The Arrowverse’s Most Tragic Death Didn’t Stick (But Maybe It Should’ve)

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Barry Allen loses his mother when he’s very young in The Flash and spends the next decade trying to figure out the truth about the night of her death. The mission points him in the direction of a mystery speedster who knows a little too much about Barry and his friends. In fact, the villain gets enough of a drop on Team Flash that he’s able to take one of them out – at least for a little while.

Cisco Ramon Gets on the Reverse-Flash’s Bad Side in The Flash

After Barry gets struck by lightning during the particle accelerator explosion, he wakes up in S.T.A.R. Labs, surrounded by people he’s never met before. It turns out that Barry’s body is different than before, so scientists need to keep an eye on him. Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, and Harrison Wells begin to teach Barry how to utilize his super speed and protect Central City from the other metahumans created by the accident. But Barry can’t focus on his superhero career all the time because his powers prove that his father didn’t kill his mother and that there is an evil speedster out there. As Team Flash begins its investigation, it begins to suspect Wells is somehow involved, but Cisco wants to investigate further.

In The Flash Season 1, Episode 15, “Out of Time,” Caitlin distracts Wells while Cisco looks back at a hologram from one of the encounters with the Reverse-Flash. Before he can wrap his head around what he finds, though, Wells appears behind him and reveals the truth: he’s the Reverse-Flash and the person who killed Barry’s mom. Wells then starts talking about how much Cisco means to him, confusing the young man. Unfortunately, Cisco doesn’t get a good explanation for anything because his mentor kills him by putting a hand through his heart. It’s a shocking moment because Cisco seems like he’s going to be around for the long haul. Well, The Flash reverses the death shortly after it happens when the titular hero time-travels for the first time. It’s great news for Cisco, but pulling back may have hurt the show in the long run.

The Flash Loses Its Fastball in Later Seasons

Cisco’s death may not be permanent, but a couple of other major characters bite the dust in The Flash‘s first season. During the final confrontation with Reverse-Flash, Eddie Thawne, Iris West’s fiancée, shoots himself in order to remove his distant relative from the timeline. Eddie’s death hurts everyone, and the blows keep coming in Season 2 when another evil speedster, Zoom, kills Barry’s father, Henry, not long after he’s freed from prison. But that shocking moment is one of The Flash‘s last impactful ones, as the show starts to strip away the stakes in subsequent seasons. H.R. Wells sacrifices himself to save Iris in Season 3, but another Wells takes his place shortly after. Meanwhile, Caitlin, despite losing her body to a new personality named Khione, gets to return to her body before the end of the series finale.

Cisco doesn’t have any other serious brushes with death, getting to embrace his heroic side as Vibe and find love. It eventually becomes clear that his place isn’t in Central City, so he leaves Team Flash behind. But if he was going to leave eventually, The Flash may have been better off killing him early on. That way, it would’ve hit harder when other characters found themselves in dire straits.

The Flash is streaming on Netflix.

How did you react to Cisco’s “death” in The Flash Season 1? Do you think it was a mistake to reverse it? Let us know in the comments below!