Last week on The Flash we started to see cracks form between Devoe and his wife. This week not only do we get to see their own origin story, but we also get to see his motivations and his endgame, plus those cracks seriously widen. Even though Team Flash had Earth-X’s Snart helping them, they are still way behind in stopping DeVoe.
Speaking of DeVoe and Marlize, The Flash continues Arrow-style flashback in giving us the history of the villainous couple. Before he became The Thinker and she his accomplice, they were academics who met each other while they were both participating in a group lecture 8 years ago at Cambridge. They are arguing about human development. Marlize is talking about the benefits of humanity growing with technology. DeVoe, is on the opposite side of the debate and he believes that as technology grows, so does mankind’s capacity for evil, citing past atrocities committed by people throughout history. Even though they were on opposing sides of the debate, opposites attract. The two begin dating and eventually fall in love with each other. The two hit a roadblock when the two are about to move in together and she finds a diary that he’s written. She rightly calls it a manifesto for a technophobe with global domination ambitions. DeVoe’s master plan is to get rid of our dependence on technology by rebooting people’s brains to a more primitive state. Naturally, she’s out and goes to work for an NGO. Happy with helping the world, she refuses his calls to come back. It’s only when she is attacked by warlords at the NGO and they rob the village she was helping of a water filtration system, does she accept that DeVoe was right. The two agree to bring about “The Enlightenment.” In the present, DeVoe and Marlize are working on making The Enlightenment to come true. He is stealing various pieces of technology from different warehouses. DeVoe’s willingness to kill poor security guards further disgusted his wife every time he raided different warehouses.
Team Flash is dealing with their own issues. Harry’s intelligence is continuing to devolve. Everyone is noticing that he’s forgetting simple things, thinks that he (as a super genius) would not know as well. Cisco, knowing the truth convinces Harry to fess up to Team Flash. The team of course, is supportive as they respect him not only for his intelligence, but also because he is a member of their family. With Harry’s intelligence dwindling, Barry asks Cisco to vibe to try and figure out what they can do next. Cisco is not powerful enough and will need the help of another person with vibe powers. His girlfriend Gypsy and he are somewhat at odds. In addition to him being on Earth-1 and she on Earth-19, her father Breacher wants him to team up with her and be a trans-dimensional bounty hunter, something he’s clearly on the fence with. She agrees to help him vibe, but because they aren’t thinking on the same wavelength due to their problems with each other, they are unable to get one of the devices before DeVoe is able to. After unsuccessfully meddling with the two of them, Barry convinces Cisco to have a conversation with his girlfriend. They both agree that he shouldn’t join her in the bounty hunter business, but then they are at an even bigger impasse. Cisco is tired of the long-distance relationship. Neither wants to leave their earth, and even though Gypsy is fine with their relationship, Cisco isn’t and they agree to end their relationship.
Team Flash finally gets the drop on DeVoe as he’s about to rob another place. Working together, they are able to stop him temporarily. Marlize engages in the fight which evens the odds. When DeVoe escapes Cisco and Gypsy’s vibe powers as a result, he is able to use his full powers to take them down. He first is about to attack Caitlin, but if her adrenaline kicks in, she could bring back Killer Frost, so he turns the table on and uses his powers to “force choke” Gypsy. Before he is about to kill Gypsy, Marlize convinces him to stop killing her as she is tired of him senselessly killing people. DeVoe relents and they escape, allowing Team Flash to recuperate. Later on, Marlize leaves DeVoe as she's tired of him, stating that her real husband is dead.
Although they lost (again), Team Flash celebrates Cecile’s baby shower. Cisco is in a little bit of a slump having broken up with Gypsy with Barry to comfort her. Just then, someone comes to the door with a baby gift, the mystery girl we keep seeing throughout the series. She gives them some diapers but just before Iris comes to see who she is, she leaves. Hiding around the corner of the apartment, the woman then speeds away. Her speed has the same purple streak that Iris has. Something tells us that she’s Iris and Barry’s child lid many have been predicting.
Next week, to take on DeVoe, Team Flash will make a deal with the devil: Amunet!
