The Flash: Joe West Partners With Kramer For a Deadly Mission - CBR - Comic Book Resources

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 7, Episode 14, "Rayo de Luz," which aired Tuesday on The CW.

Veteran police officer and former Central City Police Department Captain Joe West's arc on The Flash Season 7 has been tumultuous. With the governor tasking special investigator Kristen Kramer to hunt metahumans in Central City after the recent antics of the villainous Mirror Monarch, Joe became increasingly uncomfortable with Kramer's hard-handed tactics, visible personal vendetta against metahumans and overreach of authority. This culminated in Joe resigning from the police department entirely rather than following Kramer's agenda. However, the lifelong lawman has found a new mission in the latest episode of The Flash Season 7, though it might be a major mistake.

After taking Killer Frost into custody, despite Frost atoning for her supervillain past and becoming a heroic member of Team Flash, Kramer revealed that her grudge against metahumans was fueled by one betraying her squad during her past military service. This betrayal resulted in her being the lone survivor of her old unit. Following his resignation, Joe looked into Kramer's past to find something that would cause the governor to recall his investigator but found his initial attempts stonewalled. However, after reading a military file on Kramer's history without any government redactions, Joe began to suspect she was the true culprit behind her squad's massacre and had intentionally led them into an ambush.

When Joe confronted Kramer with the accusation, she was understandably defensive. Still, she agreed to meet with Joe privately so she could tell her side of the story. Kramer soon revealed that she found a surrogate brother figure in a man named Adam, who was a metahuman, Kramer claims that she and her unit were eventually betrayed by Adam, resulting in the traumatic incident. Convinced by Kramer's story, and without any further evidence presented, Joe turned the evidence he gathered over to Kramer and stopped his investigation. Following this show of good faith, Kramer has Joe take on a new job.

Though Kramer has been searching for Adam for the past six years, her one-woman manhunt failed to reveal her close friend's whereabouts. Taking the evidence that Kramer has gathered in the interim, Joe decided to assist her by taking point in tracking down Adam for himself, with this new mission giving him a sense of purpose. And while Joe is eager to continue to set things right, he may have just taken on more than he can handle.

Joe's willingness to believe in Kramer's commitment to protect and serve the general public has burned him before, most notably when Kramer returned to Central City with more power after being outmaneuvered in court by Frost. There is no indication that Kramer is telling the truth, and it may just have been a bid to get Joe to relinquish potentially damaging evidence on her military service. And even if Kramer is telling the truth, Joe has put himself directly in harm's way to hunt a metahuman allegedly responsible for betraying an entire squad. Plus, Joe is taking on this assignment without the support of the Central City Police behind him this time.

The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh. New episodes air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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