Flash Boss: The Countdown to Barry's Death Has Begun, and It Will Bring Him and Iris 'Closer Than Ever Before'

Matt Webb Mitovich

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Is the Monitor creeping TVLine? Because in The Flash‘s Season 6 premiere, the omniscient being delivered a What to Watch alert that on Dec. 10, 2019 — which is when Part 3 of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover airs on The CW — Barry Allen will “make the ultimate sacrifice.”

And lest anyone think this is a case of misleading, seer-like semantics….

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“There has to be a way to stop what’s coming,” Barry countered, with wife Iris at his side. The Monitor coldly replied, “I am sorry, but events have been set into motion you cannot possibly comprehend.”

“I don’t need to understand them! Just tell me what I can do—

“To survive? You can’t. In order for billions to survive this coming Crisis, The Flash… must… die.”

So… yeah. It looks like that is happening.

FIGHT FOR LIFE
“The Flash will die. He just said it. We’re not messing around,” showrunner Eric Wallace confirmed for reporters after a premiere screening. “The countdown begins next week. What kind of urgency does that give [Barry and Iris]? An extreme one. It turns the dial up to 10 and it makes you think, ‘Is every moment together our last? What can we do? Should we fight this? Is it inevitable?’

“These are all the things that they’re grappling with for these next seven episodes, because [Episode] 8 ends and it’s ‘Crisis’ [crossover] time. It’s time to go off to, literally, cosmic war,” Wallace added. “So the relationship is strained. But it’s also going to bring them closer together than ever before, because that’s what tragedy does.”

DÉJÀ DOOM
Of course, Team Flash has kinda been down this road before — back in Season 3, when Iris was fated to brutally die at Savitar’s hand. Will that past experience influence how they handle Barry’s future date with the Reaper? “That exact question is asked and answered,” Wallace confirmed. “What this story has enabled us to do is to look back at any other time when somebody was facing life and death, and see how they reacted then. We know how they reacted with Iris; how will they react next week? And I will tell you — no spoilers — it’s different. It’s not the same, because of what they learn next week. That’s the great part of the story.”

Wallace said that Episodes 2 through 6 of this season “are all about, ‘Do I accept death? Or do I fight it? That’s also the reason why Bloodwork [aka Dr. Ramsey Rosso] is the villain this season. As we now know, he has HLH cancer and is dying, so for the first time in the show’s history, we have a villain and a protagonist who are going through the same thing…. It was very deliberate, because they’re going to learn about halfway through the season, ‘Maybe we’re not so different? And what does that mean?'”

GREEN ARROW TO THE RESCUE?
Not mentioned by the Monitor, as he forewarned Barry of his dire fate, was what superfriend Oliver Queen is currently up to, to hopefully save Barry as well as Kara Danvers/Supergirl from perishing in the upcoming Crisis.

“Boy, I wonder what will happen when they both find out…,” Wallace hinted with a laugh. “I can’t tell you when it happens, but I will tell you that is a scene that happened and is a moment, and it is coming. Let’s just say people might get pissed off a little!” (With reporting by Vlada Gelman)

What did you think of The Flash‘s season opener, Caitlin letting Killer Frost try out life, Cisco cuing up Queen’s Flash Gordon theme, the birth of Bloodwork and the introduction of Chester Runk?

Want more scoop on Flash, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

Launch Gallery: 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' Arrowverse Crossover Photos

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