The Flash is coming down the homestretch in its first season and it has barely missed a step so far. Over the weekend, the producers and writers opened up about the future of their hit show and made some huge revelations.

Several huge plot strands have been left dangling as the show heads into its final two months. Among them are that Dr. Wells hasn’t revealed his identity as the Reverse Flash yet, Barry Allen’s coworker and romantic rival Eddie Thawne’s tenuous friendship , Allen and Joe West lying repeatedly to Iris, and Barry Allen discovering that it is possible to travel through time. There are a lot of unresolved issues that are surely heading for a collision course. So let’s dig in.

 

Reverse Flash/Dr. Harrison Wells

 

Tom Cavanagh has done a masterful job of playing Dr. Harrison Wells. He has successfully deceived the characters in the show and the audience in real life, on what Dr. Wells’ true intentions are. The showrunners cleverly created the character for TV so he is at this point, effectively an amalgam of several characters from the comic books. This has kept both readers and those new to the show unsure of what direction that he will go in.

What is hard to deny is that Dr. Wells has shown to have a dark side that is driving his intricate manipulations and feats of deceit. However little is known about his past, except that his wife died fifteen years prior. Cavanagh finally revealed what Dr. Wells’ true motivation is recently.

“Harrison Wells is just a guy who wants to get home.”

Even though that is a simple statement, it is loaded with connotations. It has been shown that Wells has a home in the present, but has technology from the future. This is essentially confirming that Wells is from another time. His constant prodding of Barry to push his limits have been to get him to understand the full potential of his powers. Once he does, it is clear that Wells intends to siphon off his energy, or speed force, so that he can return to his time and/or possibly to save his wife.

Tom Cavanagh and Grant Gustin, who plays the Flash, have the same build and look similar. So much so, that many incorrectly speculated that he was in fact Allen from the future. What is clear is that they are reflections of each other, both in and out of their costumes. They both intend to also use their abilities to fix what they perceive to be injustices by travelling through time.

 

Iris West

 

A strength of the show and a way that it has differentiated itself from other CW melodramas, is that it hasn’t been bogged down by too much relationship drama, yet. Sure there is the unrequited love between Allen and Iris (Candice Patton), however they haven’t let it overbear a single episode. There is at least one scene every episode that adds a unique challenge or twist to the potential love story and then moves on. 

Iris is a professional reporter and it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that she wouldn’t figure out that the person that she grew up with, is the Flash. It sounds like she will be connecting the dots sooner than later and this is what Patton had to say.

“I can only imagine that when she finds out Barry and Joe [Jesse L. Martin] have been lying to her, it’s going to be a huge sense of betrayal. That’s at the base of everything. How could your family… keep something so big from her? It’s going to change everything.”

It’s hard to tell which direction the writers will ultimately take when Iris uncovers the truth. However, they are destined to be together, according to comic book canon. We have also seen photographic proof that they will indeed lock lips before the season is over as well. Will that happen for real? Or in an altered timeline? We will find out soon…

 

Time Travel

 

The Flash is one of best superhero shows on television and what many viewers are unaware of, is it’s on the verge of becoming a straight forward science fiction show. Television would seem to be a ripe medium to explore the mind bending sci-fi elements of time travel. There have been hugely successful shows in the past that cleverly explored the concept. Shows like Quantum Leap, Doctor Who, and Fringe, have showed the epic possibilities for memorable adventures, however the graveyard of failed time-travel shows is much larger. Remember Journeyman anybody? Didn’t think so…

One of the most brilliant aspects of The Flash’s first season is the ability of the writers to make the impossible feel tangible. They will certainly have their hands full with the introduction of the Flash’s ability to travel in time, which will ultimately change the tone of the show.

“We’re definitely talking about the ramifications of time travel,” says executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, who also teased that the show will soon be taking on a major storyline directly from the comics. “There are episodes coming up where there is concern of certain events being changed in the past [that] would affect who people are and their relationships with each other. If the past changes, does the present change as well?”

One of the most well-known Flash stories from the comics is the Flashpoint Paradox. Where an attempt to travel back in time to save Allen’s mother backfires on the speedster, causing all kinds of odd alternate realities in true Back to the Future fashion. Great Scott! It seems that the showrunners will eventually go in this direction which could lead to fun possibilities. For example, in the comics Caitlyn Snow is actually a villain known as Killer Frost and Cisco Ramon is a hero known as Vibe. Will time travel ultimately turn the show on its head? The opportunity is there…

 

Wally West 

 

The Flash is one of the first legacy comic book heroes that figured a way to create a superhero lineage. Jay Garrick, Wally West, and Barry Allen, are each characters that have carried the mantle of The Flash, for different generations of comic book readers. Up until recently, Barry Allen had died in the comics and generations grew up on the Wally West version of The Flash in comic books and TV shows such as the animated Justice League. 

This past weekend the producers confirmed that they will begin laying the seeds for the character to be introduced in the second season. Not only will audiences get Wally, but also some answers will be coming in regards to what happened to Iris’ mother. Joe has been a single father since Barry and Iris were small, but the exact reason why has been purposefully overlooked. 

Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen already has elements of West in his portrayal, so it will give the writers a little leeway in his interpretation. In the comics he is the nephew of Iris West, so more than likely he will be introduced as a cousin during some point in season 2. This has been part of a long-term plan, as executive producer Greg Berlanti (Arrow) talked to ScreenRant last year about the character.

“What’s very cool is in the New 52 they hadn’t reintroduced Wally [yet]. When they reintroduced Wally [in the New 52], they made him African-American. So now and forever, Kid Flash will be African-American…We made the West characters African American so we can eventually head in that direction, absolutely… That’s our hope.”

The producers and showrunners have done a masterful job of translating the comic to the small screen. It will be fun to see the mythology of West be taken into the 21st century after the rebirth of Barry Allen. It is also worth keeping in mind that there will be the Arrow/Flash spin-off show coming next season. Is it possible that Kid Flash will take one of the three available spots on the show? It’s worth keeping an eye on.

 

Eddie Thawne

 

The moment that Thawne was revealed to be in a relationship with Iris West, a clear signal was sent to viewers that this was not going to end well. After a rough start that saw an antagonistic relationship between the detective and the costumed speedster, the two have since teamed up to fight crime. However it seems that things will soon take a turn for the worse for Thawne. In a new trailer that has not yet been made available to the public, Thawne is shown to have made a dark turn.

Though it was long suspected that Eddie could actually be the Reverse Flash, he has proved himself to be a standup guy… until now. In the trailer, Eddie approaches two fellow cops and shoots them point blank—which is hopefully a result of Barry tinkering with the past. “Eddie has an amazing arc over the season and you’re going to be so surprised,” Cosnett teases. Bonus: We also saw Barry confront his feelings for Iris (Candice Patton) in the trailer, followed by Eddie punching him in the face.

It is unclear if this scene is happening in an alternate timeline, especially since the producers were so cavalier in showing the footage. However it signals that Thawne is headed in the direction that you would expect. After the most well-known Reverse Flash in the comics name is Eobard Thawne, surely a surname like that is not a coincidence…

The end of the season is shaping up to be amazing, while setting the foundation for an even more incredible second season. The Flash returns with new episodes on Tuesday, March 17th!

What are you most excited for? Let us know on , , !

Source: EW, Screenrant