The Flash: Cisco’s Metahuman Cure Risks Making An Arrowverse Plot Hole

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Black Lightning season 4, episode 9, “The Book of Ruin, Chapter 4: Lyding” and The Flash season 7, episode 8, “The People vs. Killer Frost.”

Previews for an upcoming episode of The Flash suggest that Frost may be sentenced to lose her metahuman powers as punishment for her past crimes. This raises some questions and a possible plot hole regarding the metagene treatment created by Cisco Ramon and one scene from Black Lightning suggesting that Dr. Lynn Stewart will be credited with creating a way to neutralize the metagene.

One of the major subplots of The Flash season 5 centered around Cisco Ramon and his efforts, with the assistance of Dr. Caitlin Snow, to find a way to “cure” the metagene and enable those people who didn’t want superpowers to live a normal life. At first, Caitlin was reluctant to help Cisco with the project and her Frost persona actively sabotaged their research while she was controlling Caitlin’s body. The two were brought on board, however, once Cisco agreed that they would ensure that their so-called “meta-cure” would never be used on unwilling subjects and Caitlin confirmed that she had no intention of taking the cure to get rid of Frost. Despite many metahumans in Central City being given Cisco’s treatment to protect them from the serial killer Cicada (who targeted metahumans), the meta-cure was never mentioned again after Cisco used it to remove his own powers.

The trailers for The Flash season 7 episode “The People vs. Killer Frost” suggest that not only did the meta-cure find its way into common use but that it is, or is about to become, a legally prescribed punishment for metahuman criminals. The latter seems more likely, given that reference has been made to Iron Heights Penitentiary still having a special wing for metahumans, suggesting that Frost might be the first metahuman criminal to be sentenced to lose her powers as part of her punishment. This raises the question of whether or not Cisco Ramon published his findings or refused a patent on the meta-cure, enabling it to be mass-produced outside of STAR Labs. This seems highly unlikely, given what we know of Cisco and his previous agreement with Caitlin and Frost, raising the question of just where the meta-cure used by the courts came from.

The answer may lie in Black Lightning, where Jefferson Pierce’s wife, Dr. Lynn Stewart, is a geneticist widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the metagene. Lynn has also worked to find a way to neutralize the metagene, seeking the same end as Cisco; helping people with destructive powers to live a normal life. The Black Lighting episode “The Book of Ruin, Chapter 4: Lyding” opened with a dream sequence in which Lynn’s family were proudly discussing how she had “figured out a way to kill the metagene.”

This raises the question of why Lynn is bothering with a meta-cure of her own if one is already in use in the American legal system of Earth-Prime. To further compound the plot hole, there was a one-year time-skip between the end of Black Lightning season 3 and the start of Black Lightning season 4. This sets the events of Black Lightning season 4 after the upcoming trial of Frost. It also again raises the question of how there can be a meta-cure apart from Cisco Ramon’s and why Lynn Stewart seems to believe she’s on the verge of being the first to create one.

Thankfully, there is an explanation for most of this. The meta-cure Cisco created on The Flash was based around suppressing the dark matter in a metahuman’s system. Logically, this means it should only work on those metahumans created by the STAR Labs particle accelerator exploding. This leaves Lynn Stewart free to develop her own meta-cure, which targets the metagene directly, in the future of Black Lightning. This also ironically gives Frost an out since, as a natural-born metahuman, Cisco’s meta-cure logically shouldn’t work on her. This assumes, however, that it is Cisco’s cure being used by the Central City courts.

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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