Spoilers ahead for The Flash Season 7, Episode 12 “Good-Bye Vibrations.”
The latest episode of The Flash involved the exit of one of its original stars, as Carlos Valdes said his goodbyes as Cisco Ramon. While the episode featured OG Team Flash going on one last mission together, it also involved a full circle farewell to Cisco, and Valdes is reflecting on the Easter egg-filled sendoff.
Towards the end of the episode, appropriately titled “Good-Bye Vibrations,” Team Flash got together to give Cisco a proper going away party, as he and girlfriend Kamila prepared to leave for Star City after Cisco was offered a job at A.R.G.U.S.. It was a sweet scene that even included a karaoke callback to the very first episode. The team sings Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” which is the song what was playing at S.T.A.R. Labs when Cisco and Caitlin were trying to get Barry to wake up. Carlos Valdes spoke to TVLine and said he loved the karaoke song choice, noting that there is:
a full circle aspect to it. I mean, in the very first scene that Cisco appears, in the whole Flash series, you hear that song. So there’s a cyclical poetry about it.
The episode also included plenty of flashbacks to the earlier seasons, like the time Cisco and Caitlin played “Poker Face” for Barry and the moment Barry had his first test-run as The Flash. Valdes brought up the fun musical callback in his final episode, explaining that it:
caters to the fans that really catch all these Easter Eggs, who catch all these details. ‘Poker Face’ has been a pretty consistent wink on our show — though as with most recurring things, it wasn’t really planned. It just kinda, like, happened.
Carlos Valdes was announced to be leaving the CW superhero series last month and was joined in departing the show by co-star Tom Cavanagh, whose exit came earlier this season. While it seemed like Valdes wasn’t going to be leaving until after the current seventh season, his departure was set up shortly after the news broke. With Cisco moving to Arrow’s Star City, it’s possible that fans might still see him pop in from time to time, as it’s only a train ride away.
Last night’s episode was as lighthearted as it could have been and truly felt like a Season 1 episode, as the characters were having fun while also pursuing a meta. Like Carlos Valdes said, it was a full-circle moment that smoothly took fans back to the beginning of the series. Even though Cisco will be dearly missed, it'll be interesting to see what he does at A.R.G.U.S. and whether or not David Ramsey’s John Diggle will mention it when he stops by Central City in his upcoming episode.
New episodes of The Flash air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.
