The Flash – The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 1

By starrymag | December 2, 2019

By: Malasha Parker

 

 

Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) and Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) are fighting as they fall from the roof. Bloodwork shoots his blood into Ralph before he falls to the ground. Ralph manages to knock him down, but he gets up and draws the blood from Ralph after he’s been infected. He tells Ralph that he  and his friends cannot be allowed to prevent him from healing all of mankind. He leaves him just as Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) comes through a portal for him. She gets Ralph back to the med bay where Barry (Grant Gustin) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) try to hold down a thrashing Ralph. Frost can’t handle it, so she brings in Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) who tells them he can’t be healed, but Barry might be able to help with a blood transfusion. Barry phases the needle into him and they begin the transfusion. 

 

Iris (Candice Patton) tells Barry that Ralph is now stable. They’re going to move Ralph to A.R.G.U.S. so that he can recover. Barry tells her how he’s nervous about Crisis and how if he hadn’t of been there, things would have been different. She informs him that he’s prepared the team for Crisis so he shouldn’t be filled with doubt. 

 

Barry goes to the loft to rest, but he senses someone in the room and jumps up to see Ramsey standing behind him. Barry says he’s going to give him a chance to turn himself in, but Ramsey replies that he just wants to talk and reveals that he knows he’s The Flash. Ramsey starts to question how he became The Flash, but comes to a conclusion on his own. Barry tries to hit him, but he just moves through him. Barry tells him that he’s coming for him, but Ramsey isn’t perturbed as he continues to speak. He brings up Crisis and asks Barry where his place was when he saw the billions of possible futures. He wasn’t in any of the possibilities. Ramsey tells him that he should be scared because it’s the end of the world and Barry sees the red swirls of fire outside the windows. He starts to breath heavy and then we see him pop up from the couch again. 

 

Allegra (Kayla Compton) is sitting at Iris’ desk coloring over a picture of Barry as she grumbles about Iris having yet to tell her that her husband is The Flash. She reaches for another marker when her arm brushes over the laptop. She sees where Iris has started the headlining article for when The Flash vanished. Iris and Kamilla (Victoria Park) come in with a new story. Iris shows them photos of a man that kidnapped Allegra’s cousin and now they have a location on where the car is that they traveled in. She wants to go there but Allegra tries to see if maybe she would rather work on a story that needs more attention, but Iris tells her they need to worry about the secret organization. Kamilla will go get more photos, while Iris and Allegra go on a stakeout. 

 

Barry’s medical work looks fine, but he has a small spike in cortisol. Frost thinks it was just a nightmare, but Barry says he still feels weird. 

 

Iris and Allegra confront the man from the photo in the parking lot. She tries to ask him about the photos and his job. She tells him that he’ll run the photos without the comments, but he reaches for a business card for Maelstrom Couriers. Apparently, they’re a high-end transportation company for whatever the wealthy need to move. The woman in the coma was a government job. The women think it was a bust, but Iris believes there is still something that they missed so they should stay on the story.

 

Barry goes back home, but does a quick Flash check around the apartment first. He goes to get water, but feels a presence behind him again. He turns to see a figure that looks like his mother. He asks if this is another nightmare, but it tells him that this is “much much worse.” He realizes it’s the speed force. Speed Force Nora (Michelle Harrison) tells him that when he gave the blood transfusion he also received a small amount of Ramsey’s cells. It’s how Ramsey knew that Barry was The Flash and about Crisis. When Barry came home from getting examined he passed out on the ground after getting water. His speed healing is trying to work off the infection, but ultimately it’s up to Barry to resist him. Ramsey wants to take over Barry’s body and bend him to his will. 

 

Iris is still trying to figure out more information on the secret organization, but Allegra tells her that they could discuss how Barry is The Flash. That stops Iris’ pacing. She tells Allegra that Barry’s identity can’t be exposed. Allegra replies that she’s talking about the article on her laptop and Iris gets visibly closed-off. She says it isn’t time for that. Allegra tells her she wanted to be a reporter because of Iris’ article about The Streak. She says it made her believe in the impossible and how Iris’ article gave her hope when she had none. She tells Iris she’s never going to forgive herself if she doesn’t right the article in time. 

 

Barry startles awake to find himself in the West household with Iris, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and the team sitting around the table eating. Iris greets a confused Barry with a kiss before she goes back to stuffing her face with food. They’re all laughing and eating when Ramsey walks out with lasagna. He cuts into it and black blood oozes out. Barry jumps back at the sight and eventually all the food starts turning to black blood, but everyone continues to eat. Barry says he’s not going to give into him, but Ramsey says that he’s just there to maybe offer him a gift to which everyone robotically turns to him and says “everything.” Barry runs off into the vault’s wall. He looks worried as he stares at the vanishing Crisis article and tries to run, but gets knocked down by the pain. Ramsey starts speaking about how he can’t run from what’s happening. He says, “It’s almost like you want to make Iris a widow.” Barry yells before trying to attack him again. He finds himself on the ground in S.T.A.R. Labs where there are gravestones of family and friends who have died over the years, including his own. Ramsey tells him to join him so that his death doesn’t happen before Barry goes through a door that appears in the room. 

 

It leads to a nursery where baby Nora lays with the XS emblem hanging about her crib. Barry tries to grab her, but he isn’t able to. He starts to get stressed and asks why is he showing this to him. He then gets put into a darkness of his own doubt where he sees figures of Ralph, Iris, Joe and Reverse Flash telling him how he’s leaving them alone and will die. Reverse says, “She’s even faster than ever.” Ramsey tells him he doesn’t have to die and then shows him the newspaper article that says, “Flash Lives! Saves World From Crisis!” He snaps to put them outside where he shows Barry how The Flash healing can heal a car accident victim with Bloodwork’s powers. He tells him if he saves the world and lives then he can have all he wants. He places him in the loft where Iris is holding Baby Nora and she passes the baby to him. Ramsey asks him if he has doubts and Barry admits that he does, but instead of taking his outstretched hand Barry flashes into his childhood bed. Speed Force Nora appears and tells him to gather his strength and focus because time is running out. 

 

Joe called Iris, Kamilla, and Allegra down to the crime scene at the lot that the girls were at earlier. There was an explosion and none of the cameras got footage of it. Allegra shows them something that blew away from the crime scene that has a lot of UV energy emitting from it. Iris says she thinks the mystery is a lot deeper and more dangerous than what they initially thought. She asks them if they want to walk away, but the girls agree that it looks like Team Citizen has a new mission. 

 

Barry is still passed out on the ground when we hear Speed Force Nora tell him that Ramsey’s blood is only getting stronger. Barry says he’s lived more and he’s seen a future where he has a daughter, so this time is more difficult. Now, it finally feels like he’s been living for himself and he doesn’t want to leave. He doesn’t want to die. It tells him that the courage to move forward even in the face of all the odds is what makes him a hero and he thanks the Speed Force. Barry thinks that the lies are making it difficult, but Speed Force Nora tells him Ramsey didn’t lie and that’s what makes him so dangerous. Barry then realizes that when Ramsey told him his cells could save him he was telling the truth and that angers Barry. He thinks it’s more about him leaving behind everyone he loves. His fever starts to spike and that sends an alert to Killer Frost and Cisco. They breach to get him and realize that he’s stopped speed healing.

 

They give him some medicine while Barry yells at the Speed Force inside of his mind. He tells the Speed force that they would rather he be The Flash than have anything that he wants. The more he talks, black blood begins to seep from the walls. Frost starts to have panic attack before she can help Barry. Speed force Nora tells Barry not to listen to Ramsey when he appears, but Barry is tired of suffering. He wants to know when it will be time for the speed force to suffer. He tells the speed force that all of this illusion is the speed force trying to manipulate him, but it tells Barry that it cares about him. He gets so angry and flashes his hand through her chest. He sees her on the ground and has flashbacks of when his mother died. We see Cisco run into his lab to get Velocity X. Ramsey pins Speed Force Nora to the wall, but before he can grab Ramsey’s hand Cisco injects Barry with the Velocity X, which locks Ramsey out of the room temporarily. Barry apologizes and says he has to do it because it’s the only way to survive. Speed Force Nora tells him that accepting Ramsey’s blood will save him from Crisis, but he would lose the best of him– “Your joy, your passion, your light, that part of you that Iris loves.” He stops and considers, but Ramsey finds his way into the room. They both have him by the arms— the speed force encaptures one arm and Bloodwork has the other. He screams and then we see him awake. Cisco says, “You made it.” Barry responds with a smile saying, “It took me a while.”

 

Iris is at her desk writing “The Flash Vanishes” article for The Central City Citizen. We hear a voiceover of her typing the article and as she speaks on how they’re going to say goodbye to him, her voice breaks and tears run down her face. She gets a text alerting her about Barry and heads to S.T.A.R. labs.

 

Wells (Tom Cavanagh) is in the sewers where he uses his machine to break through the rocks. He is able to uncover a wall with encrypted writing on it where he saw Mar Novu last enter. 

 

Barry’s recapping what being infected by Bloodwork did to him to Cisco and Frost. He thanks them and Cisco says that he deserves a lot of credit because he’s the only one to get out of Bloodwork’s infection alive. He leaves to work on Crisis and Frost tells Cisco that Caitlin will come back for a while to help with Crisis. 

 

Iris rushes to Barry when she gets to S.T.A.R. Labs. She asks him how he is, but he says he’s fine before Cisco explains what happened. Iris tells him that she isn’t leaving him again, but he doesn’t respond. She asks him what he’s working on and says that maybe they should go home and spend time together, but he just asks why she’s asking so many questions. She looks at him strangely and says that she’ll let him get back to work and slowly walks away. She looks slightly worried and calmly tells Cisco and Frost that that is not Barry. Cisco walks over to him, but when he taps his shoulder Barry viciously turns around with black eyes and a black bloody mouth before flashing past them. He races all the way downtown to Bloodwork. Ramsey says, “Soon the entire world will embrace Bloodwork,” as an infected Flash kneels before him. 

 

To be continued…