‘The Flash’: Danielle Panabaker on [Spoiler’s] Death, the ‘Massive’ Season 8 Finale & More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Flash Season 8 Episode 13 “Death Falls.”]

Frost (Danielle Panabaker) is willing to do whatever it takes to save her sister, Caitlin, with Deathstorm (Robbie Amell) trying to turn her into his bride on The Flash — and that means putting her own life on the line. But can Caitlin then save her?

Frost transforms into Hellfrost to extinguish Deathstorm by absorbing his energy, and she succeeds, only to collapse immediately after. She goes into cardiac arrest, unable to handle the power, and Caitlin tries to use cold fusion to revert her to Frost to get her ice healing going. Sadly, it’s not enough, and Frost dies.

Panabaker talks about saying goodbye to Frost and how Caitlin’s handling losing her sister.

You’ve gotten to explore quite a bit with Frost, from her getting her own life to her relationships with her sister, her mom, a boyfriend, then this episode, the concept of consciousness and a soul and grief. 

Danielle Panabaker: I agree. I’ve gotten to explore so much and it’s just a testament to the writers and how hard they work and what great material they’ve given me over the years. That’s what’s been nice about playing Frost in particular. She really started to come into her own probably around Season 5 and the writers have given me such good material just in terms of getting to see her make mistakes and then learn from those mistakes and now here we are in Season 8 and she’s giving advice to Caitlin and other characters. That’s one of the interesting things about being on a television show versus a movie. With a movie, you know the beginning, middle, and end of the story. With a television show, it’s constantly evolving and I’ve been fortunate enough to play two characters, but in particular, Frost, who has changed and evolved so much over the last few years.

Shane Harvey/The CW

Talk about finding out Frost would be dying and how. 

It was actually something that [showrunner] Eric [Wallace] had pitched to me last summer, between Seasons 7 and 8. My biggest concern was making sure that we would tell this story well and making sure that Frost was actually dead because to have her not actually die didn’t seem fair to the audience or the fans. I wanted it to be a real death and I wanted to be treated as such. It was something that I always knew was coming. You look at the last few episodes prior to Frost’s death a little differently when you realize that the end is coming for her and the resolution she gets with her mom and that begins to mean a whole lot more.

How has it been saying goodbye to Frost for you? Especially since you’re still playing Caitlin, but now a Caitlin who’s grieving her.

I will miss Frost. As a person and as an actor, it was a lot of fun to get to play her. She had an attitude about her that is wildly different from Caitlin, but was also a different flavor on the show and she got to say things and get away with things that most of the other characters don’t. And I think she will be missed on the show as well. Then, on the other side is Caitlin who is grieving. She runs through all the different stages we go through when we grieve: denial, anger, bargaining, all of it.

How exactly is she handling that? In that final scene, I was just like, will someone hug her? And then Cecile [Danielle Nicolet] finally did.

The reality is she’s alone. She’s gonna go back to her empty apartment that used to be filled with Frost and Frost’s music and Frost’s art. It’s gonna be a struggle for her, absolutely. … Anytime someone loses someone close to them, it’s devastating, and I think it’s going to be a challenge for Caitlin and even accepting it at first and then trying to find a way to move on.

Dean Buscher/The CW

Mark [Jon Cor] surprised me with the emotional pep talk.

But I think it makes sense. When you look at the depth that Frost clearly has, she wouldn’t be dating someone who was that superficial and I think it is a nice turn to see that from Mark. Because I think sometimes even as the audience, we’re a little bit more on Caitlin’s side, “What is she doing with this dope?” But seeing that really does give us a moment to see, “Oh, there is more to of him than perhaps we’ve seen before.”

How will he be handling his grief? We remember how we met him.

We do remember how we met him, and I don’t think Mark and Caitlin turn to each other at this time. I think Caitlin’s gonna have her own journey initially by herself trying to figure out how to move forward after this loss.

What was that Hellfrost transformation like? You’ve had quite a few looks over the years.

I have. This one very much came from Eric and he had a vision in mind, so we built another wig. I wanted to make sure it didn’t look too much like Morticia, that was my concern. But it’s fun, and to get the hair and makeup complementary, I enjoy that of being an actor and getting to use your physicality and your appearance to help tell the story.

Bettina Strauss/The CW

Talk about working with Robbie again. We got those flashbacks!

Robbie’s the best. I’ve been chasing him for many, many weeks, if not months, trying to make sure that the timing worked out for him to come back. And we had a few COVID shutdowns on Episode 11, so it was a challenge, for sure. But always a delight to work with Robbie. I’m so glad everything worked out. And for me, it’s always been Caitlin and Ronnie, they were the two that were supposed to be together, and to get to see some happier elements of their relationship is really nice, because as much as you saw their love in Season 1, you didn’t necessarily see them enjoying each other in the way that you get to in those flashbacks.

Caitlin’s grief aside, where is she when it comes to her love life?

I’m proud of her because I think it was probably a difficult conversation to have with Marcus [Andres Soto], but it was the mature thing to do to be up front with him and to say, “This is where I’m at. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m not in that place right now.” But I liked that relationship for her and I certainly hope that after she is done grieving and she’s in a place where she might possibly be ready to date again, perhaps Marcus is in her future.

She has not had luck at all with love.

She has not, no. [Laughs] But at least at this point, there were no red flags with Marcus.

Bettina Strauss/The CW

So far. Who knows?

Yeah, who knows? Give it time.

You also directed again. What can you tease about that episode?

I love directing and I’m so grateful to everyone across the board — at the network, studio, Eric, et cetera — who’ve given me the opportunity to direct on the show so many times. It’s a lot of fun. Eric in particular is great at really giving directors the opportunity to make their best episode and make it a little different. Not every episode needs to look exactly the same. This year, Eric gave me the reference of Assault on Precinct 13, the John Carpenter movie, for Episode 17. It was a lot of fun. It’s technically a bottle episode, but hopefully it doesn’t feel like one. I think it’s gonna have a different flavor for a Flash episode.

Is there anything new you got to do as a director?

Every episode presents its challenges. This one was a bit of a scheduling challenge ‘cause as a bottle episode, you have one less day to shoot. And there were quite a few people in a lot of these scenes, so doing that coverage and as expeditiously as possible was certainly challenging. But I think we got it all and we had a lot of fun while doing it. In particular, it’s a big episode for Allegra [Kayla Compton] and I’m always excited to see her shine, pun intended.

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What can you tease about the finale and how it sets up next season?

We only recently just found out that there’s a next season. This season finale is massive. The first time I read it, I was curious as to how they would pull it all off. I think there are even more twists and turns. Our last two episodes in particular are pretty significant.

Where does the season leave Caitlin?

That’s a giant cliffhanger. I thought Season 8 was our last season. I think we all need to be prepared for not every storyline to be wrapped up nicely in a bow at the end of the season.

How’s she doing at the end of the season when it comes to her grief?

Terribly. Grief is not simple and it often does not follow the timeline that we want it to and it pops up in various different ways. For Caitlin, the last few episodes of the season, it’ll be two steps forward, one step back, maybe two steps back.

Will we see her mother again as she’s grieving?

I don’t think we see her.

The Flash, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW