The Flash 6x8 : The Last Temptation Of Barry Allen, Part 2 review

Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

The mid season of The Flash has come and gone and with it we're treated to a final encounter with Ramsey Rosso (Bloodwork) and the beginning of Crisis..the episode begins where last weeks ended with Star Labs's security going into full lockdown mode which Cisco himself says is something he designed incase The Flash ever went dark and boy has The Flash gone to the dark side. Cisco and Iris remain inside of Star Labs while on the outside Bloodwork's infection is only getting worse and worse as he spreads it throughout Central City leading to Zombie like creatures walking the streets. We see Killer Frost and Joe stuck in between a whole bunch of them as Ramsey gives us a villain speech full of cliches of how he will cleanse the world and make it better. Back at Star Labs and Barry ends up asking Iris to meet him at the place where she said yes. He does so via a cop radio and Iris much to Cisco's dismay goes to meet The Flash. The Flash is seen standing in Iris and Barry's apartment and turns around to reveal his full infection of Bloodwork once again. He asks Iris to join his cause, he threatens to kill her by shoving his hand through her like Reverse Flash once did to Cisco. Iris returns to Star Labs via portal projection and says that isn't her Barry and agrees with Cisco's plan to use a weapon he mentioned earlier in the episode. 

The weapon is a Photon-Emitter that when used according to Cisco will destroy Ramsey's Bloodwork self and in turn fix everyone else he has infected. With the city slowly but surely becoming a Zombie warzone and Ramsey's promise of coming to Star Labs looming large Cisco uses a portal projection and arrives at Ramsey's location with the Photon-Emitter. He uses it on him and at first it looks like it's working but The Flash turns up destroying the weapon in the process. Ramsey who is wounded but not completely stopped then says something that remains with Cisco. He mentions how he knew he picked the right one. Back at Star Labs and after talking with Irish both her and Cisco come to the conclusion that Barry is indeed still inside of The Flash somewhere as Iris's connection with him was still there when they met. He could've easily killed her but something stopped him. As for why Cisco thinks so it's because of what Ramsey said. ''I picked the right one'' is something that Barry had previously said as he had earlier picked Cisco to lead the team after Crisis. Ramsey soon turns up at Star Labs with The Flash and a flood of his blood brothers. The Flash says ''Let in the light'' which again is something that Iris knows is Barry talking. So just what is Bloodwork's end goal here?? well it's to spread his infection throughout the city via the Particle Accelerator. Pretty extreme but it will be his masterpiece as if successful the entire city will be infected and be bowing to his will in no time. 

The episode comes to a close at Star Labs where after being attacked earlier we see Joe resting. Both Killer Frost and Alegra are close by and as it turns out Alegra especially will play a key role in stopping Bloodwork. Ramsey arrives in the pipeline and places a bit of his blood into the pipeline and it gets to work quickly. In short Alegra ends up being the one to save the day as The Flash comes around just as it looks like Ramsey will succeed. How does Alegra save the city?? well she uses her UV powers to counteract Bloodwork's infection just as it is about to become the vessel that will spread throughout the city. She stops it in the nick of time however as the moment her UV waves hit the blood a giant wave of energy is seen exploding over the city. This leads to everyone including The Flash being cured of Bloodwork's infection. Ramsey escapes in the moment between the explosion and The Flash hunts him down. So just why didn't The Flash kill Iris when he had the chance?? or tell Cisco certain keywords?? Barry later mentions how he could feel Ramsey's doubt grow as the night went on which led to him getting inside of his mind. And boy does he as while fighting a comic accurate look of Bloodwork complete with giant transformation Ramsey's mom shows up and stops her son. She says he was born to heal not to be an angel of destruction. Not believing what he's even seeing Ramsey refuses to believe his doubts. The Flash runs him to the location where Chester (the meta who caused a black hole in the premiere) was being kept and places him in confinement. Team Flash is victorious as Barry and co celebrate while Ramsey assures them that he will return. This entire sequence was really, really good. It was tension filled and just cemented Bloodwork as this show's best big bad type villain since Zoom in my opinion. The episode has a bit more to offer though as with Crisis now imminent the team literally praise Barry to no end as they say that the world is a better place because he is in it. His biggest quality is Hope and without it he would never be the hero he is. His speed is power but hope his gift. The episode ends as Crisis begins infront of Team Flash who are all in the lounge. A wave of anti-matter is seen coming as the skyline changes to a orange like color. The fight for the multiverse begins..overall this was a really enjoyable mid season finale. It did suffer from some slow down moments but as a whole it wrapped up last week's part 1 quite well. The Crisis now begins on Sunday on Supergirl while The Flash returns in January with (or without??) Barry Allen. Until then. 

★★★★