The Flash returned last week for its seventh season, but while the show’s return was exciting for fans. the season premiere was an emotional one. While Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) did get his speed back thanks to the creation of the artificial Speed Force, it came at a heavy cost. Nash Wells and indeed all of the versions of Harrison Wells (all played by Tom Cavanagh) sacrificed themselves in order to make the artificial Speed Force work. Tonight, as the season continues with “The Speed of Thought”, Barry and the team have to carry on, dealing with both that loss and a mysterious new power for Barry.
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That power is a central focus of Tuesday night’s episode and, as we’ve seen from the previously released synopsis, Barry thinks that new power might be the answer to saving Iris (Candice Patton) and the others from the Mirrorverse but Cisco (Carlos Valdes) isn’t so sure. And with time running out for Iris and with Eva continuing to cause issues in the real world, the stakes are higher than ever.
Need to get caught up on the major details and stories from “The Speed of Thought, this week’s episode of The Flash? We’re here to help. Here are the major plot points for “The Speed of Thought”. Warning: full spoilers for the episode beyond this point. Read on only if you want to know.
Grief and hope
Team Flash mourns all the Wellses and puts Nash’s pack on display as part of a memorial with tributes to everyone else they’ve lost, setting the tone for things as the team mourns yet another major loss. However, there isn’t much time for sadness. Cisco has returned with Atlantean tech to rescue everyone from the Mirrorverse, but there are some challenges to that. One of those challenges is quickly dealt with when Allegra sees a message pop up from Iris to Kamilla and David — a message from inside the Mirrorverse.
Think fast… really fast
Barry starts exhibiting a new power with speed thinking and it lets him not only solve the issues of how to open a portal to the Mirrorverse, but how to get the things they need to do so. Turns out, Eva has photons still on her body that will let them get Iris, Kamilla, and Singh back. The Flash and Cisco head to Eva’s next Black Hole target to get those photons with an assist from Frost, but when Barry lets Frost get hurt in order to further the mission Cisco realizes something is off.
It’s all logical
Barry’s speed thinking continues and he figures out that Eva is a duplicate and proves it by accessing the video at McCulloch of the real Eva dying and he exposes her by broadcasting the footage live on the talk show she’s on. Barry unemotionally says it was the most efficient distraction. The longer Barry continues with his new powers, the less human he becomes.
Barry figures out that they can’t save everyone and runs a simulation to realize that he would be outvoted in saving Iris over Kamilla and Singh so he decides to just go it alone and not inform the team.
Team Flash versus The Flash
Cisco and the team tries to stop this unemotional Barry, especially when they figure out he plans to only save Iris. It prompts a fight between Team Flash and The Flash himself, but even though Frost doses herself with Velocity X, he defeats them and opens the portal anyway. He finds Iris in the Speed Lab in the Mirrorverse and she immediately wants to get Kamilla and Singh back through to the real world — they are in bad shape because of how they entered the Mirrorverse. Barry coldly says he is only saving Iris because it makes the most sense. She resists, but Barry ultimately brings her through by force.
Unpredictable consequences
Iris collapses and starts having seizures almost immediately after being brought back to the real world. Barry, realizing he didn’t predict this, nor was he able to predict the emotions and reactions of his friends, breaks down, destroying the artificial speed force and apparently losing his powers again. Now, everyone on Team Flash is apparently down — and Kamilla and Singh remain trapped and in dire condition.
Eva
After being exposed as not the real Eva, she retreats to her office and appears to be having some sort of meltdown when she realizes that while this world is not hers, she can make it into her own world. At the Central City Police Department, an officer gets into the elevator to leave when a mirror duplicate of said officer moves to drag her into the Mirroverse.
A familiar face?
The episode ends with a Season 1 flashback to Eobard Thawne taking over the appearance and life of the real “Earth-1” Harrison Wells. We also see the body of the real Harrison Wells buried in a makeshift grave. Suddenly, above where his grave is located and presumably now in the present, particles begin to form over the grave. Harrison Wells appears to return to life.