New Flash Season 8 Villain Hints At Exactly How Firestorm Returns

Warning: Spoilers for The Flash season 8, episode 9

The Flash season 8’s big villain reveal hints at the nature of Firestorm’s return to the Arrowverse. Robbie Amell is set to reprise his role as Ronnie Raymond’s Firestorm in two upcoming episodes of the series. For months now, how he’ll re-enter the picture has been a major mystery.

Firestorm lost his life in The Flash season 2 premiere to stop a singularity caused by Barry Allen’s final battle with Reverse-Flash. Thanks to flashbacks, alternate timelines, and the Speed Force’s ability to take the form of anyone it chooses, Amell has made sporadic appearances since his character’s tragic demise. Somehow, he’ll be back once more in The Flash season 8. Due to the importance of time travel, it’s long been theorized that this plot device will be how the Arrowverse explains Firestorm returns. After all, that was how another dead character, Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), came back in an earlier episode.

Time travel is no longer the most plausible explanation for how Team Flash meets Firestorm again. In The Flash season 8, episode 9, titled “Phantoms”, the mysterious Black Flame manifested itself as Chester’s deceased father in order to feed on his grief. Apparently, it’s been taking on the appearances of its victims’ dead loved ones. With Firestorm expected to show up in episode 11, the timing of his return creates a link to the show’s Black Flame story. From the looks of things, it seems likely that the Black Flame will try to reach Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) by appearing to her as her Ronnie Raymond.

The Black Flame taking the form of Ronnie may have been foreshadowed by Team Flash’s discovery that the meta-human serial killer has abilities related to nuclear and cold fusion. Since this brings up obvious comparisons to how Firestorm’s powers work, there’s at least a chance that The Flash season 8’s new villain can trick Caitlin into believing that he really is the ghost of Firestorm or a twisted new version of her dead husband. But the chances of it somehow being the real Ronnie seem rather low at this juncture.

Firestorm returning in this manner would mean that not only is Ronnie staying dead, but his role in season 8 is related to Caitlin’s current arc. Since the beginning of the season, Caitlin has been trying to move on from Ronnie. Just recently, she began a relationship with a character named Marcus and is committed to going “all in” with her new romance. By pretending to be Ronnie, the Black Flame can challenge Caitlin’s newfound attitude. Moving in this direction may be how The Flash season 8 confirms that Caitlin has finally gotten past what happened to Ronnie in the aftermath of Reverse-Flash’s defeat.

The Flash releases new episodes on Wednesdays on The CW.

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