The Flash’s last episode shows the comeback of a character who has been dead since long before the series even began.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for “The Speed of Thought,” the latest episode of The Flash Season 7.
The Council of Wells may have given up their lives to kickstart the Artificial Speed Force, but longtime The Flash star Tom Cavanagh isn’t out of a job quite yet. In “The Speed of Thought,” Earth-1’s original Harrison Wells somehow returned from the dead.
Just before “The Speed of Thought” drew to a close, the episode flashed back to “Once Upon a Time,” when the Reverse-Flash himself Eobard Thawne killed Wells and stole his face. Once Thawne completely drained Wells, he dumped his body in a shallow grave on the side of the road, leaving him to rot in anonymity — but in Season 7, The Flash has other plans.
A new sequence showed green particles floating up out of that grave. These particles combined to form a humanoid shape, which coalesced into a physical form. Eventually, they left a very confused Wells standing just above the soil where he was buried. He soon heaved a sigh of relief, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, as the episode cut to another title card: “To be continued…”
In The Flash’s pre-“Crisis on Infinite Earths” continuity, Earth-1’s original Harrison Wells has been dead since well before the series began. After all, Thawne traveled back to the time just before Wells founded STAR Labs and began Barry’s path to becoming the Flash sooner than it had in his original timeline. He caused an accident that injured Wells and killed Wells’ wife Tess Morgan, before he murdered Wells to take his identity. As such, Team Flash never really knew the true Wells.
At the time of writing, it is unclear how Earth-1’s Wells has returned from beyond the grave. Indeed, he looks just as surprised as Team Flash is likely to be when they eventually cross paths with him. Considering they never really got to know him in any timeline, they may all be in for a culture shock as he returns to the Lab he was destined to build.
On the series so far, Cavanagh has played every version of the character since Earth-1’s Wells was revealed to be Reverse-Flash in Season 1. Ever since, he has put several different spins on the character, with each new version hailing from a different Earth in the multiverse. Such characters include series regulars like Earth-2’s Harry Wells, H.R. Wells, Sherloque Wells and Nash Wells.
Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh.
Source: cbr.com