The Flash Review: Therefore She Is (Season 4 Episode 20)

The end of Season 4 is in sight, which is why it feels so wrong that The Flash Season 4 Episode 20 “Therefore She Is” is such a lackluster installment.

Honestly, it’s not even bad. It’s just boring. And that’s not something we should be able to say this close to the season’s conclusion.

We’ve been asking for weeks what The Thinker’s ultimate endgame is. We hoped Cisco would get a storyline of his own at some point. And we all wanted Marlize to leave her evil husband for good.

Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

The thing is, had any of these developments happened earlier in the season, they probably would have felt like important character shifts. Here, everything just seems as though it’s all too little too late.

A huge chunk of “Therefore She Is” dedicates itself to flashbacks about Clifford and Marlize’s history. We see the two meet. We watch them date. And we get front row seats to their existential argument about the societal value of technology and the limits of human intelligence.

It turns out that DeVoe hasn’t suddenly become a supervillain because he sucked up too many metahuman powers. He’s apparently always been one, underneath. And a mansplainer, to boot!

Clifford’s belief that all technology is harmful to humanity is bizarre, and his decision that it must all be eradicated is even more so.

I mean, I know we all just saw Infinity War and everything, but DeVoe seems like nothing so much as a poor man’s Thanos after this reveal.

On some level, you can argue that he (maybe) starts from a defensible position. As we can see today, there are many ways that technology can be used in nefarious ways. (Looking at you, Facebook.)

However, there’s no clear line from “Yeah, technology can bring about some bad things, sometimes” to “Welp, guess we better not just destroy all of it but also make everyone on Earth demonstrably less intelligent!”

The episode devotes comparatively little time to explaining the ultimate shape of his endgame. Will DeVoe, the last remaining intellectual, reign over the swaths of dumbed down humanity? How does this even work?

Furthermore, this presentation of DeVoe as basically a genocidal maniac in training doesn’t feel as though it meshes with the character we see at the beginning of this season. (See also: “Therefore I Am” (Season 4 Episode 7), in which the DeVoes seem to want to help others — and themselves — through the use of technology, not take it away.)

Perhaps if The Flash used some of these Clifford and Marlize flashbacks at earlier points in the season, they might have been more effective. There certainly is a point in Season 4 where both DeVoes still seem extremely human and relatable, but that moment is pretty much gone.

Plus, for all that this episode implies that it’s about Marlize (the “she” in the title), we get very little of her perspective. She’s not okay with her husband killing innocents or mind controlling people, but brain-damaging the entire world because some warlords stole her Peace Corps water filtration system is fine?

Isn’t this maybe the kind of thing we should have spent some mid-season storyline time on, instead of a fourth episode about Ralph learning about the power of friendship?

Marlize’s decision to finally leave her trash husband is a bright spot in all this. Whether that move is because her long-dormant moral compass finally kicks in watching DeVoe try to kill Gypsy or because she realizes he’s been drugging her all this time isn’t clear.

It’s also not clear if any of that matters. Marlize and Clifford have been sold as a package deal all season, so who knows how (if) either of them can handle a split.

As far as relationships go, Cisco and Gypsy’s drama makes a bit more sense than the DeVoes’. However, The Flash also tends to drop this relationship for weeks and/or months at a time whenever it feels like it, so the bar here isn’t actually that high.

The revelation that neither Cisco nor Gypsy want him to accept Breacher’s job offer on Earth-19 feels surprisingly accurate and honest for a season that’s gotten so much wrong elsewhere.

Gypsy is happy with their long-distance status because she wants to focus on her career, while Cisco wants to basically move in together ASAP. They’re not in the same place in their relationship, and that’s been obvious for a while.

This is largely because The Flash writers could barely remember to do anything with this couple, but also because Cisco always seemed much more into Gypsy than vice versa.

That said, their break-up is still incredibly affecting. The scene certainly benefits from the fact that we all love Cisco and want him to be happy. But Carlos Valdes and Jessica Camacho sell the heck out of their final scene together, and the note of bittersweet possibility is perfect.

Plus, part of me is more than a little pleased that it was a guy this time around who got stuck in the thankless season-long love interest role. Better luck in Season 5, Cisco.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• That random time traveling girl who keeps popping up every five episodes or so is not only a speedster, but a speedster with a combination of red and purple lightning. Therefore, I can only assume she’s Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future or another earth or something insane like that.
• Related: This show really does not need anything more to do with time travel.
• It was so nice that Cecile’s accidentally telepathy actually got used for something more than laughs this week.
• I love Caitlin’s dedication to bringing back Killer Frost. But The Flash’s  insistence that they just need to scare her enough for her alter ego to manifest once more makes no sense. They’ve honestly handled everything about this storyline so badly.
• Cecile and Joe’s baby is due in 21 days — how weird that’s exactly when the season finale is, right?

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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