Since before Season 8 of The Flash began, it’s been teased that a big change for Team Flash was on the way. Series showrunner Eric Wallace told fans months ago that the heroes would face something this season that would emotionally change the team permanently and last week, it was confirmed that there would be a major character death in this week’s episode, “Death Falls”. Going into the episode, fans had plenty of theories about who would be the character to fall as the team takes on their most dangerous and challenging threat yet, Deathstorm, but it was still a surprise when it was revealed who Team Flash — and fans — would be saying goodbye to.
Warning: spoilers beyond this point for this week’s episode of The Flash, “Death Falls”.
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Last week’s episode, “Death Rises”, left off with a dire situation for Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker). Deathstorm (Robbie Amell) revealed that his plan was to take Caitlin as his bride to end his loneliness. To do that, Caitlin would have to be transformed to be like him, but Caitlin wasn’t quite ready. Instead, he loaded her with an immense amount of grief to begin the transition and said that he would be back to complete the process when she was ready. This prompted Team Flash to come up with a plan: they’d use the MAC to transform Frost (Panabaker) so that she would be able to take Deathstorm on, absorbing his powers and stopping him for good.
It was a good plan and after coming into her own — and her feelings — Frost was transformed into Hell Frost, enabling her to take on Deathstorm. The pair fight with Hell Frost ultimately victorious. She defeats Deathstorm and absorbs his power, eliminating him for good. Unfortunately for Frost, that power was more than she could handle. Despite the best efforts of a restored Caitlin, Frost dies, though not without knowing that she saved her sister’s life.
It’s a stunning loss for Team Flash, who hasn’t really lost anyone quite like this before, and it’s a devastating loss for Caitlin. But for Frost, while her death is sad, it’s also an important part of her journey. Panabaker told ComicBook.com that feeling “real” had been the character’s greatest struggle so going out not only very real, but the hero was a good one for the character.
“I think that’s been the 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,” Panabaker said. “And that’s a nice note to go out on.”
But as for how Frost’s death will impact Caitlin, Panabaker had a little darker outlook. She said that she wasn’t sure how Caitlin will handle this latest blow, especially since Frost had filled a major void for the character.
“I think this is going to be a real challenge for Caitlin,” Panabaker said. “She hasn’t a partner in the romantic or platonic sense in years and I think Frost really filled that void. And despite 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.”
The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
