I can’t help but think that things will end badly at the end of Season 4 of The Flash. There are too many coincidences, too many hints that DeVoe is indeed the most powerful supervillain Team Flash has come up against. Though DeVoe’s plans aren’t exactly clear, his journey as super villain takes a surprising turn this episode, making Marlize DeVoe question his motives. Here are the highlights from “True Colors.”
Cecile Sees Through the Warden’s Lies
In the last episode of The Flash, the warden of Iron Heights, Warden Wolfe, kidnapped Barry and imprisoned him in a special meta-human prison. Wolfe contacted Amunet Black and informed her about the new meta-human merchandise he acquired, setting up a deal with the meta-trafficker.
In this episode, Wolfe lies to Iris and Cecile when they come to visit Barry, telling them that the speedster got into a prison yard scuffle and is in solitary confinement. Of course, this is a crock of you know what, and Cecile knows it. She reads Wolfe’s mind and informs Iris and Team Flash that Wolfe plans to sell Barry to Amunet at midnight. Team Flash, having just discovered that Ralph Dibny has the ability to shapeshift, come up with the plan to have Dibny impersonate Wolfe. If they can get him to successfully shapeshift into Wolfe, they might be able to thwart Barry’s sale to Amunet. But, this is Dibny we’re talking about and things are never easy when he’s involved.
Dibny Turns Himself into a Black Man.
Well, Dibny can shapeshift into a black man. Yep, you heard that right. I guess he has some sort of melanin inducing superpower because he accomplishes his task and sets up a meeting with Amunet. Except the meeting goes sideways when Dibny finds that maintaining Wolfe’s appearance is difficult and suddenly reverts to himself mid-meeting. Dibny escapes Amunet’s fury and her henchmen, but his confidence takes a hit and he spends some time moping around Star Labs. Fortunately, by the end of the episode, Dibny redeems himself.
Clifford DeVoe is an Evil Mofo
Barry finds himself without powers in Wolfe’s meta-human jail surrounded by metas that he and Team Flash defeated this season (the dark matter bus metas). There’s Mina (Black Bison), Becky, Sylbert, and Ramsey (Kilgore); all of which are to be sold along with Barry to Amunet.
Realizing that they are about to be sold into a meta-human trafficking/crime ring, Barry and the bus metas decide to work together to escape. Barry uses some batteries to break into the prison’s sewer systems, and they all look for a way out of the bowels of the prison. As they navigate the sewer passages to their freedom, Barry realizes that some of the metas have changed their ways, having lost the desire to be criminals.This is true of Becky, who bonds with Barry, showing that she really is a kind person underneath it all.
When they finally gain access to a prison yard, their powers return and the metas, along with Barry, are confronted by Warden Wolfe and Amunet. Wolfe informs the metas that Barry is the Flash and they turn on him, all except Becky who protects the speedster after he loses his powers (Wolfe shots him with something). Becky is able to use her meta-human luck power to momentarily disable the other bus metas, Wolfe, and Amunet.
At this point in the episode, everything looked like it was going to work out. In fact, I thought that Barry would invite Becky to join Team Flash after seeing her in action as a hero. But nope, that’s too optimistic. Instead, Clifford DeVoe flies in from the shadows and neutralizes everyone’s powers with some sort of energy pulse from his chair. Several octopus-looking arms fly out from his chair, grabbing the heads of the dark matter metas. He then proceeds to murder each and every one of them by sucking their consciousness and powers from their skulls and into his brain. Barry attempts to save Becky from this fate, only for her to become DeVoe’s newest host. That’s right, DeVoe’s consciousness is housed in Becky’s mind. Horrified, Barry watches DeVoe murder Wolfe before taking off to his lair.
We all knew that DeVoe was evil, but in this episode, he revealed that he gets pleasure out of killing. As he kills Wolfe, there’s satisfaction on his face (Becky’s face) and Marlize, who’s watching from their secret lab, looks disturbed by her husband’s glee. Having a villain that does evil things because they feel like they have to — versus one that does evil things because it makes them feel good — ups the ante. And coupled with DeVoe’s obvious brilliance, makes him especially dangerous.
I think Marlize picks up on the change in her husband because she starts to mask her thoughts from his mind-reading abilities, and she begins questioning him more. Which brings us to another fact about the villain; he’s willing to manipulate and take advantage of Marlize in a disgusting manner. Let me explain.
There’s a scene in this episode that really bothered me. It involves an interaction between DeVoe/Becky where he tries to convince Marlize that he hasn’t changed. When he can’t read her mind and obviously hasn’t convinced her that he didn’t enjoy killing Wolfe, he slips some sort of roofie into her drink. The roofie causes Marlize to become infatuated with her husband, and she is unable to resist her attraction to him. Clifford DeVoe took away his wife’s ability to give consent with a few simple drops of his roofie serum and it was icky. I’m so not here for this. At. All. Clifford DeVoe is a murderous and rapey mofo and I’m so over this villain. I hope Marlize has a change of heart and helps Team Flash take him down next episode. It’s time for him to go.
Flashy Observations
• Ralph Dibny got to be a hero in a really clever way this episode. Am I allowed to dislike him even though he got Barry out of jail?
• The fact that Cecile has mind reading abilities like Clifford DeVoe can’t be a coincidence. I can’t help but think this will come into play at some point.
• Iris, Joe, and the gang celebrating Barry’s release was sweet. They all have such great chemistry. I miss moments like this.
• While I’m happy that Barry is out of prison, I wish Iris had gotten the chance to get him out. Oh well.
The Flash airs Tuesdays on The CW.
