Only a few minutes into Tuesday's episode, fans were in for a surprise that left them with one huge question on The Flash. If Harrison Wells is not Reverse-Flash, who killed Barry's mother? And what on earth does he want with Barry and his family? The flashback that started early on in the episode gave us very few clues, but it did reveal a few weird things that we might not have noticed in the original version. It definitely looked as though Reverse-Flash deliberately went in to kill Barry's mother, which does not at all line up with his motive to kill Barry. And weirdly, we never even see a close up of grown-up Barry in this flashback, just the familiar streak, even though he was presumably there.
After Barry was dropped off in front of the house, Reverse-Flash seemed to run down the street right past him, until his suit short-circuited and Gideon told him he was stuck in that time. Then he ripped off his mask, revealing someone who is definitely not Harrison Wells. Um, what?!
The only explanation I can think of off the top of my head? Maybe the total stranger who ripped his mask off is Barry Allen. But like, old man Barry Allen from the way, way future. This wouldn't be totally out of line with what we already know, which is that the blood of an older Barry Allen was found on the property. So in this scenario, Barry absolutely does go back in time, but in disguise, either to save his mother or the younger version of himself. He just doesn't get to it for a very, very long time... and then presumably gets stuck there after it happens.
If that is the case, it some older version of Barry going to pop up in the present? The thing that debunks my theory is if older Barry really were lurking in the background, surely he would have tried to stop Wells by now.
But it turns out my theory could not be further off! The end of the episode revealed that the mystery man who killed Barry's mother was Eobard Thawne from the future, and he'd done some pretty sinister stuff after his encounter to pose as Harrison Wells all this time. Just goes to show how well The Flash is always keeping fans on their toes.
Image: Cate Cameron/The CW
