Lazy-Boy.  Using Gauss was part of DeVoe’s plan to split the team up (was that all?).  Meanwhile, Iris uses her…exploding earring?…to help them escape the room they were locked in thanks to DeVoe.  While Joe is fighting a Samuroid, Ralph is fighting the giant T-Rex skeleton, and Iris is fighting DeVoe’s wife who is apparently skilled with a samurai sword. Convenient.  Wells uses the thinking cap to increase his dark matter intake.  Ralph quickly punches the T-Rex, which I’m not sure why he couldn’t have done so earlier, as DeVoe has now taken over Gauss’ body as he/she/he took Null’s powers as well.

Ok, so the next part really irritated me.  Iris was held at sword point by DeVoe’s wife and Iris grabbed the blade, stabbed herself with it in order to push DeVoe’s wife into the chair and send her into a pocket dimension then responded with, “I’m ok.”  The stabbing idea is getting a bit old. She was stabbed last year until they found a way to undo it (even though we saw it over and over), and once again it is casually passed over that Caitlin…er…Iris was stabbed in the shoulder (sound familiar?). Anyways, Ralph hits DeVoe with the Sonic Scepter and apprehends him, yet not well enough as he escapes and takes over Ralph’s body.  As Barry was incapacitated, he waited until Ralph was overtaken then vibrated through the floor as Cisco watched, which he then vibed to come help.  The man who is faster than sight apparently thinks just a hair too slowly. The team tries to take DeVoe down one at a time (they need to work on their tactics) which obviously fails and Ralph/DeVoe escapes. So DeVoe had three different bodily forms in one episode if you were confused. Wait…make that four.  More on that in a bit.

The only part I enjoyed in the episode was Ralph’s admittance to Barry about finally feeling part of a family and wanting to keep them safe.  It tied in with his eventual demise.  The end of the episode shows DeVoe telling his wife that his new host body is beneficial in the expansion of his mind, and he can shift his form back to the original DeVoe (that’s the fourth form I was talking about).  Alright, that was a lot.

What’d you think of this week’s episode?  What are your hopes for next season?  Do you any specific villains or storylines you would like to see on the small screen?  Leave your thoughts in the usual spot, and thanks for reading!

The Flash returns next Tuesday at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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