Note: There may be spoilers in this recap and review
Recap
On this week's episode of The Flash, the episode starts where last week's left off. Cisco, Caitlin and Barry are in Wells' secret hangout and they see the newspaper from the future. Cisco says "mazel tov" after learning Iris and Barry get married and Gideon, the AI for the room starts talking to them. Barry asks about Wells and learns Wells came to the past to kill Barry. He learns that he created Gideon. Wells approaches the room right after Barry speeds everyone away.
Eddie meets Joe for coffee and Eddie asks Joe for Iris' hand in marriage and Joe says he does not have his permission. Joe and Eddie head back to Joe's and talks to everyone about the time vault and Barry reveals that he traveled through time.
Flashback: Joe is asleep in a hospital room. Barry is in the bed and he has a seizure. Wells approaches Joe who is in the hall. Wells wants to take Barry to STAR Labs. Joe agrees.
Present: Back at Joe's house. Barry wants to access Cisco's subconscious. They need to get Wells to confess to the killing. At the station, Eddie shows Barry the ring and explains that Joe said no.
Cisco gets hooked up to a machine that will get him to dream and everyone will be able to talk to him while he's dreaming. Cisco relives the events of the parallel universe before Wells killed him. They get Cisco out of the dream after Wells confesses and Wells calls Barry.
There's a fire in a building and Barry speeds off to help. The building's sprinkler system isn't working so Wells tells Barry to move his hands at super-speed to create a vacuum. Barry saves everyone.
Barry heads back to STAR Labs and Wells approaches him. Wells tells Barry to not doubt himself. Back at the West household, Barry wants to recreate the scenario where Wells confesses.
Iris has Barry come meet her. Iris has something to tell him. She says everything weird happening in the city goes back to the explosion. She thinks that's how the Flash got his powers as well as the other metahumans.
Wells returns to STAR Labs and Caitlin tells him that Cisco is working on the bunker and knows what wrong with the Reverse Flash. Wells says he's going to head down there. Wells enters the room walking... Cisco backs into the device and Wells walks right in. Wells is about to kill Cisco. Joe shoots him and kills him... It's actually Everyman. Wells calls them over the intercom. Wells tells Barry he doesn't want to kill him. Barry runs to the time vault and the Reverse Flash outfit is missing. There's camera footage of everything. Wells set up the trap.
Eddie is about to propose to Iris and Reverse Flash runs in. He's about to kill Iris. Flash runs in and saves her. Iris realizes that The Flash is Barry. Reverse Flash brings Eddie to some bunker and reveals his true name. Eddie is confused.
Thoughts
Quit playing games with my heart, Flash! Why do I say that? Well, I've already had to see the best character on the show, Cisco, die once and over and over they keep referring to it and putting him in danger. In this episode, Cisco is the bait for the trap and there are moments fans will be screaming at the screen as they think Cisco is going to bite it... again, especially when Wells enters the machine.
This was a really thrilling episode though with tons of twists and turns. The final act of the episode was incredibly surprising because the STAR Labs team spends a great deal of time putting together their trap and it seems like everything is going to work out for the better but in the end, Wells has the upper-hand. What's crazy is how much of an upper-hand Wells has over everyone else. Should I still be calling him Wells? We all know he's Thawne now, but it just feels weird calling him that.
Where is this going? The episode leaves at a really interesting point and I'm intrigued. Eddie has been kidnapped by Wells and learns his secret, and does that mean that Eddie, at some point is going to have Stockholm syndrome thing here? (not the romantic kind of love though, obviously. That's weird because they're related and all) I'm worried that Wells will corrupt Eddie and Eddie, in more recent weeks, has become a character I've really become attached to.
So the big moment here, which is almost glossed over, is that Iris realizes that Barry is the Flash because of the little shock that Barry gave her, which matches the shock he gave her when he was in a coma. The moment really works well because it's more about the blinders Iris had completely dropping more than Iris having this ridiculous realization. Iris is trying to find out about all these people affected by the explosion at STAR Labs and she knows Barry was in a coma because of that. It really works well and the look on her face says it all. She didn't even need a line of dialogue.
The flashbacks really bring this episode together though. We get connections between Iris, Joe, and Barry as well as this incredibly weird relationship between a comatose Barry and Wells. At every point and turn, the way Wells looks at Barry is so bizarre. It's almost like he's looking at someone who punched his mother. The whole speech, at the end of the episode, about being able to kill Barry is even more bizarre. This is actually a great turn for the character as well. Wells has become a whole lot more interesting. Sure, he was cool when he had a bunch of secrets, but now that we know he's a bit obsessed with someone he hates, somehow, he's even more intriguing.
This was a fantastic stand-alone episode that is a huge release after a whole season of build-up. There was no villain of the week here, just a solid story. The only thing the show didn't really do well was get folks excited for the next episode. However, so much happened here with the main story that the audience will be pumped, regardless. This episode really paid off and was one of the coolest of the season.