This is it, folks! Cisco Ramon’s last episode of The Flash…
Welcome back to our weekly recap, this week’s episode is named “Good-Bye Vibrations” and it was a heartfelt farewell one of the original characters of the show, I didn’t cry but I was about to at the end. Let’s dive right in!
1. Giving the good news
Well, going to work on a Saturday is awful, but going to the office to discover that your best friend is moving to another city is just a kick in the nuts. As we saw last episode, Kamilla got her own gallery show in Miami, and now we know that Cisco got a new gig on ARGUS as head of Tech and Science, which is awesome news for both of them, but the bad thing is that they have to leave tomorrow, so it’s going to be a harsh farewell to the rest of the team.
So, they congratulate them and now Cisco has to do all the preparations for the farewell, he gives Chester his lab, the problem is, it seriously needs to be inventoried, which, for Runk is like going to heaven. This was the least developed relationship due to Chester being the newest addition to the cast, and I really enjoyed their relationship dubbed “Chesco”, they had a great dynamic and I’m sad that we won’t have it anymore, but I am confident that actor Brandon McKnight will be a good replacement as the geek-tech genius of the team.
Of course, Cisco is expecting to see some tears from the rest of the members of Team Flash, but instead, Barry starts boxing everything by himself, and Caitlin gives her hand to Cisco, but not for a handshake, instead she is asking his ID badges, this makes Ramon a little uneasy, are they not sad for his departure?
2. Rainbow Raider 2.0
Meanwhile, there’s a new meta in town, and she has the ability to alter other people’s emotions, just like Rainbow Rider… what’s that? You don’t know who that is? Well, don’t worry, it’s a villain from the very first episode, so I understand if you don’t remember him.
The difference between both metas is that this new villain can use all colors from the spectrum, instead of only red, this means that she is stronger, and here, she is using happiness instead of rage, she convinces a bank manager to give her a million dollars, then she manages to escape from both Mecha-Vibe and The Flash, but something is weird here, she is not committing violent crimes or fighting back, what is she up to, then?
3. The confrontation
After being happy-drunk for a while, Chester manages to wear off the effects of Rainbow Rider on Cisco and Barry, and while looking for options, Barry proposes to use Cisco’s new work on Argus to look for something useful to stop the villain, which annoys his friend, if they all are eager for his parting, why don’t he goes right now instead of the next day?
So, now is the time to have a talk, both Caitlin and Barry admit that they are not showing emotions because otherwise they would fall down crying, because of course they are sad, but they also want to see his friend maturing, even if it means moving on. Then, Cisco tells them about Psych’s nightmare, and we already knew about it, he is terrified of not growing up, of being stuck on the same place after tirthy years. And I feel that, just like the character, actor Carlos Valdes was also talking to us, the audience, he has to move on, he wants to focus on new projects, maybe more acting gigs, maybe he wants to focus on his music (#BandcampFridays, baby). And that is more than fair, that’s deserved.
4. Could we say, the villain is a radical activist?
After they make peace, the next thing is stopping Rainbow Raider, and they discover that she worked in a lot of collection agencies, and she was fired from every on of them for cancelling medical debts instead of collecting them.
Now, she is heading to the stadium with a blimp full of money and gold and gems to let them all fall from the sky, Team Flash is still going to stop her, all that money falling from the sky could cause a riot and, after all, she committed multiple robberies.
Continued belowOn the zeppelin, she reveals that she sees many injustices in the world, and she doesn’t want the money for her, instead she plans on helping the whole city with it, if the whole system failed the less fortunate, she won’t let them fall through the cracks of society.
Flash agrees with her, so, instead of sending her to jail, he will recommend that she serves her sentence working at the Mayor’s Economic Development Committee, where she could help directly from the government.
And I am amazed! He have been seeing Joe’s storyline, fighting against meta-criminalization as an analogy of the police marginalizing minorities in real life. And now, we have an arguably good “villain”, fighting for the poor.
This is one of the best additions to the show from showrunner Eric Wallace, stories grounded on real life problems, using the show as an allegory of life, and I’m very happy to see this topics discussed in my cheesy superhero show. Honestly, I really want to see more of Rainbow Raider, maybe asking the Flash for help in some case, let’s see what other tales they have to tell.
5. Goodbye Cisco, Goodbye Carlos Valdes
At the end, after the day was saved, Cisco officially gives Chester his role as second in command and they have two parties, Team Citizen say farewell to Kamilla, whom is going to be hard to replace, and Team Flash have a karaoke party, where they sing Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.
And that’s how we say goodbye to the very spark of this show, I mean, Barry Allen is the main character, but Cisco Ramon had always been the scene stealer, I could argue that he is the best character in the entire Arrowverse, and now we won’t have him anymore.
Farewell, Carlos Valdes, seriously, thank you for these seven years giving us laughs and emotive moments, we all are eager to see what you do next. Thank you.
BONUS: Cecile was up to something in this episode, and on the cliffhanger scene we discover that she has a mask on the mirror, what is happening here?
And that’s it for this episode, maybe this was the best episode of the entire season, full of laughs, full of emotive moments and also it sets a new status-quo for our charcters. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 713, “Masquerade”.
