Although June will finally deliver the long-awaited release of The Flash movie, which we know will see Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen team up with Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s versions of Batman (among other heroes) we’re just days away from a different version of the Scarlet Speedster concluding his journey. The Flash series finale airs on The CW next week, and as seen in the trailer, it’s bringing back Tom Cavanagh’s Reverse-Flash and some other familiar characters. However, one fan-favorite who won’t be back for this last round of action is Carlos Valdes’ Cisco Ramon, a.k.a. Vibe.
Valdes was a series regular on The Flash’s first seven seasons, but he hasn’t been seen on the show since the Season 7 finale, “Heart of the Matter, Part 2.” Given how many people Season 9 brought back, including Oliver Queen, Wally West and Bloodwork, one wouldn’t have been faulted for thinking that Cisco would have been part of this lineup. Unfortunately, Valdes informed EW that scheduling conflicts with the TV series Up Here, which Hulu subscribers can stream, made a return impossible, saying:
I did consider it. Honestly, there was no way to make it happen with regards to my schedule and just all the different creative ventures and life circumstances that I was trying to juggle at that time… I couldn't really make it work, which was really heartbreaking to me because I thought, if I decided to step away from the show, at the very least I have to be there for the finale to round this thing out and to really honor the full circle-ness of it. It was really heartbreaking to not be able to make it work.
Cisco Ramon was introduced to the Arrowverse alongside Danielle Panabaker’s Caitlin Snow in the Arrow Season 2 episode “The Man Under the Hood,” which saw them coming face to face with Deathstroke and followed four months after the introduction of Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen. Then in October 2014, The Flash TV show premiered, with Cisco and Caitlin being among the key people aiding Barry in protecting Central City with his super speed. Valdes also reprised Cisco in five more Arrow episodes and three episodes each of Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl thanks to The CW’s DC crossovers, as well as voiced the character in the Vixen and Freedom Fighters: The Ray animated projects.
Carlos Valdes made his last regular appearance on The Flash in “Good-Bye Vibrations,” but he returned for Season 7’s final two episodes to aid Team Flash in combating Godspeed, then stuck around to officiate Barry and Iris’ wedding vows renewal. Cisco has been repeatedly mentioned since then, usually when his A.R.G.U.S. resources are needed. Alas, when the time comes for Team Flash to face off against the still-alive Eddie Thawne, who’s now Cobalt Blue and brought the sinister speedsters Reverse-Flash, Zoom, Savitar and Godspeed back into play, they won’t have Cisco Ramon’s smarts or his artificial “vibe” powers (which he used to have naturally until taking the meta-human cure in Season 5) to aid them.
As such, The Flash fans will need to envision what Cisco Ramon’s life looks like in the years since he left Central City with his girlfriend, Victoria Park’s Kamilla Hwang. For his part, Carlos Valdes is hoping that these two are still living a happy life together. In his words:
Cisco deserves the very best. Cisco deserves happiness. And I think more than anything, Cisco deserves a successful romantic life. I’d love to see him really be rewarded in so far as his relationship with Kamilla paying off. I don't know if that means a wedding or something like that, but he had so many romantic tribulations throughout the course of the show, it would be nice just to see him really earn that payoff because he's a softie and he's a romantic. I feel like he deserves to get his.
If you’d like to revisit Valdes’ time on The Flash, his seven seasons, plus Season 8, can be streamed with a Netflix subscription. The show’s series finale is slated on the 2023 TV schedule for Wednesday, May 24 at 8 pm ET, but not to worry, as there are many upcoming DC TV shows to look forward to over the next several years.
