THE FLASH - SEASON 6.4

REVIEW:  THE FLASH - SEASON 6, EP. 4:  "There Will Be Blood"



Team Flash is having a VERY hard time right now with one thing:  reconciliation with things beyond their control....mostly Barry's impeding death in CRISIS.  Everyone is dealing with this problem in their own way...and not very well.  Even Barry is still trying to reconcile it in his own way, as is Iris.  The REST of the team, however...dealing with it poorly.  This episode, outside of Caitlin/Frost's coping with it last week, deals with how everybody ELSE is managing with the news.  Meanwhile, Ramsey Rosso is determined to cure himself of HLH...even if it means going through unscrupulous means and violating the very Hypocratic Oath he took as a doctor to save people.  And we get more details on just what in the hell Nash Wells is up to.

Ramsey Rosso is a scared man---scared of death, scared of winding up like his mother.  We see through various flashbacks this episode the time he spent working with his mother on a cure, only to watch her come down with it.  As she tries to inform him that he can't cheat death, he refuses to allow that to happen to himself.  She sees his solution for a cure, but involves Dark Matter, and she doesn't approve.  He's not going to allow himself to fail.  So, while using the blood he got off Romero to aid in his search for a cure, it's coming up short.  He's realizing that he needs more blood.  So, he raids the hospital to find fresh samples.  Sadly, that also does not work, as he tries combining the blood  with Romero's but to no effect.  

Joe is called to the hospital, as it is now a crime scene, and Barry's there investigating the break in.  He doesn't find it unusual, and Joe decides to take his leave.  Joe is also not dealing with this eventual death of Barry very well, either.  He's trying to be stoic for everyone on the team...but even Joe is human, and can't hide the pain he's going through.

Barry is trying to get through to Cisco this episode, and prepare him to lead this team when he's gone.  Cisco just won't come to the realization that he CANNOT save Barry.  He refuses to go down swinging.  Barry wants his help in trying to find a cure for Ramsey Rosso.  Cisco reluctantly agrees, and it's just then that Nash Wells shows up.  He's a multiversal explorer, and knows of a way that they can cure HLH...and it's at McCulloch Industries.  All he asks for is to have Cisco build him a chip for his own experiment.  Cisco and Barry uneasily agree to the deal.  At McCulloch industries, Barry disables the perimeter security.  As he does that, Cisco asks Nash if this serum would be able to counteract antimatter.  Nash says yes.   They break in, and look for this serum that can only be stored in minus 15 degrees.  Cisco plants a beeper beacon on the way into the lab, and uses it to distract Nash and Barry, as he extracts the serum.  He then tells Barry that the serum isn't there.  They had back to STAR Labs, where Nash still wants Cisco to hold up his end of the deal.  As Cisco does so, he can't make eye contact with Barry.  Barry notices, and then notices that there's a cooler that just happens to be at minus 15 degrees.  Barry finds the serum, and the two argue about Cisco using it to save Barry's life.  Barry feels that Cisco is maybe the wrong person for the job.  He wanted to do at least ONE good thing before he died.    Cisco storms off.

Iris has been doing her usual thing, and being the great investigative reporter she is, got a lead of Ralph's missing person's case--Sue Dearbon.  However...Ralph just isn't in the mood at the moment, and Iris passes it off.  She bumps into him later, as he's about to stuff his face, and he again gives her the brush off...saying that there's no point in it, if there's no future to look forward to.  She's also dealing with this potential loss of her husband, as she is watching the team fall all around her.  

Barry visits Ramsey, and gives him the serum, and tells him to take it before it goes inert.  Barry tells him that they need people like him in the world.  Barry takes off, and Ramsey tries the serum, but it has no effect, either.  His blood is just too mixed with the Dark Matter, and the serum won't help.  But he realizes that he can stay alive by doing what he was sworn NOT to do:  kill.  He must feed on live bodies that produce enough epinephrinde...meaning when people are at a heightened fear, the blood will release this chemical.  He decides to make that critical choice, and he knows where to get A LOT of bodies.  

Cisco has a heart to heart with Frost, who tells him that you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved.  Joe also has a chat with Ralph, who tells him that while he can't save Barry, he can at least save SOMEONE...meaning Sue.

The team gets wind of a disturbance at the hospital...lot of dead people.  Flash and Frost arrive to confront Ramsey...who has control of the dead bodies like zombies, and has them attack Frost and Flash.  Ramsey thinks HE is meant to live forever...HE is the answer.  Flash tells him that NO ONE lives forever.  Ramsey disagrees.  He ends up killing the doctor there, before he takes off.  Flash and Frost realize that they needed Ramsey, and without him, their bodies dissolved into an ooze.  Ramsey is on the run, and the Team has his face out there...knowing they have to stop him before he kills again.

Ralph and Iris have one more chat---and he apologizes for his behavior, but says thanks for her help, and he'll inquire about Sue's whereabouts tomorrow.  Barry and Cisco also make amends, as Cisco realizes that Barry is making the tough decisions---decisions that he hopes Cisco can make for the better of the team.  Cisco wonders how he does it.  

Barry and Joe have a talk, and it's here that Joe breaks down.  He feels that considering how many times Barry has saved the city, he doesn't deserve this death.  He deserves better.  It's not fair.  Barry assures him that no, it isn't fair, but it's what he does.  It's because of Joe that Barry learned to be a good man...that Barry learned to be The Flash.  Joe weeps, and is just not ready for Barry to be gone.  They embrace.

Wells is down beneath the streets of Central City, tracking his "prey".  Turns out, his crypto-key comes across a wall down below...and it shows the location of where The Monitor is hiding out.  Nash has found what he was looking for---and wants a little chat.

This was the most emotionally charged episode of The Flash to date.  While they didn't get Bloodwork, they know they're up against the clock before Ramsey strikes again.  It's an interesting allegory we see come across this episode:  Coping with life and death.  We take the case of Ramsey---who IS dying of the very same disease that took his mother.  While she ended up accepting her fate with grace and dignity--and decided to live her last days to the fullest---Ramsey is the polar opposite.  He feels that if he dies, his life will have been for nothing.  So...he goes to the very extremes to cure himself---even if it means destroying the very person his mother raised him to be, by violating the very oath he swore to protect and heal people.  His own callous nature about death and his fear of it allows him to tread to the path of evil in order to survive.  

We also look at the others who're now dealing with the very real reality that Barry Allen will be gone from the Earth in six week's time.  Iris is trying to be strong for EVERYONE...not just for herself, but Barry as well.  It's why she fell in love with him.  She knows the story...she's written it...or WILL write it.  But it doesn't mean she isn't hurting.  But she's understanding of Barry's fate more than anyone else.

Caitlin/Frost - as we saw last episode...Frost has been out to play more--to have a life of her own, and she's upset she doesn't get to live it before she starts it.  But she gets WHY Barry is going to the lengths he's going to.  He needs her.  But wants her to live her life as well.

Ralph is taking it hard.  Hard enough that he's giving up looking for Sue Dearbon.  When Iris gives him the lead, he just doesn't care anymore---thinking the whole thing is pointless.  Besides...as he states...not like he's going to fall in love with her (great foreshadowing here).  But Iris presses, because this case has meant so much to him.  But leave it to Joe, to break through to Ralph, and get him to realize that, while NOBODY can save Barry...at least Ralph can save SOMEONE...so, save Sue.  Ralph takes up the case again at the end.

Cisco is the one who flat out refuses to accept fate.  Cisco won't let his best friend die...and feels there's a way to prevent it.  When Nash gives him the idea about the serum being able to save Barry, he jumps at it.  Even if it means lying to his best friend, he will do it.  Barry is trying to make Cisco understand that when HE is gone...Cisco is going to have to be the glue, the leader, to keep the team together.  Cisco can't comprehend how Barry can make these hard decisions.  Barry reminds him that it took him YEARS to learn.  Cisco will too.  But trust me...I seriously doubt Cisco will give up looking for a way to save Barry---it's just not in his nature.

Seeing Joe finally break down this episode was toughest of all for me.  To see the very stoic and wise father figure of this team break down and cry...for not wanting to lose his son, to feel it unfair that life is being taken away, after all he has given to the world...to MANY worlds.  We see Barry this time having to be the strong one.  I teared up when I saw this.  It's just tremendous acting all the way around with this cast.  This episode hit me in the feels big time.  

Overall, the quality of this season is showing.  The acting is stellar as usual, and we're really going through the struggles as the team is.  NONE of us want to say goodbye to Barry Allen...and we have NO IDEA how CRISIS plays out.  Mind you...The Monitor said that for the universe to survive...THE FLASH must die.  Now, while he may have been talking to Barry Allen of Earth 1...who's to say it won't be Jay Garrick?  Or even Barry Allen of Earth 90?  He wasn't killed in the ELSEWORLDS crossover...just sent back to his own world.  I know we will see him again before the CRISIS is over.  And IF we are saying "goodbye" to Barry...where is Wally?  Wally is the heir apparent.  I keep wondering about Wally's fate as well.  We have not heard a PEEP out of Wally this season.  Keep an eye out for that.

Okay guys, that does it for this installment.  Subscribe, comment, pass the good word around...all that jazz!  I appreciate it!

Until next week....keep on running!