Is The Flash Preparing to Kill Caitlin Snow?

Season 8 of The Flash is shaping up to be one of the most emotionally challenging for Central City's heroes. The CW series' season opened with the five-part "Armageddon" event which saw Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) seemingly dead and while that, having turned out to be a machination of Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh) was resolved with Joe alive and well, things haven't really gotten any easier. Iris (Candice Patton) has been dealing with a time sickness that seems to be beyond anything that Team Flash has ever dealt with, and the mysterious and deadly Black Flame at first appeared to be long dead Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell) but turns out to be something else entirely, Deathstorm. With several episodes left in the season, Team Flash has a lot on its plate still. Showrunner Eric Wallace has teased events coming up that will forever alter the team and the synopsis for one episode, "Funeral for a Friend", teases the death of someone they love. While there is always speculation about what could be coming when it comes to the Arrowverse and its big twists, there's one specific possibility we can't quite stop thinking about. Given the promise of big changes and a major loss, we can't help but wonder: is The Flash preparing to kill off Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker)?

One of the original members of Team Flash, Caitlin has been there from the beginning — and even before the beginning of the series, as she and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) both appeared on Arrow before they did on The Flash. Losing Caitlin would be quite a blow, but there's a decent number of clues that could be teasing that we could be nearing the end of Caitlin's story, and it seems like it's connected to the Deathstorm storyline. For starters there's Wallace's recent comments about Deathstorm's motivation. In a recent interview, Wallace explained that while the reveal of Deathstorm was huge, it's the revelation of what he wants that will be "devastating" and could include "victories" for the villain that no one saw coming.

"So, at the end of Episode 11, 'Resurrection,' Deathstorm showed up and revealed himself. But what was not revealed is the true reason he's back. That will be revealed Everything about why he is back, his plan, what he wants and how it'll affect Team Flash forever will be revealed in 'Death Rises.' Deathstorm might even achieve victories we never saw coming. It's going to be devastating," Wallace said. "Why he's back is not what people think it is. Sometimes — and this is a very very big hint—sometimes the bigger the villain, the simpler the motivation. It's not always some crazy, Machiavellian plan. The working title for this graphic novel, which is not a spoiler, was 'The Black Fire Hauntings.' When I first pitched my crazy ideas, my staff looked at me like, 'what? Are you out of your mind? That sounds like a horror movie,' And I went, 'Yes, it is a horror movie. We're going to do The Flash's version of a horror film over several episodes.' And once they got past that, then the excitement set in."

But while Wallace said that Deathstorm's motives aren't yet revealed, Amell may have hinted at them in a separate interview. While discussing his return to The Flash for "Resurrection", Amell told TV Insider, "This is not the human version of Deathstorm. He's more like a monster who's lonely who wants his bride."

While Deathstorm isn't exactly the Ronnie Raymond that The Flash fans know and love, he is still made from Ronnie Raymond which means that "bride" Deathstorm wants is very likely Caitlin Snow, Ronnie's wife. After all, he did seek her out to help him become corporeal so it's not too much of a stretch to think that he'd also want to bring her into his own larger crusade, whatever it is. And while Caitlin herself doesn't exactly have metahuman abilities, the show recently revealed that her mother, Dr. Carla Tannhauser (Susan Walters) recently discovered her own latent cryo-gene. It wouldn't be a big leap to discover that Caitlin has something similar even though she's now independent from Frost (also Panabaker). Deathstorm could somehow activate that, making Caitlin his "bride"—or unexpectedly killing her in the process, which would lead into that big loss for Team Flash.

Wallace also said that fans should revisit the beginning of Season 6 of The Flash for clues about the current storyline, specifically saying "What I would tell people to do before watching our Episodes 12, 13, and 14, and onward is to rewatch the beginning of Season 6. And I wouldn't watch it for 'Bloodwork,' I'd watch it for all the other reasons. The clues have been there the whole time." Going back to look at the Season 6 opener, there are quite a few different story threads there that could carry to the Deathstorm story, but it's of note that the early episodes deal with not only Caitlin dealing through loss via the death of Ramsey Rosso's (Sendhil Ramamurthy) mother, but also Frost trying to create her own life independent of Caitlin. While Frost and Caitlin are now two separate people, their two lives have been intertwined to this point. Caitlin's death would force Frost to be on her own—and deal with her own major loss, not one of Caitlin's—for the very first time.

It's that aspect of things that would make the death of Caitlin Snow an interesting and workable plot twist for The Flash. Killing off Caitlin would mean a devastating loss for Team Flash but would also allow Panabaker to remain on the show, now as just one character. Over the past season and a half, we've also seen a lot more of Frost and her contributions to Team Flash as opposed to Caitlin. There's also the possibility that the death of Caitlin could also provide a larger story going into Season 9. With the introduction of this iteration of Deathstorm, many have speculated that The Flash—and perhaps even the larger Arrowverse—could be heading towards their own Blackest Night event. In the comics, that event saw Nekron, a personified force of death, reanimate deceased superheroes as part of his quest to eliminate all life and feeling from the universe—and Deathstorm was a part of that. For The Flash, it would be a devastating turn to not only have to save the world from a Nekron-like figure but fight a reanimated Caitlin in the process.

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW. 'Death Rises" airs April 27th.

What do you think? Do you think that The Flash is gearing up to kill off Caitlin Snow? Are we headed towards a Blackest Night event? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!