Central City is on high alert and everything is just chaos on The Flash. In “Death Rises,” Team Flash has their hands full keeping Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) safe from Deathstorm.
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At the end of the last episode, Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell), aka the Black Flame aka Caitlin Snow’s dead husband, transformed into a new villain called Deathstorm. He came to Earth to end life. He completed his transformation thanks to Caitlin and now he wants to return the favor. Deathstorm grabs Caitlin and flames engulf her while she screams.
The Flash (Grant Gustin) shows up to stop Deathstorm with a lightning bolt, but it’s only strong enough for him to let go of Caitlin. Deathstorm fires back at the Flash, throwing him across the room. The dark villain says to himself that “it’s not enough,” and he will return to end Caitlin’s life.
Caitlin is fine. She apologizes to the team for being manipulated into thinking that thing was Ronnie. Now they have a more dangerous big bad to deal with. The team is more concerned with why Deathstorm want’s Caitlin dead and vow to protect her. Caitlin and Frost (Panabaker) decide to move into the speed lab.
Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) shows up to help. She senses Barry is worried about more than just Caitlin’s situation. He tells her that Iris (Candice Patton) is missing. As he tells Cecile the news, Barry gets a text from Sue (Natalie Dreyfuss) that Iris is back and he runs to be with her.
Iris stops him from hugging her because of what happened to Tinya’s (Mika Abdalla) mother. She was the last person Tinya’s mother touched before she disappeared. Barry thinks Iris’s time sickness saved her when Tinya attacked her. He thinks she was pulled into the Still Force. Iris agrees and tells him what she saw when she was there. She did not see her future. Despite Iris’s fear, Barry holds her to comfort her.
The next day, Iris waits for Deon (Christian Magby) to appear, but he’s a no show. Barry gets an alert from Capt. Kramer (Carmen Moore). He doesn’t want to leave Iris, but Sue says she will watch after her.
Barry rushes away. The CCPD is getting multiple calls about a ‘living skeleton” burning people all over the city. Joe (Jesse L. Martin) is there when the Flash arrives. Flash tells Kramer that Deathstorm feeds on people’s grief and burns them. Kramer is at a loss on how to deal with this new threat. Joe promises to stick around and help. They decide to lock down the city to keep everyone safe.
Team Flash convenes to find a way to better track Deathstorm and protect Caitlin. Chester (Brandon McKnight) upgrades all of their systems, but they don’t feel too confident. Allegra (Kayla Compton) asks how Caitlin is doing. Cecile can sense that she’s still really shaken up by what happened. This triggers an idea in Barry. He says they don’t need the satellites to find Deathstorm. All they need is Cecile.
Barry wants to find a way to link Cecile’s empathic abilities with the lab’s satellites to find Deathstorm. Deathstorm feeds on grief and grief is an emotion. Allegra is concerned and Chester agrees that linking them up could damage Cecile’s neuro synapsis. But that doesn’t scare Cecile. She wants to stop Deathstorm more than anything.
Caitlin still feels stupid for believing that Ronnie came back to life. Frost says it’s not her fault that they are in lock down and she should feel bad for what Deathstorm did to her. Caitlin is really hurt because she feels like she lost Ronnie all over again.
Deon finally shows up for Iris. He already knows about Tinya’s mom, but there’s something weird about it. He only knew about Tinya’s mom because it happened in the past. Deon caught Iris’s time sickness and it’s affecting his ability to get to her. He says he’s sick. And he can see everyone’s future but Iris’s.
They have to slow down whatever is happening before they lose Iris. Sue says they need a way to find Iris if she disappears. Deon creates a tracker to give to Iris. He tells her to fight to stay and anchor herself to the present. He senses something is wrong. Deon turns around and disappears into green bits of particles.
Chester sets up the link for Cecile to find Deathstorm. Once she gets his location, the Flash will go after him. Cecile finds Deathstorm’s signal at STAR Labs. Deathstorm takes over Cecile to communicate with Barry. He says they won’t find him until he’s ready. He says they can’t stop him. And the only way they can survive is to give Caitlin to him. Barry refuses.
Deathstorm can sense the tiniest bit of sorrow in both Barry and Chester. Barry says they’ve faced that grief already. Deathstorm says it’s still there and that’s why they can’t stop him. He lets go of Cecile. Cecile says Deathstorm is determined and he’s never going to give up on Caitlin.
Deathstorm appears to Allegra as her dead cousin Esperanza (Alexa Barajas). They exchange some words. Allegra knows it’s not really her cousin. She antagonizes the spirit and they blast each other with ultraviolet rays. Esperanza disappears and Chester picks up the blast inside of STAR labs. Barry rushes to find out what happened. Allegra tells him what happened and is confused as to why Deathstorm is haunting her now.
Iris is feeling down about what happened to Deon. She questions her future even more. She starts to phase in and out of existence. Sue encourages her to find what anchors her to the present. She mentions Barry, Bart and Nora and tells Iris to fight for her family. It works and Iris stops phasing.
Joe visits the lab to give Barry a pep talk. He says all of the weapons won’t help Barry prepare for this monster. All he can do is be who he is and use that to gain the advantage. He also tells Barry to trust himself.
Frost and Caitlin hear a strange noise in the speed lab. Deathstorm shows up and blasts Frost, knocking her back. He looks at Caitlin and says it’s time for her life to end. The alert goes off and Chester informs Barry that Deathstorm took Caitlin. He starts to track Caitlin’s phone so they can find her. The Flash races off to save his friend.
Flash chases Deathstorm but he starts to fly in the air. Flash asks Chester if his boots can redirect the kinetic output created when he runs. Chester says it’s possible but the force of the two equal energies would cancel each other out. Chester gets excited because the Flash is attempting something new. Time to ride the lightning.
Flash throws down burst of lightning and uses those bursts as stepping stones so he can run into the air. He gets really close to catching up with Deathstorm when a portal opens. It closes just before Flash reaches Deathstorm’s foot and Flash falls to the ground. They lost Caitlin.
Caitlin and Deathstorm end up at a carnival. Deathstorm immediately feeds on four people’s grief, killing them in black flames. He turns to Caitlin and says he travelled across the stars to transform her. She will end his loneliness by becoming Deathstorm’s bride. He puts his hands on Caitlin’s shoulders engulfing her in flames.
Chester picks up Caitlin’s cell phone signal and tells Flash where to find her. When Flash arrives, he sees the four dead bodies and Caitlin kneeling on the ground nearby. He asks her what happened. When Caitlin looks up at him, black flames flash in her eyes. Deathstorm said she’s not ready and left her.
Caitlin is okay, in fact, she’s better than before. Her cells are in constant state of regenesis. Cecile senses a massive amount of grief in Caitlin. It’s like Deathstorm put the grief inside of her to change her. She tells them about Deathstorm’s plan to wed her but her transformation wasn’t complete. They assume Deathstorm is going to feed again and return for Caitlin to complete that transformation.
Frost has heard enough. She doesn’t want to wait for the Bachelor from Hell to return to give Caity a rose. They have to find him first. Caitlin starts having headaches and pains but can’t explain why. Barry leaves to find a way to stop Deathstorm.
Barry convenes with Chester and Allegra. He tells them what he saw in Deathstorm’s portal. He says the space looked like Chester’s singularity. The one that made him create a black hole. This means when Deathstorm disappears, he is jumping around between points in dimensional space.
Barry thinks Ronnie’s grief travelled through the singularity and created Deathstorm. He’s been trapped there trying to get back to Caitlin. Basically, a death monster from another dimension travelled through outer space to find his death bride.
All of this talk excites Chester because now they know where Deathstorm’s powers come from. He says the need a cosmic weapon to defend themselves against Deathstorm. And he has just the gadget they need. The MAC – mental augmentation chamber. Chester wants to adjust the MAC to emit cosmic craziness. They would also need someone who can contain all of the energy. Enter Killer Frost.
Frost volunteers to be the anti-Deathstorm to take him down. Both of their powers are based on cold fusion. Barry thinks it’s too dangerous, but Frost insists on going through with it. Just to keep Caity safe.
Back in Coast City, Sue and Iris are sleeping as someone watches them. Iris hears a hissing noise and gets up to see where it’s coming from. She turns around to see Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett). He’s very happy to see Iris.
RELATED: Catch up on all of The Flash recaps here
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
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