The Flash Season 6 Episode 8 Recap: The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 2

By
Kevin Finnerty
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The Flash Season 6 Episode 8
Danielle Nicolet, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Grant Gustin, Danielle Panabaker, and Jesse L. Martin in ‘The Flash’ season 6 episode 8 (Photo: Katie Yu © 2019 The CW Network)

“I am not giving up on my husband,” says Iris (Candice Patton). “If you go out there, you could get infected,” replies Cisco (Carlos Valdes) as the two argue about Iris’ decision to talk to Dark Flash in season six episode eight of The CW’s The Flash.

The episode begins right where season six episode seven left off with Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco, and Iris arriving at S.T.A.R. Labs after Dark Flash raced out having sabotaged the city’s power grid and plunging it into darkness. Cisco activates a force field around all of S.T.A.R. Labs and tells Frost and Iris he created it in case The Flash ever went evil. Cisco also tells them he has created a new photon emitter that should cure both Dr. Ramsey Rosso (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Barry (Grant Gustin) by blasting them with radiation. Iris asks if he’s tested it yet and he admits he hasn’t. Iris is afraid it will hurt Barry and she’s convinced she can get through to him.

Meanwhile out in Central City, Ramsey’s black goo-infected zombies are attacking citizens, infecting them, and expanding Bloodwork’s army of followers. Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) and Kamilla (Victoria Park) wind up trapped in their office building by the roaming zombies.

Outside, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and the police are trying to subdue the zombies by using non-lethal tactics. It’s not working out well. Frost joins Joe to help just as Ramsey, who now calls himself Bloodwork, is joined by Dark Flash to do battle.

Down in the sewer tunnels, Nash (Tom Cavanagh) is still trying to get entrance to where The Monitor is supposedly hiding. He hears The Monitor demand he submit and all will be revealed, but Nash keeps trying to find a way in, refusing to follow The Monitor’s orders. That’s when all the lights in the tunnel go out.

Back at the office building, Cecile and Kamilla are sneaking around trying to find a way out. They can detect the zombies because Cecile can sense all the fear each person/mindless black goo-filled zombie is feeling deep down inside. Kamilla calls her their zombie detector.

Iris and Cisco are still arguing about the next step. (Great leadership, guys! Stand around arguing while the city is being overrun.) Dark Flash reaches out and tells Iris to meet him where their story began. Cisco doesn’t want her to go, believing she could end up getting infected. However, Iris won’t listen and says, “In sickness and in health.”

She breaches to their apartment and finds Dark Flash but it’s Bloodwork now talking through him. He offers her the chance to join Barry and become like him. Iris refuses and Dark Flash starts to kill her by phasing through her but he stops short. Bloodwork informs Iris through Dark Flash that he’ll kill her in due time and speeds off.

Iris returns to S.T.A.R. Labs and Cisco reveals he was able to listen in. She could have been killed. Cisco has finished the emitter gun and heads out to find Bloodwork and Dark Flash to use it on them. Iris tries to argue that it could kill Barry, but Cisco reminds her they’re going to lose him anyway.

Cisco finds Bloodwork at the plaza and blasts him with the emitter but Dark Flash speeds up and knocks Cisco off his feet, breaking the emitter. Bloodwork tells Cisco his big plan to use S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator to infect the entire city. “I knew I picked the right guy,” says Bloodwork.

Frost and Allegra (Kayla Compton) breach into the S.T.A.R. Labs medical bay with a wounded Joe. Frost starts to panic but Caitlin talks to her and gets her to rise above her fear and use her freezing powers to heal Joe’s wound.

Cisco makes it back to S.T.A.R. Labs and he tells Iris what Bloodwork is planning. As they talk he realizes Dark Flash had a chance to kill him but didn’t and that Bloodwork used the exact same phrase Barry had said to him about choosing him to be team leader. Iris and Cisco realize Barry’s trying to communicate to them while still under Bloodwork’s control.

Dark Flash and Bloodwork show up outside S.T.A.R. Labs and Dark Flash tells them to “let the light in.” So Cisco lowers the force field figuring out what Barry wants them to do to stop Bloodwork. As the black goo zombies go about S.T.A.R. Labs looking to kill anyone they find, Dark Flash and Bloodwork head for the particle accelerator.

Bloodwork puts some of his tainted blood inside the accelerator just as Iris shoots him with the power gun and knocks him down. Cisco informs Allegra that when he tells her to blast the blood in the accelerator with UV radiation, the blood will be a sure cure for everyone. Allegra’s scared but Frost gives her the encouragement she needs while freezing Bloodwork’s zombies, effectively clearing a path for her to the particle accelerator.

Allegra blasts UV radiation when Cisco tells her to and it works! All the black goo zombies return to normal, including Barry.

“Hey, where’s the scary guy who tried to kill us all?” asks Frost, seeing Bloodwork is gone. “He won’t get far,” says Barry as he speeds outside and finds him about to attack a policeman.

Down in the sewers, Nash is fighting and losing to the zombies when they turn back into themselves after getting hit with Allegra’s UV.

Bloodwork transforms into a huge monster and he and The Flash fight. Bloodwork claims he’s the real hero trying to save everyone from death. Bloodwork seems to be winning until he sees an image of his mother. Bloodwork changes back to looking like Ramsey and starts talking to her, saying it’s not possible. The Flash confesses he let Ramsey infect him so he could enter his mind and bring out Ramsey’s mother. His mother tells Ramsey he was born to heal but he has become an agent of destruction. The Flash phases through the black goo and speeds Ramsey into the MAC, which should be able to hold him.

A little later Frost talks to Caitlin thanking her for her help and guidance when she was freezing up. Frost says Caitlin should spend the rest of the time with Team Flash before Crisis begins.

The Flash Season 6 Episode 8
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow in season 6 episode 8 (Photo: Katie Yu © 2019 The CW Network)

It’s only a few minutes before Crisis is about to start and Team Flash is sitting around in the lounge. Barry tells them he doesn’t want to sit in silence and tries to give Joe his watch so he’ll always have a piece of him with him. Joe won’t take it saying he’s not going anywhere yet and to hold onto it.

Cecile tells Barry that H.R. once told her his real superpower is hope and that he has an endless supply of it.

Caitlin says to Barry, “You know when you first came into my life I had lost faith in just about everything…you saved my life Barry,” to which Barry becomes emotional. One tear leaks down his face.

Cisco says he misses the old days before Flashpoint, doppelgangers, and time travel when it was “just us against the bad guys.” Iris reveals she had Cisco vibe her to the first time she and Barry kissed in season one before he had to erase that timeline to save the city when he was trapped in the Speed Force. “Our love story never ends, Barry,” says Iris just as the skies turn red and Crisis begins.

In the last scene it’s 11:58 in Central City. Nash is in the tunnels still processing The Monitor saving his life from the black goo zombies when a voice tells Nash to begin his life anew. A blinding light appears and Nash is consumed by it.

The Flash Season 6 Episode 8 Review:

Action-packed, suspenseful, and touching, episode eight titled “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Part 2” brings a bit of a rushed close to the Bloodwork storyline and serves as the kickoff to the crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” It’s a strong episode, balancing the fight in the streets with Bloodwork’s zombies and the efforts to try to save Barry and stop Ramsey once and for all.

The next-to-last scene is both superbly acted and well-written, with each member of Team Flash sharing with Barry just how much he means to them. The part where Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin says to Barry that she had lost faith in everything and that his entering her life saved her, and Grant as Barry responding by becoming teary-eyed, is especially moving. Cisco speaks for all of the fans who have been with the show since the very beginning (this critic included) when he says he misses the old days when it was just them against the bad guys.

Now it’s time for what The CW has been building toward and hoping to do since they started the Arrow-verse…the massive crossover event “Crisis of Infinite Earths.” Here’s hoping Barry Allen and all of Team Flash survive.

GRADE: B




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