After time travel shook up the last two weeks, The Flash is getting back to its old Trickster. See what I did there? However, there is a twist. On Tuesday, as the episode title would imply, not one but two "Tricksters" will appear on The Flash. Mark Hamill will reprise his role as James Jesse, originally seen in the 1990s The Flash series. His character has been in prison for 20 years, which does not hurt my conspiracy theory that the two series are connected somehow. But who is the second Trickster on The Flash? He'll be played by Devon Graye, who is most recognizable as flashback teenage Dexter. If you get the heebie-jeebies just by looking at him, that's why. The CW's episode description tells us that Graye's Trickster is a copycat criminal with an affinity for explosives. Is he original? Is he a time-traveling younger James Jesse, or a "distant relative" like Harrison Wells and Eddie Thawne?
Well, DC Comics actually has a second Trickster, and he doesn't fall under any of those categories. When ComicBook.com exclusively announced Graye's casting, they gave him a name: Axel. This is presumably Axel Walker, who is known in the comics as the second Trickster. He has a similar history to the CW character as well. He is gadget-based, not a metahuman. He stole the Trickster identity and costume when Jesse was working as an informant — it's quite a costume.
Also in the comics, Axel joined the Rogues, who have a big presence on the CW series. This makes sense. They prefer gadgets to powers. I'm not even sure they'd let a metahuman join their crew. However, who made the Trickster's gadgets if he's been around for so long? We can assume it wasn't Cisco Ramon, unless time travel was involved. Was there another engineer who outfitted criminals with kooky weapons back in the day?
If I had a guess, it would be Harrison Wells. We don't know exactly how long he's been in his own past. Wells also knows Tina McGee, who, like James Jesse, was played by the same character in both series. He's definitely done some damage in order to keep the future on track, and this could be a key part of it.
One other thing I do like about this development on The Flash is that it proves Central City wasn't a bright and shiny place before Nora Allen was killed and/or the particle accelerator released dark matter and created metahumans. Barry Allen's town may not be as dark as Starling City, and we haven't even seen what Gotham is like in the CW universe, but it ain't perfect. There are wacky criminals everywhere and there always have been.
On Tuesday's episode, James Jesse is enlisted to help catch this copycat criminal. That's how we get the two for one Trickster deal. It's not quite the same as him being an FBI informant, but close enough. Besides, as you can tell by the photo above, they ultimately work together and go after Henry Allen. It's a 1990s The Flash reunion! Is it their love for terrorism or clashing patterns that causes them to team up? We'll have to wait and see.
Images: Diyah Pera, Cate Cameron/The CW
