Of all the plot twists fans were expecting on The Flash, the one I was least suspecting is that Harrison Wells was Eobard Thawne from the future all along. Yes, for a few episodes now, we've known that he is the Reverse-Flash, also known as the Man In The Yellow Suit, but never in a million years did I think that the show would give him an entirely new identity, revealing that the mysterious Wells has been a key comic book character since day one. Because yes, while Eobard Thawne is Reverse-Flash in DC Comics, The Flash seemed to be taking the villain in an entirely new direction. It turns out, the show was just playing us. And not only is Wells actually Eobard Thawne, a "distant relative" of Eddie's, but after revealing his true reasons for being in the past — wanting to kill Barry Allen — Wells killed Cisco for finding out the truth on the spot.
Unfortunately, all of this might have just happened in vain. We know the truth, but it could be a long, long time before everybody else does, because Barry Allen finally achieved a speed that allowed him to travel back in time. Now that we're a few days in the past again, Harrison hasn't revealed his secret, Cisco is still alive, and none of the shenanigans with the Weather Wizard have come to pass. Yet again, the show has dropped a huge knowledge bomb on us and become the personification of "one step forward, two steps back," except these steps are apparently in the time space continuum. Will Barry be able to stop everything from coming to pass, now that we know for sure that he was seeing another version of himself when he was running that night?
Also, now that we know Harrison is Eobard Thawne, there are so many questions left unanswered. What on earth in this version of The Flash did Barry do to make him so hell-bent on revenge? How long has Wells been waiting to strike? Could he have actually been trying to kill Barry the night Nora Allen died? Does that mean the version of older Barry that was there that night really did succeed in his mission, because the mission all along was actually to save himself? And what is it that has been causing Wells' powers to malfunction in the first place, that he needs Barry's abilities to get back to where he came from?
I have to say that the only part of this that even vaguely lines up is that Reverse-Flash did seem to pay some weirdly special attention to Eddie that one time he made a quick appearance, seeming to spare him when he went crazy on the rest of the squad. Something tells me we're going to have a lot more revealed about Wells' intentions and past in the next few episodes, but in the meantime, we are all waiting with baited breath. Cisco should be OK, at least for now, and maybe in this new reality the characters find a safer way to come to the inevitable discovery of Wells' real identity — but however it happens, they're all going to be thrown for as big of a loop as we all just were.
Image: Cate Cameron/The CW
