The Flash Review: True Colors (Season 4 Episode 13)

It’s hard to know quite how to feel about this particular episode of The Flash.

There are twists galore in “True Colors,” which sets up what appears to be the next phase of Barry’s battle against the Thinker. However, the episode’s clunky delivery and generally nonsensical overarching plot detract from its few genuinely solid moments.

This episode also makes it fairly obvious that The Flash has no idea at all what they’re doing with the DeVoe/Thinker plot, which is… somewhat concerning, given that we’re halfway through the season.

The premise of this particular story is solid. Barry must join forces with the same “bus metas” he put in jail in order to escape Iron Heights before Warden Wolfe can sell them all to Amunet Black.

Barry’s adventure underground with the other metas is surprisingly fun, though the show takes no great pains to explore most of the bus metas’ personalities. (Why is Black Bison the literal worst? Honest question.)

Nevertheless, the group is quite enjoyable to watch together — so much so that when they’re inevitably caught and Wolfe informs them of Barry’s real identity, their reactions to his “betrayal” sting.

Particularly since Barry’s budding friendship with Becky Sharpe/Hazard is so charming. Yes, we’ve all seen Barry’s magic pep talks like a hundred times by this point, but he and Becky are so darn earnest together.

Hazard’s decision to choose the light and stand between Barry and the other metas is lovely, and her luck power makes for one of the most entertaining battle sequences in a while. (I am not made of stone, y’all. The owl crashing? Great visual.)

Of course, this is about where DeVoe/Dominic shows up and uses his levitating chairs to attack the bus metas, absorbing their powers and apparently killing them all dead.

Sigh. Someone remind me what the point of all this was again?

Part of the problem with the Thinker storyline right now is that we have zero idea what his ultimate goal is. This isn’t that weird for The Flash. Plenty of villains make lots of vague pronouncements about their evil plans of all stripes.

But the DeVoe storyline is especially vague on this point, and it’s starting to really damage the show.

Let’s just take a moment to break down all the ways this doesn’t exactly make sense. For example: Why does DeVoe want all these powers? Why was it necessary to let Barry capture all the bus metas first?

Why not just track them down on the street and take their powers one by one? Did they all have to be together for some reason? If so, what’s the reason? (Marlize’s reaction to Dominic’s decision to brain suck the metas seems to indicate that she thought so.)

Why did DeVoe decide to scrap his original bus meta plan? Why did he trade Dominic’s body for Becky’s? Couldn’t he just take her luck power like everyone else’s?

This is all a lovely opportunity for Sugar-Lyn Beard to sink her teeth into the season’s Big Bad role, so that’s something. But The Flash needs to commit to giving us some kind of clue about where this story’s heading before we all stop caring about the answer.

That Marlize seems to be slowly coming around to the idea that her husband’s plan has finally gone too far is a promising development, at least.

The other disappointing thing about this week is that, even though Team Flash does its best to pull together and save Barry from the metahuman meat market, nothing about their story really matters much in the end. 

Also, Ralph can shapeshift now. Maybe it’s just that I have almost zero understanding of even the most basic made-up The Flash jargon for whatever his powers are, but this feels almost entirely too convenient.

His new powers provide some laughs. (Richard Brooks deserves particular kudos for his hilarious turn playing Ralph-as-Wolfe.) Yet Ralph’s storyline is ultimately one we’ve seen kind of a lot lately.

Another episode of Ralph learning about what it means to be a hero and experience friendship feels so tiresome at this point. How many times do we need to go through this story?

We get it. Ralph is troubled. You know who else is? Killer Frost. Don’t we deserve three episodes about her journey too?

To be honest, Danielle Panabaker deserves credit for making the most out of every Frost scene she gets, and the former villain’s version of a patented Team Flash pep talk is extremely entertaining. But I would dearly love to know how she learned how to give one in the first place.

At least the team does manage to finally get Barry out of prison, thanks to Ralph’s idea to shapeshift into Clifford DeVoe and tell the judge’s he’s alive. This is a largely ridiculous way to free the Flash, but since the entirety of this trial story has been… suspect at best, it’s hard to care too much. At least it’s over, right?

Maybe now we can finally move forward with the rest of this story for real. Here’s hoping.

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• It’s real weird that The Flash Season 4 Episode 12 focused so heavily on Harry’s determination to stop the Thinker and free Barry, yet he’s suddenly just off on a trip to Earth-2.
• This episode completely wastes Katee Sackhoff’s Amunet, which is a shame.
• Barry was in jail for something like 15 days, according to his wall counter. I can’t believe we went through all this for a literal two-week storyline.
• So, since DeVoe stole Hazard’s body in addition to her powers, does that mean Dominic is dead? Does it also mean Hazard is dead? I have no idea how this brain jumping technology works. Please don’t kill Becky Sharpe, show! She’s the best new character The Flash has introduced in ages.
• Additionally, isn’t Hazard technically an escaped and ostensibly highly-wanted criminal now? Wouldn’t someone — say, the police — notice Becky Sharpe wandering around Central City again?

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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