The Flash: Carlos Valdes Talks Flashpoint Cisco

When The Flash Season 3 premiere on The CW on Tuesday audiences are going to be introduced to a whole new world. Thanks to Barry Allen’s actions in the Season 2 finale of The Flash, “The Race of His Life,” an entirely new timeline has been created that will be explored in the Season 3 premiere episode “Flashpoint.”

The effects of Barry’s decision affects everyone, including STAR labs’ Cisco Ramon. In the “Flashpoint” timeline, Cisco is more than just a brilliant lab rat, he’s the head of Ramon Industries and the richest man in the United States.

“The repercussions of Barry changing the timeline span all across the spectrum for all of our characters,” says Carlos Valdes, who plays Cisco on The Flash. “He’s created an alternate reality where Cisco has actually cashed in on his talents. Cisco’s become this snot-nosed billionaire that heads up this giant tech company, basically.

“I think underneath all of that, there’s still a pivotal core,” Valdes continues. “He might just have a heart underneath.”

Until recently, 26-year-old Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) lived a normal life as a perpetually tardy C.S.I. in the Central City Police department. He was secretly in love with his best friend, Iris West (Candice Patton), daughter of Barry’s surrogate father, Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin). Joe adopted Barry fifteen years ago after Barry’s mother was murdered and Barry’s father, Henry Allen, received a life sentence for the crime – though Barry always maintained that a mysterious “Man in Yellow” was responsible. Then the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded, creating a dark matter lightning storm that struck Barry, bestowing him with superspeed and making him the fastest man alive. But Barry wasn’t the only person who was given extraordinary abilities that night. The dark matter also created meta-humans, many of whom have wreaked havoc with their powers on the city. With the help of his scientist friends at S.T.A.R Labs, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes), and Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), Barry began a journey as The Flash to protect the people of Central City from these powerful new threats. With this team, Barry was finally able to defeat the Man in Yellow, aka The Reverse Flash, but in their epic battle, a Singularity was ripped in space and time that threatened to destroy them all.

After successfully closing the Singularity from destroying Central City, Barry thinks he’s seen the worst… but the arrival of Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) reveals that the Singularity actually opened portals to an alternate Earth, known as Earth-2, which is being terrorized by a formidable evil speedster named Zoom. As Zoom sends an army of Earth-Two meta-humans to Earth-1 to defeat Barry, he receives unexpected assistance from the Earth-Two doppelganger of his former mentor, Harrison Wells. Meanwhile, Cisco discovers that he, too, was affected by the dark matter of the Particle Accelerator and must come to terms with his newfound powers. As Barry struggles to juggle life as a hero, he opens his heart to Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten), a spunky detective paired with Joe West, but realizes just how hard it is to find happiness when the lives of everyone you love are at stake. He finds some solace in the companionship of his father, Henry Allen, who was freed from a wrongful life sentence… but when Zoom kills Henry before Barry’s eyes, Barry’s newfound stability is shattered.

Blinded by anger, Barry unwittingly plays into Zoom’s game and uncovers the evil speedster’s true goal: to destroy all Earths in the multiverse. In the race of his life, Barry ultimately gets the upper hand against Zoom and defeats his nemesis. But unable to celebrate victory, Barry makes a world-shaking decision and speeds back in time to the night his mother died to stop Reverse Flash from killing her, irrevocably changing his past and redetermining his future.

The Flash Season 3 premieres Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.