'The Flash' Recap: 'Don't Run'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

The moment when a villain reveals their master plan in a superhero story is a special moment indeed. Because it finally allows for the audience and the hero to understand exactly what is at stake and it also gives us great insight as to what kind of villain we are dealing with. Are they bloodthirsty? Are they misunderstood? It all comes together in that titular moment and at long last, the Thinker’s grand plan was revealed on last night’s episode of The Flash, ‘Don’t Run’.
 
But in classic Flash fashion, the reveal wouldn’t come right away because that would in fact spoil the story and that just wouldn’t be the Thinker’s style. Instead, the story built up to that titular moment by putting a few roadblocks in front of Team Flash by allowing for Barry and Caitlin to be kidnapped by their two biggest adversaries at the moment, Mister DeVoe and Amunet and we spent a fair chunk of the tale watching them try their best to escape their evil clutches.
 
As it turns out, Caitlin had the harder time getting away simply because her powers were curtailed and the point of her kidnapping revolved around Amunet’s need for Caitlin’s medical skills in order to save a Meta that she needed in one piece to sell on the Black Market and what made this storyline so incredibly fascinating is the fact that it explored something special about Caitlin. In that, she now feels inferior to her Killer Frost alter ego, to the point where its shattering her confidence and ironically enough, it took being free of her powers for a short time and being presented with a complex situation to remind herself of her worth and her abilities, before being rescued by Ralph and Cisco.
 
While Caitlin dealt with her mess, Barry worked to figure out how to escape a Speedster designed cell that DeVoe created to keep the Flash on the sidelines and while Barry was indeed able to figure out how to escape this prison and seemingly defeat the Thinker in the process, it would seem this was all part of the plan. Because in reality, what Clifford has been looking to do, is to get Barry out of the picture period and everything he’s been doing behind the scenes was designed to accomplish this, since he was able to transfer his conscience into the Meta that Caitlin helped save, and incarcerate Barry by making it seem like he was responsible for Clifford’s death and well, that’s quite the impressive plan to say the least because now he can begin the ‘Enlightenment’ without his biggest roadblock in the way.
 
Granted, while the details of the plan weren’t exactly laid out, it sounds like the Thinker is simply looking to remake the world as he sees fit, but what made this so impressive and so cool is the sheer fact that he’s willing to go to the extra mile to ensure that it is done in simple and smooth fashion and the fact that he was able to create this long con to get Barry in trouble is diabolical to say the least and really, how the hell is Barry going to get out of this one? All the evidence points to a grudge that Mister Allen harbored against Clifford. His prints are on the knife and the corpse was in his apartment and now with Barry out of the way, who can stop the plan from going into motion? Guess we’ll find out when The Flash returns in January…until next time.

---