‘The Flash’ Preview ‘The Reverse-Flash Returns’

The Flash Preview ‘The Reverse-Flash Returns’

Barry is having a really terrible week.

Eobard Thawne has returned, and I bet this episode is going to make our brains hurt because time travel and paradoxes. On a side note, Cisco screams like a little girl when he first runs into Eobard and it is hilarious.

I originally thought that Eobard was from Earth-2. It would make sense if he was from another reality since he was erased from the current timeline at the end of last season courtesy of Eddie. However, in the promo Harry explains to the team, who are all completely confused, that this is how it all starts between Eobard and Barry. This is the first time he meets them and is the origin of the Reverse Flash/Flash rivalry. Head hurt yet?

How about this. Eobard has to appear now so that he can go back and kill Barry’s mom and get stuck in time. That has to happen so Barry becomes Flash. Even though Eddie killed his lineage, Nora is still dead in the current time, so Eobard still had to exist to time travel and kill her. Now does it hurt?

Eddie’s sacrifice wasn’t for nothing. I like to think of time travel in this way. You are faced with a choice. You chose one path and continue on, but there exists simultaneously another timeline in which you chose differently. When Barry time travels to correct a mistake, the reality continues on while he goes back to a different one and changes the timeline for himself. In one reality, Eddie did not sacrifice himself and he may have gone on to marry Iris. Instead, we get the timeline where he died. In both of these instances, time finds a way to make certain events happen, and in this case, it is Barry becoming the Flash. In order for this to happen, we need Eobard Thawne.

I probably made everything even more confusing, but hopefully the episode will set it all straight. Regardless, we are in for a very emotional forty minutes since all of the members of Team Flash
have their own reason for loathing Eobard.