[Review] The Flash (2014) Episode 4×14: “Subject 9”

Welcome back to Flashcaps, where we review previous seasons of the CW’s The Flash.


written by George Hatch

Don’t you hate having to resort to violins to solve problems?

Spoilers under the cut.

The Plot: Although Barry is freed from prison, he cannot resume his old life because most of his co-workers suspect something is up and don’t want to work with him, forcing Captain Singh to place him on indefinite suspension. Team Flash decides to find the rest of the bus metas. The first one is Izzy Bowin, an up-and-coming country singer and fiddler who unleashes sonic blasts. After an encounter where Izzy manages to hurt DeVoe, Team Flash takes her in to train her to use her powers. In spite of the fact that Izzy can already shoot sonic blasts from her body, they make her a special fiddle to try to focus that energy. Ralph seems to start caring for Izzy, but Barry pushes too hard while training her and forces her to go looking for DeVoe. In the end, Ralph is forced to watch his potential future as DeVoe forces his mind into Izzy’s body.

The Good: Despite her trying-too-hard accent, I did like Izzy. She was sweet, didn’t take shit from Barry or Ralph, and was willing to kick the ass of anyone who got in her way. The Harry/”D.A. Cecille Horton” stuff was funny, endearing, and helped along this show’s slow roll towards making Harry sociable. I like that not everyone at the CCPD believes Barry just because DeVoe showed back up. After three years of meta-humans coming out your ass, you should be skeptical.

The Bad: They fucking fridged Izzy. They literally adapted and gender-swapped this character just to feed her to DeVoe and give Ralph the sads. Fucking hell, it’s almost 2020; can we not do this anymore, please?! Also, by setting this episode up as taking place over two days, they really stretched the credibility of the SCIENCE! Like, I can buy Harry and Cisco and Caitlin getting together and banging out a piece of tech in a day because they’re awesome and an awesome team. But each one individually cooking up their own projects in only a few hours…I didn’t buy it and it lost me. And it’s not like the episode did a lot to bring me back, especially with the decision to make Marlize into an abused wife. I’m not against depictions of abuse on TV, because I think it can be valuable, but can we get some content warnings up in this hizzy?

…Okay, time to go. This show is making me say the lamest shit. Next week is supposedly the best episode of The Flash, period. Lofty goals, for sure.

PREVIOUS | NEXT

Seasons 1-5 of The Flash are available now on Netflix. You can find the G to the izz-E, O to the izz-R, G to the izz-E…what in the actual fuck, George. Just stop. Just. stop. Anyway, find him on Twitter @Raeseti.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.