Catching Up: The Flash Episode 418, "Lose Yourself"

I've known that this episode of THE FLASH was likely coming, given the track record of the bus metas that The Thinker (NEIL SANDILANDS) had been tracking. But that doesn't mean I had given up hope, and it certainly didn't mean I was prepared for the event when it got here.

Last night, it got here.

Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN) and Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER) are examining the actual bus that was hit by the wave of dark matter, scanning it for dark matter signatures in order to help the find anything on Edwin Gauss (ARTURO DEL PUERTO), a man who is completely off the grid, and lived that way even before the bus incident. As Harry (TOM CAVANAGH) gets further addicted to using the "thinking cap," the rest of Team Flash investigates a commune to find the extremely laid back Gauss to bring him in for protection. They're intercepted by one of The Thinker's Samuroids, but ultimately get Gauss into the Pipeline.

Which puts both Gauss and Dibny in the same place as Melting Point and Null, making S.T.A.R. Labs his one-stop-shopping place to pick up his remaining metas. With Flash, Vibe (CARLOS VALDES) and Killer Frost (DANIELLE PANABAKER) stuck in The Thinker's pocket dimension,thanks to Gauss's abilities, The Thinker assaults S.T.A.R. labs with The Mechanic (KIM ENGELBRECHT), taking the fight to Iris (CANDICE PATTON), Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN), Harry and Ralph. Joe does surprisingly well against a Samuroid, while Harry runs off to get maximum value out of the Thinking Cap after swearing off of it, the results of which we have yet to see but likely have resulted in dimming his natural intelligence. Iris, also, is quite the fighter against The Mechanic, and manages to get the Thinker's chair to open up the pocket dimension where the rest of Team Flash waits, bringing them back just in time to find The Thinker -- now occupying the body of Edwin Gauss -- handcuffed by Ralph.

This was a triumphant moment, because throughout the episode Ralph was sure that the proper call for handling The Thinker was to kill him, while Barry persistenly impressed upon Ralph that their abilities always give them other options. Heroes don't kill was the lesson, even though they had the perfect weapon for doing just that.

They had him.

What came next still chokes me up. I'd tell you I can't write about it because doing so would spoil the climax of the episode, but that's not true. I can't write about it because I can't accept it. It's too painful.

Just watch it. And be as prepared as you can be.