Inside the Most Chilling Scene in The Flash 100th Episode

This article contains spoilers for The Flash season 5 episode 8.

For my money, the absolute most chilling part of The Flash‘s 100th episode, “What’s Past is Prologue,” was the relatively quiet scene between Eobard Thawne’s Wells and a Season 1 Cisco.

In the space of one scene, we get a painful reminder of just how dangerous Thawne is as the episode calls back to one of the Season 1 scenes that doesn’t make it into this walk down memory lane: That time Thawne put his hand through a heartbroken Cisco’s chest. It does more to make us downright terrfied of what Thawne could do moving forward than any explicit threat could.

Den of Geek had a chance to talk with Tom Cavanagh (Wells/Thawne), who also directed the episode, as well as Carlos Valdes (Cisco) about what it was like filming this all-important scene. 

“That was actually a fun scene to shoot,” said Valdes. “Tom was directing and when Tom directs it’s all good vibes there. We love working with him, we always want to be there for him to make it happen.”

Cavanagh was obviously excited about the scene, both as a director and actor. Cavanagh said of the experience of filming the scene alongside Valdes: “There’s tiny little beats in that scene where it’s like, ‘I’m excited to be on this journey with you. Oh fuck! Noooo, run Cisco!'” 

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Valdes said he distinctly remembers the energy that day being a bit hectic, but it all came together once they began moving through the scene.

“The surrealism of the moment hit me in that instant while we were doing the scene,” said Valdes. “It was like, oh, wow, you’re doing that thing that you did five years ago. And now I’m doing that thing that we did five years ago, but now it feels different because it’s been five years.”

For Valdes, shooting the scene was as much a reminder of everything the two actors have been through together as much as it is a reminder of everything the characters have been through together.

“I don’t know, it’s a really weird feeling but it was a gratifying feeling, too,” said Valdes. “Because I got to do it with him and he and I have been working together as, in different versions of this duo, for five years now. So there was definitely a pregnancy about that moment between us. Yeah, I’m not a sentimental guy, but sometimes I am. And that was one of those few moments where sentimentality definitely started creeping up the back of my neck.”

Cavanagh also spoke highly of his working relationship with Valdes.

“He’s so great,” gushed Cavanagh. “He’s a rare type that you will be talking, writing about for decades. He really is. And he’s one of those actors that feel like we’re sort of on the same page. We love the show. We love the show. We don’t want to talk it up too much, but if we have to talk, let’s make it worth hearing. And he’s great at that.”

The two obviously have a close working relationship. Cavanagh mentioned that they came up with the idea of the handshake in the scene together.

“We both came up with the idea that it’s not just a handshake,” said Cavanagh. “Oh, it’s a handshake, but they get it wrong, because those two characters, some version or other, are always doing something funny and miscommunicating in the best possible way. Yeah, so I love that you bring that up, because he was enjoyable to act with, and I love that. That scene felt like a nice elegy to those two guys, a tribute to those two.”

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.