Saying Goodbye to Cisco

Team Flash lost one of their original members in the latest episode of season 7. Long time friend and ally of Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon said goodbye to his friends, family and colleagues.

While The Flash has not been what I hoped it would be in season 7 I still was bummed to hear that Carlos Valdes was departing as a series regular. He has often provided the heart, the laughs and has even acted as emotional support for most of the team. The show simply will not be the same without him. For better or worse.

Most of the issues in season 7 have had zero to do with Cisco and have been just lazy writing when trying to adapt classic storylines from the comics. Carlos Valdes always turned in great performances and from day one made Cisco a likable character and a valued member of Team Flash. What sucks is that his exit along with fellow cast member Tom Cavanaugh is that it comes during the show's worst creative slump. It wasn't during a high point and so the show could use their departures for emotional impact. Cavanaughs came during and Valdes' comes right after their worst storyline to date.

Now let's jump into the meat and potatoes of the episode. What went down during Cisco's last hurrah with his friends and colleagues? The final case for OG Team Flash is Rainbow Raider 2.0 but this time the motivations are not quite the same. Cisco spends a big part of the episode being an overly joyful version of himself but it works. It offsets the always looming heavy moments of him leaving this makeshift family they created at S.T.A.R Labs.

Those conversations do come and it was nice to see some moments from throughout the series. Cisco always was a big part of what sold the show to new audiences and they kept him well rounded giving him a solid number of storylines that played to his strengths on the show.

It simply won't be possible to replicate the nerdy likable science genius that Valdes helped mold over 6.5 seasons on the show. They will attempt to carry some of that on and it may come across as forced. I am not sure Chester can carry the same Vibe (pun intended) without Cisco to bounce off of. Bart Allen Aka Impulse may play into that aspect heading into season 8 but Nora displayed a lot of his personality traits in season 5.

There are plenty of storylines from the comics that don't require the team aspect to be as heavy. They already squandered one with the Force Quest storyline. Godspeed has been teased in various set photos that have been making their rounds on social media. The true Godspeed storyline has not been done yet but I don't think there are enough of the comic book characters around to set it up properly. The characters that have been teased to show up really don't factor into that story.

My point is that so much has changed and losing Cisco was an absolute gut punch. I know in the comics there is also no team Flash but the show thanks to Cisco really became about a family of people who had no one else to trust but themselves. The show does not stand at a high enough quality this far in to sustain a major loss like that. I definitely cannot say the show will last another 3 seasons beyond this. A comic book show should be a little bit truer to the books so long time readers like myself can see those come to life.

So long Cisco Ramon. You truly did bring perspective to a show that sometimes fails to see just how far it has fallen. Unless the show can convince me that it can rebound in the absence of Carlos Valdes I too think it may be time for me to leave Central City until The Flash races onto the big screen.