The Flash Season 8, Episode 12, “Death Rises,” Recap & Spoilers

The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 8, Episode 12, "Death Rises," which aired Wednesday, April 27 on The CW.

For weeks, Team Flash has been pursuing a metahuman serial killer that appears to feed off raw emotional grief and incinerate its victims. While Caitlin Snow believed this figure to be her presumed dead husband Ronnie Raymond, the twisted villain revealed himself to be Deathstorm, an entity from another dimension that bonded to Ronnie when he sacrificed his life in a singularity seven years ago. Meanwhile, Iris West learns that she has developed an acute temporal sickness since the Reverse-Flashpoint, causing unstable fluctuation to the fabric of reality around her.

Deathstorm explains that, where he comes from, life is seen as an aberration, with flashbacks going back to Ronnie and Caitlin’s wedding. As Deathstorm attacks Caitlin, Barry Allen arrives on the scene and strikes the entity with Speed Force lightning only to be easily repelled as the supervillain makes his escape. Caitlin recalls that Deathstorm proclaimed the process they used to save Ronnie only made him stronger and more complete, eager to continue his rampage as he openly hunts the streets of Central City for those possessing detectable feelings of unresolved grief.

After learning Iris has resurfaced in Coast City, Barry rushes to be by his wife’s side, with the couple deducing that Iris was spared from a more permanent fate facing Tinya by instinctively entering the Still Force. However, Iris was disheartened within the Still Force to learn that she didn’t appear to possess a future suggesting that this temporal illness may be more serious than she thought. This bittersweet reunion is cut short when Barry is alerted by the Central City Police Captain, Kristen Kramer, that Deathstorm has gone on a full-blown killing spree throughout the city, with a growing body count and the police unable to locate the villain.

While Team Flash is frustrated that they can’t pinpoint Deathstorm’s location, Barry realizes that they can use Cecile Horton’s empathic powers to help locate those in the city who are hunted by the villain and emitting feelings of grief. Interfacing with S.T.A.R. Labs’ systems, Cecile begins her search but temporarily has her body taken over by Deathstorm instead. The sneering supervillain vows to take Caitlin with him by force before leaving Cecile to menace Allegra Garcia in the form of her late cousin, Ultraviolet.

Back in Coast City, Deon visits Iris and Sue Dearbon, confirming her fears that her future is not visible from within the Still Force. As Deon theorizes that the entire Still Force has been affected by the temporal illness, he suddenly collapses in pain and disappears. Iris nearly fades out from existence as well, but Sue manages to talk her through this temporal fluctuation, reminding her of her love and family and grounding Iris back from fading away permanently.

Deathstorm makes a deadly attempt to kidnap Caitlin, with Barry using a new ability provided by his boots to pursue, rescuing Caitlin, but with new victims left in Deathstorm’s wake. Using Chester P. Runk’s knowledge of singularities and Frost’s cold fusion-based powers, Team Flash begins devising a strategy to definitively stop the super-powered serial killer. Meanwhile, back in Coast City, Iris gets another major scare herself as a figure resembling Eddie Thawne approaches her in the darkness, with the nature of the fallen detective's return an open mystery for now.

Developed for television by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns, The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT on The CW.