It’s the end of an era. A fan favorite character is leaving the series, and this episode is his swan song. Let’s all grab the tissues and get ready for a good-bye to Cisco Ramon. Don’t worry, there’s one last adventure for Cisco with Team Flash, though it’s a bit of a bumpy ride. Wanna know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
NOTE: This review is posting before THE FLASH airs in the Pacific Time Zone USA. If you haven’t seen it yet, STOP HERE and come back after watching the episode. You’ll be glad you did!
We’ve been building up to this. Cisco has been offered a great position at A.R.G.U.S., and it’s simply too good to turn down. Kamilla also has a plum job waiting for her outside of that agency. So, it’s time to say goodbye. Just a bit of a twist here – everyone seems happy to see them go. Just a little too happy.
That plays out over much of the episode. Everyone is trying to be so supportive that Cisco is wondering whether they really cared about his leaving. That eventually is resolved, but it does take up quite a lot of tonight’s show.
As for the villain of the week, we get a new version of the Rainbow Raider. This one is named Carrie Bates (we’ll come back to that), and her meta-abilities are just a bit different than the original. Instead of using the red part of the spectrum to induce anger, she uses the entire electromagnetic spectrum to put her targets into a state of euphoria. In that state, they are open to suggestion – like cutting her a $10,000,000 check or giving her an unlimited amount of jewelry. She even gets the drop on Cisco, and later Flash, setting up some pretty outrageously silly/funny scenes. Never thought I would see the Flash break dancing, but here we are. Chester uses some old tech of Cisco’s to put together a fix that brings them back to their senses.
And that’s just in time, as Rainbow Raider has taken over a blimp at Farris Air. This one can cloak itself, even to satellites. This is when we get Carrie Bates’ true intentions.
She’s trying to be like Robin Hood.
She is getting ready to rain down everything she took earlier onto the streets of Central City. She believes this will solve some of the inequities in the economic system. However, it has the potential of becoming a disaster. So, how to stop her?
They use Allegra’s powers to get them to the blimp and to counter Rainbow Raider’s abilities. It works for long enough for Flash to put the cuffs on Carrie and stop her from using her powers.
It’s at this point that the plot goes just a bit off the rails, and then veers back into action/adventure.
The off the rails part? Flash is going to recommend that Carrie Bates not go to Iron Heights, but rather “work off her sentence” by joining the Mayor’s Economic Development team. That’s highly unlikely in the real world, but we are talking comic book justice.
The action/adventure part? The earlier fight damaged the blimp’s controls, and now it’s heading straight for the stadium where the Central City Sharks play, to crash and kill everyone there. Cisco convinces Flash to get everyone off the blimp and to safety. Now, it’s up to Cisco to truly save the day.
Cisco uses part of his Mecha-Vibe gauntlets to patch into the system and regain manual control. He barely makes it through, saving the city one more time.
After that it’s time to say goodbye. We see it in several stages. First, Cisco hands off all his plans, devices, etc to Chester, telling him that he is leaving the team in good hands.Then, we see a party with what is still remaining of the OG Team Flash. It’s Cisco, Caitlin, Barry and Joe, leading up to some terribly done but still fun karaoke. We also see a party for Kamilla at the Citizen offices, and we get ready to say so long. That leads to the…
EPILOGUE:
We’re setting things up for next week, as Cecile is now part of a mystery. She is hearing voices, and when she looks in the mirror she sees a reflection of herself wearing a strange gold mask. More on that next week. For now let’s go to the notes.
NOTES:
- CIsco Ramon was the true breakout character of this series. This show took a character that had been mocked in the comics and made it a top-of-the-line part of the show. I like Chester’s character, but saying goodbye to Cisco is a huge thing for the show.
- Carlos Valdez put on one of his top performances in this last episode. The range of emotions was outstanding, and he will definitely be missed.
- There were some hokey moments in this show that detract from what otherwise would have been a perfect episode. The one that slightly jarred me was the resolution for Rainbow Raider. Given everything she had done, even considering her altruistic intentions, I can’t imagine rewarding that with a spot on a Mayoral task force as her “punishment”. Still, the majority of the episode was good.
- One note on “Carrie Bates”. Long time fans of THE FLASH comic will remember writer Cary Bates, who first wrote for THE FLASH in 1968 and then took on full time writing duties from 1971-1985. That was the last run before CRISIS killed off Barry and Wally took over the title with a new number 1 issue. I was glad to see that nod to history here.
SUMMARY:
Can I say one more time just how much I will miss Cisco Ramon in this show? While there were a few bumps in the road for this episode, this was still a great way to say goodbye to what has become an iconic character. I’ll give this episode an 8/10. Of course, that’s just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!