After a Ralph-centric episode that wasn’t very good, “Lose Yourself” brought us a Ralph-centric episode that was…kind of good…when Ralph wasn’t there.
I don’t know if The Flash writers shuffled a script or anything, but it definitely was odd that there were two episodes back-to-back about Ralph learning a valuable life lesson. Which sucks because the other aspects were very compelling.
For example, Harry becoming addicted to the Thinking Cap was cool, and then he went full tilt and apparently shorted out his brain (though they wouldn’t say that out loud…). Then, the attack on the Cortex was very cool. With Joe fighting the Samuroid, Iris taking a sword to beat Devoe’s wife (forgot her name, sorry!), and Ralph beating a dinosaur and seemingly beating Devoe. That was all compelling! The Ralph stuff though? Not so much.
Why? Because we went to “I make jokes because I need to” to “I will kill Devoe!” Now, yes, he did say it when Izzy was taken from them, however, he never mentioned it again until now. And at times, he was downright cowardly, even avoiding going out because he knew he might get snatched by Devoe. And now he wants to kill him because he “Wants to protect Team Flash”? Since when?
It’s all so very inconsistent, and it makes me wish we had more time with Devoe and wife than Ralph and everyone else.
Also, Ralph made a very obvious mistake not once but twice in the final battle with Devoe. First, he ANNOUNCED that he was going to kill him supervillain style. And two, after he had beaten him…HE KEPT HIM CONSCIOUS! I don’t care that the cuffs were on him, Ralph knew that he was too dangerous awake, and yet he let him stay that way.
As for the “sacrifice”, I’d be very surprised if Dibny came back into his own body by the end of the season. After all, he’s the final host, so why not?
It was cool seeing Devoe use the transformation power to morph back into his old body, hopefully we’ll get to hear more about the “Enlightenment” now because they’ve been teasing it for far too long.
In the end, “Lose Yourself” had some strong beats, but it was all weighed down by inconsistent characterizaitions.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
Nerd Comments