The Flash Review: We Are The Flash (Season 4 Episode 23)

Considering that this was such a mixed bag of a season, it isn’t surprising that The Flash Season 4 Episode 23 “We Are The Flash” is a finale that’s equally all over the place.

Good news: Season 4 wraps up, thus ending the messy reign of probably the weakest The Flash villain to date, Clifford DeVoe. (Remember when we thought his humanity would make him more relatable as a Big Bad, not less? Welp.)

The episode has a generally cheerful conclusion, almost everyone gets to end the season in a good place for once, and though there are mysteries left to solve in Season 5, none of them feel terribly apocalyptic.

Bad news: As with many things this season, there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense. Like, a whole lot.

DeVoe’s Enlightenment plan suddenly seems like it needs forever to implement, because the gang needs time to stop it. (And because the show hasn’t ever really bothered to lay out how this whole “dumbing down of humanity” thing even works.)

Marlize’s decision that Barry must travel to her husband’s mind and find the good part of him is so ridiculous it actually hurts to explain. Cecile’s pregnancy is a literal plot device. Ralph Dibny returns, in a cheesy twist that pretty much only works because Grant Gustin and Hartley Sawyer sell it so hard.

Despite the fact that many of these emotional beats are satisfying, almost none of them feel earned.

But, whatever! At this point, it’s probably not worth overthinking this. Let’s be honest: The Flash often requires viewers to handwave or studiously ignore some plot points that don’t make sense. And, to be fair, “We Are The Flash” is at least an entertaining ride.

Even if it does require you to ignore a lot of previously established information. Such as the rules of pocket dimensions, and some of its own previously established canon about DeVoe’s past.

On the plus side, this is one of the most comic book-esque episodes we’ve seen this season. The Flash really is the best of the CW superhero series when it comes to visual effects, and this episode is no different.

Plus, you get to watch the Flash and the Elongated Man fight an army of DeVoe clones! It’s kind of like the Matrix, but much, much sillier.

Given that most of the CW series all play pretty fast and loose with the idea of death, it’s not shocking that Ralph was never really a goner. Yet, it still feels like another predictable piece in a largely predictable season. Who didn’t call this at the time?

What is surprising, however, is that Barry and Ralph’s reunion actually manages to feel genuinely touching. This is no small feat given that the duo’s friendship was largely comprised of Ralph failing to internalize Barry’s hero lessons.

(For the record: I always thought Barry’s grief over his death felt more about his own failures than the loss of Ralph. It’s nice that his relief here did not.)

Furthermore, on some level, Ralph’s return is a nice twist on the ending we all expected for DeVoe in the first place.

Yes, his defeat ultimately came about thanks to the power of love. But it wasn’t Marlize’s love for her husband. (Which, by the way, seems to have completely disappeared by this point.)

DeVoe goes down because Team Flash loves one another. Friendship really is magic, y’all.

The final fake-out – that DeVoe isn’t really gone and Barry needs an assist from the Mystery Girl speedster to defeat him – generally detracts from that nice moment, and kind of feels unnecessary.

But, I suppose the episode still had twenty minutes to kill and needed a reason to bring Mystery Girl back into the plot. Since it turns out she’s Barry and Iris’ daughter and all.

But that’s a story for next season.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Congrats to everyone who guessed Mystery Girl was Barry and Iris’ daughter! I’m not sure the impact of this reveal was cool enough to justify her random appearances all season long, but I guess the jury is out on that until Season 5.
• I wonder if the thing Nora messed up in the time line is that Barry was supposed to die in this episode?
• Caitlin’s only job this week was to be a midwife. No further development regarding her childhood flashbacks or search for Killer Frost. And honestly, I don’t know why expected anything better.
• Why even bring up all that “Killer Frost existed before the particle accelerator explosion!” stuff last week if Caitlin gets zero time to address it in the finale? At this point, I think that the Caitlin AND Killer Frost characters might be better served by an extended trip with Sara and the Waverider crew on Legends of Tomorrow next season.
• I’m sorry to see the end of Earth-2 Harrison Wells, if this is indeed his end. He was my favorite incarnation of this character and, quite frankly, I’m genuinely afraid one of the D-list Council of Harrisons will show up in Season 5.
• That said: Harry’s arc this season was legit terrible. Did anyone actually like it? How does any of this count as real development for him? The only reason his literal change of heart about family happened is that his brain basically melted. (And the show asked us to laugh at that story through half of it.)
• The saddest part about Season 4 is that it started off so strongly. There were so many great individual pieces that could have combined into something amazing. That it didn’t is something I’m going to be salty about for a good while.
• Let’s all start fresh in the Fall, shall we? Sheesh.

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

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The Flash will return in the Fall, Tuesdays at 8pm on the CW.

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