“Therefore She Is” shows us a good bit about Marlize, the Mechanic, Thinker’s wife and chief hench-woman. It jumps back and forth between their past and present, and makes a little bit more sense out of their relationship. Although, to be fair, they seemed like a good couple before Thinker went off the deep end recently. Now, we’ve seen the only way he’s keeping her is through drugs and brainwashing.

They start off eight years ago at Oxford, when they meet up in opposite sides of a debate about technology. Even back then, DeVoe had some really strange ideas that took Marlize, and everyone watching the debate, by surprise. In the now, Thinker goes on about it being time to start enlightening the world. I’m really sick of this guy and can’t wait for the end of his story.

At STAR, Cisco gets a message cube from Gypsy. Apparently, it’s not the first he’s gotten. She’s doing what she can to be patient, but she and her father both need an answer about the job offer. Harry pulls him off worrying about this by paging him to the lab. Harry’s been running tests on Caitlin, trying to find a way to get her powers back. Harry is forgetting things, and Cisco is still covering for him, which I think is a horrible plan. Harry makes some suggestions everyone thinks are a bad idea, which shows how much he’s slipping. Wells finally tells them what’s going on, and the team is stunned. Caitlin offers to make helping him her top priority, but Wells refuses, saying he did it, he’ll fix it. Everyone is disturbed about this.

The crime couple go after some stuff DeVoe needs, and he uses his host of stolen powers to steal it and deal with the guards. Marlize seems to be developing something of a conscience about killing people, but DeVoe doesn’t care and shows it. Joe gets assigned to the crime scene, which makes sense. He somehow brings Barry along, which doesn’t. Barry is on indefinite leave from the police (which also doesn’t make sense), and not even an apprentice PI any more. There’s no reason for him to be there. Iris, a now unemployed reporter (as far as the public is concerned) gets in, too. Really? Barry tries to get Cisco to use his powers on the guard’s discarded gun, but Cisco won’t do it, since for reasons never really explained, that causes such massive feedback. Barry wonders about bringing in Gypsy to double the power, and Cisco makes some lame excuses for not bringing her in.

Joe takes Wells to Jitters (because he needs more caffeine, sure…) and sends Wells on a special mission. Wells is supposed to keep Cecile busy without knowing why, so she doesn’t use her temporary pregnancy telepathy (boy, there’s a phrase) to find out what Joe is up to. Joe also tries to make Wells feel better, telling him that the STAR crew loves him and won’t give up on him. In the past, Marlize and DeVoe go on a picnic as one of their first dates, which is actually a sweet scene.

Gypsy has arrived, and she and Cisco try and sync up their powers. After a lot of talking, they get a vision of a shipping container and they, along with Flash, go to try and stop DeVoe from the next part of his scavenger hunt. Things don’t go well for the heroes, as if they ever do when DeVoe is involved. At least one secret also gets revealed as Gypsy and Vibe bicker.

Barry tries to be a good friend to Cisco and offer some advice, but he’s focused enough on DeVoe that he’s not doing a great job of it. In flashback land, which is at least not an island on the South China Sea, Marlize and DeVoe take a big step forward in their relationship, which turns into something different when she learns a few things about him. It doesn’t go well. She shoulda run back then.

Wells is tinkering in his lab when Cecile comes in. The excuse for sending her to him was some adjustments to her psi-damper so her powers don’t go out of control. She picks up on differences in Wells’ mind, which confirm a theory of his. Barry speeds off to Jitters, where Gypsy is guzzling coffee and not welcoming his intrusion. Her speeds her back to the lab, which she really doesn’t like, and Barry’s bumbling attempts at matchmaker are interrupted by a new DeVoe alarm. While they fail to get a new vibe on him, there’s an interesting possible hint at what’s to come for Caitlin. Or some bad lighting. One of those.

Caitlin assures Barry that Gypsy and Cisco are fine, physically. Iris steps in and stops Barry from interfering in their relationship more. Barry’s freak out about not being able to stop DeVoe actually gives him a useful idea. Cecile tries to comfort Harry, and between them, they get an idea about his condition. So good ideas are popping up all over.

The next flashback shows Marlize trying to do something good with her life. As DeVoe calls begging her to come back, some bad luck befalls her. Gypsy and Cisco talk about their relationship and his decision about the job. The conversation goes to a lot of different places, and many of them, while they might have needed to be said, aren’t good. Barry calls everyone to the Cortex, where he’s figured out part of Thinker’s plan. Cisco says he’s turning into a Bond villain, and he’s not wrong. They also figure out where Thinker is going to strike next.

Thinker and Marlize arrive where expected, and get ambushed by speed lightning, Vibe and Gypsy blasts, and Caitlin wielding the cold gun. Thinker, still smug, comments that he can’t kill Flash, but some of the others aren’t so fortunate. Again, Marlize pleads with the Thinker to not kill people, which she hasn’t seemed to have had a problem with before. Thinker even turns his power on Marlize before the two of them finally leave. She really needs to get the hell away from him, which is my theory about how this all will end.

Wells and Cecile, in a strange kind of team up, have figured out what DeVoe’s “Enlightenment” is, and it’s fairly horrific, as well as kind of being the opposite of what it sounds like. Vibe and Gypsy get a scene over on Earth 19 where we get a brief glimpse of their speedster and the couple has some words I really don’t like. This season is just straight out depressing. It’s like they thought they were writing Arrow, not Flash.

Cecile’s surprise finally happens, and it’s kind of cool. Cisco and Barry have a good talk. Caitlin makes a decision about her future. We get a flashback about Marlize making an important choice. Then, in the present, she does something that’s going to effect a lot of things. We also get another appearance by the mysterious woman I’m convinced is from the future, and we learn a tiny bit more about her.

What I liked: The Wells/Cecile scenes have been entertaining this season, and I like what they did this week, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense. While I’m generally sick of flashback scenes, the ones with Marlize worked for me for some reason. I liked what she did at the end. The mystery woman’s appearance doesn’t confirm my theory entirely, but I think makes it more likely. I’m really interested to see if the thing about Caitlin was a subtle touch or bad lighting.

What I didn’t: Once again, no matter what the heroes do, they lose. I know a lot of people complain about the “freak of the week” kind of story, but is it so hard to give the heroes a win? I know a story where nothing bad happens is boring, but a season where nothing GOOD happens isn’t much better. I don’t like what they did with Gypsy and Vibe.

As the Flash season of doom and gloom continues, I’m really ready for a change. I’m giving this a low 3 out of 5.