Catching Up: The Flash Episode 423, "We Are The Flash"

THE FLASH Season 4 started off strong, then hit more than one obstacle along the way.

Fortunately for the fans, the season ended just as strong as it began, as Team Flash gets help from The Thinker's estranged wife, Marlize (KIM ENGELBRECHT). Utlizing the pregnancy-induced telepathic powers of Cecile Horton (DANIELLE NICOLET), they are able to broadcast The Flash (GRANT GUSTIN) into the mind of The Thinker, Clifford DeVoe (NEIL SANDILANDS). The mission: to find the good that once was in him, bring it to the fore through a mental nexus, and have that good take over, before his satellites completely canvass the globe and bring The Enlightenment -- the erasure of all human intelligence.

The deadline: Cecile is in labor. And if she's not pregnant, she's no longer telepathic, which would trap Barry inside The Thinker's mind forever. With guidance from the team, including a last-ditch effort from Harrison Wells (TOM CAVANAGH) who uses the Thinking Cap one last time to communicate, Barry travels the world in DeVoe's mind for wherever the good DeVoe may be.

What he finds -- or rather, who -- turns out to be the key to defeating The Thinker once and for all. But it's not DeVoe.

It's Ralph Dibny (HARTLEY SAWYER), the Elongated Man -- the last of the bus metas created by The Thinker to have had his body and powers taken by The Thinker. Barry comes to the realization that the good inside DeVoe isn't DeVoe -- it's Ralph. And this body DeVoe inhabits is technically Ralph's body. If he can get Ralph to the nexus, we'll get the Elongated Man back

That's a worthy goal in and of itself. But the adventure of getting out as the clock starts to tick and the water starts to break adds serious tention to the plot. Particularly when The Thinker starts to attack both internally and externally. Flash and Elongated Man can't land a blow on him, because he reads their minds, which inspires Ralph to have the team start fighting "Dibny style," with random thoughts and random blows.

Of course it works, because it has to! Ralph comes back, but The Thinker has one more card to play. It may look like a Hail Mary that failed, but given the actions of Marlize and how she later departs, it should be more than apparent that we haven't seen the last of The Thinker.

We Are The Flash. L-R: Cisco Ramon (CARLOS VALDES), Caitlin Snow (DANIELLE PANABAKER), Cecile Horton (DANIELLE NICOLET), Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN), Barry Allen (GRANT GUSTIN), and Iris West-Allen (CANDICE PATTON).

One would think that this would be the end of it. Except the last action DeVoe played was to use his powers to bring down the satellite, increasing it's mass so that its impact would bring about an extinction level catastrophe. Barry has to destroy it -- but just as he's about to make contact with a supersonic punch...time rewinds to the beginning of his run. Taking off again, building up power, he makes contact with the satellite, only this time there's a second fist beside him, cloaked in violet lightning. Another speedster.

We meet this speedster at the end of the episode, when Cecile and Joe West (JESSE L MARTIN) bring home their baby girl. It's a family reunion, including time-traveling speedster Kid Flash, aka Wally West (KEIYNON LONSDALE). But Wally's not the only time-traveler in attendance. The mystery girl we've seen all season (JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY) reveals herself, wearing the jacket Iris (CANDICE PATTON) wore during her brief period with super-speed. Her name is Nora West-Allen--she's their daughter from the future. And she thinks she's made a huge mistake.

Well, I'm hooked!