The Flash: Danielle Panabaker Opens Up About Team Flash’s Big Loss in “Death Falls”

As had been teased heading into this week’s episode of The Flash, “Death Falls” saw Team Flash dealt what may be the most shocking and difficult blow ever. Last week, it was confirmed that the episode would feature a major character death and even before that, showrunner Eric Wallace had promised that events in Season 8 would change Team Flash forever. That change came in the battle against Deathstorm as the team’s efforts to stop the deadly entity came at high cost. Now, series star Danielle Panabaker breaks down Team Flash’s devastating loss in the episode and teases what’s next. Warning: there will be spoilers for “Death Falls” beyond this point.

In “Death Falls”, Team Flash transforms Frost into Hell Frost so that she can fight Deathstorm, the transformation giving her the ability to take him on and also defeat him. Of course, it’s a plan that doesn’t necessarily go smoothly. Deathstorm attempts to get into Frost’s head and convince her that she’s not real. More specifically, he tells her that she’s only a copy of the real Caitlin and as a result has no feelings of her own. Because of that, she’s not a real person and never will be. It almost prevents Frost from transforming, but she ultimately comes to realize that it’s not that her own pain and grief aren’t real, just that she buries it all so deeply because she loves her sister so much. After dealing with her fear of losing Caitlin, the transformation works, making Frost a perfect weapon against Deathstorm. And it works: Hell Frost defeats Deathstorm and Caitlin is saved, but it doesn’t end well for Frost. Frost dies following her battle with Deathstorm despite Caitlin’s best efforts to save her.

According to Panabaker, Frost’s death is something that she knew about before heading into Season 8 and that the demise of the fan favorite character was something that she wanted to have some actual gravity, something that needed to be more than just a “fake out”.

“This was actually something that Eric had pitched to me last summer,” Panabaker said. “I think right around the time we were wrapping up Season 7, and he was throwing ideas around for Season 8. My biggest concern was that I didn’t want it to be a fake out. I wanted it to be a real death. It didn’t seem fair to have this be a tease. So, I’ve known the whole season.”

Panabaker also said that she was pleased with how things worked out with the story. She explained that she felt that the writers did a good job of giving Frost a whole story and fleshing a lot of things out before the end was important.

“Knowing that it was coming, and the writers did such a good job of really fleshing out Frost’s story up until the end of the road for her,” Panabaker said. “And it gives different weight to all of the various episodes and moments leading up to it. The fact that she’s in a relatively mature, healthy relationship with Mark looks a little different when you realize that it’s her last one and the fact that they were able to find some resolution in terms of her relationship with her mom, I think is significant as well.”

Frost dealing with her identity — the question of whether she’s truly her own person — was also something that important as well.

“I think that’s been her greatest struggle and I think it’s nice to see her really come into her own and get to be the hero that saves the day,” she added.

As for Caitlin and the rest of Team Flash, Frost’s death is going to be one that is difficult for everyone to process as the season continues.

“I think this is going to be a real challenge for Caitlin,” Panabaker said. “She hasn’t had a partner in the romantic or platonic sense in years and I think Frost really filled that void. And despite the fact that their relationship, which wasn’t perfect, which I loved, Frost was her partner in almost every sense and to lose that person, a sister and a best friend, all of it, I think is going to be devastating for her and I’m not sure how she’ll recover.”

“It’s a big loss for them,” Panabaker said of Team Flash. “Last year, when Cisco left, that was a loss, but he came back and it was a different kind of gone, but not forever. Frost is gone forever, and I think it’s going to take Team Flash a minute to find their footing.”

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.