"The Last Temptation of Barry Allen" is a two-part story comprising the seventh and eighth episodes of the sixth season of the American television series The Flash, based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a crime scene investigator who gains superhuman speed, which he uses to fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities.

The Speed Force, in the form of his mother Nora, tells him that Rosso's blood contains his consciousness and is slowly infecting him as well as grants him access to Barry's mind; including knowledge of his secret identity and impending death.

Cisco and Frost eventually revive Barry, but when Iris West-Allen comes to check on him, she quickly realizes it is not him; it is revealed that he has succumbed to Rosso's temptation.

With his plan foiled, Rosso transforms into a blood monster to kill the Flash and begin anew, only to be distracted by a hallucination of his mother induced by Barry long enough for the speedster to trap him in Chester P. Runk's prison.

Showrunner Eric Wallace explained the title of the two-part episode as being about Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork tempting Barry Allen / Flash: "And what's great about his character is he has a really good point of view that when you hear it, I think next week, it's insane--but it makes sense.

[4] Main cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Tom Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin appear in the episodes as Barry Allen / Flash, Iris West-Allen, Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost, Cisco Ramon, Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, Nash Wells and Joe West, respectively.

The guest cast for the episodes include Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork, Michelle Harrison as the Speed Force in the form of Nora Allen, Victoria Park as Kamilla Hwang, and Kayla Compton as Allegra Garcia.

Club noted, "Barry's dark night of the soul unfolds, director Chad Lowe brings an unsettling, nightmarish quality to the proceedings ...

There's some haunting imagery along the way, including a graveyard populated by the casualties of The Flash since the very beginning, but it's the sound design that really gets under the skin: a combination of chimes, whooshing noises, and burbling arcade music straight out of Logan's Run unlike anything the series has done before.

The writer of the review, Andy Behbakht, said "From every scene where he goes from scared to angry, hopeful to doubtful and, ultimately, determined to broken, Gustin gets to own the spotlight in a new refreshing way.

Despite the first part of the mid-season finale having other strong arcs, Barry's internal battle is what makes the episode stand out as one of The Flash's strongest hours ever.

Club praised the two-parter episode's ending, saying "The scene strikes a nostalgic note, with Cisco and Caitlin reminiscing about the early good times before all the doppelgangers and time-travel shenanigans made everything complicated.

Maybe this Crisis On Infinite Earths will serve the purpose the original comics version was supposed to accomplish thirty-five years ago: simplify everything and bring it back to the basics.

Labs, Cisco immediately turns on the Babel Protocol, which he developed in case the Flash ever went bad, and covers the entire building in a forcefield.

At the same time, director Michael Nankin employs a few quick shots of terrified Central City citizens running away from Ramsey Bloodwork's zombie army that effectively establish how dire the crisis is and make it feel like a citywide threat.

"[22] Mike Cecchini, who also wrote the review for the first part of the episode, complemented the dynamics between different character duos, saying "just about as tense as we've ever seen Cisco, and he repeatedly proved Barry's faith in him right.