'The Flash' Season 6 Episode 4: Dr Ramsey Rosso undergoes a dark transformation as Bloodwork takes over
The Flash is up against one of the most chilling villains he has ever had to face yet---Bloodwork. The character was introduced in the comics in 2017 as a hemophilic coroner using blood that should be evidence on how to cure his illness. He runs experiments with metahuman blood, where he injects other people’s blood into his veins and he gradually gets the power to control blood himself. He has the power to stop blood flowing in other people. He can congeal it and burn it.
In the show, Bloodwork is played by Sendhil Ramamurthy, with a few differences from his comic counterpart. In ‘The Flash’, Bloodwork or rather Ramsey Rosso is a research oncologist, rather a coroner fighting an illness. He is motivated by the death of his mother, who succumbed to cancer rather than attempting to fight it.
Ramsey is furious with his mother for not even trying to battle the illness and felt that she was being cowardly. His fear of death increased, when the lab showed 99.9% chances of him getting the same cancer that she had.
For a long time, Ramsey doggedly searched for cures and ran several simulations that all ended up at the same result, that he needed dark matter to complete the cure. Realizing that Caitlin was employed at S.T.A.R labs, which produced dark matter, he invited her to his mother’s funeral. He later met her at a coffee shop and informed her about his research, and told her that he needed dark matter to finish it. Caitlin point-blank refused to help him.
For a while, he comes across as a son, who wants to make his mother proud. Yet, he does the worst things possible and convinces himself that what he’s doing is the correct thing.
Later, Ramsey’s desperation knows no bounds as he purchases a dark matter powered weapon from the black market. Ramsey then injects himself with the cure, and this transforms him into the monster he becomes in the fourth episode of season 6, ‘There will be blood’.
Barry tries to save Ramsey, but fails as Ramsey slips further down the rabbit hole. Yet, there’s still a little humanity left in Ramsey, when Barry hands him the serum. But he is pushed over the edge, when that plan falls through. Finally, to stay alive, he resorts to the most inhuman thing possible---- killing people.
There is a thrill and rush in him when he does so, and he knows now, that there is no turning back. This is the way to stay alive. From being a doctor who saved lives, to now becoming someone who takes them, it is a dark transformation indeed. The season has seen a quick transformation for Ramsey. There is an uneasiness about him, as he is ‘the mad scientist’ who keeps monologing as exposition, while he feverishly looks through experiments and results.
Ramsey had earlier come across as a little obsessive and determined. In short, he had shades of grey. With the latest episode, Ramsey goes fully over the edge and transforms into the monster Bloodwork, that comic book fans know him to be.
The fourth episode of ‘The Flash’ aired on October 29, CW.