The Flash Review: Therefore I Am (Season 4 Episode 7)

After six weeks of build up, The Flash properly introduces Season 4’s Big Bad, with a much greater attention to detail than this show normally affords its main villains.

The Flash Season 4 Episode 7, “Therefore I Am,” fills in the backstory for Clifford DeVoe (also known as The Thinker), and the episode doesn’t just summarily explain the source of his powers. It also takes the time to make this monster we’ll be spending a lot of time with for the rest of the season into a real person.

That’s not always easy. Superhero shows often struggle to present compelling, complex villains, and you can generally see that if you look around at the rest of the DC shows on the CW. The Flash is no different.

Just think about last season. Savitar’s ultimate identity is shocking as far as big revelations go, but for most of Season 3, he was yet another faceless speed villain. Even after the show confirms he’s a dark, future version of Barry, it doesn’t bother to delve too much into the details of how he got there.

(It also doesn’t help that Savitar’s story is ridiculously contradictory and confusing. Just saying.)

Season 4 deliberately chooses a different path. Here, instead of obfuscating all season long about who the mysterious Thinker stalking Barry and his friends is, The Flash decides to just show us.

In the process, we not only get to see the scope of The Thinker’s abilities, but also learn a little more about Clifford DeVoe the man. The fact that we learn all this in episode seven rather than episode seventeen feels like a breath of fresh air after last year.

As it turns out, DeVoe isn’t a monster — or at least, he wasn’t always one. When the story begins, he’s just a history professor, married to a brilliant engineer named Marlize. The DeVoes’ creation of the “Thinking Cap” isn’t driven by some kind of desire for world domination. It’s to help.

The sequence that inserts Clifford and his wife into the story of The Flash‘s pilot is extremely well done, placing them both at the site of the original particle accelerator explosion. DeVoe, hit by the particle accelerator, becomes the Fastest Mind Alive.

There’s a price for his newfound genius, of course, and it’s that his new superbrain is basically draining the life from the rest of his body. The ugly chair he rides around in was built by his wife, and it isn’t just for supervillain decorative effect. It’s keeping his body alive.

Seeing Clifford and Marlize as a happily married, ambitious couple looking to solve serious scientific problems makes them both much more relatable, rather than just villains in costumes. Their relationship seems like a genuine partnership, and one that will continue to play into the rest of the season as DeVoe’s body and humanity deteriorate.

Personally, I’m always a sucker for the trope of a complicated bad guy who genuinely loves his wife. At least Clifford clearly respects her intelligence and doesn’t go around calling her by her measurements, right? (Looking at you, Ralph.)

The plot of “Therefore I Am” is pretty basic, involving Barry working overtime to prove to his friends that Clifford is the enemy the Council of Wells predicted. While it’s actually kind of refreshing to see Barry at odds with everyone, this all goes on a little too long for my liking.

To be fair, that’s because this episode’s plot only exists to set the stage for the rest of the season — which is to say, there isn’t really much of a plot. Half of the installment focuses on Barry figuring out things the audience already knows.

The Thinker is a threat. He knows who Barry is. He’s three steps ahead of Team Flash because he can predict everything they’ll do, thanks to his supergenius abilities. This isn’t exactly brand new information.

Furthermore, for all of the episode’s attention to detail, it does leave one extremely key thing out: It never actually tells us what The Thinker wants with Barry, or how the creation of the bus metahumans fits into his larger goals.

Despite the fact that our introduction to The Thinker is well handled, there are still many gaps that The Flash needs to fill in for this story. Linking his origin to Barry’s via the particle accelerator is a good start, but there definitely needs to be something more here.

Still, as long as it doesn’t involve Barry running fast enough to time travel, I suppose I can wait for a while longer to find out what Devoe’s plan is. But I don’t think I’m the only The Flash fan who isn’t going to feel great if we have to wait too long.

Stray Thoughts:

• Wally’s back, which makes you wonder why the show sent him away in the first place. What was the point of it all?
• I did not miss Ralph at all this week.
• Clifford DeVoe is actually more menacing out of The Thinker get-up than he is in it. He gives off a distinctly Hannibal Lecter sort of vibe.
• Speaking of Vibe-ing, how did DeVoe manage to make that mug not show Cisco his extracurricular activities?
• Eobard Thawne as Harrison Wells in the pilot flashback knew who Clifford DeVoe was. Does that mean anything, or do I just really want it to?
• I loved Barry being shocked that someone else knows his secret identity. Come on, kiddo — half of Central City knows.

What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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

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