The Flash season 6, episode 8 review: The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2

“I have no doubt, only conviction.” Spoilers for The Flash season 6, episode 8 follow.

Bloodwork has taken control of The Flash, thus making Central City’s greatest hero one of its newest villains.

With the odds stacked against them, Iris, Cisco, and Frost must save Barry before its too late.

Cue the zombies

Coming off an episode that was heavy on the psychological horror, it was unclear if The Flash would keep up that tone or move back to its standard ways. The answer though is neither. This episode leans heavy into zombie horror and takes a lot of inspiration from many films and shows of the genre, noticeably 28 Days Later with the fast zombies (Get it? Fast?) and its use of blood to transfer the infection.

Strip away the horror influences and the genre that this episode is tackling, this is a story about consequences and failures. Barry failed to be a hero for one moment because of his fear of death and the tempting offer Ramsey gave him. Because of that, the consequences seem almost apocalyptic. The thing is though, it’s hard to find fault in Barry’s failure and it does an excellent job of playing into the theme of the first half of the season well. Barry has helped deal with everyone else’s fear of him dying, but he never truly accepted it himself, which is completely understandable.

Because of that understanding though, that’s what makes this episode emotionally painful. Not in a bad way, but in a good way. It hurts to see the rest of Team Flash hurting because of Barry’s impossible decision and mistake, but it also leads to very satisfying triumph. By subtly showing Barry fighting through Ramsey’s infection, it proves to everyone, both in show and the audience, that Barry is still the hero that he’s always been.

Furthermore, everything that has been set up so far this season, from Allegra to Ramsey, is satisfying used in this episode and tied together well. We also get a comic accurate Bloodwork that looks life a Resident Evil villain, which is pretty great.

Nash and the Monitor

As for Nash, he finally gets to confront the Monitor, at least in part, at the beginning of this episode. In both The Flash and Arrow, the Monitor has been shown to be egomaniacal and it hasn’t been done better than in this episode where he attempts to get Nash to bow down to him. Before long though, the Monitor stops speaking to Nash. By the end of the episode, Nash gets what he wishes for.

This leads way to probably the least interesting portion of the episode where Nash has to fight off the infected. The scenes aren’t long so they don’t intrude much, but they could’ve been cut out of the episode and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Fear reigns

With Ramsey needing fear for his Bloodwork powers to take over its hosts, Cecille using her powers to detect the fear in all of the victims is ingenious. These people aren’t actually dead, so of course she would still be able to pick up their thoughts and fears. This makes her a zombie detector, essentially, paving the way for her and Kamilla to protect themselves.

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These scenes are actually the scenes in the episode that are directly horror. The rest of the episode is horror-inspired, but these scenes are simply horror. They aren’t the best horror as they never build tension that well or have great scares, but they’re a fun diversion that allows us to see how the rest of Central City is.

Another portion of the episode, that is actually quite quick, that deals with fear has to do with Frost. By having her scared that she can’t save Joe after what happened to Barry and Ralph, it creates a solid motivation for Caitlin to re-enter the picture. By doing so, Caitlin gives an excellent, quick speech about confronting fear that’s perfect for this season and this episode.

The Flash follows up one of the series’ best episodes with a satisfying conclusion to the arc and the first half of the season. Now here comes the Crisis.