The Flash - Subject 9 - Review

The Flash's return after the winter hiatus gave us a new bus meta and more Ralph finding his inner hero; in addition, it had entertaining and interesting story lines going for other characters. Subject 9 was a decent continuation of the latter half of this season and moved the Devoe and Marlize plan along, but just a tad.

Enter The Fiddler

The ninth bus meta turned out to be budding country music star Izzy Bowin. Spunky and quite taken with her new powers, she certainly didn't feel the need to lean on Barry and Ralph when they came to save her. Bowin was an interesting character- she had a few funny lines here and there especially when she ribbed the "pint sized" Becky, but that Southern twang was just a bit too twangy for me- even Ralph had to comment about that voice. Though it ultimately led to her demise, Izzy's passion for taking her own path and not throwing away all of her hard work just to hide from Devoe was refreshing.

What didn't necessarily translate for me was how quickly Ralph became attached to her. In The Flash's first season, Barry met a meta named Bette who was basically a human bomb. Flash sincerely wanted to help Bette, but she ended up dying in spite of his heroic efforts. Barry grieved for her loss, but it didn't seem over done. Long story short, this episode seemed to try to mirror that same sentiment between Ralph and Izzy. I'm not sure if it's because Gustin more naturally portrays a wider range of emotion or if Ralph's feelings for Izzy just seemed too heavy handed after just a few days, but listening to him say "Just look at me" while she was dying didn't ring true to me- but hey, small potatoes. Moving on.

When Harry Wells Met DA Cecile Horton

Harry and Cecile of course know each other through the transitive property. (I loved that line)
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about these two becoming friends, but their scenes together were surprisingly good. Full disclosure though: Hearing Cecile say Joe's name several times without seeing his face was difficult. I can't remember another time tuning into the show and not seeing him. Joe West is the glue of the West family and The Flash as a whole. His deep love and devotion to the show's central characters is one of the main things that has propelled and sustained the show up to this point. His gravitas as an actor was also missed-hope he's back very soon.

Back to Harry and Cecile- because Harry is usually in a rage about something whenever he speaks, Cecile beating him to the punch was a nice turn. Her reading his thoughts gave us some insight into where that rage really comes from. Harry's fear that he's lost Jesse for good better humanizes him, and it was great to let Cecile be the one to help him with that. The fact that they were able to help each other made their time together on screen make sense and not have that forced feeling.


Devoe and The Enlightenment

Whatever the hell the enlightenment is, I wish they would flesh it out just a tiny bit more. The story of what Devoe and Marlize are doing with the meta humans seems to be unfolding at a good pace, but why they are doing it is truly still a mystery. From the point of Clifford's diagnosis, I have believed he will ultimately take Barry's body. It makes sense if the speed of his mind caused a more rapid deterioration of his original body. (it also seems to be killing the the other meta bodies he has inhabited as well)
After he gains the powers of all 12 bus metas and gets The Flash's body, what will he and Marlize do? Who will they enlighten? This is either gonna be a great reveal or another drawn out, Barry is Savitar bust. I do hope it's the former, but it remains to be seen...

What I did see though was that Marlize was really sick of Becky Shape as Clifford Devoe. She was annoying and not the least bit scary. Becky-Devoe was also extremely volatile and seemed a lot less like Clifford than ever before- perhaps another side effect of the meta power siphoning and body jumping. Marlize looked more than pleased when Becky-Devoe turned into Izzy-Devoe, and I could not agree more.

Things That Made Me Take a Pause

1) West-Allen. Oh they were back with some sweet scenes for us. They don't have to be hot and heavy to get our hearts racing. On the contrary, their talks and touches were just enough to remind us how special their relationship truly is. Iris going in for that extra kiss with the chin tug was pretty hot though!

2)What are they doing with poor Caitlin? Writers, we need to have a talk.

3) Cisco's face when Harry said naming is hard- I died laughing.

4) Ralph slumped over on the floor listening to Izzy's cd- Imma just let that marinate.

Can't wait to see what The Flash has in store for us next week with the return of Jay Garrick and Jesse Quick. The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern on the CW.

What did you think of Subject 9? Sound off in the comments! Thanks for reading.