The Flash took a break this week, but when it returns next Tuesday, fans should be prepared to say farewell to Cisco Ramon. As he’s been a core member of Team Flash since The CW series’ very first episode, Cisco’s exit in 7×12 “Good-Bye Vibrations” is sure to be an emotional experience for Arrowverse lovers. And no doubt it was tough for Carlos Valdes to step away from his beloved role after seven seasons, too.
While speaking with ComicBook.com ahead of his final episode next week, Valdes opened up about why he decided to leave Central City. The Vibe actor explained that his own personal reasons for exiting The Flash actually closely mirrored Cisco’s in the show, saying:
“This is a heavy question. I felt like there was a perfect kind of synergy between Cisco’s trajectory and my trajectory as a person,” Valdes said. “Eric Wallace has sort of been weaving in these new energies into the show, and they’re amazing energies, honestly, because they don’t just revitalize the energy of the narrative, they’re also kind of revitalizing our cast dynamics in a really interesting way. But I think Cisco has always sort of had this seed in him of not really feeling too sure about the responsibility of being on this team, I think, and that’s the seed that was hinted at when he chose to sort of take the cure and leave his powers behind, which drew a lot of controversy.”
When Valdes was confirmed to be walking away from The Flash earlier this year, it wasn’t a huge shock to fans. As he reminds us with his comments above, Cisco has clearly been edging towards the decision to leave Team Flash for the past couple of seasons, just as the star has long been considering moving on to new projects. Valdes went on to clarify that his mind was finally made up to exit the show now that so many fresh characters, such as Chester (Brandon McKnight), have come aboard and ensured that things can run smoothly without him.
He continued, “But I think his decision to sort of step away and build his own thing and sort of have more of his own thing with Kamila, I think the new energy in the story, the new people on the team made it easier for him to reach that decision. And you know, Cisco, he’s very proud of the work he does, very proud of his tech. He’s very proud of his suits. And so I think when Chester came along, he saw somebody that was so uniquely equipped to take on those responsibilities and those specialties that, I think, enabled him to come to that decision. And similarly for me, seeing the sort of, for lack of a better term, new blood come into our show, that helped me reach my decision, too. I eventually, at a certain point, realized like ‘Oh, I’m not scared to move on anymore because the show is such a strong show that sort of new ensemble will lift it and make it better than it used to be.'”
Like Valdes says, recent episodes have established Cisco deciding to move away to San Francisco with girlfriend Kamilla to make a fresh start. However, the trailer for “Good-Bye Vibrations” teases that Vibe may actually die saving Central City during his final mission in the field. It still remains feasible that the outing could pull a major tragic twist, though Valdes’ comments do appear to confirm that this is a fakeout and he’ll be OK.
Don’t miss The Flash season 7 as it continues Tuesday, June 8th on The CW.