Tonight on The Flash we learned a lot about Harrison Wells, Eobard Thawne, and every combination of the two.

Eobard Thawne

The episode starts with a flashback of 15 years ago, the night Barry’s mother died. We see the Flash and the Reverse Flash jump through time onto Barry’s street and into his house, as well as Barry and the reverse Flash fighting.

It ultimately follows the Reverse flash as he runs away from the scene of the crime and attempts to jump back to his own time, but he depleted his powers when he jumped through time with Barry and now he’s lost the ability to do so. He screams “noooooo” and removes his mask…but it isn’t Wells underneath. It’s the real Eobard Thawne.

Later on we see Wells on the beach with his wife, Tess, who gives him the idea to call the laboratory he wants to build S.T.A.R. Labs — and he loves it. While he’s on the beach we then see the Reverse Flash stalking him from behind, all creepy like.

On their drive home that night the Reverse Flash flattens Wells’ tires and it causes his car to flip over, hurting and killing Tess. The Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne tells Wells that she has been dead for centuries. Eobard takes Wells out of his car and uses a device that kills Wells and removes his skin and face and transfers it to himself. …creepy.

Trickster’s Copycat

In the present day, Barry’s wall filled with newspapers about his mother’s death is now filled with information about Wells. Barry questions why Wells needed more speed from him, and he wants to go talk to him but Joe thinks that they can’t do that yet. Joe says they have to be patient, like how Wells was.

Meanwhile at a playground, several red parachutes attached with bombs start flying down and exploding nearby, which causes Barry to leave his lab and save them. The culprit responsible for the bombing named himself the Trickster, and sends a video to all of Central City saying he’s returned. Don’t be confused if you don’t recognize him — he’s definitely new. At Star Labs Joe explains that several years ago there was a serial killer who called himself that, and it looks like there’s a copycat. The original, named James Jesse, is at Iron Heights Prison so Joe goes to talk to him to see if he knows anything about the new kid.

Joe and Barry show up to Iron Heights to interview James Jesse and the guard gives him a bunch of red vines, saying he’s going to need them. James could smell them when they walked into the room, which is weird because James is sitting in a glass room separate from where Joe and Barry are sitting to talk to him. When they tell James about the new Trickster he says he has no idea who he is and he’s pissed that someone is trying to be him, and that this kid must have found his lair — it’s the only way he could have had the same information as James. So Barry and Joe go to James’ old lair, only to discover that the copycat has stolen everything.

Tricked by the Trickster

They go back to talk to James about what was in the lair, and he says that there was a bomb big enough to kill the entire city. And in addition to this information the new Trickster has posted a vlog detailing his plans for something “bigger,” all while James freaks out that someone is wearing his mask.

At the lab Cisco says that it’s going to be difficult to catch this guy since he’s encrypting his stuff really well, but it’ll be possible. Meanwhile Wells takes Barry aside and says he knows how Barry is feeling, but it’s just a throw-off: Wells is assuming Barry is thinking about his father, and not him.

The Trickster posts another video saying he’s hidden the bomb somewhere in the city, but when Barry goes to look it isn’t there — it was a trick. Wells tried to tell Barry it wasn’t there but because of Barry’s distrust of him he ignores his advice and ends up getting tricked anyway, the Trickster was actually in Iron Heights and caused an explosion in the prison to free James Jesse. Oh, and they also took Barry’s dad hostage.

Feel the Lightning

They took Barry’s dad because Barry works for the police, and James says he has the perfect trick in mind. James tells the new Trickster that the reason he tracked him down and trained him is because he is his father. Dun dun dun! Also it turns out the new kid’s name is Axel.

At the paper Iris is really suspicious about Mason’s disappearance and tells Eddie about it, who says he’ll look into it. Iris asks to meet with the Flash at her old cafe, and explains that Mason is missing and she wants to know what’s going on, and Barry says he will look it up.

Iris shows up at a party she’s covering for the paper and it turns out that the party is the Tricksters’ next hit. They poison the champagne and tell everyone that unless they call their bankers and transfer money to them within the hour they will be dead. Luckily Iris calls her dad and he’s at the labs so they are able to ping her phone and find out where she is.

But when Barry gets there James attaches a device to Barry’s wrist that forces him to run no less than 600 miles per hour, or else it’ll explode. While running Wells tells Barry that if he can vibrate at the same frequency of a wall then he can run through it, and remove the device in the process. Does it work? Of course it does! Barry gives everyone the antidote and gets his father free.

Another Reveal

Barry takes his dad to Star Labs before bringing him back to Iron Heights, and it’s an uplifting emotional scene seeing him interact with everyone. At the end of it Barry finally stops giving Wells the stink eye and tells him he needs him, no longer making Wells suspicious about his behavior (hopefully).

Afterwards Joe takes Eddie to Barry’s lab and tells him that Iris is looking into Mason’s disappearance, and that cannot happen. Then Barry shows up as the Flash and reveals himself to Eddie, who decides to help. Eddie tells Iris that Mason moved to Brazil, so she shouldn’t worry about it anymore. Afterwards Eddie asks what’s next on their agenda to figure out Wells and Barry says he’s damn confident that Wells is the reverse flash.

This season on ‘The Flash’