‘The Flash’ Season 4, Episode 16 ‘Run Iris, Run’ Recap: Speedless… Again [SPOILERS]

Just like in “Enter Flashtime,” DeVoe was again absent on this week’s episode of “The Flash” titled “Run Iris, Run.” But even so, the villain stirred up more drama than the ordinary human can handle. Luckily, Team Flash is no regular group of humans. About 60% of them are metahumans. Barry (Grant Gustin) loses his speed for the nth time, but Iris (Candice Patton) gets a taste of what it feels like to be a speedster. Meanwhile, Harry (Tom Cavanagh) gets the idea to make an intelligence booster.

Is Harry smart enough to beat DeVoe?

Cisco (Carlos Valdez) and Harry have been up all night, racking their brains for ideas how to save the three remaining bus metas. From breaching them to Earth-2 to turning them into chickens, the two come up with nil. Cisco decides to head home without much luck convincing Harry to do the same.
Harry, on the other hand, is determined to put a stop to DeVoe once and for all. After a moment of thinking, he gets an idea from Wells’ impersonator, Eobard Thawne, and Cisco, when he said DeVoe’s already thought of everything. Thawne, like DeVoe, has thought of everything. So, Harry got the bright (but maybe mad) idea to replicate DeVoe’s thinking cap. Except he called it an intelligence booster.

He presents his idea to the team. He hacked into the security footage of the night of the particle accelerator explosion and saw how DeVoe got his powers. Harry thinks if he can make something like DeVoe’s thinking cap, he’d be able to outthink The Thinker.
Everyone was on board except Cisco. He doesn’t like the idea of significant amounts of dark matter going straight to Harry’s brain. Harry tried to get Cisco to help him but to no avail. Harry has no choice but to make it on his own.

Barry lost some; Iris gained some

As one of the bus metahumans, Ralph’s (Hartley Sawyer) life is also in danger. So when Harry comes up with a way to save him, the team (ahem, Cisco) shuts it down. This plan makes him upset and even more scared.
When he walks out of the Cortex, in true Flash style, Iris follows him to give him a pep talk assuring him that they will find a way to stop DeVoe. But Ralph still chooses to stay locked up in his room in the lab where he knows it’s safe. Iris explains that Ralph is part of the team, that they need his help to find the three other bus metas. He doesn’t give in and tells her that she doesn’t understand the danger he is stuck. She claims she does because she is “the leader of this team.” Ralph gets in the elevator, leaving words that will trigger something in Iris, “But you’re always back there, hiding, safe and sound, while the rest of us are out in the field putting our lives on the line.”

When Barry meets Joe (Jesse L. Martin) at Jitters for coffee, he gets news that it’s going to take a while for him to get back in the office. Apparently, the mayor personally wants to meet with the DeVoes. So Ralph, with already a lot on his plate, has to pretend to be Clifford.
Right after Joe says he has a bad feeling that another bus meta is going to show up soon, the scene cuts to a robbery in progress. A meta who can melt metal uses his powers to dissolve the 10-inch steel vault. Everyone is down on the ground but one brave man. He tells the metal-melting meta that stealing is a sin and inches closer to him. He still speaks to convince him to use his powers for good. Just as he touched him, the robber punches him, making him fly back to where he was standing.
When the metal melting meta tries to use his powers again, nothing happens. So the security guard tackles him to the ground. But before anyone could thank the mysterious hero, he was gone.
Soon, Cisco and Joe arrive with CCPD. After an interview with Erik Frye, the robber, and research from the team, they find out that he wasn’t the bus meta they were after. The mystery hero, now named Matthew Kim, can take away a meta’s powers.

They find out he’s an EMT and pay him a visit to Central City General Hospital. But instead of Barry going with Joe, Iris volunteers. When they confront him, he thinks that they’re there to take away his powers. He grabs Iris and points a scalpel to her neck. Luckily, the distress signal app Cisco made saved them when Joe pressed the button, and The Flash came zooming in saving Iris. Unluckily, he touched Matthew, making Barry lose his speed–again. However, instead of staying with Matthew, The Flash’s speed transferred to Iris when Matthew had her on hold.

Harry put his intelligence booster on

Back at the lab, Ralph lent a helping hand to Harry in making the intelligence booster. He noted how quick Harry was in building it. So in no time, Harry put the device on his head and could instantly feel his neurons working 20 times faster than usual. And that still lacks dark matter. To prove his point, Harry predicted Ralph spilling mustard on the floor and his lack of underpants. Unfortunately, there was a slight problem with the device: it caught on fire.

When Harry asks Cisco for a wrench, Cisco refuses to give him anything that can help him build the “death cap.” This refusal puts them in a very loud argument; one that Caitlyn (Danielle Panabaker) can hear. After Harry storms off, Caitlyn talks to Cisco about helping him instead. However, Cisco won’t budge. He says rageaholic plus dark matter is a bad idea. But Caitlyn makes Cisco reconsider when she says there could be a way to keep Harry safe and make the booster.

Iris is (temporarily) The Flash

The team confirms Matthew is the bus meta they’re after. As always, they want to protect the person involved. But in this case, like the case of Izzy Bowin, they want to get him to their side before DeVoe can even lay a finger on him. After Caitlyn’s science-y explanation about Kim’s powers, Cisco dubs him Melting Point.

Barry doesn’t have his speed, so he trains Iris. But things didn’t go so well. She can’t slow down and ends up in a pile of Star Labs boxes. Barry opens to Iris about feeling like DeVoe’s taking everything from him. His speed. His job. All he has is Iris. After their moment, Cisco alerts them about a fire in town, and the Central City Fire Department responded but is unable to reach the people on the top floor.

With Barry stuck in comms, Iris’ newfound speed is put to the test. Iris quickly switches clothes with Caitlyn and wears a Jesse Quick mask. She heads to the burning building and listens to Barry’s voice as guidance. Iris and her purple lighting streak successfully saved the five people but had a difficult time putting out the fire. Barry told her to make a vortex with her arms, but it only made the flames stronger. Soon, part of the ceiling fell on her and Cisco had to breach in to save her.
The next day in the lab, Caitlyn gives good news and says Iris is alright, even with a little irritation from the smoke in her lungs. But she also provides terrible news. She says doesn’t have an idea how to reverse what Melting Point did to Barry and Iris.
Ralph leaves “to work on his will.” Harry goes because he knows he has something to save them all. The tension in the room and the stern look Caitlyn gave made Cisco agree to Harry’s plan. But he had some conditions: 1) They stay away from dark matter, and 2) Cisco gets to vibe harry back to Earth-2 the moment he starts acting up.

Iris tests her powers on a much larger scale

Barry and Iris get back to training, and they have another moment to talk. But this time, it’s Iris who opens up. She tells Barry that she feels the need to prove to herself, not the team, that she is brave. Before last year, before Barry was sucked into the Speed Force and before Savitar “killed” her, she was fearless. Iris’ job as a reporter put her out on the field, risking her life for a story. Now, she’s on Team Flash but stays in for the most part. With the new powers she has, Iris wants to prove to herself that she is still fearless and brave.
And after another couple moment, they were alerted about another fire. But this time, it’s about where the power of the metal melting meta went. And yet again, Iris is sent to the front lines. But this time, Seamstress Cisco has a suit ready for Iris.

Her purple lighting streak zooms to downtown Central City where Joe and other CCPS cops are already pointing their guns at the new meta. Before she gets there, Matthew Kim is already talking to the new fire throwing meta.
Ironically, he’s faced with a meta he sort of created. When Frye punched him and fell to the ground, Matthew accidentally touched the person beside him, transferring the powers. The shocked expression on his face says it all. It’s the first time he’s learning about his power-transferring abilities. This gives Iris the opportunity to cuff him with the power-dampening cuffs.

When she comes face to face with the meta, fires streams from his hands. Barry tells her to run around him to suck the oxygen out, but the intense heat won’t let her near him. He then creates a thermo-cyclone that can burn the apartment buildings around them and kill thousands.
As a last resort in a desperate time, Harry wears the intelligence booster. It gave him the idea to run to Central City Bay and create a massive tidal wave to extinguish the fire. Iris runs to the bay; then she’s running in the bay. Barry guides Iris step by step, encouraging her. What the meta’s words before his fire went out was “Long live rock and roll.” Then, he’s rolling on the ground, and Joe West cuffs him.

Back at the Cortex, the team explains everything to Matthew. He regrets using his powers to help the city because he made things worse. Then he takes Iris’ speed and gives it back to Barry, after a short time of Iris thinking. To prove his velocity was back, The Flash ran around the room, leaving a yellow-orange lighting streak in his wake.

All leads back to DeVoe

Team Flash also tells Matthew about DeVoe. They recruit him to join the team and say that a meta rendered DeVoe weak once, another meta can do just that. Matthew agrees and everyone the team rejoices–except Ralph. His pessimistic mind assumes Matthew will the moment he finds out DeVoe is after him. But Iris’ confession about being terrified because of Savitar opened his eyes to stepping back into the real world. Ralph even said he was wrong about Iris being scared and safe. Seeing her in action made Ralph see Iris as “one hell of a Flash.” They then head to where Ralph (as Clifford) will meet the mayor, and Iris gets back to her Flash blog.
The episode ends with Harry and Cisco in the lab. Harry puts on the intelligence booster. Cisco warns Harry that he’ll turn off the power because Harry’s been under it a bit long. But just as Cisco does just that, Harry mentions the names of the two remaining bus metas: Janet Petty and Edwin Gauss.
“The Flash” continues next Tuesday, March 20th, with “Null and Annoyed” at 8/9c on The CW.