- My name is Barry Allen,
and I am the fastest man alive.
To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist.
But secretly with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs,
I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me.
But I became lost in time.
It took everything in my friends' power
to bring me back.
And in doing so, our world was opened up to new threats.
And I'm the only one fast enough to stop them.
I am the Flash.
- Previously on "The Flash"...
- Events will align that allow Team Flash a chance
to discover your identity.
- It is of no concern.
- I could whip up a predictive algorithm.
- Jah, jah, jah.
- Run it through my quantum cerebral chip,
we'll find them in no time.
- If you've miscalculated by even a decimal--
- There is not a decimal, a fraction,
an infinitesimal variable beyond my thought.
- The name we're looking for is Clifford DeVoe.
- 92% match to our psychological profile,
no other DeVoe comes close.
- Can I help you?
- We were just hoping to talk with Clifford DeVoe.
Is he here?
- Good afternoon, gentlemen. How may I be of help?
Resync by ???VOZ48
Effects...
Of...
Taoism.
All right, uh, class.
Write your, um, essays on... this list of topics.
You have two weeks to complete them.
Does--does anyone have their notes from earlier?
I'm afraid I can't read my own handwriting.
Class dismissed.
- Ah, I know that look.
I felt the same after my 11:00 a.m.
"Introduction to Fluid Mechanics
and Physical Thermodynamics" class.
See, I was trying to explain the turbulent flow rates,
and ten minutes in, I wanted to pull my hair out.
- It's a good thing I know water flowing to the axis
of a tube is called...
- You better get this right. - Laminar?
- Ah, so you do listen.
- To you, always.
Nothing matters to them if it's not digestible
in YouTube videos of talking babies or inane pet tricks.
- Have you seen the husky singing "Like a Virgin?"
I made you smile.
- How can we enlighten them if their minds are too small
to handle the gift of knowledge anymore?
- Your plan will work.
We just need to refashion the delivery system.
- It's not the plan that's flawed,
it's my ability to execute it.
- Clifford.
- I'm simply not smart enough.
- You are the most brilliant mind I know.
- It's not enough.
Not yet.
- When?
- At this point, it's just a concept.
I call this my thinking cap.
And just like their minds
have gotten too small to handle their full capacity,
mine's too small to deliver it.
This can change all that,
if you build it, of course.
- Your dream is my dream.
And your passion is my passion.
- I'm nothing without you.
- I hope it's not too sweet.
- Mm!
- This is amazing.
- Just like my wife.
Somehow she finds time to take care of me
and still keep an immaculate household.
And her three-cheese macaroni? Second to none!
Sometimes I think I'm the luckiest man alive.
Gentlemen, how can I help?
- The name DeVoe came up in an investigation of ours.
We would just like to ask you some questions, if that's okay.
- Why him?
DeVoe's a common name.
- Yes, I'd wager at least 1,100 individuals
give or take a few with that last name
in the Central City area alone.
- The name's been identified
for its connection to four separate criminal cases.
- So you think my husband is a witness to these crimes?
- No, we'd like to eliminate him as a suspect.
- You can't be serious.
- That's all right, Marlize. Do go ahead.
- So, Professor, what brought you to Central City?
- I grew up in South Africa. After studying history
and econometrics at the University of Johannesburg,
I took a teaching position at Oxford.
That's where we met. - Mm-hmm.
He swept me off my feet and we have been together ever since.
- It did take a tenured offer from Central City University
to lure me away from the Oxford faculty.
That was four years ago.
Question: Do you know Ramsey Deacon?
- No, should I?
- What about Becky Sharpe?
- No, I'm afraid not.
- Ralph Dibny?
Mina Chaytan?
- Mina Chaytan. Now, that name's familiar.
- Isn't this the Native American woman
that left abruptly?
You know, the anthropologist? - Yes, I remember.
I was so sad to see her go.
- You were colleagues.
Did she mention her work?
- No, no, no. Mina was an animated woman.
Then again, people like us who see education as a calling,
we often are.
- That painting...
Uh, it's beautiful.
- The samurai. They were formidable foes.
They'd often make unstoppable enemies to their opponents.
You wouldn't want to cross one.
- So you spent time in Japan?
- The feudal history of medieval Japan
is one of my areas of expertise.
- Then you must speak the language?
- Hai, watashi wa gakumon-kaide
shika shiyo shite imasen.
- He also speaks French, Italian, Mandarin,
and several other languages.
- Here's the thing, here's the thing.
I love teaching.
It gives me the opportunity to broaden perspectives.
But you can't just inspire people to be better.
You somehow need to change the way people think.
- Clifford! My husband is very passionate,
but he also needs his rest.
Is there anything else we can do to help?
- No. Thank you.
If we have any more questions, we'll get in contact.
Barry. - Yeah.
- You know where to find me.
? ?
- Well?
Is it him?
- I don't know, Barry.
This shy college professor who likes mac 'n' cheese
doesn't exactly seem like a criminal mastermind to me.
- I mean, come on. It wouldn't be the first time
somebody played nice
and then turned out to be our bad guy.
The Council of Wells gave us his name for a reason.
- He gave us one name out of-- - 1,100.
- 1,122 to be precise.
- He was off by 22.
I mean, isn't that a little suspicious?
- Not if he Googled himself.
- I'm just saying there's something weird
about this guy. He likes samurai!
- Who doesn't?
Have you seen "Zatoichi"--
Both: "The Blind Swordsman?"
- Best Criterion Collection... - Great box set.
- Ever. - Okay, guys.
Think about this:
If the Council's right, that means DeVoe
arranged for me to come out of the Speed Force
exactly where he wanted. Even you couldn't do that.
- You have a point.
- Okay, let's cover all our bases.
- Agreed.
- Okay, Cisco, Harry, you guys want to see what kind
of digital footprint you can get on this guy?
- Yeah.
- Caitlin, you've got friends at CCU.
Let's see what kind of person
we're dealing with. - Will do.
- Dad, CCPD background check? - On it, sweet one.
- And you. You all right?
- Yeah, but thank you for asking.
- Mm-hmm.
Ooh, you know, I think Human Resources might not be
okay with this, us being coworkers and all.
- Yeah, I think they'll let it slide,
considering I get to marry the coworker of my dreams
a week from now.
You know sometimes I feel like...
- Like what?
- Like I'm the luckiest man alive.
- Nuclear physics, condensed matter cosmology,
even relativity, all these fields
will be revolutionized overnight.
? ?
- You've infused my design with life.
- We still have a problem.
There's currently no way to power a prototype
this sophisticated.
- We'll find a solution.
- Expanding the mind to an infinite capacity requires
an expanding energy source.
Where are we going to find that kind of power?
- Can you tell us how? - Turn that up.
- It'll change the way we think about science.
About quantum mechanics,
about molecular physics.
Once my particle accelerator goes online,
it'll blow the doors of science off their hinges.
- That's amazing. - Ah.
We needed a power source unlike anything imaginable.
- Well, it seems Harrison Wells just imagined it for us.
- Instantly change lives.
- History moves in cycles.
We must therefore learn from what came before us
in order to carve a path
for what's to come.
Because those who don't learn from--
Because those who don't learn from history
are doomed to repeat it.
Class dismissed.
Don't forget your reading material!
Chapter 11 on the counterculture backlash
and its influence on the Reagan administration.
Mr. Allen.
Twice in one day.
- Yeah, sorry to bother you again.
- Look, I do have a stack of midterm exams--
- Yeah, no, I understand you're busy.
This won't take long. I just wanted to ask,
where were you four years ago
on the night of January 7th?
- Honestly, Mr. Allen, I have no idea.
How far back does this investigation of yours go?
- I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you.
- Mm.
- Also, um, do you ever use public transit?
What? Like the subway?
I mean imagine me in a wheelchair--
- More like a bus.
- Is this really necessary?
- I'm just being thorough.
- Fine. I prefer Lyft.
They're wheelchair friendly.
Honestly, Mr. Allen, how are my vehicle options important
or a date I can hardly remember?
- I'm just trying to establish a timeline,
solve a mystery.
- Mysteries are for novelists and archeologists.
You were supposed to be ruling me out as a suspect.
Instead it seems like you've got your guy.
- Oh, no. This is just procedure.
- Feels like persecution.
Now, can I get back to you,
or do I need to accompany you downtown?
- No, of course not.
? ?
Just e-mail me.
And again, I'm sorry to bother you.
? ?
- So this is an example of meta-DNA.
This is the DNA you brought me from DeVoe.
It's completely normal.
Do you see all the differences?
Clifford DeVoe is not a meta.
- Did you two find anything?
- Well, he's never been arrested,
he pays all his taxes and his mortgage.
He has a very reasonable 401k plan.
- Donates to the Sierra Club,
volunteers at an orphanage as a big brother.
- Dad didn't find anything either.
Says that he's an upstanding member of the community.
- Yeah, I talked to some friends at Oxford.
They said DeVoe's a little absentminded,
but everybody likes him.
- Guys, I'm telling you.
Clifford DeVoe is not what he seems.
- That could just be the wheelchair.
I mean-- - No.
- You do kind of have a bad history.
- That wasn't me.
- Come on. He's just too perfect.
Okay? I just--I have a strong feeling
that he's hiding something.
You don't believe me.
- No, it's not that we don't believe you, Barry.
It's just, right now DeVoe seems like a good guy.
- Guys, it's him.
- I thought we were done just assuming people are villains.
- All right, you know what?
Vibe it.
? ?
- Mm.
- Oh, my God.
You were right.
That mac 'n' cheese looks unbelievable.
- See? That doesn't sound very villainous, does it?
- Barry, can I talk to you outside?
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay, so do you want to tell me what's really bothering you?
- My Spidey sense is just tingling way off the charts.
- But, Barry, is there any chance that this
is about the wedding?
I mean maybe you're feeling a little--
- No, I'm not nervous.
- But you're not acting the way that you normally do.
- Look, Savitar and Kadabra warned us
about someone named DeVoe.
This DeVoe guy could be behind everything.
The bus metas,
me coming out of the Speed Force at the wrong place,
the Samuroid!
- Barry, is there a possibility that you were so determined
to find the bad guy and get ahead of everything
that you're seeing things exactly the way
you want to see them?
- No. I...
Maybe, I don't...
- Look, in seven days
I am going to marry the man that I love.
But right now I have to lock down a new DJ
because the last one got fired for drinking too much
and wouldn't stop dancing with the father of the bride.
- Joe might be into that, actually.
- Which is exactly why I need to go home.
And I would really like your help.
- Ready for the press conference?
- Absolutely.
- Thank you. My name is Harrison Wells.
Tonight, the future begins.
The work my team and I will do here
will change our understanding of physics,
will bring about advancements in power,
advancements in medicine.
It'll bring about advancements, period.
This is the future.
And trust me,
it'll be here faster than you think.
What does it mean to you?
This new endeavor of ours--
- Hey, my laptop! It's got my dissertation!
- For the citizens of Central City.
Well, it would appear tonight's entertainment
is not limited to the stage.
- What's the first thing you'll do
once the accelerator is online?
- Is crack open an expensive bottle of Dom Perignon
with my staff, because I ride them very hard
and they've earned it. Yes?
- Those protesting this accelerator
believe it could open a black hole in Central City.
But is it not more likely to cause a benevolent phenomenon
like a Higgs boson bridge?
- The only phenomenon that will occur this evening
is one that has been calculated to the tiniest detail,
to the tiniest decimal point.
- So you've foreseen every possible outcome?
- Yes, I have, Miss...?
- Mrs. Marlize DeVoe.
- DeVoe.
DeVoe.
I expect that would make the gentleman
to your right your husband?
Clifford DeVoe.
I'm a big fan of your work.
Sir, I believe it will have an enormous impact
on our future. Thank you for coming, Professor.
Good luck.
- Shut it down!
- Wells is lying. He knows the accelerator won't succeed.
- He'd risk an explosion? - No, I think he wants one,
only the fallout from dark matter being released
into the atmosphere will produce variants
we cannot yet predict.
We need to delay our plan.
- No, this is even better.
We'll have all the power we need.
- No! It's too risky.
- I'm willing to take the chance.
The blast is the only thing that can power the cap.
- We should wait. Try and find another way.
- This is the only way.
- Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down! Shut it down!
Shut it down!
- Ready, my love?
- In position!
? ?
It's starting!
? ?
- What's happening?
- Clifford!
? ?
Clifford!
No!
Clifford, no! No! No!
Don't you dare leave me!
? ?
- I thought I'd lost you.
How do you feel?
- Enlightened.
- Hey, Allen! - Hmm?
- Singh wants to see you. - One second.
- I don't know, Allen. Singh's making that face again.
You might want to hurry.
- Trust me, I understand. Mr. Allen!
- What's this?
- Close the door, please. - Yeah.
- Continue, Professor.
- First my home, then my classroom.
What's next? Our bedroom where we sleep?
- Joe and I just went--
- On behalf of the Central City Police Department,
I'd like to extend our sincerest apologies
for this intrusion.
Mr. Allen?
- Um, yeah. I'm sorry for disturbing you, Mr. DeVoe.
- Professor DeVoe.
- Thank you for coming in.
? ?
- What the hell were they doing here?
- They just filed a complaint against you.
Said you harassed them.
- No, I wasn't harassing them.
- Why are you bothering them at all?
- I-- - It's a case we're working on.
- What case?
- It's something that--
- Do me a favor.
Stay away from the nice professor and his wife.
- Captain, DeVoe seems very-- - Very what?
And unless the answer is guilty of a very specific crime,
you are way off base.
So are you, Joe. You should know better than that.
You don't show up at someone's house
and start asking questions.
You follow protocol.
- Yes, sir.
- Anybody home?
- Whoa!
Hey!
- Hi. Dad said you were having a bad day.
- What? No, I'm fine.
I'm great, actually. How are you doing?
What?
What are you--
? ?
- What is this?
- His wife, Iris, she's helping him.
No, listen! Okay, look:
She's not Suzy Homemaker with her perfect mac 'n' cheese.
She is a Stepford wife.
She's got two doctorates, you know?
One in mechanical engineering
and another in advanced robotics.
That's how they work!
He comes up with the plans, but she executes them.
She's some kind of mechanical genius.
- So you think that DeVoe and his wife are supervillains?
- Yes. - Listen to yourself, Barry.
- What?
- DeVoe has already filed a complaint against you!
- I know, I--
- Look, Cisco, Harry, my dad, Caitlin,
they are the best, and they have found nothing on DeVoe.
We are getting married in a week, Barry.
Please,
for the sake of your job and my sanity,
please let it go.
? ?
- I've solved them.
- Solved what?
- Riemann's hypothesis,
Hilbert's 15th problem,
standard conjectures on algebraic cycles,
and the list goes on.
- Clifford, this-- this is incredible!
- Ask me anything!
- Um, who was Jack the Ripper?
- The prevailing theory is there was a London barber
by the name Aaron Kosminski who committed the crimes.
He also suffered schizophrenic and delusional tendencies.
But it was his nurse at the Colney Hatch Asylum!
Catharine Jewell!
It's like every little bit of knowledge
now resides inside my brain.
I know every answer to every question ever asked.
- You're incredible!
- We're incredible! You made all of this possible!
We now finally have the means to bring to the world the--
- Clifford, are you okay?
Clifford! Clifford!
Clifford!
? ?
- What are you hiding, DeVoe?
? ?
- Imagine your body as a river.
There's a dam blocking your legs.
- My gastrocnemius muscles are degenerating, aren't they?
- Well, yes.
The symptoms are similar to--
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- But your muscles are decaying faster
and more rapidly than typical ALS.
I believe this is something else.
- Is that your medical diagnosis?
That I have a case of something else?
- It's just we've never seen a case like--oh--
yours before.
- An increase in complex fasciculation potential
explains axonal membrane hyperexcitability.
But it doesn't--
Of course.
When gamma wave activity exceeds 50 hertz,
my acetylcholine receptors draw away
from my nerve receptors
instead of toward them.
- What did you say you're a professor of?
- History.
- What's his prognosis?
- Life expectancy for typical ALS
is about two to five years.
- In this chronodispersion, it would be half that.
Complete paralysis will come first.
- Excuse us, please.
? ?
This doesn't make sense.
- My mind is drawing energy from my body,
like a parasite feeding on an ailing host.
We're so close to everything we've ever dreamed of,
only for it to be ripped away by this body.
- No, no, no.
We can stop this, Clifford. I'll never give up.
- 2,600 individuals developed the meta-gene.
They use it to rob jewelry stores and summon tornadoes.
I use mine to save humanity, and I'm condemned?
Dying wasn't part of our plan. - Shh!
- Guys, I found a camera in the Samuroid head.
- Where did it lead back to?
- Where do you think? - DeVoe!
So you pinged the camera to his computer's IP address?
Good! - Well, no, I--
I didn't ping it.
- Well then, how'd you figure out it was him?
- Well--
- This camera isn't even active.
- No, I heard it. It was making a noise.
- A noise? - Yeah.
Inside the Samuroid head, it was buzzing,
and then I found that thing inside!
He's been watching us for weeks,
and I could've proved it, but his wife came back too soon.
- Too soon? From where? - I don't--
- Barry, tell me you did not break into their house.
- Well-- - Wow. Okay.
- Ugh. - Okay, guys, that sounds bad,
you have to listen to me,
this guy wants us to think he's unassuming and weak,
but he's not, he is powerful and smart.
And he's been ahead of us every step of the way.
He's ahead of us right now. - Easy, Allen. Calm down.
- I'm fine. I'm fine. - Okay.
- Hey, hey, we just don't want you to do
anything else you regret.
- Anything else? What do you mean? What have I done?
- For starters, breaking and entering.
- Oh my God, I don't understand
why you don't see what's going on!
He probably has cameras everywhere.
At the lab, at CCPD, I mean he's always watching us!
Hey, Joe. What is it?
Hey, I found something. - You better stop.
- I just don't feel safe anymore, you know?
I mean I thought the police were supposed
to protect people.
- I haven't done anything to you.
- You broke into our home!
We're good people. We don't deserve this.
- Okay. I don't want you to worry anymore.
Mr. Allen will stop all of this immediately.
I assure you.
? ?
- Stay away from us.
- I told you to stay away from those people!
- Captain, you have to listen to me.
- You're taking two weeks off, and that is not a request.
- You're suspending me?
- You're lucky I'm not arresting you.
Use your time away to consider your future in law enforcement.
? ?
- ? No compromise ?
- What is this?
- A restraining order.
I have to stay 500 feet away from Clifford DeVoe.
- And are you going to?
Barry,
this is not you. You've got to stop.
- I can't. - You can't or you won't?
- I don't know anymore.
I've faced a lot of bad guys,
people that would hurt the ones that I love,
destroy everything good in the world, and think nothing of it,
but this guy, he feels more dangerous
than all the others combined.
And we still barely know anything about him.
It scares the hell out of me, Iris.
- Barry, how many times have we been up against the unknown?
- This is different. - How?
- Ever since I came back from the Speed Force,
I have been constantly and genuinely happy.
My friends are safe.
Joe's gonna be a dad again.
And next week, I get to marry the love of my life.
I have more to lose now than ever before.
- Yeah, but what about after Cecile has the baby?
Or after we get married,
or even when we have our first child?
You know as time goes by, there's gonna be even more
for us to lose.
And people are always going to be coming after us.
You can't let that consume you,
you just have to live in the moment and face it as it comes.
- How are you not scared?
- Because we're the Flash.
? ?
- Clifford? Clifford.
Clifford. Clifford!
- Get away from me!
- I'm trying to help you.
- If you really wish to help,
construct a temporal vortex distortion chamber
and prevent me from ever becoming this atrocity!
- This is what we wanted.
- Because I cannot grab a damn book from this shelf!
? ?
What am I, Marlize?
- You are my husband!
- Your husband is gone.
Let me die.
? ?
- I'm not going anywhere.
- This body will expire.
- It will last longer with this.
? ?
- You are in violation of your restraining order, Mr. Allen.
- Well, you can call the cops.
- Do you intend to harm me?
Then pray do tell what is so paramount
that you'd risk incarceration?
- I wanted to look you in the eyes and ask--
- Mm-hmm?
- Who are you really?
- Who's asking?
Barry Allen?
Or the Flash?
- How did you-- - Oh, please.
Your little secret is one of
the more underwhelming revelations
I have uncovered.
I was born on the same evening you were.
January 7th, the night S.T.A.R. Labs' particle accelerator
bathed Central City in gene-altering dark matter.
We were both struck by lightning.
- I knew you were affected.
How did our test not show your meta-DNA?
- For such a fast man, you're rather slow.
I'm smarter than you.
- You and your science team have devised no strategy,
no action, no coordinated effort
for which I'm not already prepared.
- The Samuroid, the bus metas.
It was you.
But why reveal yourself now?
- Because I have nothing to fear from you.
- Yeah? Well, I'd think twice about that.
I have a team of some of the smartest minds
from across the multiverse.
- Yes, your Council of Wells.
Could any one of those clowns
identify what my abilities are?
You could gather every genius on every planet,
and you still couldn't outthink me.
- Plenty of metas have come after me,
the people that I love.
You know the one thing they have in common?
They failed.
- You've done wonders all these years
punching gorillas with rudimentary powers,
chasing madmen shooting icicles.
Those were children with play guns.
Savitar, Zoom, Thawne.
Their powers are nothing compared to the power
of limitless thought.
- That's your ability?
Your intellect was amplified by the particle accelerator.
- You may be the fastest man alive, Allen.
I'm the fastest mind.
- So this is how we begin whatever twisted game
you have planned.
- No, Mr. Allen. You've already lost,
and you never even realized it.
Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials.
I'll be thinking of you.
- There's something I need to tell you.
I confronted DeVoe.
- Oh, come on, Barry. He could get you arrested!
- No, he won't. He wanted me to come.
- How do you know?
- Well, for starters, he knows I'm the Flash.
- So you were right all along.
- We didn't believe you.
- I'm sorry.
- Don't be. DeVoe's been playing all of us.
- How?
- It's his powers.
He has an intelligence beyond anything we could've imagined.
He's orchestrated everything that we've encountered.
He's moved us like chess pieces
in a game we didn't even know we were playing.
- How do we stop someone who has super intelligence?
- We're pretty smart.
- Maybe we're not.
? ?
- The Thinker!
- It's good. Apt sense of menace.
Nailed it in one.
- Guys, it's gonna take all of us to stop him.
- Sounds like y'all could use a hand.
- Oh. - Hey!
- Wally!
- Good to see you, son! - You too.
- Aww!
- How was Blue Valley?
- Oh.
Self-reflection and a battle with a starfish
from outer space gives you perspective.
- So you found what you were looking for?
- I don't know, to be honest.
- Well, we are glad you're home.
- Looks like you found the guy behind the bus metas.
- Yeah.
- So you want to suit up? Take him down?
- No, now it's his move.
I think we take our time, formulate a plan.
- What now, boss lady?
- We get married.
- He came to you, just like you said he would.
- He's finally seized control of his fear.
He drew his strength
from those he calls friends.
- Sounds like you admire him.
- It is fascinating.
In the chain of 4,900 possible events I predicted,
there was one which resulted in them calling me "The Teacher."
I prefer "The Thinker."
They will be the first to experience the Enlightenment.
- You've been unplugged for too long.
- I'm nothing without you.
? ?
- Proceed.
? ?
- Your body's deteriorating
faster than the chair can handle.
- It will survive long enough.
- You're really going to let them get married?
- What is knowledge without love?