| “ | You may be the fastest man alive, Allen. I'm the fastest mind. | „ |
| ~ Clifford DeVoe to Barry Allen. |
| “ | My wife... cared very little for violence. Me? Not so much. | „ |
| ~ DeVoe before sadisticly killing several A.R.G.U.S. soldiers. |
| “ | Let there be light. | „ |
| ~ DeVoe upon initiating The Enlightenment. |
Professor Clifford DeVoe, also known as The Thinker, is a major antagonist in the TV series The Flash, serving as a unseen antagonist in Seasons 1 and 2, a mentioned antagonist in Season 3, the main antagonist of Season 4 and the posthumous overarching antagonist of Season 5.
He is a history professor and University teacher turned super-intelligent criminal mastermind who sought to take over the world by wiping everyone's intellect and rebuild civilization in his own image. He is the Arrowverse live action adaptation of the DC Comics villain Thinker.
He was primarily portrayed by Neil Sandilands.
His Evil Rankings[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He creates a Samuroid to threaten the city so the Flash's friends would free him from the Speed Force, which also gives meta-human powers to a group of people on a bus, making DeVoe indirectly responsible for the actions of the people who would use their powers for villainy.
- Spied on Team Flash, via the Samuroid's head, so he can see their every move.
- Knocks out and kidnaps The Weeper for his own plans, who had just recently escaped being a slave to Amunet Black.
- Lies to Barry Allen and his friends about who he really is. He later complains to Captain Singh about Barry's distrust towards him to get him in trouble.
- Videos Barry breaking into his and Marlize's house, which causes him to get suspended from the police force.
- Once he revealed his true nature to Barry, he mocked him and his team for not being as "intelligent" as him.
- He claims all the other meta humans are "children with guns" and can't compare to his power.
- Kidnaps The Flash and places him in a trap that hurts him every time he tries to escape.
- Mocks Joe West after previously feigning ignorance after Joe wanted to know where Barry was.
- Tries to kill The Flash after he escapes his trap, by smashing him into a building with his hover-chair.
- Takes over Dominic Lanse's body after buying him from Amunet, just to gain his powers. This also technically kills Dominic.
- Fakes his death and frames Barry for the murder after placing his lifeless original body in Barry's apartment with the knife, now bloody, he previously gave him.
- Consistently mocked Barry about being on trial and not being able to beat him.
- He gets Barry placed in Iron Heights Penitentiary for life.
- When Barry and the bus-metas attempt to escape Amunet and the corrupt Warden Wolfe, DeVoe intervenes and brutally kills Wolfe, even shocking his wife with how violent his death was.
- He then possesses the bus-metas' bodies (while killing them) while mocking Barry over being unable to save them.
- While he started out loving his wife Marlize and his love for her motivated him to let Barry and Iris get married, he gradually became an abusive husband to her after possessing the meta-humans. He emotionally abused his wife and rejected her efforts to appeal to his humanity.
- He placed his own WIFE completely under his control with The Weeper's tears so she would go along with his plan as he started to become more and more evil. It's even revealed that she's discovered how evil he is several times, yet he keeps erasing her memory so she'll still be "his", similar to a time loop.
- When Marlize posed with an attractive suit for him, he quickly disregarded her.
- Possesses Izzy Bowin, who greatly tried to escape him.
- Tells Veronica Dale about the nuclear bomb, resulting in her trying to use it on Central City.
- Possesses more bus meta's bodies, including Ralph, to recover his original likeness and form.
- Tried to go after Neil Borman to possess him.
- Mocked The Flash using Ralph's likeness and stating that he failed to save him.
- Decides that emotion is a weakness and must be removed from humanity, horrifying Marlize.
- Broke into several facilities to find parts needed to build his satellite. At one point, he killed a completely defenseless guard even though he could have easily just let him be, showing his total disregard for others' lives.
- Only rescued Marlize from Gypsy since he saw her as necessary for his plans.
- After Marlize betrays him for how evil he's become, Devoe is left enraged of having lost control over his "wife".
- Posed as John Diggle and broke into an ARGUS facility containing Neil Borman, while killing all the soldiers in his way with ease although he could have taken Borman peacefully with his massive intelligence and his impersonation of Diggle.
- Absorbed Borman's energy (which killed him) to his satellites to power them up for The Enlightenment.
- Held innocent people hostage to distract Team Flash from his plans.
- Told The Flash that he now viewed love as a weakness and disregarded any previous love he had for Marlize.
- Tries to stop The Flash from saving Ralph's soul and having Ralph take back over his body.
- Reveals he wanted Team Flash (and Marlize) to place Barry into his mind so he could try to absorb his powers.
- Incapacitates The Flash's friends and tries to kill Cecile and her baby.
- Out of spite at being beaten, he tries to have the satellites kill all the residents of Central City before being killed for good.
- His bad actions still live on as he was responsible for the rise of criminals with meta-human technology and indirectly created the meta-human serial killer Cicada.
- Although he may have started off as a well-intentioned extremist, he slowly loses any of the positive qualities he once had, including his care for his wife, just for the sake of power and to rule the world in his image. Even his wife calls him out on this. Also his excuse of being ignored in class by some students is extremely slim, weak and petty since his actions go far past that all because he senses that humanity is losing curiosity and becoming a disease because of technology.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He's implied to have a few moral agency issues due to it being revealed that his "evil self" killed his "good self" in his mind, implying that the Thinking Cap forcibly corrupted him, which makes it questionable if he's completely doing everything of his own volition.
Trivia[]
- This is the only version of The Thinker to be Near Pure Evil.
[]
 Near Pure Evils
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