Post Mortem: Flash Boss on Wells' Agenda, Joe's Secret, Barry's New Girl 

, the prodigal son, Hartley Rathaway (AKA Pied Piper) returned to S.T.A.R. Labs to expose Dr. Wells’ deep, dark secret.

the particle accelerator might explode yet went ahead with the launch anyway.

Meanwhile, Joe couldn’t ignore his instincts that Dr. Wells is hiding something and thus tasked Eddie with investigating him.

Here, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg reveals when we’ll get answers about Wells’ mysterious plans and what toll Joe’s secret will have on his relationship with Barry. The EP also previews Hartley’s future and the introduction of Barry’s new girlfriend.

I’M FRIENDS WITH THE ‘MONSTER’… | Dr. Wells’ “endgame will happen this season,” Kreisberg promises. “Wells has a definitive plan. When you look back, you’ll see he’s had a definitive reason for doing all the things that he’s done throughout the course of the season. We think it makes sense. Hopefully, you all will, too.” And it sounds like Barry’s mentor is truly a villain despite some of the good he’s done for the Speedster. “As secrets start to come out, how do you reconcile the Harrison Wells that we see in this episode, who’s a friend and selfless and kind, with this monster?” the EP posits. Another big question in the writers’ room after the doc’s identity was revealed to viewers: “The only debate we had amongst ourselves was how long will the audience accept knowing he’s the villain and having the rest of our characters

know, which is something we’ve been dealing with for the back half of the season. Are people going to feel like they’re dumb for not realizing this? Part of what’s keeping these next stream of episodes going is how good at hiding his villainy Wells is, and how strong Tom [Cavanagh]’s performance is.”

EXAMINING THE DOCTOR | Joe and Eddie’s secret mission to dig into Dr. Wells’ background will unspool “in pretty interesting ways,” Kreisberg teases. “In an upcoming episode, Joe and Cisco – without letting Cisco know what he’s really thinking – launch a pretty spectacular investigation into what happened the night Barry’s mother died, which plays out in a really cool way.” While their plan is “definitely going to be causing problems for everyone,” Joe and Barry’s father-son bond will

suffer in the process, Kreisberg assures. “It’s more about what they’re going to do as opposed to creating a schism between them.”

PIED PIPER’S ENCORE | Viewers won’t have to wait long for Hartley’s threat against Cisco — he’ll soon let him free because he has intel on Ronnie’s whereabouts — to come to fruition. “The repercussions of that will play out in the next episode,” Kreisberg previews. “Caitlin’s reaction to this information and also the knowledge that Cisco closed the door on Ronnie in the accelerator is both surprising and not at all surprising.” As for the Pied Piper’s future, Kreisberg is “hopeful” that Andy Mientus (

) will reprise the role beyond next Tuesday, and that redemption is possible for the character. As such, the EPs took care to make sure that while Hartley “tries to kill people, there are no actual deaths.”

PICTURE PERFECT | Shockingly, that selfie – which, if it got into the wrong hands, could mean

trouble for Barry – will not rear its ugly head again. “We don’t have any plans for that to bite us,” Kreisberg admits.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU | You may have noticed that the show made its first mention of the Speed Force this week, which plays a big role in

comic book lore. “For now, it’s a catch-all phrase that speaks to a grander universe and a grander power and, ultimately, grander abilities,” Kreisberg says.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR | Looking ahead to Barry’s romantic life, Kreisberg describes love interest Linda Park (played by

‘ Malese Jow) as “a spark plug. She’s a firecracker. She’s a lot of fun. She’s ballsy and she speaks her mind and she’s cool. Barry can’t believe that somebody like her is interested in him.” Her presence will also “cause all the other women in his life to maybe see a little green.”

Too much spoilage! I’m not looking forward to seeing Barry with anyone other than Iris.

Harrison’s body is having a hard time controlling the speed force. So he jumps back in time to become his arch-nemesis’ mentor; he trains Barry so that once Barry’s power mature enough, Harrison can steal it?

What about the accidental time travel…think there’s a connection?

To be honest, I feel like Harrison time traveled on purpose. It seems like he needs another speedster’s power to drain before his body loses all connection to the speed force; according to the newspapers, the Flash in his original time had disappeared by then (probably traveling back in time to stop the Reverse Flash from killing his mom). It’d be cool if they did an episode where present-day!Flash learns the truth about Harrison from Future!Flash.

I was referring to the fact that the EP has said that Barry will have an “accidental time travel” episode, but I wondered how that could be. Now, after reading your first post, I’m wondering if it has something to do with Wells – maybe he is chasing Reverse Flash and he gets pulled out of the present accidentally?

Wondering if this Linda Park will be any relation to the older Linda Park who had a cameo in the pilot?

I just find this Linda Park thing a little queezy given that she’s Wally’s future wife in my mind. Also, why are all other women in Barry’s life going to be jealous? Iris I get. But the only other woman in his life is Caitlin and I don’t see why she would “seeing green”.

I like the Pied Piper character. Hoping he can stay on even as an occasional guest appearance in the future.

Love the Joe/Barry relationship. It really is a joy to watch and I’m glad they won’t be causing any rifts between them any time soon. I hope they don’t drag out the Barry/Iris reveal beyond this season. Not a fan of the trend of prolonged secrets on shows. One season I can deal with, but if she’s left in the dark till the end of the second season or beyond, then it just gets annoying and lame.

I think Wells is Barry from another time Line trying to Help this Barry not make the same mistakes he did

Good episode. Pie Piper did good in episode. surprised Wells speed powers is draining so fast. Glad to see when Cisco & Caitlin met in flashback. Hope Joe will be careful looking into Wells. Can’t wait for next episode!

I had the same question too. Can someone explain it to us? I’m not a comic book reader.

I hope that Wells remains three dimensional and that he has good reasons for doing the things he does.

Well, if SHIELD proved anything, it’s that you can turn a good character bad in an instant and have it be believable if you pay attention to the trail of breadcrumbs along the way. I think the show is doing that, but haven’t completely revealed enough yet for it make complete sense yet. We know he’s the reverse Flash, and we also know he has traveled through time, and we also know he has lied about everything up until this point.

I sometimes find it hard to believe this show is only in its first season, having only aired 11 episodes to date. So much has happened, and the quality of the show really never dropped off. It has been really great to watch every week.

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