The Flash’s fourth run on television (geddit?) came to an end not long ago and for the first time, the main antagonist was not a rival speedster! I felt it was a much-needed change since it got tiresome watching the Flash face off against yet another speedster. It was always the same kind of fight, Barry’s motive throughout each season was always the same; become faster than the other guy.

The fact that the villains’ goals often aligned with our hero’s got old pretty fast as well. The previous antagonists both wanted the titular character to fulfil his potential so that they could achieve their own objectives. The Reverse Flash wanted a way to travel back to his own time, while Zoom wanted to enhance his own powers.

The most recent season offered something new but still allowed the series to stick to its tried and true formula. Clifford Devoe and his wife, Marlize, are both academics and neither of them had any special powers other than their high intellect.

Their motives were seemingly less selfish too. They wanted to achieve something called “The Enlightenment,” an event that they believed would make the world a better place. In order to achieve their dream, they orchestrated events so that Team Flash would free Barry from the Speedforce prison and turned a busload of people into meta-humans.

Similar to previous seasons, each of these passengers developed special abilities and as usual, most of them began to use them for personal gain. As expected they were all eventually apprehended. Not all of them became criminals, one of them became the Flash’s newest protégé, for a while at least. Unbeknownst to all involved, this was all a part of Cliff’s plan to take their powers for himself, so that he could move one step closer to fulfilling his master plan.

Devoe’s intellect combined with all of the powers of the bus-metas made him a pretty fearsome foe. Though to be honest it’s too bad his ultimate defeat was kind of anti-climactic, and it bore some resemblance to the final showdowns from previous seasons.

Andrew Yeh

Andrew Yeh is an avid consumer of television. Thanks to the Internet, he is now able to watch as many shows as he wants whenever he can! His other passions in life are video games and anime. Andrew completed a Bachelor of Communication at Massey University, which is an experience that provided him with a deeper appreciation of the media.