The Flash boss explains season 8 finale death and cliffhanger (2024)

The Flash spoilers follow.

The Flash concluded its epic eighth season with the second part of its finale, Negative Part Two.

In the season's final episode, Candice Patton's Iris was revealed to be alive after her death in Negative Part One. Trapped inside the Time Stone, Iris learned she had the power to break free from the stone and eventually did so.

Meanwhile, Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh) was made the Negative Forces' new avatar with unwieldy power.

The Flash (Grant Gustin) and Thawne duked it out, hailing destruction around them, only for Iris to appear and tell Barry that the fight was going to head towards the armageddon.

She advised Barry that there was another way to save the day, so Barry plopped himself down and meditated, which infuriated Thawne. Thawne summoned more power from the Negative Forces but was overwhelmed with it, leading to his own self-destruction and death. Following this, there was no trace of Thawne on the timeline anywhere.

While we've seen Thawne die several times over the DC series, showrunner Eric Wallace has confirmed in an interview with TV Line that Thawne's death is the real deal. No resurrections this time.

"When we were writing the finale for season 8, we thought that was the series finale. So we were like, 'We've got to have the greatest, most epic battle ever between Grant and Tom! That's how it has to end'. And after the script was done and we were getting ready to start prep, that's when we got the news that we would be getting a ninth season," Wallace said.

"So we were like, 'Oh crap, we just did the ultimate battle. How are we supposed to ever top that? Then it was like, 'Let's just kill him for now and worry about that later'. Because Reverse-Flash and the Negative Reverse-Flash, just like Frost, are dead. I mean, they are dead."

However, while Wallace is adamant that this death is final this time, he didn't rule out that Cavanagh could feature in The Flash in the future.

"It is a comic book show and I'm pretty sure that in season 9, there's some reason that you might see Tom Cavanagh again. I won't go into it, but that's a pretty safe bet," he said.

Meanwhile, the season eight finale ended on a hell of a cliffhanger, with the final shot showing a glowing blue crystal in a lab in the year 2049. This may mean something to some comic book fans who know their source material, but others may be left theorising what this is, and what this scene means for the future of the show.

"The hardcore comic book fans know what's coming. Those who don't, I’m not spoiling it here, so it's going to be a big surprise for them," Wallace said. "But yes, we're pulling directly from the comic books here, and boy is it going to be fun."

The Flash airs on The CW in the US. Sky Showcase and NOW air the show in the UK.