Clifford DeVoe quotes from The Flash

DeVoe

[to one of his hostages] Do you know what my favorite thing about teaching is? Having a captive audience.

DeVoe

In this place, I do as I please, Mr. Allen. I must say, the fact that you thought I wouldn't calculate you and your team making this feeble attempt is somewhat... insulting. There'll be no defeating the Big Bad this year, Mr. Allen. You see, you're in my mind now. And there's no escape. [fires an energy bolt from his battle chair, but Barry whisks himself and Ralph away at super-speed.] Run, Mr. Allen. Run.

Ah, I know that look. I felt the same after my 11:00 a.m. "Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Physical Thermodynamics" class. I was trying to explain terminal flow rates, and ten minutes in, I wanted to pull my hair out.

Clifford DeVoe

Well, it's a good thing I know water flowing into the axis of a tube is called...

Marlize

You better get this right.

DeVoe

Laminar?

Marlize

Aaah, so you do listen.

DeVoe

To you, always. Nothing matters to them (students) if it's not digestible in YouTube videos of talking babies or inane pet tricks.

Marlize

Have you seen the husky singing "Like a Virgin"?

Marlize

This doesn't make sense.

DeVoe

My mind is drawing energy from my body. Like a parasite feeding on an alien host. We're so close to everything we've ever dreamed of, only for it to be ripped away by this body.

Marlize

No no no no no no. We can stop this. We can. I'm never going to give up.

DeVoe

Twenty-six hundred individuals developed the metagene, 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.

Barry

Plenty of metas have come after me, the people that I love. You know the one thing they have in common? They failed.

DeVoe

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.

Barry

That's your ability. Your intellect was amplified by the particle accelerator.

DeVoe

You may be the fastest man alive, Allen. I'm the fastest mind.

Barry

So this is how we begin whatever twisted game you have planned. [turns and starts walking away]

DeVoe

[to himself] No, Mr. Allen, you've already lost and never even realized it. [calling out to Barry] Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! I'll be thinking of you.

Barry

DeVoe, if you wanted to kill me, you could have just electrocuted me on the street. So... I'm here for a reason.

DeVoe

Yes, Mr. Allen. So that I may teach you. I am, after all, first and foremost, a teacher.

Barry

All right. Fine. Teach me. But first, I wanna make sure I'm all caught up. You sent your Samuroid after me. You arranged to pull me out of the Speed Force. You made sure that we turned all those people on that bus into metahumans. Why?

DeVoe

You see, the finer points of my agenda are not part of today's syllabus.

Barry

Oh, come on, we can squeeze it in. I'm a fast learner.

DeVoe

Please!! You're about as capable of seeing the breadth of my machinations as an infant mastering multi-variable physics.

Barry

[scoffs] Wow.

DeVoe

The lesson I have prepped for today is much more simple. Life 101. There are no happy endings.

DeVoe

You see, Mr. Allen, three months ago, you emerged from the Speed Force a new man. And in order for you and the world to experience my plan, I, too, needed to be reborn.

Barry

If you hurt my family,...

DeVoe

I have no interest in your family. Besides, you're gonna need someone to miss you when you're gone.

Barry

What did you do?

DeVoe

I merely left something for you. It's a regift, as it were. I... don't have need for it anymore.

Barry

Don't run.

DeVoe

Science has long pondered what would be required to successfully transfer consciousness from one living being to another. But we've accomplished far beyond a simple transfer of consciousness. We've extracted that which elevates our humanity and added upon it. I am both who I was before [puts his hand on Marlize's cheek] and who I desire to become.

Marlize

[uncomfortable] Yes, you are... my love.

DeVoe

My hand still feels foreign upon your flesh. [removes his hand] And you don't care for it.

Marlize

No, I do.

DeVoe

As I said, I inherited my host's ability to read thoughts. We have never lied to each other before. Let's not begin now.

Marlize

... Okay.

DeVoe

Marlize. My love. See past this body. See past these eyes. See me. Clifford.

Marlize

[softly] Clifford.

DeVoe

I am nothing without you.

DeVoe

Did you know there was a twelve percent chance that you were going to tell the world that you're the Flash?

Barry

I'd recheck your math.

DeVoe

There's no need. Because no matter what path you chose, all avenues led to my triumph.

Barry

Why do you want us distracted? Why do you want me out of the picture? What're you planning?

DeVoe

That you think that you could understand the breadth of what I am about to do is almost humorous.... Yes. I think you will miss Iris. That's right, Mr. Allen. I didn't just take Dominic's body. I took his ability. I know what you're thinking. Right now.

Barry

Well, I want you to hear me say it. I'm gonna figure a way out of this. And when I do, I don't care whose face you're wearing. I'm coming for you. You haven't beaten us yet.

DeVoe

Haven't I? [stares Barry down] Have a nice life, Mr. Allen.

Marlize

Wolfe and Amunet's latest criminal undertaking throws an annoying wrench in our plans. What shall we do?

DeVoe

... I don't know.

Marlize

You? You don't know?

DeVoe

My mind is consumed by a near-infinite web of variables. They're more plentiful than there are atoms in an exploding star. So, for the moment, I do not know.

Ralph

Heard all the commotion and I thought "If DeVoe was here... where would he be going?"

DeVoe

Hmm. A simple deduction for a simple mind. Though I assure you, you are no threat for an intellect of my magnitude.

Ralph

Please, everyone I fight is smarter than me.

DeVoe

Every event occurred exactly as I predicted. Except the outcome!!

Marlize

You were supposed to defeat Siren-X.

DeVoe

No. The Flash was, but... Barry Allen just stood there, frozen. And now, I've lost my only nuclear meta. Because the Flash failed! Why? Why did he fail?

Marlize

Perhaps there were variables that we just didn't consider.

DeVoe

As I already explained, there is no variable beyond my examination.

Marlize

Even less apparent. The last time Barry Allen saw you, you took the life of his close friend. And now he sees you, and he pauses. You really don't see it. You can calculate near-infinite outcomes across multiple Earths, but you cannot account for how someone is feeling.

DeVoe

The Taoists, in pursuit of immortality, discovered gunpowder. Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Prize so he wouldn't be remembered as the man who invented dynamite. History has shown us time and time again that whenever a technological advancement can be used to hurt humanity, it will be.

Marlize

You can't blame technology for the way men choose to use it, Professor.

DeVoe

You can't ignore that the best of ideas by the smartest of men often have a way of becoming corrupted.

DeVoe

Severity of our society's failings require extreme ideas if ever we were to restore some semblance of balance.

Marlize

[reading from DeVoe's journal] Technology has become a cancerous cell in our social biology. Excising [DeVoe tries and fails to grab the journal] would require a total purge, not only of the material world, but also human consciousness? This is not valance! This is lobotomizing people.

DeVoe

This is rebooting the masses' brains, to let them forget their technological crutches. They are babies with pacifiers.

Marlize

How and who will teach them? You, professor? How does any of this help humankind?

DeVoe

Don't you see? Marlize, our technology is killing us! And you and I, we can fix this, together. [kneels] As partners, we can lead them, all of society, humanity, on the true path to enlightenment.

DeVoe

The Enlightenment will come for you, too, Marlize. I will be all that remains.

Marlize

[mockingly] Oh, Clifford. You are nothing without me. [rises up on DeVoe's battle chair and disappears]