TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 04 Episode 20: Therefore She Is

The Flash delivered a lot of big stories in “Therefore She Is” tonight, including revealing what The Enlightenment is. But, it was also interesting to see how Duvoe met Marlize (apologies for saying Nadia before) and the interesting turn that Cisco and Gypsy’s relationship took.

Let’s start with Duvoe and Marlize. I found it interesting that we got to see how they met and became husband and wife. I’ll admit, I feared that this would lead to her dying at the end of the episode, but it was actually much different than that. Though we’ve learned a lot about Duvoe over the season, we never really learned his motives for why he wants to do whatever it was he wanted to do. But, now we know. He hates technology as a whole (which is ironic given how he got his powers and the chair that kept him alive), and thinks that humanity would be better off going back to a simplified state.

Naturally, Marlize didn’t like this at first, but after a particularly traumatizing event, she realized that it might just be the only way to save the world. Yet, as Duvoe has shown over the last few episodes, what started out as saving, has now become about ruling. He doesn’t just want to be the smartest man in the world, he wants to guide it through his intelligence. And Marlize, now fully seeing how far gone The Thinker is, knows that she can’t be a part of it anymore.

I have to say though, the very cold nature of her departure was a bit off in my mind, especially after one scene before she was very emotional. You have to wonder if she’ll come back to help defeat The Thinker before the season ends.

Meanwhile, Cisco and Gypsy were working out their own relationship problems. Cisco was still contemplating the job that her father offered him, and Gypsy was waiting for an answer. So when the team were forced into a room together in order to work together to stop Duvoe, it didn’t go well. Now, the CW has NEVER been good when it comes to relationships, even the really good ones like Barry/Iris, Oliver/Laurel and others have been bogged down by pointless drama for the sake of drama. Here though, we got something more believable.

Because Cisco and Gypsy live in different dimensions, it’s rare that they can see each other. Cisco loves Gypsy, with everything he’s got, and he doesn’t want to just see her every once in a while, he want to see her every day. Gypsy meanwhile loves what they have, and doesn’t want to leave it all to be with Cisco. This is a true relationship problem, and I appreciate how they didn’t work it out (at least for now), and chose to break up because they couldn’t find a compromise. That’s real-life stuff right there.

Another interesting side-plot was how Barry tried to fix everything because he’s tired of seeing it breaking apart. I’m glad though that Iris set him straight in a big way. Oh, and Harry and Cecil’s friendship took a lovely turn, as she got to help him not only realize his condition, but help him find the words to speak.

Finally, we got to meet “future girl’ again, and this time it seemingly confirmed that she is the daughter (or granddaughter) of Barry and Iris, if for no other reason than she’s a speedster and her lightning was purple and white, which is the color Iris had when she got the Speed Force. The question is, why was she afraid/angry to see Iris when she appeared? And moreso, why does this future girl keep showing up?

In the end, “Therefore She Is” delivered some powerful relationship drama and pushed the season forward in a big way. The Enlightenment is almost here, and now Team Flash knows what it is. So…how are they going to stop him?