Nobody wants enlightenment shoved down their throat, but that’s what Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands) intends to do on The Flash. With the villain’s satellites now in orbit, he’s closer than ever to erasing everyone’s intelligence -- that is, if The Flash (Grant Gustin) can’t put a monkey wrench into those plans.

Yet with a power outage crippling the city and Barry trapped in DeVoe’s consciousness, this could be Team Flash -- and the planet’s -- last stand.

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Ahead of tonight’s Season 4 finale, "We Are The Flash," Candice Patton, the show's Iris West, spoke with CBR about the team confronting DeVoe, Iris’ own superpower and the identity of that “Mystery Girl.”

Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash and Candice Patton as Iris West on "We Are The Flash."

CBR: Everyone has a role on the show. Does it feel like Iris has emerged as the team’s matriarch?

Candice Patton: For sure. If you think about Iris from Season 1 until now, she’s made a huge leap in terms of her importance and her role on the team. I do think she’s been accepted into the matriarch role of the team. That’s come with her and Barry’s relationship, and then subsequently getting married. He’s the Flash and she’s the wife of the Flash. They lead the team in that sense.

After getting a taste of superpowers this season, why was it important for Iris to go back to her journalistic roots?

I think it’s fun. I’ve always said I’d like to be a superhero on the show, just for the fans and myself. Iris is one of the few characters that is truly human, who is brave and heroic in her own ways without having superpowers. If everyone on the show ends up with superpowers, it becomes a different show. It becomes Legends of Tomorrow. We already have that show. It’s important on The Flash to keep some of the human aspects like with Iris and Joe (Jesse L. Martin). Iris has proven herself over the seasons of just being heroic without the powers, of being a great journalist, of being brave and being calm in the face of danger. It’s always been important to keep her in that lane.

On a series like The Flash, are you a believer that the pen can be mightier than the proverbial sword?

Yeah, I would like to believe that. We haven’t really delved into that a lot over the last few seasons with Iris being an on-and-off journalist. I hope that’s something we can continue to explore in the coming seasons. It’s a tricky thing for Iris to be a reporter and deal with S.T.A.R Labs. I don’t know how the writers will handle it, but I hope they can figure it out in a way to make her reporting important to the storyline and helping Team Flash.

This year, Iris outed DeVoe in a blog...

It was interesting on the writers’ part. Fans seem really excited that Iris is getting back to her roots. That all kind of started with her being a superhero and her realizing why she is on this Earth. She realizes while it’s fun to be a superhero, that’s not her calling. That is Barry’s calling. It reminded her of what her really calling is, which is to be a journalist. It’s exciting to see her get back into what makes her want to get up in the morning.

As a wordsmith, is that why Iris was the right person to hunt down Marlize (Kim Engelbrecht)? Iris presents a pretty convincing argument.

As we’ve said, Iris is a journalist. She’s really great with her words, but she’s also good at verbalizing her words, her feelings and expressing things. I think that’s why she makes such a great team leader. Everyone is so analytical, and she is the heart. She can speak truth to power and motivate everyone. We saw that in the last episode with Marlize. Iris has a really fantastic way with words and galvanizing everyone. I think that will help ending the season, with recruiting Marlize on our team to help stop DeVoe.

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What can you tease about tonight’s episode, "We Are The Flash"?

There’s a lot. I remember being so exhausted. We recruit Marlize. She’s going to be very important in helping to stop DeVoe. Joe and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) are going to be extremely important in stopping DeVoe, with her being pregnant and having this interesting ability. We will introduce some new characters for next season. We will kind of introduce a new villain. I think it’s safe to say we will wrap up and begin the story of Mystery Girl, which I know people are excited about.

Iris never sits on the sidelines. Where do we find her while Barry confronts DeVoe?

She’s right there alongside him. We will introduce this interesting concept where Barry tries to enter the mind of DeVoe, to find DeVoe's good side, and help defeat him. The team is alongside him, with Iris there, too. It speaks to the title of the episode, which is "We Are The Flash." It’s a team effort and this theme we have been playing with all season.

Why do you feel viewers have become obsessed with the identity of the Mystery Girl?

Well, there hasn’t been a lot of her and there hasn’t been a lot of story there. I think people are curious and interested and they know we wouldn’t continue to put someone on the show for no reason. People are naturally very curious to what her role is and how it will play out.

It developed over time, but we knew early on who her character would be and how it would eventually unfold this season. I’m still curious to how it’s going to look for next season. There should be some really great stuff for Iris to play with, and for Barry as well.

Iris had plenty to do in Season 4. In what way did all that activity rekindle some of your creative juices when it came to the character?

It’s been a good season. The last two seasons, the writers have done an excellent job of trying to write more for Iris. It’s been exciting this season, especially getting to be a superhero, having this big wedding and being part of this crossover -- I think it’s been a long time coming. It’s been frustrating for fans of the show. But, it’s getting there. I think there’s a lot more room to go. For me as an actor, it’s definitely more stimulating on set when I have something to do and I am contributing to the storyline.

Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe, Kim Engelbrecht as Marlize Devoe and Candice Patton as Iris West

Even though some audiences found last year quite dark, Iris was instrumental to the Savitar arc.

I enjoyed it, too. I know a lot of people did think it was dark. I think we can have both. We can have seasons of darkness and seasons of humor and lightness, and a little bit of both. I enjoyed last season. It plays into my natural affinity for drama. I also enjoyed this season of doing more comedic bits. But, I did like Savitar. He was a good villain. I was happy that Iris was integral in saving herself.

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The next logical step for Iris could involve a baby. How would you feel going down that path? What would that add to the Iris/Barry dynamic?

I don’t know. I don’t know if we will see Iris pregnant for a very long time. But, that doesn’t mean we won’t potentially see children of Barry and Iris.

The Flash Season 4 finale airs 8 tonight on The CW.