The Flash The Flash-Season 1-Episode 20-"The Trap"

[stillanerd]

I appreciate that, but it still seems a little ... gross to me for Joe to "ship" his adopted/foster son and biological daughter. And while the show has "established" Barry's romantic interest in Iris (although, in my opinion, that interest is unsupported by any actual shared interests, visible chemistry, etc), apart from the time travel episode I don't think the show has really established that for Iris, even from Joe's perspective/understanding.

Anyway, it seems from the scenes between Joe and Papa Lance that the writers understand that it is a character flaw of Joe to always believe that he knows what is best for his daughter. So, hopefully with Iris now knowing the truth, there will be a change in dyanamics between the characters in the future and Iris will once and for all establish her independence from both Joe and Barry.

Oh, don't get me wrong. The whole idea of Joe going "My biological daughter and adopted son should get married and have kids" is definitely creepy, and honestly, the show could've done without the whole "Barry is adopted by Iris' dad" angle. After all, Joe didn't have to adopt Barry to become his legal guardian and Barry is certainly no orphan what with his dad still being alive.

As for where Iris goes from here, I imagine that in the second season, her skills as an investigative reporter is bound to be an asset for Team Flash, basically telling Barry, "Even though it's going to take a long time for me to get over you lying to me, Central City still needs you as the Flash and I'll help you out however I can." And I imagine if, since we've seen a similar situation play out with Captain Lance and Laurel, things are probably going to be a bit frosty between Joe and Iris for a few episodes, only instead of the dad being upset at the daughter, it's the daughter upset at the dad.

 

[haephestus]

The episode was good but they're dumbing down Eobard. He knew Iris was investigating this whole time but didn't kill her like he did the other journalist, he should've killed Joe too BTW, it just doesn't make sense.

Did he need to kill either of them? Eobard/Harrison killed Mason because Mason had unspecified supporting evidence for a story which would expose something nefarious about Harrison's past or his plans for the future. Mason was a respected journalist and had the means for the story to be published and "accepted" by the public due to his reputation as a journalist.

Iris was just investigating metahumans in general and their potential connection to the particle accelerator explosion. It didn't seem that she was particularly focused on Harrison Wells and even if she was investigating Harrison as part of her story, at the moment she has no creidbility. Iris didn't go to her editor with her story, she went to Barry with a folder full of purported "evidence" based on her blog. That's still far away from an actual story with supporting evidence being published.

As for Joe, I guess Harrison could kill him, but he wants Barry focused on his journey to be a hero. If Joe was killed, then that might detract Barry from his heroic mission, so he doesn't access the Speedforce or whatever it is that Eobard/Harrison needs Barry to do so that he can then drain the Speedforce from Barry and travel back to his own time in the future.

And again, even if Joe discovered something about Eobard/Harrison, he wouldn't really pose a threat to Eobard. So, they've discovered the "real" Harrison Wells' body. Eobard could easily steal the remains if he was genuinely threatened. That's if he could even be bothered maintaining the Harrison Wells persona, which it appears he was happy to drop when required.

At this stage, I'm not sure there has really been sufficient justification for Eobard to starting killing Barry's friends and family.

 

[BestGirl]

The Reverse Flash didn't attack Iris because her investigation posed any sort of a threat to him. He threatened Joe with killing her if he continued his investigation, remember?

 

[Dark Raven]

Good episode this week. Things were pretty intense.

I must've missed the reference to founding member of the Justice League.

 

[goodfoot]

Good episode this week. Things were pretty intense.

I must've missed the reference to founding member of the Justice League.

When Gideon is talking to Flash, she says "Founding member of the..." and then Barry cuts her off and asks a question.

 

[Broseph44]

Why does wells needs a wheelchair if he can walk

Wow. Hahahah. Wow.

 

[Tempest]

Yes, but you know they're destined to be together because of the comics right? The mistake was making them foster siblings, this is what makes their relationship "weird" to many fans, it was an unnecessary change.

The episode was good but they're dumbing down Eobard. He knew Iris was investigating this whole time but didn't kill her like he did the other journalist, he should've killed Joe too BTW, it just doesn't make sense. When you have a character determined to kill anyone that could become a threat, then go all out, don't dumb him down when is convenient to the plot. Is like when they dumb down Barry so he can't beat the Rogues easily by taking their guns away, but then beats the Weather Wizard in two seconds. They're not consistent with the writing, Arrow has the same problem.

And Tom Cavanagh keeps stealing the show with his performance, he will be missed if he's not a regular next season.

Barry and Iris are not together in the New 52 (yet, at least). And Caitlin and Firestorm aren't canon at all. Like ever, I'm pretty sure.

Besides, what I said was that if they are going to indeed end up together, I wanted to see it unfold naturally. I think what we've gotten so far is extremely lazy writing with regards to Barry and Iris...they're friends just because, Barry's in love with Iris just because, and now, in the future, they're married, just because.

Aside Barry being kind of stalkerish and creepy with Iris, and Iris interfering in Barry's love life, we aren't given much of a reason to root for them.

But whatever. Bad romances aside, I found most of the rest of this episode fantastic.

 

[herolee10]

I just hope that it's not revealed that Eobard Thawne's reason for hating Barry is because the former lost a loved one and blames Barry for that.

I think this universe has had MORE than enough characters having been motivated to become heroes and villains because the loss of a loved one.

Also, even with this new development between Iris's and Barry's relationship, I expect some major CW-Like hurdle to come in along the way.

No way will they allow Barry and Iris to become an actual couple this soon, especially when it's been revealed that they were married in the original timeline.

I expect something will happen along the way that pushes Iris away from Barry, with the latter potentially getting another love interest next season.

In fact, they may play with the whole "Destiny vs Choice" concept where Barry ends up falling for another female character and wonders if it'll be able to work because of the whole Future Article that he saw.

 

[the gael]

There is something strange with Eobard Thawne. The guy is clearly is sociopath and a monster. He has clearly no empathy for anyone and can kill even the closest people if needed without any kind of regret. But, unlike many sociopathic villains, he has clearly a moral compass, and I guess that's very important. Despite the lack of feelings and empathy, the guy understand and respects concepts such has "honesty", "good and evil", "justice", "heroism" or "friendship". He is not interested in world domination, corruption, etc... Any people who are not evil in his eyes (probably the reporter was just another guy without any kind of moral for Thawne) or doesn't pose any kind of threat for him (like Joe and Iris) is safe. And Thawne can even be heroic with unknown and innocent people.... as long as it doesn't interfere with his own little projects. He is probably a very sympathetic guy and a good friend... unlike you piss him off a big way and he then vibrate his hand through your skull.

The more I think of it, the more I believe that Eobard Thawne is "deeply honest" in his own view. Yes, he is a guy who stole Harrison Wells life and pretend to be someone he is not. But he doesn't seem to love it. He doesn't even did a very good job at protecting his "secret identity" once Barry reached a certain point. I Feel that Thawne "was forced" to take Harrison Wells life to "create" Flash as early as possible, but he seems to be a guy who wants to be seen as Eobard Thawne and not a guy who wants to hide what he did. He seems a guy who believe that he is right and that can accept the consequences of his choices. Yes, Henry Allen was blamed for his crime, but I think that it's only because it helped Barry becoming the Flash and reaching his full potential sooner. A mean to an end. Had this not helped his projects, this Eobard Thawne would probably not has Henry blamed for Nora's murder, and would have taken his responsabilities (it's not as if the cops could have stopped him)

As for "what cause Eobard to hate Barry", the last episode seems to imply that Barry was the bad guy in his eyes. My guess is that a future Barry will probably try to avert his mother murder and Eobard nefarious plots by stopping him in his own time, in the 25th century. But, while this Barry will have now the full control of his powers, Eobard won't be RF at this time, or would have just gained his powers. Barry will attack him and Eobard will see him as an aggressor. He will then learn what happened to his ancestor Eddie (who will probably end up becoming Cobalt Blue). If Eobard was a Flash fan, the deception will be even greater and Eobard will probably believe, wrongly, that Barry is an impostor and a bad guy that had to be stopped at any cost. Eobard will next take any legacy Flash could have in his own time (like Gideon) and travel to 2024 someday to fight Barry. Realizing in the battle that he can't win, Eobard will decide to return in 2000 to kill a child Barry, but fail, killed Nora instead, and lose his powers.

As for what happened to future Barry, I don't know. We see that he didn't fuse with his child counterpart. Either did he loose his powers, like RF, for the same reasons, and is still imprisoned in 2015, powerless, or maybe has he syphoned RF power and ended up in the speed force, ready to exit when the time of the final fight will come.

 

[herolee10]

In regards to the fate of Future Barry, I think one potential route that they could go would be to have it revealed that as result of the Reverse Flash messing with the timeline by having killed his mother in the past, Future Barry made one last jump into the time stream where he ended up becoming the thunderbolt that hit Present Barry (which is something that I believe took place in the comics as well).

 

[Lilbaz]

There is something strange with Eobard Thawne. The guy is clearly is sociopath and a monster. He has clearly no empathy for anyone and can kill even the closest people if needed without any kind of regret. But, unlike many sociopathic villains, he has clearly a moral compass, and I guess that's very important. Despite the lack of feelings and empathy, the guy understand and respects concepts such has "honesty", "good and evil", "justice", "heroism" or "friendship". He is not interested in world domination, corruption, etc... Any people who are not evil in his eyes (probably the reporter was just another guy without any kind of moral for Thawne) or doesn't pose any kind of threat for him (like Joe and Iris) is safe. And Thawne can even be heroic with unknown and innocent people.... as long as it doesn't interfere with his own little projects. He is probably a very sympathetic guy and a good friend... unlike you piss him off a big way and he then vibrate his hand through your skull.

The more I think of it, the more I believe that Eobard Thawne is "deeply honest" in his own view. Yes, he is a guy who stole Harrison Wells life and pretend to be someone he is not. But he doesn't seem to love it. He doesn't even did a very good job at protecting his "secret identity" once Barry reached a certain point. I Feel that Thawne "was forced" to take Harrison Wells life to "create" Flash as early as possible, but he seems to be a guy who wants to be seen as Eobard Thawne and not a guy who wants to hide what he did. He seems a guy who believe that he is right and that can accept the consequences of his choices. Yes, Henry Allen was blamed for his crime, but I think that it's only because it helped Barry becoming the Flash and reaching his full potential sooner. A mean to an end. Had this not helped his projects, this Eobard Thawne would probably not has Henry blamed for Nora's murder, and would have taken his responsabilities (it's not as if the cops could have stopped him)

As for "what cause Eobard to hate Barry", the last episode seems to imply that Barry was the bad guy in his eyes. My guess is that a future Barry will probably try to avert his mother murder and Eobard nefarious plots by stopping him in his own time, in the 25th century. But, while this Barry will have now the full control of his powers, Eobard won't be RF at this time, or would have just gained his powers. Barry will attack him and Eobard will see him as an aggressor. He will then learn what happened to his ancestor Eddie (who will probably end up becoming Cobalt Blue). If Eobard was a Flash fan, the deception will be even greater and Eobard will probably believe, wrongly, that Barry is an impostor and a bad guy that had to be stopped at any cost. Eobard will next take any legacy Flash could have in his own time (like Gideon) and travel to 2024 someday to fight Barry. Realizing in the battle that he can't win, Eobard will decide to return in 2000 to kill a child Barry, but fail, killed Nora instead, and lose his powers.

As for what happened to future Barry, I don't know. We see that he didn't fuse with his child counterpart. Either did he loose his powers, like RF, for the same reasons, and is still imprisoned in 2015, powerless, or maybe has he syphoned RF power and ended up in the speed force, ready to exit when the time of the final fight will come.

The original timeline the Thawne is from. Barry's mum was not killed. We know it is a separate timeline as he didn't become the Flash till 2020. Thawne wanted to speed up the process so killed Wells. He also mentions that the other characters lives would have been far worse if he didn't do what he did.

As for what happened to future/alternate timeline Barry. I'm guessing that he died. Barry's blood was on the wall as well as Thawnes. If he died from his injury it would explain why the speedforce died as well.

 

[Golgo-13]

This episode it defnetly a game changer. Now that everything is out, as in Wells, the whole dynamic of the show is about to change. We will see if the show can maintain the qulaity it has due to this change….

I love the banter between Well's and Eddie about the family get together in the sewer….

 

[Batmannerism]

Great episode, even the Iris scenes were less painful than usual.
I still rate episode 9 "The Man in the Yellow Suit" as the best of the season
so far, but this was pretty damn cool.

Wonder where the Eddie/Eobard thing is going to go ! Theories have been that perhaps RF will take on Eddie's form, who knows ?

I wonder if the season will end with

Spoiler

Barry killing RF to protect Iris,

, hard to say.

Anyway, Flash has been consistently great - sure the writers haven't held back, but why should they ? I would rather they told a bunch of great stories over 2 or 3 seasons than stretched things out. I would venture my humble opinion that it's the best superhero TV show to date (yes, I'm calling you out Smallville, and I'm a huge Superman fan).

Anyway, I feel like the cast get stronger with each week, and I'm really excited about seeing a bit more of Grodd - not my favourite villain, but he's still pretty scary.

Think I gave this one a 9/10.

 

[Ted]

The original timeline the Thawne is from. Barry's mum was not killed. We know it is a separate timeline as he didn't become the Flash till 2020. Thawne wanted to speed up the process so killed Wells. He also mentions that the other characters lives would have been far worse if he didn't do what he did.

As for what happened to future/alternate timeline Barry. I'm guessing that he died. Barry's blood was on the wall as well as Thawnes. If he died from his injury it would explain why the speedforce died as well.

I don't really think the future Barry died. We all saw in the flashback that Flash and RF were fighting in the house, till Future Barry took young Barry from the house, and ran away after he left young Barry far from his house. For some reason, Eobard didn't bother to know what happened to that older Barry, and just moved on being Harrison Wells.

One could assume that Barry left this timeline and went back to his original timeline, but then why is Wells so excited about the news of Barry disappearing, if the future Barry goes back to his timeline after saving himself? also why would the future Barry leave the timeline knowing that RF is till there, (assuming he doesn't know that Eobard's powers are gone, which he couldn't have known unless he met Eobard after that night)

Time travel is really a confusing concept, not only the future Barry thing, they didn't even explain what happen when one Barry time travelled a day earlier in episode 15 and saw himself. What happened to the Flash he saw when he travelled back?

 

[Hunter Rider]

The last 10 minutes in particular were great, the pay-off of the cards on the table was so well done, it was awesome seeing "Wells" reveal his true self but also admit he had developed a fondness for Barry, Cisco and Caitlin, that felt like the right way to go and not eradicate all of the previous good they did together. Tom Cavanagh was fantastic.

The switcheroo with the shape shifter also caught me out.

So Iris guessed Barry is The Flash due to an electric spark when he pulled his hand away?

 

[Codex Tesseract]

There is something strange with Eobard Thawne. The guy is clearly is sociopath and a monster. He has clearly no empathy for anyone and can kill even the closest people if needed without any kind of regret. But, unlike many sociopathic villains, he has clearly a moral compass, and I guess that's very important. Despite the lack of feelings and empathy, the guy understand and respects concepts such has "honesty", "good and evil", "justice", "heroism" or "friendship". He is not interested in world domination, corruption, etc... Any people who are not evil in his eyes (probably the reporter was just another guy without any kind of moral for Thawne) or doesn't pose any kind of threat for him (like Joe and Iris) is safe. And Thawne can even be heroic with unknown and innocent people.... as long as it doesn't interfere with his own little projects. He is probably a very sympathetic guy and a good friend... unlike you piss him off a big way and he then vibrate his hand through your skull.

The more I think of it, the more I believe that Eobard Thawne is "deeply honest" in his own view. Yes, he is a guy who stole Harrison Wells life and pretend to be someone he is not. But he doesn't seem to love it. He doesn't even did a very good job at protecting his "secret identity" once Barry reached a certain point. I Feel that Thawne "was forced" to take Harrison Wells life to "create" Flash as early as possible, but he seems to be a guy who wants to be seen as Eobard Thawne and not a guy who wants to hide what he did. He seems a guy who believe that he is right and that can accept the consequences of his choices. Yes, Henry Allen was blamed for his crime, but I think that it's only because it helped Barry becoming the Flash and reaching his full potential sooner. A mean to an end. Had this not helped his projects, this Eobard Thawne would probably not has Henry blamed for Nora's murder, and would have taken his responsabilities (it's not as if the cops could have stopped him)

As for "what cause Eobard to hate Barry", the last episode seems to imply that Barry was the bad guy in his eyes. My guess is that a future Barry will probably try to avert his mother murder and Eobard nefarious plots by stopping him in his own time, in the 25th century. But, while this Barry will have now the full control of his powers, Eobard won't be RF at this time, or would have just gained his powers. Barry will attack him and Eobard will see him as an aggressor. He will then learn what happened to his ancestor Eddie (who will probably end up becoming Cobalt Blue). If Eobard was a Flash fan, the deception will be even greater and Eobard will probably believe, wrongly, that Barry is an impostor and a bad guy that had to be stopped at any cost. Eobard will next take any legacy Flash could have in his own time (like Gideon) and travel to 2024 someday to fight Barry. Realizing in the battle that he can't win, Eobard will decide to return in 2000 to kill a child Barry, but fail, killed Nora instead, and lose his powers.

As for what happened to future Barry, I don't know. We see that he didn't fuse with his child counterpart. Either did he loose his powers, like RF, for the same reasons, and is still imprisoned in 2015, powerless, or maybe has he syphoned RF power and ended up in the speed force, ready to exit when the time of the final fight will come.

This is good stuff. Can I be your friend?

 

[dude stannis]

I hope Iris knowing means she can join the core group in their adventures.

Cavanagh continues to be Emmy worthy. It's impossible to hate the character despite how detestable his actions have been.

 

[Tempest]

I just hope that it's not revealed that Eobard Thawne's reason for hating Barry is because the former lost a loved one and blames Barry for that.

I think this universe has had MORE than enough characters having been motivated to become heroes and villains because the loss of a loved one.

Also, even with this new development between Iris's and Barry's relationship, I expect some major CW-Like hurdle to come in along the way.

No way will they allow Barry and Iris to become an actual couple this soon, especially when it's been revealed that they were married in the original timeline.

I expect something will happen along the way that pushes Iris away from Barry, with the latter potentially getting another love interest next season.

In fact, they may play with the whole "Destiny vs Choice" concept where Barry ends up falling for another female character and wonders if it'll be able to work because of the whole Future Article that he saw.

I figure that's what they'll do, and it will still feel weird. It still doesn't make me feel any better. I feel like the reveal was waaay too early.

Or maybe, since RF is fully revealed, the future starts to change in small ways because Thawne may no longer able to manipulate things exactly as they need to be.

On the upside, maybe we'll get a visit from Booster Gold next season. I could live with that.

 

[gspot]

Did he need to kill either of them? ..... At this stage, I'm not sure there has really been sufficient justification for Eobard to starting killing Barry's friends and family.

He is a homicidal psychopath and always has been. A sociopath who engages repeatedly in criminal and antisocial behavior without remorse or empathy for those he victimizes.

I'd say that's reason enough. But in truth - RF doesn't need any other reason to kill other than he wants to hurt Barry and can't do to Barry the things he wants to. Since he can't kill Barry - and these others... Cisco, Mason, Joe, Iris ... could potentially be a threat to him - he has more than enough reason to kill them.

 

[gspot]

There is something strange with Eobard Thawne. The guy is clearly is sociopath and a monster. He has clearly no empathy for anyone and can kill even the closest people if needed without any kind of regret. But, unlike many sociopathic villains, he has clearly a moral compass, and I guess that's very important. Despite the lack of feelings and empathy, the guy understand and respects concepts such has "honesty", "good and evil", "justice", "heroism" or "friendship". He is not interested in world domination, corruption, etc... Any people who are not evil in his eyes (probably the reporter was just another guy without any kind of moral for Thawne) or doesn't pose any kind of threat for him (like Joe and Iris) is safe. And Thawne can even be heroic with unknown and innocent people.... as long as it doesn't interfere with his own little projects. He is probably a very sympathetic guy and a good friend... unlike you piss him off a big way and he then vibrate his hand through your skull.

The more I think of it, the more I believe that Eobard Thawne is "deeply honest" in his own view. Yes, he is a guy who stole Harrison Wells life and pretend to be someone he is not. But he doesn't seem to love it. He doesn't even did a very good job at protecting his "secret identity" once Barry reached a certain point. I Feel that Thawne "was forced" to take Harrison Wells life to "create" Flash as early as possible, but he seems to be a guy who wants to be seen as Eobard Thawne and not a guy who wants to hide what he did. He seems a guy who believe that he is right and that can accept the consequences of his choices. Yes, Henry Allen was blamed for his crime, but I think that it's only because it helped Barry becoming the Flash and reaching his full potential sooner. A mean to an end. Had this not helped his projects, this Eobard Thawne would probably not has Henry blamed for Nora's murder, and would have taken his responsabilities (it's not as if the cops could have stopped him)

As for "what cause Eobard to hate Barry", the last episode seems to imply that Barry was the bad guy in his eyes. My guess is that a future Barry will probably try to avert his mother murder and Eobard nefarious plots by stopping him in his own time, in the 25th century. But, while this Barry will have now the full control of his powers, Eobard won't be RF at this time, or would have just gained his powers. Barry will attack him and Eobard will see him as an aggressor. He will then learn what happened to his ancestor Eddie (who will probably end up becoming Cobalt Blue). If Eobard was a Flash fan, the deception will be even greater and Eobard will probably believe, wrongly, that Barry is an impostor and a bad guy that had to be stopped at any cost. Eobard will next take any legacy Flash could have in his own time (like Gideon) and travel to 2024 someday to fight Barry. Realizing in the battle that he can't win, Eobard will decide to return in 2000 to kill a child Barry, but fail, killed Nora instead, and lose his powers.

As for what happened to future Barry, I don't know. We see that he didn't fuse with his child counterpart. Either did he loose his powers, like RF, for the same reasons, and is still imprisoned in 2015, powerless, or maybe has he syphoned RF power and ended up in the speed force, ready to exit when the time of the final fight will come.

I'm guessing that Future Barry was erased from the timeline when RF changed the past. So he no longer exists - which is why RF was trapped in the past - without the ability to freely access the speed force.

I'd also wager that RF wanted to be a hero - and blames Barry for keeping him from that destiny.

 

[Lilbaz]

He is a homicidal psychopath and always has been. A sociopath who engages repeatedly in criminal and antisocial behavior without remorse or empathy for those he victimizes.

I'd say that's reason enough. But in truth - RF doesn't need any other reason to kill other than he wants to hurt Barry and can't do to Barry the things he wants to. Since he can't kill Barry - and these others... Cisco, Mason, Joe, Iris ... could potentially be a threat to him - he has more than enough reason to kill them.

Why is he a psychopath? As he states everyone in this time have been dead to him for centuries. He wants to preserve his timeline and get back home. When he is back home everyone he'd have met in this time would be dead anyway. So does it make any difference how they died? He doesn't torture people and does have feelings for them.

Not saying it's right he should feel that way. Or that he doesn't have an emotional detachment. But for him, the end justifies the means.

 

[Justin]

I go for 10/10. I would watch this one again. So good!

 

[Tempest]

My best guess for motivation is that there was some sort of problem, and Barry was trying to save people, but he had to choose...and Thawne either had someone close to him die because Barry didn't choose the 'right' people to save. That, or else Barry thought he would have time to go back, and something happened that prevented him from being able to save everyone. It definitely sounded personal, based on what Thawne said.

I have to say that Tom Cavanagh's Thawne/Wells is beyond fantastic. I love his character, and I can't wait to see how they work him into the rest of the series.

 

[HighFivingMF]

Maybe he'll have shades of Hunter Zolomon's origins.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I just hope that it's not revealed that Eobard Thawne's reason for hating Barry is because the former lost a loved one and blames Barry for that.

I think this universe has had MORE than enough characters having been motivated to become heroes and villains because the loss of a loved one.

That would be lame.
I love the thought that he is a fan, but his attempts in his time at being as good as the historical hero he looked up to ended up in failures, and that turned it to crazy jealousy and wicked hatred.