"The Flash" Therefore I Am (TV Episode 2017) Poster

(TV Series)

(2017)

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8/10
What is wrong with Iris?
kainatsania19 December 2018
Well directed episode but I found Iris extremely annoying. 10 mins into the episode and she repeated atleast twice that they are getting married in two weeks so let go of the villain they have been warned about? Seriously holding back Barry.
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9/10
Best of this season yet
caravindan199422 November 2017
We all have to admit that this episode was the one we all were looking for right from the start of this season. Interactions between DeVoe and Barry were well directed and the dialogues were on point. Though we did come to know how DeVoe is who he is we don't know why he's taking on the Flash.

Coming to the negatives, the team doesn't trust Barry after everything they've been through in the last 3 seasons. Iris calling the shots in each and every episode is pathetic and she's annoying in this episode wherever she takes up screen-space. To be honest, other than being the love interest of Barry she has no point in being in the team. Making her the central focus is just annoying to most people. Instead they could focus on Cisco, Harry, Caitlin who are a major part of Team Flash.

9/10 . Scope for a 10 in future with episodes such as this.
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9/10
I'll Be Thinking of You
ThomasDrufke26 November 2017
We've been waiting for an episode of The Flash to blow the doors to the season wide open, and this could be that episode. Not only did we get a full introduction to The Thinker in all his glory, but we got a solid mystery based episode as well. The biggest mystery, why Clifford DeVoe has adopted the persona of The Thinker and is doing these things to Barry, is still up in the air. But many questions were answered in a rather thrilling way in what is easily the best Flash episode of the season.

It was nice to see the story told mostly from DeVoe's perspective and the use of flashbacks was actually done in an effective way. We watched as DeVoe went from being a professor to a powered maniac within a few days as Harrison Well's particle accelerator exploded 4 years back. Which, by the way, gave us one heck of a great Wells-as- Eobard-Thawne moment where Wells comments on DeVoe's "work" as if he's impressed at how much he will haunt Barry for years to come.

As of right now, DeVoe is at a wait and see with me. He's definitely a different villain for Barry and Team Flash, but how can he possibly live up what he's set up in this episode? Is there any way that DeVoe can feel like a worthy villain for an entire season? Even if he doesn't have super speed?

One of the frustrating things about this episode was the fact that team Flash continued to not believe Barry's gut feeling even after everything they have gone through. Sure, they couldn't find anything definitively on DeVoe, but as Barry said "how many times have we thought someone was good and trusted them and then have it come back to haunt us"? Or whatever that quote was. He's absolutely right and it was just another reason for this show to make us throw object at our TV. Either way, I'm glad that only lasted one episode.

Overall, I absolutely loved the mystery/crime element to this episode and I find DeVoe to be a compelling villain thus far. It's only a matter of this show nailing his reasoning and making sure they have a creative plan for the back half of this season. He can't just be all talk. He needs to live up to what he's presented so far. It comes down to execution.

9.1/10
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10/10
Finally a well thought out episode
hrishikesh200721 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Season 4 started on a meager haphazard note and was becoming too dragging until the confrontation between Barry and Clifford Devoe. This episode is nothing about poorly constructed meta characters, the boring story line, the constantly degrading quality of CGI and bad direction (which has been the case with season 3's ending and this season's previous episodes). It's about the chemistry between two powerful human beings without their respective suits. Everything about this episode is perfect. You'd feel the excitement and anxiousness throughout the 40mins. Can't wait to see more well directed episodes like this one.
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10/10
The most intense episode of the season!
jmwbrand12 August 2018
This is my favorite episode so far this season. It's quick to develop and kept me on the edge of my seat.
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10/10
The fastest mind alive
hawkins_saints_rock23 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I stated last week that The Flash needed to deliver this week, and deliver it did. What a fantastic episode, best of the season by far as we get an official introduction to the Thinker and learn about some of his origin story.

We start off with Barry and Joe talking to DeVoe and his wife, asking him questions that could potentially pinpoint DeVoe as their villain. But of course DeVoe answers the questions in a way that eliminates him as a suspect to everyone, everyone except Barry who has a bad feeling.

Throughout the episode we get flashbacks to who DeVoe was before the Thinker and how he became the Thinker. These parts of the episode were incredible as we learn that Clifford DeVoe is a professor of history who, back when he had no powers, struggled to educate his students properly. Because of this he has a plan to build a device (thinking cap) to help education. These flashbacks take place during the opening of season 1, as DeVoe has worked out that Dr Harrison Wells' partial accelerator will explode, and wants to use the power from the explosion to develop his thinking cap. Unfortunately, the explosion was too much which gave him metahuman powers at a cost of his health. There were some great moments relating back to season 1 in this episode that I really enjoyed. Similar to Arrow last season, this season of Flash is doing everything it can to get back to the roots of season 1, and I am loving it.

We also learn that DeVoe is dieing because of his powers, and the chair that he is in is keeping him alive or at least delaying his death. On top of this the flashbacks show that DeVoe wanted to use his powers to better humanity, what pushed him over the edge to supervillain?

Earlier on in the season I was worried that The Thinker didn't feel like much of a threat. But at the end of the episode, DeVoe reveals himself to Barry as his enemy, and with it came a sense that he is so far ahead of Team Flash that the game is already over. How will Team Flash respond?

There were a couple of things slightly negative with this episode, but I'm knit picking at best. First it seems like the dynamic of the relationship between DeVoe and who we now know is his wife, has changed. So far in the season up to now, it seemed like they were just colleagues, there was no romance at all. But that has all of a sudden changed, the wife feels like a different character now than the previous episodes. Second, although I loved the confrontations between Barry and DeVoe in this episode and how they each revealed themselves to the other so early in the season. I do feel like the revelation of DeVoe as The Thinker could have been dragged out a little more? And finally, Iris saying "we're The Flash" still annoys me.

Overall an extremely strong episode this week solely focused on out main villain (need more episodes like this). What will Thinker do now? Oh, and Wally's back!

9.6/10
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The Teacher
d.rust22 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Brace yourselves! You're going to want to get out your DVR episode 1 to review the events of the startup of the Particle Accelerator and Harrison Wells' speech.

THIS is how you do it. It is well written, well acted, well lit, well photographed, well directed. Arguably the best of the season so far. We put away our happiness for the time being and looked into the dread of knowing that we have been out-manoeuvred by someone who has figured out all of the moves to the end, that we are going to lose.

The ultimate villain: the Thinker. Even though you have well planned your response, he has already seen it, and he can refute your reasoning without breaking a sweat. Even before you take a breath in his presence, he knows what you ate for lunch. He is Sherlock Holmes cubed and factorial! But his wife is so charming, he's so disarming in his wheelchair. Much more so than Harrison Wells of season 1, who was accumulating speed force. He is genuinely crippled, not faking it. They present themselves as credible victims to Singh who must sanction Barry. He's a likable kind of guy. He's married to his loving wife. He loves her Kraft Dinner. He's a sad sort of person who is doomed to become a living part of his hovering chair.

And really, all he is, all he ever wanted to be, was a Teacher.
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10/10
Great , awesome , amazing
kamaljeet4u22 November 2017
This is best.. after a long time , it felt like a really flash episode. and they nailed it awesome. hope so we so more of that episode .. just waiting now that arrow would bring a awesome episode like that.. and thinker is looking best villain that thawne, zoom , savitar .... this is best episode of season 4.. awesome , great
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9/10
all seem to be fast and being slow but this....
manomanoyokesh22 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
spoiler alert!!! DEvoe seems to be different from all villains . no one shown their identity we have to wait till the season finale but he is some kind of phenomena...and also i got a doubt abrakadabra told that you have defeated DEvoe in the future but how it is possible without iris ...in alternate time line Barry's main aim is to defeat savitar .. then how does he defeat ..it seems to be bit unclear but how could he but think...
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7/10
Finally someone had rolled the dice!
asb_deutsch25 November 2017
S04E07 now makes you really care about all the characters, even The Thinker, who seemed annoying in the "Girls Night Out" episode!

I like it when Candice Patton says "And people are always going to be coming after us". Also, when The Thinker says "What is knowledge without love?" Even the writers gave some space for Marlize DeVoe, without showing her a damsel in distress!

My ratings (based on what I marked on IMDb): Season 1: 200/23 = 8.69 Season 2: 193/23= 8.23; Season 3: 188/23= 8.17; and Season 4: 46/7= 6.57 (This episode will be 7.5).

I haven't see any episode of Arrow but I hope I understand "Crisis on Earth-X". See you flash fans next week!
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9/10
"Speedsters, Get Out the Way!"
lassegalsgaard-4528425 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Barry Allen has faced many great foes over the years. We have seen him take on an essentric villain who used a snow gun. We have seen him getting brutally beaten by a huge gorilla. And he has even faced evil versions of his best friends from another Earth. But the thing about the main villains of the seasons: they have always been speedsters. And honestly, that trope has become very tiresome. We were engaged in his battle against Reverse-Flash because of the personal connection those two shared. That was something that was done again in Season 2, when it turned out that Zoom was actually also someone with a personal connection to Barry. In Season 3, they stepped up everything and made Savitar an evil version of Barry Allen from the future. So it's safe to say that "The Flash" has done a bit of everything. However, in Season 4 they are changing it up and are introducing the first non-speedster main villain, and as it stands, it looks like he could end up becoming the very best we've had so far.

This was an amazing episode of "The Flash," and certainly the best this season. This was the first episode in a long time that really had the same feeling as Season 1 did. It focused very little to nothing on the humor, and even gave Dibny a pass this week, which I think was the perfect decision, because this episode needed to be serious in tone. It had some great callbacks to previous seasons and showed the audience that DeVoe has actually been a part of Barry's life ever since the first episode of the show. The writers really did something great with this episode, and I hope this could be the turning point for Season 4.

The thing that this episode focused the most on was the character development of Clifford DeVoe. In past episodes, he has only appeared very briefly and never looked like someone who could pose a real threat to Barry. However, in this episode he came into the picture with a bang, proving that he may actually be Barry's most difficult foe to date. And even though they have gone away from the speedster villain, DeVoe still has that attribute of speed to him, given that he has the fastest mind. It will be interesting to see how Barry expects to fight someone like this.

And the cat-and-mouse game between them was introduced perfectly in this episode. The way DeVoe is always one step ahead and are planning to paint Barry as a homocide. And in many ways, Barry is turning into something he hasn't been before, but it's all because of DeVoe's tricks. He is able to make Barry do things that he never would have done before, and I will also give the credit to the showrunners. The choice to use DeVoe in the season right after he faced an evil future version of himself was brilliant, because it make Barry's decisions seem more real, especially to Barry himself.

We also got to see how DeVoe became this mad man that he is in the present day storyline. This is done through flashbacks that goes all the way back to Season 1, showing that he was actually affected by the particle accelerator explosion. This is a brilliant decision, because we have not seen anyone affected by the accelerator stand out as a real threat to Barry yet. The writers could have easily gone with the "another Earth" explaination, but to their credit, they didn't.

I will say that I have a hard time understanding what DeVoe's reasoning for what he did in the flashbacks were. I get that he wanted a faster mind, but I thought the motivation for what he and his wife did was a little bit underdeveloped. Maybe we will get to see more of this in a future episode. One could definitely hope.
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7/10
Why haven't they already created the cerebral inhibitor yet?
dannyjames-9264522 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I don't understand why Barry and the team haven't already created the cerebral inhibitor, since Barry already knows that this is what defeats The Thinker.

They should have nothing to fear from DeVoe. But instead it's as if they have completely forgotten that they already know how to beat him.

They know EVERYTHING about him now. His name. His wife. Their backgrounds. His powers. And most importantly they know about the CEREBRAL INHIBITOR.

So why are they shaking in their boots? Get to work Cisco and Harry! Should have had that device ready and waiting the second they defeated Savitar.

The thing is they have had PLENTY of time to figure out the cerebral inhibitor. But they apparently were just like, "Nah, so what if there's a SUPERVILLIAN named DeVoe destined to show up sometime and devastate us? Let's just not worry about it I'm sure it'll be fine." I can't wait to see how they fill that hole
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1/10
Yet again deteriorating characters
apd81 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
It seems like every character just erases their memory of their experiences with bad guys. How many times that someone that seems to be a nice guy is the bad one? Even if the investigations of all experts in the team lead to normal, would one really just put their guard off completely? Come on, even so, they should at least mark Clifford DeVoe as an unlikely suspect, not just remove him from the list and there should be someone aside from Barry that has a doubt and take side to believe him ... but it seems that the writers want Barry to feel so desperate to proof himself right and push himself to do stupid things. Then all the sudden later in the episode everyone just takes Barry's words and believes DeVoe is the bad guy? Without more evidences, just more Barry's words? .. Barry on the other hand also once again ran off by himself and intruded the DeVoe house. Hey, man, you ARE a CSI. He should know best how evidences should be obtained and how to tie a bad guy with evidences, not compromised them, plus he ran off alone AGAIN after alllllll the things that happened in the past when someone went after something alone. Never learned from experiences? Once again, poor creativity of the writers to develop the story. .. Probably the writers should lower the degree of dramas and increase the good reasonings in the story. For example, if Barry was really desperate to proof himself right, at least protect himself from troubles too, maybe?
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10/10
Another top episode trapped in a mediocre season
hnt_dnl3 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
For some reason, the Flash writers have been on point with the 7th episode in both Seasons 3 and 4. Season 3 had Killer Frost and now Season 4 has 'Therefore I Am'. Then the rest of the episodes in these two seasons have generally been just plain meh.

This episode 'Therefore I Am' is a brilliantly executed backstory of the Season 4 main villain Clifford Devoe, AKA The Thinker, superbly played by Neil Sandilands. Devoe is married to Marlize (phenomenally played by Kim Engelbrecht), who is the best character of Season 4. Their engrossing, beautiful backstory is the plot of this episode and I swear half the time I thought I was watching a different show. Other than Barry, they were the only prominent characters in this one, with the rest of Team Flash being relegated to also-rans. In fact, their little contribution almost made me downgrade this episode from 10 down to 9, but the show has been so mediocre in Seasons 3 and 4, it better take all the 10s it can get!

The Devoe backstory explains how he devolved into the robotic wheelchair bound villain he's become and also features some really poignant scenes with his wife Marlize. In the flashbacks, Devoe was an English professor and Marlize an Engineering professor at Central City University when Devoe comes up with his plan to develop a thinking cap, to be built by Marlize, that would give him unlimited knowledge. This couple has really strong chemistry, something WestAllen completely lacks. Unfortunately, the rest of Season 4 has failed to live up to this great episode, especially with the focus on the stupid new character Ralph Dibny. The fact that most fans think this misogynistic, creepy idiot Ralph is the best new character of Season 4, when you have a much better written and acted character in Marlize Devoe proves just how far this show has fallen and the type of fans who will be left watching it as the rating continue to tumble into oblivion.
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9/10
Ranking/Reviewing every Flash episode: Therefore I Am
lbramson12 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Barry is nearly arrested after being overly suspicious of The Thinker. Best episode this season so far! The season is finally coming together with all the Thinker stuff! Barry's slow decent into madness makes this episode addicting to watch. Better than all of that, the Thinker's very interesting origin story is revealed. The origin of the Thinker, going back to the particle accelerator, had my eyes glued to the screen! Neil Sandilands is one of the best actors on this show and his performance shines through in this single episode! Overall, this blows all the past 6 episodes out of the water, it is mind blowing!

9.4/10-Great!👍👍
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3/10
Cringingly Bad writing
riadlr22 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Poorly written episode. Why would Allen go to the home without his suit? (I mean the entire premise for having a costume is to avoid situations like those) and after all they have been through the team was way to dismissive of the possibility that DeVoe could be the villain. In the end for the viewers it was nothing more than a filler episode. I understand that Iris needs to be the leader because it's easier to write her into episodes but every time it turns out her judgment was wrong her position looks even less plausible.
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