Barry Allen's Identity Problem Is Only Getting Worse In The Flash Season 8 - Screen Rant

Warning: Spoilers for The Flash season 8, episode 7

In The Flash season 8, Barry Allen’s secret identity problem is only getting worse. Played by Carmen Moore, Kristin Kramer just became the latest Arrowverse character to discern the Flash’s biggest secret. Like so many others in The CW series, the Central City police captain now knows that the Scarlet Speedster and one of the department's best CSIs are one and the same.

In The Flash season 8, episode 7, titled “Lockdown”, Barry’s secret identity played an important role in the show for the first time in a long while. Being a hostage of Goldface alongside the rest of the police department put Barry’s secret at risk as he worked to find a way to outsmart in the villain. Throughout the episode, Barry made efforts to ensure that his team-up with Kramer didn’t lead to her finding out the truth. In the end, Barry suited up as the Flash and managed to take down Goldface, all the while believing that he had successfully kept his identity hidden. But as it turned out, Barry had miscalculated. Kramer deduced that he was the Flash when she found his broken metahuman cuffs.

Since Kramer has emerged as a trustworthy ally to Team Flash, it’s likely that this development won’t evolve into a problem later on. After all, he was planning on telling her anyway. But that being said, Kramer discovering his secret on her own underscores one of Barry’s biggest issues in the Arrowverse. He's never been very good at protecting what should be his most well-kept secret. She’s far from the first person in his life to arrive at this conclusion without having to catch him with his mask off.

Another example of this is David Singh, who previously held the same position that Kramer now occupies. At an unspecified point in the Arrowverse’s timeline, Captain Singh put two and two together and realized that the Flash could only be Barry Allen. Apparently, it’s not that difficult for a character with proximity to Barry to uncover the truth as long as they have some level of aptitude as a detective. Singh, Kramer, and all the other Arrowverse characters who know his secret make it clear that this is a long-term problem for Barry and one that he has yet to fix, despite all the years of experience he’s had as the Flash.

When he was in the early stages of his superhero career, Barry tried to hide his secret identity by using his speedster powers to better conceal his mask and voice. However, these tactics have seemingly been abandoned on The Flash. The Arrowverse has even made a joke of this long-standing issue in the past. In an episode of Arrow, Barry unmasked in front of Lyla under the false assumption that Diggle had already told her who he really was. And now that Kramer knows too, there really isn't anyone left in Barry's circle of friends who isn't privy to his not-so-secret life as the Scarlet Speedster.

More: The Flash Rumors Are Ignoring Arrowverse's Best New Spinoff Idea

The Flash releases new episodes on Wednesdays on The CW.

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Nicholas Raymond (3294 Articles Published)

Nicholas Raymond is a staff movies & TV features writer for Screen Rant. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Montevallo, and is the author of the psychological thriller and time travel novel, "A Man Against the World." Nicholas' love for telling stories is inspired by his love for film noir, westerns, superhero movies, classic films, and ancient history. His favorite actors are Tyrone Power and Eleanor Parker. He can be reached by email at cnrmail@bellsouth.net and on Twitter at @cnraymond91.