From the day ‘The Flash’ season 4 started, there is a different vibe about the show, something that we have never seen before. It seems that the TV series has been entirely rebooted but for the better.
From season 1 to season 3, there is always a speedster who is a big baddie who wants to destroy Flash for some sinister purpose. Whether it’s Reverse Flash or Zoom or Savitar, they all had a clear goal and in order to achieve that they must get rid of Flash first.
But season 4 villain ‘The Thinker’ is not about speed, he is about the mind. He is the smartest man alive who can now literally read the thoughts of his adversaries. He came in contact with the particle accelerator explosion in the Central City and became a meta-human who is super smart and wants to fix everything wrong with the humanity. He was the university professor named Clifford DeVoe and now he is an evil genius named ‘The Thinker’.
Here’s what Todd Helbing, the show’s producer had to say about him:
“The Thinker literally is the smartest guy on the planet, so there’s a lot of chess pieces that he’s moving around simultaneously. As Team Flash is figuring out who he is and what they think the plan is, there’s a lot of fun as we show the audience information and then have our team catch up to that information or surpass it. It’s a big mystery.”
On having a non-speedster as the villain for season 4, he said:
“I think having Zoom and then followed up by Savitar, you know, I can understand that feeling. It’s because trying to reinvent, you know, like a new power for an evil speedster or what they can do … Like we can’t have it just who’s faster for the entirety of a series.”
He added:
“There are certainly speedsters in the cannon of Flash that we want to explore and we want on the show and everybody… Like Reverse Flash to me personally is one of my favorite villains, one of my favorite speedsters, so I’d love that guy to pop up now and then, you know what I mean? But I think it was refreshing, and it’s just been a lot of fun this year not having to constantly come up with new ideas of how a speedster could pose a threat to Barry. So, it’s fun, and it’s new, and it’s a new challenge, but I think having speedsters in the mythology of the show is never going to change.”
In the last few episodes, we saw the culmination of the trial of the flash storyline which was kicked off by CW’s The Flash’s mid-season finale. It triggered the chain of events started by The Thinker’s murder case, to somewhat of an end.
With Barry Allen incarcerated for a murder he did not commit, we saw Iris West and Cecile go to court for an appeal for the release of our favorite Speedster. Earlier, Barry refused to use his super powers to flee the prison as he does not want to be a fugitive. He wants to be as strong as his father Henry Allen and come out through a legal process.
The judge was dismissive of the entire thing not only because of circumstantial nature of the appeal but also because the plaintiffs had nothing new to offer to the court. This was up until Ralph Dibney showed up (thanks to his new shapeshifting powers) as Clifford DeVoe himself.
Rolled in on a wheelchair, the victim comes to appeal his own murder case. Naturally, the judge was dumbfounded and the entire case was dismissed, effectively rendering Barry Allen a free man, for all intents and purposes.
Many fans expressed their displeasure at how quickly the show wrapped up “Trial of the Flash” storyline and compared it with Flashpoint plot which wound up in a single episode last season. But the showrunners have limited amount of time and a massive amount of content to be presented in just 20+ episodes.
This Victory was in complete contrast to the problems that arose in front of Barry Allen himself. The Flash, intending on escape from the prison despite his powerless state teams up with four bus metas in the prison. One of these bus metas is Hazard.
Although, I have numerous occasions criticized a redemption story by mentioning the shaky base of allegiances of these metahumans. There is something about Hazard that makes you care for her and give her a chance when she confesses to Barry Allen that she wants a “Better” use of her powers.
The confession further amplifies by what befalls the poor woman in the next part of the episode. As the show progresses we see the unruly bunch (Flash and the four bus metas) almost make it out of the clutches of Wolfe and Amunet when Clifford DeVoe shows up in all his glory.
The Thinker then goes on to not only kill all the bus metas present but also absorbs their powers. He kills Wolfe. If all this were not enough, The Thinker decides to not only steal Hazard’s powers but also her body!!!!!
Yes, comic fans z you inferred correctly. The fiercest and cleverest of The Flash villains is now a petite blonde with the powers of numerous metahumans. If that were not enough then let me remind you in that body resides perhaps one of the most sinister criminal minds to Ever come out of Gotham City. 
Originally the thinker was introduced as somewhat of a counterpart to the Joker. He did not have a thing for chaos, unlike our clown. But the thinker has always as the intellect matching the joker. The man has a shrewd planning sense and has been an archenemy to the flash ever since the flash first stopped his initial world domination (aspiring) plans in the comics.
Now the fact that he’s transferred himself to a healthier body means that The Thinker will not stop at anything. He will continue to flex his powers with more powerful hosts. His current host, Hazard is a powerhouse and this why we as Dan’s worry for team flash.
It will come as no surprise to loyal fans that we all wish to see The Flash triumphant over the thinker. Alas! As the season progresses, this scenario seems more and more unlikely. We do know that a happy end is not far off but how must we reach a destination when even the path is not clear. The things that are happening are so random and disconnected that nobody can make out the end game of ‘The Thinker’.
What is his master plan? What does he want to achieve? Why is he shapeshifting into different bodies? What is the role of his wife aka ‘The Mechanic’ in all this?
One thing sticks, the thinker has become more dangerous than ever. With the body of Hazard his power will grow and so will his hunger for more power, he will become impatient and this might be when the heroes of Team Flash choose to attack i.e at a moment of weakness and unpreparedness.
But as of now, Team Flash is nowhere close to defeating the evil genius who is amassing metahuman powers and is turning out to be the most deadly and formidable bad guy we have ever seen.
The synopsis for the episode 14th titled “Subject 9” has been released. Read it below:
“Barry meets a powerful women whose abilities could help him in his battle with Devoe. Meanwhile after learning that Devoe is targeting everyone who was on the bus, Ralph decides he doesn’t want to be a hero anymore, his only concern is staying alive. Harry offers to help Joe”.
New episodes of The Flash air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. The network’s superhero lineup will go through some changes in the coming weeks, but The Flash will be unaffected. Watch out for Tables turning on The Thinker. Stay tuned for Barry Allen and Team Flash’s miracle rescue of the Central City. And for everything arrowverse, stick around.
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