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Television

FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 8×12- “Death Rises”

The Flash (08×12)- “Death Rises”

Written by:         Alex Boyd

Directed by:       Philip Chipera

After a narration from Deathstorm about who he is and how he intends to end life he attacks Caitlin. Even though she’s covered in the black flames nothing seems to happen to her. Barry comes back and tries to stop the attack but his lightning does nothing, still Deathstorm leaves saying that “it’s not enough” as he does.

Later in the infirmary, Caitlin catches them up on what happened and tries to apologize for helping Deathstorm in the last episode. Barry vows to stop him before getting the team to start working on that task.

Cecile finds him and notices the state Barry’s in emotionally but before he can tell her Iris disappeared he gets a text from Sue saying that Iris is back and he rushes back to the apartment.  Iris seems fine but considering what happened to Tinya’s mother she’s not feeling excited for a hug.

Sue lets them have some time together and Iris explains that while in the Still Force you can see your past, present and future all at once but she couldn’t see her future and she’s worried it means she doesn’t have one. Which is understandably worrying.

Deathstorm attacks some dude at a bus stop but unlike Caitlin his attack works on him.  The next morning, Iris, Barry and Sue are waiting for Deon to show up to help them but while they’re waiting Barry’s called away by Captain Kramer.

When the Flash arrives at the Police Station Kramer explains to Barry and Joe that Deathstorm is picking up the pace of his attacks.  Kramer asks how Barry and Joe how they deal with problems like this and Joe offers to lend a hand however he can.  After Flash leaves, Kramer orders her team to lock down the city as best they can but not engage Deathstorm.

Back at STAR Labs, the Flash is gathering information but there’s just not much information to gather.  Cecile comes in and does her Counselor Troi thing which gives Barry an idea. The old “Use your Psychic teammate to lure in the psychic monster” trick! (If you don’t tell Barry that this plan hardly ever works, I won’t either.)

After nightfall, Deon finally arrives.  He tells them even he is cut off from seeing the future and he believes that whatever is happening to Iris is affecting his abilities so he tries to use a piece of Still Force energy to track her movements but before he can do anything else he collapses in pain and disappears.

Way to go, Iris and Sue! You killed him!

Returning to STAR Labs, Chester and Barry try to boost Cecile’s powers to find Deathstorm.  But there’s no need since not only Deathstorm already there he’s possessed Cecile.  That Feeling When your plan goes so wrong it goes right!

In another part of the Labs, Allegra is confronted by Esperanza and they have a showdown in Spanish before they attack each other.  Things are definitely going from bad to worse.

Speaking of bad to worse, Iris is brooding over her problems which is bad. Sue tries to help her by telling billionaire stories which is worse.  In fact, her stories are so bad, Iris has another attack.

Joe finds Barry doing some of his own brooding and tries to keep him going forward.  So that makes it a perfect time for Deathstorm to show up again and takes Caitlin.  Barry gives chase but since Deathstorm is flying Barry can’t do anything.  Or can he?

 Using the power of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning:

And Chester’s boots, Barry literally uses his lightning to step on and nearly catches him before Deathstorm disappears though some sort of portal. Barry isn’t fast enough to follow through but he is able to get a look inside.

Deathstorm takes Caitlin to an amusement park outside of town where he feeds on several people at once. Caitlin just begs him to kill her but Deathstorm doesn’t want her dead, he wants her as his bride.  By the time Barry gets to them Deathstorm is gone but he’s left Caitlin behind but it’s clear he’s done something since his flames are in her eyes for a moment.

Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin’s checked out her vitals and she’s in noticeably better health physically but Cecile believes Deathstorm has left several people’s grief within her.  Barry heads out to discuss what he saw with Chester and Allegra, he explains that when he got Chester out of his artificial Black Hole way back when the space within looked exactly like what he saw when Deathstorm traveled through the portal.  This gives Chester an idea to turn the MAC into something to stop Deathstorm but they’d need something or someone to contain the energy the MAC would unleash.  They even have a volunteer with similar powers to Deathstorm. Frost.

After the end title card, Iris wakes up in her apartment having heard something. She looks around the apartment but the only thing she finds is Eddie back from the dead, happy to see her but that’s totally normal…

Wait a minute! That’s not normal!

Interesting episode this week, quite a lot of set up was done and quite a lot of plots were moved forward.  The big mover was the Caitlin/Deathstorm/Frost plot and boy is it really starting to feel like they’re going to write off either Caitlin or Frost at the end of this story.

Speaking of feeling like someone is being written off, Iris seems to be coming unstuck in time. Somewhat similar to the way the character spent some time jumping around time after Barry’s death in the comic version Crisis on Infinite Earths. These two plot-lines are noticeable because of the rumors surrounding a character being killed off this season and the rumors that Season Nine will be the final season of the Flash.  All that being said, anything could happen and these plot lines could easily be resolved with no body count.

As for Deathstorm himself, feeding on grief definitely lines up with the Blackest Night event as that is how the Black Lantern rings work on people but with the news that Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow being cancelled and the pending sale of CW, it’s highly doubtful too much will come of this story-line outside of the series which is unfortunate.

All said and done, this was a pretty fun episode with some extra point thrown in for use of classic Metallica.

Things We Learned:

  1. Whatever is happening to Iris has affected the Still Force to the point of doing harm to it and Deon.
  2. Deathstorm seems intent on changing Caitlin into something more like him.
  3. Chester has a plan to use the MAC from season four to stop Deathstorm.

Questions:

  1. What does Iris seeing a vision of Eddie mean?
  2. What happened to Deon?
  3. What is Deathstorm doing to Caitlin?
  4. Is whatever is happening to Iris affecting the other Forces as well?

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