“I’m getting faster; faster than I’ve ever been. And I wonder if it’s because lately something’s chasing me. I know what it is, that’s stalking me. It’s my past and it’s getting closer. And as fast as I am I can’t help but feel like my past has almost caught up with me.”
Who is Harrison Wells?
It’s a question we’ve been wondering ever since the Professor opened up his hidden room and removed the mantle of his Reverse Flash suit. Even then, we didn’t know who he was, not until the aptly titled “Tricksters” episode proved to viewers that, to paraphrase Joe West, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Months behind the reveal to audiences, Barry Allen has finally realized Professor Wells is the Reverse Flash. But he needs more proof of his former idol’s identity, proof that Joe and Cisco look to gain when they revisit Starling City and the accident that killed Wells’s girlfriend Tess Morgan.
On the Central City home front, Barry has to keep his eye on the unconvinced Caitlin, continue to work with Wells and not draw suspicions, and work on the most recent case with Eddie on a meta-human shape shifter robbing banks and leaving innocent people to pay for his/her crimes.
With West out of town, Eddie is Barry’s backup on the case. The two men are still feeling their way around the dynamics of their new partnership. As it pertains to the case, they track down the shifter early on but cannot contain him as he’s able to take Eddie down and disappear around the corner as someone else thanks to Barry’s inexplicable inactions. Still, his observation on the shifter gives them a head’s up but, at the same time, Barry needs to be careful just in case said shifter can also steal a person’s energy/powers.
Eddie finds himself in precarious situation with the lawIt doesn’t take long for the duo to find a lead on the shifter, who they believe could be Hannibal Bates. They visit his grandmother, who’d filed a missing person’s report on him more than a year ago but dear old granny’s actually Bates. He gets away from the cops but not before throwing a wrench into the chase; he morphs into Eddie and shoots two uniformed officers. It’s all caught on dash cam and puts Eddie squarely in the sights of the DA who, despite the forensics report contradicting the detective firing his weapon, is ready to send Eddie up the river.
Speaking of up the river—or down the road, as it happens to be—Joe and Cisco meet with Captain Lance in their efforts to investigate the Wells/Morgan accident. Before they visit the crash site, Laurel pulls Cisco aside, reveals her identity as the Black Canary and asks him to fix her sonic device. Cisco’s fanboyism is on full display as he gushes over the beautiful DA/vigilante before promising to apply his skills to examine it. Once they get to the site, Joe and Lance bond over the nature of being fathers to strong women while Cisco does his science thing. He detects tachyons, which we know are left as traces of previous time travel and unearth a very special body. The Captain wants to call it in but Joe convinces him to hold off, knowing that anyone who knows about it will be in mortal danger, including Iris.
Splitting time between preventing Caitlin from making the massive mistake of confronting Wells to finding a way to exonerate Eddie, Barry has his hands full. At one point, he decides to break Eddie free but the detective refuses the aid. He reminds Barry of his identity as the Flash and tells him “get me out the right way.” Barry concedes to Eddie’s wishes and, after returning home to freshen up and promising Iris that he’d get Eddie out, Barry gets a surprise visit from the detective. Despite knowing there’s a shifter out there, Barry takes Eddie’s appearance as kismet—and then gets taken out of play when the shifter knocks him out and takes his identity.
Demonstrating the ‘show up without calling’ idea used by many a television characters, Caitlin arrives just as faux-Barry puts the real Barry, unconscious and trussed up, into a closet upstairs. She goes on to tell the faux-Barry of a serum that can be used to halt Everyman’s shifting capabilities. They end up at the lab where she finishes up the serum and is thrown for a complete loop when ‘Barry’ puts the moves on her. Iris barges in soon after and goes over the dash cam footage of the shooting; the shooter was left handed. Eddie’s right handed. Faux-Barry knows he’s made and is about to take out the two women when Wells shows up and tazes Everyman into unconsciousness. The STAR Lab folks want to keep him under wraps but Iris insists on taking him to the precinct. So how do they do it? Oh, just throw his unconscious form in the backseat where he wakes up and shifts into a screaming little girl begging for help from the bad ladies who kidnapped her. It works and Everyman is back on the streets and there goes Eddie’s chance…
But not quite. Caitlin finds the real Barry, provides him with the serum and, with the help of Wells, tracks him down to the airport where a fight that would be no contest is modestly entertaining until Barry uses the speed of the Flash to dominate. Once injected with the serum, Everyman is thrown into the Pipeline and reveals a very unique physical appearance and no idea of his true identity.
Before returning to Central City, Joe says his goodbyes to Lance, giving the captain the advice that making up with Laurel would cure many of his ails. Cisco gives Laurel an upgrade on the sonic device, one he christens as the “Canary Cry” while he gets the greatest of fanboy gifts: a picture with the fully costumed Canary.
The smoking gun, if you will in the ‘Harrison Wells in not who he says he is’ mysteryUsing the footage of Everyman’s fight with the Flash, the DA releases Eddie who’s welcomed with open arms by the once pissy Iris. The experience has given him the drive to be semi-honest as he tells her of his work with the Flash. Joe and Wells run into one another, their cat-and-mouse game continuing with the latter gaining a slight advantage when he mentions the death of Joe’s wife. But the DNA test of the corpse found in Starling City is the big to-do as it finally confirms for Caitlin that the man who wears the face of Harrison Wells is in fact someone else entirely. But who is he?
Epilogue
With Barry and Caitlin at his side, Cisco runs a 3D model of STAR Labs, searching for any hidden chambers. It works like a charm, sniffing out Wells’s secret lair. The trio gain access to it and the proof of Wells’s treachery. Before them lays the Reverse Flash’s suit and the crown jewel: the headline from 2024 that reads ‘Flash Missing: Vanishes in Crisis’. If ever there was a moment to use “what the frak”, it’s now.
Question of the Day
- Now that Barry and the others know without a doubt that Professor Wells isn’t who he says he is, what’s their next move? Though Barry is getting faster, he’s still not at the level needed to take out the Professor. No doubt Cisco will try to discover a way to neutralize Wells’s powers but how will he (and Caitlin) keep what they know under wraps and go about things as if it’s business as usual? Wells already suspects Barry and Joe are hiding something from him and if his two protégés display the same skittishness/unusual behavior, he’ll know for sure. Of course, he still needs Barry so the Central City speedster is safe from a personal standpoint; not so with his friends. The clock is ticking…
- For the first time, we get mention of Joe’s wife. Though it seems like Wells uses his knowledge as a way to disarm the detective, I have to wonder if there’s more to the story than a tragic death.
- We all know Barry’s not a fighter or that TV shows have to sometimes manipulate common sense to tell their story but some of the events in this week’s episode were mind-numbing. Barry just stands there while Everyman disappears around the corner? Barry taking Eddie’s appearance at the house at face value? Caitlin not calling Barry, just showing up? Everyman holding his own against the Flash (albeit for 30 seconds)? Those are just a few of the shake your head moments that made me shout out “what the frak”. Still, these wonderful blunders don’t take away from the Flash-tastic narrative of the series.
- Now that the authorities have proof of the meta-humans out there, how will it change their approach to things? Will they seek out the Flash’s help in an official capacity, knowing he’s the only one who can hope to stand against this new and dangerous world? Maybe they’ll even put together a Meta-Human Task Force to take down the baddies. Of course, they’ll need some meta-human fire power of their own to stand a chance. Sounds like the perfect time to introduce a few of the meta-human good guys and gals gracing the pages of the comics. #JustSayin