Tuesday night’s episode of The Flash, “The Speed of Thought”, ended with a shocking if not confusing reveal. Harrison Wells — the original, “Earth-1” Dr. Harrison Wells — appeared to come back to life despite not only the demise of Nash Wells (and all of the Wellses with him) in the Season 7 premiere but the fact that this particular Wells was murdered by Eobard Thawne in Season 1. It’s a revelation that comes with a lot of possibilities, particularly in terms of what it could mean for a possible Reverse Flash return, and now Barry Allen actor Grant Gustin hints at what might be in store.
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“Well, there’s kind of a twist there, too, like always when it comes to Wells,” Gustin told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s not like necessarily the real Harrison Wells, I guess. It has more to do with the particles that made up all of the Wellses now embodies this Harrison Wells. So, we’re going to yet again see Tom (Cavanagh) do something slightly different than we’ve ever seen, and it is technically the real Harrison Wells but with a twist.”
From the sound of things, it’s both a straightforward and also very complex situation, but it’s also something that appears to be introducing the genuine Harrison Wells for the first time, even with the twist. As long-time viewers will recall, the Dr. Harrison Wells we first met wasn’t really Harrison Wells at all but was instead Thawne impersonating him in order to ultimately manipulate Barry. The only glimpse of the “real” Harrison Wells we got was in the Season 1 episode “Tricksters” when Thawne killed him.
Of course, the Thawne of it all is something that fans think could also end up being a significant part of this new revelation as well. Series showrunner Eric Wallace has previously said that he doesn’t rule out another major villain from the show’s first three seasons making an appearance and at the virtual CCXP in Brazil last December, Danielle Nicolet also teased the return of some “bad guy favorites”. That could easily be Thawne — and Gustin did tease that there was supposed to be a Thawne cliffhanger at what should have been the end of Season 6.
“There was going to be a big Thawne cliffhanger at the end of what this season would have been, but that’s not going to be the cliffhanger we get,” Gustin previously explained. “[Episode] 619, “Success Is Assured,” is going to end up being our finale, so we’re going to have a different cliffhanger than originally planned. But the cliffhanger at the end of 619 does serve as a pretty good finale.”
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
