I am fairly sure Thawne, er, dehydrated Wells before he created S.T.A.R. Labs. As I recall the sequence of events, Wells described his plan for S.T.A.R. Labs to his SO while they were lounging on a beach. Driving back, they were accosted by Thawne, who killed them both. Thawne-as-Wells then founded S.T.A.R. Labs a few years earlier that what happened in the original, original timeline. Hence Caitlin and Cisco only ever knew Thawne-as-Wells. Quite possibly no one in this timeline knows OG Wells.
Thanks. Makes sense for Thawne to choose a time when Wells was switching jobs, I suppose (reduces the number of people that Thawne/Wells has to fool)
My favorite part was when Barry used the quantum ball as a time-delayed weapon.
My previous theory was that Wells would return as the speed force entity. Now I wonder if he is The Spectre in the multiverse created by the Oliver Queen Spectre, due to him being dead, green, and glowing. Also because it doesn’t sound like Stephen Amell will be returning as the Spectre.
I thought the glowing motes were the quantum-darkforce-technobabble-mirror particles Barry harvested earlier in the episode to open the portal to the MirrorVerse. Like, somehow harvesting and using those particles resurrected OG Wells, or created a mirror double of him, or something. Or did those particles have a different appearance?
The quantum-darkforce particles from Eva were cyan-blue-white, and the multiverse particles from Wells that went into new speed force were yellow-orange. The particles that came from the grave and formed the new Wells were distinctly green.
I took it that the “resurrection” scene took place in the past not long after Thawne killed Wells. What’s green and comes back from the dead? The Spectre. Since Oliver Queen edited the past for several Green Arrow characters and unkilled them, I wonder if he also edited the past for Harrison Wells and passed off the Spectre mantle to him. Since it was the Spectre’s energy that “poisoned” the original speed force, maybe the Oliver Queen Spectre set things in place for a Wells Spectre to fix the damage that was done.
A Wells Spectre might also be the key for the Flash/Supergirl/Batwoman/Superman Earth-1 to discover that there actually still is a multiverse, although with fewer parallel worlds than before. There is supposed to be a crossover with Stargirl at some point. Since those other Earths were created or preserved by the Spectre, maybe it will require the intervention of the Spectre for them to interact.
It wasn’t really clear when exactly the resurrection took place. Could have either been present day, shortly after Thawne buried him, or any time in between.
Way back in Season 1, we saw Cisco and Detective West exhume the body and take it to the Starling City morgue, in their investigation into Wells’s background. What happened to the body afterwards was not addressed, but it stands to reason that the Starling City coroner’s office wouldn’t just put the body back into the original unmarked grave. Whether the body was still there when Wells got resurrected (and whether that’s even pertinent), who knows?
I just rewatched the end of the episode, and to me it looks like the green particles rise from the fresh grave with loose soil. It seems to be showing a Harrison Wells who, unbeknownst to the Star Labs crew, may have returned to life years ago, shortly after his death.
The whole resurrection scene was weird and out of place. I’m guessing they had to do a lot of re-editing with these episodes that were supposed to air at the end of last season.
S07E03 Mother
SUE DEARBON RETURNS - As Eva (guest star Efrat Dor) becomes more powerful, Barry and team must find a way to stop her. They are shocked when an old friend - Sue Dearbon (guest star Natalie Dreyfuss) risks her life to help.
I take it this would have been the season finale, if last season had not been so unfortunately cut short. It was seriously Not Good. The previous two episodes were all building up to the moment when Team Flash confronted the Mirror Monarch (good name, I’ll grant) and it was all resolved by, what, the power of love? And MM gets to go back to the Mirrorverse with no repercussions?
Now I am actually a big fan of superhero shows that resolve their conflict through non-violent means. But the solution has to make sense, for both the hero and the villain. Here we just saw Iris appealing to MM’s sense of humanity or better judgement or something equally stupid. It was Smart Barry’s fault that MM went off the deep end. It should have been Smart Barry who came up with a solution.
I also didn’t like the way the just wrote off Ralph and Sue. Is was really hoping we’d get to see more of them. And then there’s Harrison Wells. Why bring back the OG only to have him pull out a deus ex Harrison and then go bye-bye? Such a waste.
It sure seemed like a season finale.
Eh, I was ok with that. It agree it was kind of out of left field, but The Flash is not exactly a tightly plotted show. I’ll cut a superhero show at least some slack for a climax that isn’t just super-punching the other guy in the face.
I thought that was by far the worst part of the episode. “Sue and Ralph are totally off the grid, investigating Black Hole.” Ok, sure. But then, Sue randomly shows up and breaks cover. I guess because she knew her parents had been replaced by doppelgangers? Or something? And then the whole “Hey, we just wrapped up my whole season-long subplot off-screen, and look evidence of my innocence that is…a split screen picture of two people that somehow proves I was framed. Oh, and Ralph got blown up by an explosion that apparently we didn’t have the time or budget to show, so now he needs to be put into a transmorgrifer so he’ll probably look different after he comes out. Not that we can show you that, because apparently we still haven’t recast him. Off to fight Black Hole! Uhm, wait, Mirror Monarch already destroyed them…I mean, off to fight those other organizations exactly like Black Hole that totally exist in every other country that we’ve never mentioned before but that I’m totally sure exist for reasons!”
I get that between COVID and the whole mess with Ralph’s actor the writers and producers got kind of stuck with what to do, but…that was painful.
Well, as you said, this episode really seemed like it was originally scripted as last season’s finale. Having a Wells briefly show up and leave makes some sense as a season finale cliffhanger. Will Wells be back next season? Will it be a different Wells? Are we going to get a spin-off with Timeless Wells, moving back and forth along his own timeline, putting right that which once went wrong?
On a different matter, what was up with that last stinger, “18 Hours Earlier:”, with the Speed Force lighting lighting up the sky? Is this the new Dark Matter explosion, and are we now going to deal with the fallout of the creation of the new Speed Force, and random new speedsters?
Certainly seems like it. And new metas of all sorts, too (with a type of “metaness” that they don’t have a cure for?)
The Flash made the attempt but it really fell flat for me. If a show is going the route of non-violence, there should be some sort of logic to the resolution. Last we saw of Mirror Monarch, she fell off the deep end after being exposed on live TV. As presented to the audience, it looked like some sort of psychotic break. At no point did it seem like she would respond to reason, especially not something as lame as Iris’ pep talk.
In general, The Flash is about metahumans, while Supergirl is about aliens. Since everyone’s now on the same planet, there should be some crossover. Not necessarily with the heroes, but maybe someone who lives in National City might have been visiting Central City when the Speed Force lit up the sky, and comes back to National City a speedster. Or aliens might move to Central City and become police officers.
S07E04 Central City Strong
ABRA KADABRA RETURNS - The Flash must deal with Abra Kadabra’s (guest star David Dastmalchian) sudden return to Central City. The villain is back with a vengeance and a score to settle. Meanwhile, Allegra deals with a tricky situation and Caitlin suspects something is off with Frost. Iris is forced to look at a dark moment in her past.
Hey, Flash. Some super villain threatens to destroy the city every year, if not more frequently. You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep. I guess you’re more confident now that you know you can always talk down the villain and defeat them through the Power of Love. And you didn’t even need Iris this time.
Hey, Flash writers. You showed that, with the Power of Love, anyone can change if given the chance, even Mirror Monarch and Abra Kadabra. How about you show Hartley Sawyer some love and give him a chance to change? Ralph Dibney, anyone? Elongated Man?
S07E05 Fear Me
PSYCH ATTACKS CENTRAL CITY - When a powerful new villain, Psych (guest star Ennis Esmer), channels and amplifies everyone’s fears in order to wreak havoc on Central City, Barry realizes, with Cecile’s help, that he must face his own worst fear in order to beat this new threat. Meanwhile, Joe is surprised when Kristen Kramer (guest star Carmen Moore) from the Governor’s Municipal Logistics Commission drops into CCPD for a visit. Iris warns her father to dig deeper on why Kristen is actually there. Caitlin and Frost argue about how to live their lives.
This episode certainly introduced a lot of plot elements. Combined with plot threads introduced previously, I thought the writers were just throwing a lot of balls up in the air without necessarily thinking of a way to catch them all. Fortunately, it turns out they all resolved into two.
- Fuerza, Psych, and Speedforce Nora were all somehow connected to the reactivated artificial Speedforce.
- Joe West’s visitor wanted to apprehend (Killer) Frost, who coincidentally (or not) is now a separate entity from Caitlin Snow.
There was also Godspeed, introduced way back in Season 5, is somehow still out there, but he seems to have been forgotten for now.
S07E06 The One With the Nineties
CISCO AND CHESTER GO BACK IN TIME - Cisco and Chester travel back in time and get stuck in 1998, repeating the same day over and over again. The key to returning home is at Chester’s childhood home but he refuses to visit. Meanwhile, Iris forges a connection with the speed force.