The Flash's Carlos Valdes: There Was a 'Poetry' to Cisco's Musical Send-Off

Longtime fans of The Flash surely were gaga for Cisco Ramon’s Central City send-off.

In the June 8 episode of the CW series, after Team Flash battled (a kinder, gentler?) Rainbow Raider 2.0, Cisco (original cast member Carlos Valdes) and Kamilla (Victoria Park) readied to relocate to Star City, where the former had landed a choice gig with A.R.G.U.S. (Thanks for the great reco, Dig and Lyla!)

Cisco, Barry (Grant Gustin), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) thus gathered for a farewell karaoke session, warbling “Poker Face” together, while Iris and Allegra hosted going-away drinks for Kamilla, over at the Citizen.

The karaoke’d Lady Gaga tune, you may remember, was playing inside S.T.A.R. Labs when Barry first came out of his coma after being zapped by the particle accelerator explosion. “He likes this song,” Cisco suggested to Caitlin in the series’ October 2014 pilot, as Barry’s nine-month coma came to an end. (“How could you possibly know that?” asked Caitlin. “I checked his Facebook page,” Cisco explained.) You can watch that pilot scene down below.

Cuing up the super, musical callback “caters to the fans that really catch all these Easter Eggs, who catch all these details,” Valdes notes. “‘Poker Face’ has been a pretty consistent wink on our show — though as with most recurring things, it wasn’t really planned. It just kinda, like, happened.”

Valdes — who will pop up in Season 7’s final two episodes, before bowing out for good — tells TVLine that he personally “loved the choice” of karaoke tune, given that there is “a full circle aspect to it. I mean, in the very first scene that Cisco appears, in the whole Flash series, you hear that song. So there’s a cyclical poetry about it.”

Yes, but is there an alternate take where Valdes (whose stage credits include Broadway’s Once and the national tour of Jersey Boys), Martin (a Broadway vet) and Gustin (whose vocal talents were previously highlighted in the musical Supergirl crossover) sing “Poker Face” to the very best of their abilities, and not in character?

“You know, anything is possible… Maybe as a [DVD] special feature!” jokes Valdes.

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