THE FLASH “Subject 9” Review

The Flash — “Subject 9” — Pictured (L-R): Miranda MacDougall as Izzy, Hartley Sawyer as Dibney and Grant Gustin as The Flash — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW

THE FLASH “SUBJECT 9” REVIEW

BY JUSTIN CARTER

After two weeks off, The Flash returns with its final slate of episodes for the season. Now that Devoe has kidnapped or taken the powers of two  thirds of the bus metas, the hunt is on for the remaining future guest stars to be saved, lest Devoe snatches their bodies in order to keep himself around for the duration of the series.

This week, our new bus meta is a country singer and violinist named Izzy Bowen, surprisingly not using her powers — she can control soundwaves — for anything more than becoming more in tune with her music. All she cares about is her upcoming album and making it big after having a crappy childhood and devoting her adult life to becoming a star, so it’s understandable that she doesn’t want any part in Team Flash’s shenanigans. Having her be angsty about her new responsibilities being thrust on her out of the blue is formulaic, but Miranda MacDougall brings a lot of charm to the character, and it turns out that she and Hartley Sawyer have an infectious chemistry between them.

Under any other circumstance, she’d be a fun guest star to have around, in the vein of a Wentworth Miller or Matt Letscher, but since Devoe kills those he inhabits the bodies of, that means she’ll have to bite the dust in order to raise the stakes. It’s predictable, but it still sucks; Barry ends up pushing too hard during the team’s training her into being a superhero and she decides to go after Devoe on her own, since she’s the only one that can hurt him. The optics of her dying to motivate Ralph into really wanting to take Devoe down are…not great, but it is still admittedly an effective death, and the show continues to get plenty of mileage out of how creepy the whole “Devoe body swap” situation is.

While the majority of Team Flash is handling Devoe, Wells has a problem of his own, but one considerably less dour in tone. Since she can read minds, Cecille can hear Joe’s thoughts while she sleeps, and Harry gets stuck helping her through that by creating a device that will block out out incoming thoughts. Danielle Nicolet and Tom Cavanaugh are surprisingly funny together, whether it’s Cecille finishing Harry’s sentences or him getting increasingly frustrated at his whole situation. The show is finding something fun to do with Cecille’s telepathy without using her as a walking plot device, and it’s much appreciated considering that the powers will presumably end when the baby arrives.

All in all, “Subject 9” is a solid episode for the season, but it does also sort of highlight the potential problem with Devoe as an antagonist. Specifically, it feels like it’s much easier to take him down than the show seems to want to admit; he only gets Izzy because he used Kilgore’s powers to make Harry’s inhibitor fry out, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Marlize is growing ever so frustrated with her husband and his arrogance. She could very well just up and kill him, and the show either needs to just let her do that or make his big goals clearer. Because right now, the Thinker isn’t fully worth thinking about.

Catch just-released photos from next week’s “Enter Flashtime” after the notes!

Additional Notes

• As of this week, Keiynan Lonsdale has officially transferred to Legends of Tomorrow, and his arrival on that show was so, so good.
• I’ve heard that “Something’s About to Happen” song so many times during my day job that my brain recoiled when Izzy started playing it.
• Barry gets put on a leave of absence from the CCPD, which makes sense given how ridiculously that whole trial ended, but Ralph pretending to be Devoe sounds like it would be an alright episode in and of itself. Ralph does make him his PI partner, so there’s that, at least.

THE FLASH

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The Flash -- "Enter Flashtime" -- Image Number: FLA415a_0008b.jpg -- Pictured: Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved