The Flash Solves a Surprising Murder Mystery

Carlos Valdes talks fighting himself, literally, in the latest episode of The Flash, Tuesdays on The CW

By Lauren Piester Nov 06, 2019 2:06 AMTags
The Flash, Season 6The CW

What a night for Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes). 

Just while he was coming to terms with the fact that the Flash is going to die and he's next in line for team leader, he suddenly found his own past showing up in an extremely unexpected and tragic way. Breacher, the dad of his ex-girlfriend Gypsy, arrived with news that Gypsy had been murdered, and that he thought Cisco was responsible. 

After some investigating, Cisco also thought this, but it turned out that Gypsy was murdered by Echo, an evil Cisco from another earth, and it was up to regular Cisco to outsmart him, which resulted in Carlos Valdes having to fight Carlos Valdes. 

photos
All the Greatest Superhero Costumes on TV—Ranked From Super Tragic to Super Epic!

Originally, Valdes told us over the phone, Echo was going to be a much more specific kind of villain until things changed at the last minute, literally the night before the episode was to begin shooting. 

"The previous version of this character was definitely more of a take on toxic masculinity, so we really tried to vilify that as much as possible. But I think that the writers, after stewing on it for some time, thought that that was too big of a risk to take," Valdes explained. "We have a big responsibility with a show like this, knowing that we have a sizable young audience watching the show and as much as we want to be able to tell stories that I think are important to tell in this time, we also don't want anybody to get the wrong impression. So I think it's tough to perfect that balancing act, so I think what we ended up settling on for this villain was more appropriate." 

The CW

Echo, as we met him in tonight's episode, used Cisco and Gypsy's relationship to get to her, making her think that Cisco was the one who was killing her, which made her hesitate just long enough for Echo to get her. 

He operated under the idea that Cisco couldn't outsmart him since they are essentially the same person, but Cisco managed it anyway, after they literally had to fight each other in one of the show's more grounded fight scenes, since nobody's got super powers. 

"I think we're very lucky to have the stunt department that we have, because they're the ones that made sure that it looked good, that it had the sort of gravitas that it needed, because you know...neither of these characters have special powers," Valdes says."It's really just a straight up brawl." 

It's also a straight up brawl between two men who are, in a lot of ways, the same person, who through that butterfly effect that separates all the doppelgangers in the Arrowverse, have gone on wildly different paths. 

read
How Charlie Barnett Took On Arrow's Unexpected New Villain

"I think that, you know, Echo is an extension of that ideology," Valdes says. "And I think it's, it's a beautiful one because, you know, he's seen a tortured person and who knows what kinds of pain he experienced in his life that would have led him down that path." 

Cisco's dealing with the death of his ex and the discovery of an evil doppelganger at a particularly difficult time in his life already, in the face of the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths that might lead to him having to lead Team Flash alone, and Valdes says this story (which all happened while Barry was on vacation) was a pretty good test for Cisco's problem-solving abilities. 

The CW

"I think this is a perfectly timed story, a conveniently timed story, if you will, because I mean, you know, put yourself in Cisco shoes: Barry just told you that he wants you to be team leader and you're sort of trying to navigate your own personal feelings about that and try to try to muster the strength to, you know, step up to that responsibility and suddenly your whole world is flipped upside down because your ex is murdered and then you have to solve the crime and then in your efforts to solve the crime, your ex's dad thinks you did it and then wants to kill you. And then you're all torn up, and then you find out that the killer was actually you, but a different you. It's a lot," Valdes says. "So I think in terms of Cisco being tested to be team leader, I think the challenges that are presented to him in this episode are I think more than enough to prove that he has the emotional strength to become team leader." 

read
The Final Season: Katie Cassidy Remembers the First Time She Put on Her Arrow Costume

Valdes says this experience give Cisco some maturity and emotional strength that he's "not sure he knew he had before." 

"Knowing that he has the resilience but also the vulnerability to be able to make those decisions, which is what he's going to have to do as team leader, I think that endows him with a little more of the confidence that he needs to take the mantle.

Plus, Valdes says, strangely enough, solving his ex-girlfriend's murder brought Cisco and his current girlfriend, Kamilla, a whole lot closer, just in time for everyone's worlds to be rocked by Crisis in just a few episodes. 

For more times that actors have had to play multiple characters in the same show at the same time, scroll down! 

Carlos Valdes on The Flash

What happens when you go to solve a murder...and the murderer turns out to be you? That's what happened to Cisco when his ex-girlfriend was murdered. It was actually him from another earth, and he ended up having to physically fight the guy before putting him away on Earth-19 for good, meaning Carlos Valdes had to fight Carlos Valdes. Bless those stunt teams! 

Eliza Taylor on The 100

Eliza Taylor took on a new role as the much more carefree Josephine while Clarke, the character she's been playing for five seasons and leader of Earth's survivors, appeared to have been erased. After a long battle with herself inside her own head (it's a long story), Clarke prevailed, but Josephine was good fun while she lasted. 

Elizabeth Gillies on Dynasty

After Nicolette Sheridan left the role of Alexis Carrington, Gillies is stepping in as the fresh-faced(?) version of the character, who recently survived a face full of fire and got some serious plastic surgery.

Sarah Paulson on American Horror Story

Paulson has played many, many characters over eight seasons of AHS, but Apocalypse saw her playing 3 at once: Ms. Venable, Billie Dean Howard, and the iconic supreme Cordelia. 

Yael Grobglas on Jane the Virgin

For several seasons, Grobglas played both Petra, the rich and (sometimes) wealthy twin with the hot (ex) husband, and also Anezka, the less wealthy and slightly more evil twin with the pretty bad hair. Petra later killed Anezka (in self defense!), and the evil twin was no more.

Alexandra Chando on The Lying Game

Freeform once had a show about a foster kid who learned she had an identical twin sister with a living a life of luxury and convinced her to temporarily switch places. Both twins were played by Alexandra Chando. 

Troian Bellisario on Pretty Little Liars

For the final season of the Freeform drama, sometimes, Spencer was actually her evil twin sister Alex. Eagle eyed fans could pretty easily tell when Spencer was not Spencer, but that's a testament to Bellisario's acting. We won't speak of her accent work, however. 

Tatiana Maslany on Orphan Black

Maslany should teach classes on acting opposite yourself. She played, among others, Sarah, Cosima, Helena, Alison, and Rachel on a regular basis on the BBC America show Orphan Black and deserved multiple awards for pretty much every episode. 

Nina Dobrev on The Vampire Diaries

Elena Gilbert was from a long line of doppelgangers, so it was only natural that Dobrev had a lot of parts to play. Elena and the much more evil Katherine got the most screentime, but Tatia and Amara were memorable too! 

Sarah Michelle Gellar on Ringer

SMG played troubled identical twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan on this short-lived CW series.

Patton Oswalt on Agents of SHIELD

Oswalt played all of the Koenigs, the quadruplet SHIELD agents who were long thought to be robots, and turned out to just be brothers. 

Lisa Kudrow on Friends

Phoebe Buffay's twin sister Ursula was just about the complete opposite of Phoebe, even if Phoebe did fall in love with a couple of her boyfriends/stalkers, and even if Ursula did pose as Phoebe when she became a pornstar. 

Jeffrey Wright on Westworld

After spending episode after episode telling us all about park creator Arnold, the HBO drama revealed that Arnold was actually the man Bernard the robot was based on, and both are played by Jeffrey Wright, and no we can't explain it any further. 

Jeffrey Tambor on Arrested Development

Tambor played identical twin brothers George and Oscar on the sitcom. While George Sr was in prison, Oscar moved in on his wife Lucille...

Anna Torv in Fringe

Anna Torv broke hearts everywhere as Olivia and Fauxlivia, the red headed alternate dimension version of her who stole her life for a time. 

Maisie Richardson Sellers on Legends of Tomorrow

After Amaya chose to stay behind in her own village and time period on the time-traveling superhero drama, Sellers didn't go anywhere. A gender-fluid shapeshifter chose Amaya's form to manipulate the Legends and got stuck in that body, leaving us with the much cheekier Charlie in her place. 

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.