'The Flash:' How Barry's Secret Code Connects to The Thinker

On The Flash's season premiere last week Barry Allen returned from the Speed Force in time to save [...]

On The Flash's season premiere last week Barry Allen returned from the Speed Force in time to save Iris and Central City from the threat of the Samuroid. However, Barry wasn't himself right away and the real threat was revealed at the end of the episode to be The Thinker and if a fan theory is right it all might just be connected.

An Instagram user with the name "adeelf7yt" posted a collage of images from last week's 'The Flash Reborn' that highlighted a connection between Barry's post-Speed Force scribblings, The Caitlin's boss at the bar, and The Thinker himself that fans may not have noticed before. That connection? Barry's scribblings match up to symbols on both The Thinker's cheek and Catlin's boss' knuckles. Check it out below.

The Thinker, real name Clifford DeVoe, is one of The Flash's earliest villains in comic book history, a tech-enhanced villain who literally uses the power of his mind. We got a taste of the villain's intellectual capacity last week when he sent the highly realistic Samuroid -- an android samurai -- to threaten the city and demand the "real" Flash, implying that he was well-aware that The Flash wasn't in Central City. And at the end of the episode, when Barry snapped out of his Speed Force haze and saved Iris, The Thinker seemed to have known all along that not only was Barry in the Speed Force but that his friends would be able to rescue him.

How The Thinker would know that was one of the questions some had last week, but now this look at his cheek hints that maybe The Thinker knew because he, too, has a connection to the Speed Force. You see, while The Thinker doesn't appear to be physically fast that doesn't mean that his mind isn't superhumanly fast. What if, instead of being a speedster in the sense fans have grown accustomed to literally racing around Central City, The Thinker is a mental speedster?

There's more than a little merit to the thought. Show producer Todd Helbing told ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic Con this summer that this year it would be man versus mind but speed still mattered.

"We always want to try to top ourselves whenever we can," Helbing said. "But you know we've had three speedsters in a row, so we wanted to do something a little different, so this year it's The Thinker and it's 'The Fastest Man Alive' versus 'The Fastest Mind Alive.'"

So, if The Thinker is a mental speedster, what about the symbols on the bar boss' knuckles? At the end of last week's episode, when Caitlin tried to quit the boss made mention of someone called Amunet. In comics, Amunet Black is the leader of a criminal underground black market called "the Network" and while the connection to The Thinker in comics is largely limited The Thinker actually saving The Flash from Black that doesn't mean there isn't a connection on The Flash. Whatever The Thinker's larger plans are, they have yet to be revealed and if Amunet Black and her crew are involved, things could get very complicated for Team Flash.

Maybe we'll find out what "this house is bitchin'" means sooner rather than later after all.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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