This isn’t the first time The Flash has made Barry the bad guy. You might remember the big twist of Season Three was that Savitar turned out to be Barry Allen in a future without Iris. This time is so much better than Season Three. It helps that this evil Flash is actually scary. Remember, not only was Savitar the third speedster villain in a row when all we wanted was something different, that Barry was basically an angsty scene kid with the dorkiest haircut. Dark Flash has all black eyes and a goopy mouth that reminds me of the “Ghastly Grinner” episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark.
All that makes for a scary, arresting pre-Crisis episode of The Flash. Next week, the 5-episode crossover begins. Unlike the others, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will span the entire winter hiatus, with the final two parts airing in January. That means as far as the main plot of the season is concerned, this is the midseason finale. It feels even bigger than that, though. While we’re pretty sure The Flash will somehow survive the Crisis, it’s not guaranteed. The writing of this season sure has been operating under the assumption that he won’t. Even if that’s a fakeout, the show has committed to the bit. If there is a last-minute save coming, there hasn’t been any hint of what that might be. As a result, this episode feels more like a season finale than what we’d normally see leading into the winter break.
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon and Candice Patton as Iris – West Allen — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Seriously, this episode is huge. This is the kind of event most seasons spend 20-plus episodes building to, and we get it after eight. Barry has gone full Dark Flash, an army of blood zombies is terrorizing the city, and the entire team has to come together and think on their feet to solve both. Coming together turns out to be the hard part. Cisco turns on a force-field that covers S.T.A.R. Labs that doesn’t let anything in or out. Not any communication, not even The Flash. Cisco, it turns out, is basically a less-moneyed Batman. Always prepared in case one of his friends turns against him. Now The Flash has, and this is his contingency plan.
Meanwhile, Cecile and Kamilla are trapped on the other side of town in a building full of blood zombies. Ramsey and Dark Flash also complicated things by causing a citywide power outage, just to make things extra scary. That’s not me being snarky, that’s literally the reason. Ramsey, we’re reminded, can only turn people into blood zombies if they’re scared when he kills them. So much of the first half of the episode is spent on getting all of Team Flash up to speed and together. For the most part, it works. Cecile and Kamilla trapped in the building is some real good zombie horror. When they realize Cecile can use her empathy to tell where the zombies are, it becomes a dangerous sneak through the dark. It’s a fun sequence that managed to get my blood pumping.
I wish the show had done better with Joe’s scene, though. I guess he already had his big cathartic moment with Barry earlier, but there was still a missed opportunity here. Joe doesn’t know Barry is taken over. He should have had some reaction to Barry letting people be killed/zombified in front of him. Instead, he’s just shocked for a moment and the scene moves on. Joe gets surprisingly little to do in this episode. He’s just kind of here. It feels strange for Barry’s father figure to stand around scenes of this much importance with nothing to say or do.
Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton, Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen, Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow and Jesse L. Martin as Captain Joe West — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
The way the episode built up to its conclusion was especially cool to watch play out. Cisco wants to use an untested ray gun to zap the blood infection out of people, but Iris isn’t so sure. She’s confident Barry is still inside Dark Flash somewhere, and Cisco says it doesn’t matter because they’re losing him the next day anyway. “What does it matter, were losing him anyway” is a cold thing to say to someone about their husband, but it shows how both of them are dealing with the impending loss. Iris wants to enjoy every moment she has left with Barry, Cisco is acting like he’s already gone. The episode drops hints that he isn’t, though. First, Ramsey is about to kill Iris, but stops for no reason. He mentions some vague plan for her and allows her to escape. We’ve seen this situation happen often enough in bad comic books that we’re not quite sure if it’s intentional yet. Then he does the same thing to Cisco. The writers of The Flash are good enough not to use the same cop out twice in one episode. It’s on purpose. Barry is exerting some control over Ramsey.
Iris and Cisco notice that the random nonsensical phrases Ramsey’s been uttering are actually Barry giving them a message. They let Ramsey into S.T.A.R. Labs, and it doesn’t go super well at first. The blood zombies chase the team off, while Ramsey orders The Flash to bring him Cisco and Iris so he can taunt them. He dumps his blood goo into the particle accelerator, hoping to make it explode so he can infect the whole city. He tries to make The Flash kill Iris, but Barry resists. Ramsey angrily forces the Flash on his knees, allowing Iris to grab a stun gun and blast both of them.
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Allegra and Killer Frost also get full character arc completions in this episode. They really packed this thing full of story. While Caitlin talks Killer Frost through using her powers to heal early in this episode, she’s still freaked out by the whole ordeal. Here, she fights off the blood zombies, but allows Caitlin to take over for any upcoming medical emergencies. Meanwhile, this desperate situation forces Allegra to step up and be a hero. She’s been nervous about using her powers because she doesn’t want to turn into her assassin sister. Now, she’s the only one who can save the world from zombification. Cisco opens the particle accelerator and tells Allegra to blast the goo with all the UV light she can muster. The resulting blast cures every blood zombie in the city, including The Flash. Honestly, the way the episode was able to give both of these characters full, satisfying arcs in an episode this busy is impressive. It’s because the rest of the season has been so good about giving each character their own personal story that this one can just deliver payoff after payoff.
(Screenshot via CW)
The real Flash is back, but there’s no time for tearful reunions yet. Ramsey has escaped. I was sure that was going to be where this episode would leave things. It would set up Crisis and deal with Ramsey again in January. So I was surprised when The Flash tracks Ramsey down for a big final showdown. Ramsey morphs into a giant blood skull monster and we get a proper fight scene to close out the episode. That monster looks so much grosser than I expected from this show, so credit where it’s due. That piece of CGI looks awesome. The Flash gets a few good hits in, but Ramsey sticks him to the side of a car and is about to slice him open with an arm-blade. That’s when we find out that when Ramsey got into The Flash’s head, it went both ways. Barry saw Ramsey’s memories of his mother and he implanted a key phrase into Ramsey’s head. When Barry says he wants to enjoy the time he has left, Ramsey suddenly sees his mother. It’s a cool twist, and I appreciate the episode doesn’t make too big a deal out of it. While Ramsey’s distracted by a hallucination of his mother, The Flash captures him, putting him in a S.T.A.R. Labs prison cell. The bad guy is defeated and out of the picture. For now.
That was a lot of Flash packed into just over 40 minutes. It was fun seeing everything this season has been building to pay off in this one episode. I’m still positive Barry will somehow survive the Crisis, but the show sure is acting like he won’t. That’s important as it helps the upcoming event mean something. When Barry and his friends are spending their last moments before the Crisis begins together, it really feels final. I have no idea what’s coming next week, but multiple Arrowverse shows have spent their entire seasons building up to it. I can’t wait to see what they do now that it’s here.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW
Previously on The Flash:
- The Flash Season 6 Episode 7 recap
- The Flash Season 6 Episode 6 recap
- The Flash Season 6 Episode 5 recap
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