Airing Tuesdays at 8pm on Sky 1
Writers: Judalina Neira & Lauren Certo
Director: Kevin Mock

Essential Plot Points:

• Barry wakes up alone to find Iris working on sorting every single file, report and story about DeVoe. She has a plan;
• Write about DeVoe. Reveal the truth to EVERYONE.
• It’s kind of brilliant.
• At the lab, the team brainstorm. Barry comes up with an idea; shoot down DeVoe’s satellites using some kind of organic weapon. Harry has a plan too; consult the other Harrys.
• It does not go well. Herr Wells mocks them and leaves. Cisco vows revenge; a new council! a BETTER council!
• Joe chats with Caitlin about Killer Frost. Because Joe is adorable, he suggests attacking the problem from a different direction. And now Caitlin has a plan!
• They need Amunet Black. Whose projectiles are completely immune to DeVoe’s abilities. Plus she’s (sometimes) nice. Kind of.
• Caitlin and The Flash arrive at Amunet’s hideout to find out she’s disappeared. Caitlin remembers their conversation a few months ago, and the Team discover Amunet’s old identity and use that as a lead.
• Barry, who is doubtful about the article and what it could mean, talks to Iris who agrees to not mention it to the others before she’s finished it.

• Cisco debuts the Emotionally Astute Council of Harrisons! Which does not go well AT ALL until Harry admits the truth and the others immediately agree to help. Awww!
• Joe and Caitlin go to a bodega where Amunet once worked. Joe isn’t thrilled about working with a criminal but Caitlin stands her ground and Joe cracks the case. Something’s going on in the meatlocker behind the bodega…
• A VERY well organized, magnificently illegal casino. Run by Amunet. There’s a small fight, and she signs on. Because the world ending would be bad for business. There is a problem though; she need more shards for her weapon. And her stash was raided by persons unknown a few weeks previously. Barry agrees to look into it.
• Caitlin asks for access to the Splicer Amunet used to fix her last time. Caitlin offers to do one favour for her in return for the Splicer. The Splicer was stolen too but once it’s back, Amunet agrees to help.
• At the ‘Council’, the other Harrys persuade Harry, with STARTLING reluctance, to think and feel like DeVoe. They then leave which actually manages to make Harry even angrier than them being there in the first place.
• Good news! Amunet, Barry and Caitlin discover who took Amunet’s stash! Bad if unsurprising news! It was her second in command!
• Norvok and the shards go to ground and Caitlin is not okay about it. Joe calls her on it, and Caitlin has no choice but to come clean. Convinced Frost is gone for good, Caitlin storms out.
• Harry is done, he’s convinced that his intelligence is never coming back. He apologizes for wasting everyone’s time and it’s genuine and heartfelt. The council seem to have taught Harry a little empathy after all…
• Iris hands Barry the finished article. She can sense he’s really concerned about it and, because they’re grownups now, she argues that giving people the facts will allow them to do the right thing. She also acknowledges the terrible year Barry’s had and points out that if they don’t publish it, they’ll be as bad as DeVoe because they’ll be hiding information from people whose lives are in danger. Iris gives him the choice, simultaneously backing him up and challenging everything he knows about his job.

• Amunet finds Caitlin, brooding in the pipe line. Caitlin is heartbroken at the thought of losing Killer Frost. Amunet tells her the truth; the tech she used on Caitlin didn’t work. Caitlin balanced Killer Frost and herself out alone. And she can do that again. Also Amuent works out where Norvok is…
• Turns out Amunet would give a fake address out every time she had word a deal had leaked to the Police. It’s the one place they’ve not looked. Norvok has to be there.
• Barry shows up, confronts Norvok and Amunet instantly appears and picks a fight. Norvok’s STAGGERINGLY GROSS power involves a poison spitting tentacle behind his fake eye. He poisons Barry with it as Joe and Caitlin stop his buyer from escaping. A gunfight ensues as Norvok and Amunet go toe to toe and Barry fights for his life. With Iris’ help, he begins phasing through the poison.
• Joe and Caitlin are pinned down. Until Caitlin fires her cold gun at the ceiling and Joe shoots the resulting stalactites down onto the arms dealers. Nice move!
• Amuent is cornered until Joe and Caitlin recover the shards. Amunet coats Norvok’s head in them and almost suffocates him before Caitlin talks her down. She does chop his eyesnake off though. And leaves them a shard bomb to help with DeVoe.
• At the lab, Harry reveals his new kind of genius. He’s profiled DeVoe, who isn’t acting because the one thing that matters the most, Marlize, is not in his life. For the very first time, they may be ahead of him.
• Barry thanks Iris and tells her it’s time to publish the article, because Barry and Iris are awesome now.

• Caitlin buys Joe a cup of coffee to thank him for the advice. She tells him about what Amunet said and, newly resolved, begins to search for how to unlock Killer Frost again.
• Late that night, Barry wakes up to find Iris scrolling through the comments on the article. The city wants to help. There are countless sightings of DeVoe. He can’t hide from them anymore…

Review:

Yet another cracking episode as Harry gets some counselling from…Harrys, Iris’ old job saves the day and everyone solves the case.

That last one is actually our favorite part of this entire season of The Flash. While the team are still rocked by the scale of DeVoe’s plan and by how much he’s outmaneuvered them, everyone is working this week. Barry. Joe, Cisco, Harry, the other Harrys. Caitlin, Iris and Amunet all get vital plot breaks which drive the episode and their characters along. It’s an ensemble that hasn’t always been well served this year but this episode? They all shine and the episode falls apart if you remove a single one of them.

But Iris shines most of all, as the script takes the Team Flash concept and expands it out to Central City’s population. Of course Iris, the journalist, would think of going public. Of course Barry, whose entire super-heroic life has been defined by hiding under that mask, would be reluctant. Of course Barry, who’s time in the Speed Force pretty much knocked the terrible life choices out of him, would back his wife’s play.

If you wanted to be picky, you could say that a comments section becoming a vital force for Good is about as likely as a man struck by lightning and thrown backwards into a wall of chemicals as a particle accelerator explodes nearby developing super speed abilities. And that’s true.

But it also doesn’t matter. Because The Flash is a show about fundamentally good people, and a show that believes goodness is endemic. And this week, it was and that’s exactly what we needed to see. Hopeful without being cloying, sweet without being tiresome, another great episode in a great closing run for season 4.

The Good:

• Iris’ fantastic nightshirt
• Barry casually drinking Iris’ cold coffee is adorable.
• Tom Cavanagh has SO much fun this week.

• Carlos Valdes does GREAT work this week too. He and Tom Cavanagh have incredible comic timing.
• There is something gloriously meta about Katee Sackhoff’s eccentric English accent, and actual American accent, being used as part of her ‘disguise’.
• Sackhoff is just massively fun throughout, as she usually is. Her amiable, slightly eccentric and occasionally psychopathic English nanny routine is a joy.
• Amunet does her hair to visit a crime scene, Please keep her forever.
• AMUNET LITERALLY LEAVES THE EPISODE IN A METAL CYCLONE. She is officially goth Mary Poppins.

The Bad:

• The ‘placebo/rendezvous’ deduction is a leap but not a big one.

And the Random:

• Kevin Mock has directed for Legends of Tomorrow (Including the AMAZING ‘Beebo the God War’). Hart of Dixie, America’s Next Top Model and Chuck.
• Judalina Neira has written for Hit the Floor, The Flash and Fanboy Funhouse.
• Lauren Certo wrote Vixen and has also written for Justice League Action. Freedom Fighters: The Ray and The Flash.

Best Lines:

• ‘Put you in the box, box in the pocket, CRUSH THE BOX! in the pocket.’
• ‘They’re still on VHS.’
  ‘WHAT?!’
• ‘DAMN. Someone saw Molly’s Game.’
• ‘It helps me protect my identity.’
  ‘It’s doing a TERRIBLE job.’
• ‘A naughty boy…or girl…OR non binary gendered individual snuck in and robbed the place!’-This is such a tiny little thing but it’s so welcome to see, especially in a super mainstream show like this.
• ‘Ramon, remind me. What’s another word for huge.’
  ‘…Colossal.’
  ‘Thank you. This was a COLOSSAL! WASTE OF TIME!’
• ‘I just want you to remember, The Flash is a beacon of hope the people have always put their faith in. And now it’s time for The Flash to put his faith in the people.’-OUR FEELINGS, IRIS.
• ‘Don’t try and stop me…After all, I AM packing…’
• ‘Eye snakes. Why did it have to be eye snakes…’

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