Now that all of the fun is out of the way with the Arrow/Flash crossover, the show takes its time to examine the emotional burdens of its titular hero. This was going to come out eventually, and there were hints of it when Barry and Oliver Queen swapped tragic backstories while Team Flash was in Starling City. The show dives in deep, and quickly, on that front. The murder of Barry's mother has been hanging around in the background since the series kicked off and so it needed to move forward in some manner.





That also ties into the other major part of Barry's personal life: His unending love for Iris. Barry is ready to lay down (all of or most of) his burdens here, and while it largely resolves one of the running subplots of the show, there is plenty of material left for conjecture in the other main plot.



It's very convenient to tie everything that's happening to Christmas (especially since the show is coming back in January), which is the time of the year where personal confessions have more weight. The show hasn't made great use of Iris in general, but this episode showed that this was arguably the best the writers could do with her character so far. Generally, Iris and Eddie being an altogether happy couple does elicit almost immediate eye rolls, but the episode tests that impression well. Barry's tragic past prevented him from having a normal life, and that meant keeping his love for Iris a secret even when everyone but Iris could see that he's had this lifetime crush on her.


So Barry goes ahead and bares his soul to her, even as she is going to move in with Eddie. Barry is unburdened of harboring the crush and Iris accepts it matter-of-fact. What actually bothered me was that Barry admits the crush to her and then gets up to leave the room, not even waiting for a response from Iris! Hopefully, this new development can engender some goodwill to go towards Iris' character because she has had to bear the brunt of (sometimes justified, sometimes not) criticism levied at the show in general.




Of greater interest is the return of the titular "Man in the Yellow Suit," or Reverse-Flash. It's been roundly theorized that he was the Reverse-Flash since the beginning so that isn't the surprise. It's how the story plays out here that deepens the mythology of the show going forward. He's a much more powerful figure than Barry, which isn't saying much because Barry hasn't used his time to develop his powers in a way to combat this man who killed his mother and basically derailed his early life.


The Reverse-Flash leaves cryptic comments that dance around his true identity. That becomes very clear by the tag that caps off the episode. It looked like he was going to be revealed in some way when Wells, the CCPD, and Mercury Labs combine to build a trap to keep him in one place, but that also went sideways and the tachyon device was stolen.



The tachyon device heavily suggests that some form of time travel (they are trying to achieve faster-than-light travel, which has had a role in many time-related science fiction stories) is involved with both the Flash and Reverse-Flash. It could be that Reverse-Flash is a younger version of Dr. Wells from the future and that he kicked everything off not by inducing the particle accelerator explosion, but by traveling back fourteen years prior and murdering Nora Allen. Cisco's theory that there was a red blur present in the past also suggests that a future Barry Allen was traveling back in time to possibly stop Reverse-Flash from murdering his mother. His being unsuccessful at that task meant that he disappeared and that Wells has been trying to rectify the mistake ever since?





If that's true, it doesn't quite explain why the Reverse-Flash is in the present time with Wells. But we've seen before that Wells can manipulate events to ensure the preservation of his preferred future. Perhaps that is a remnant of his power as the future Reverse-Flash. There have also apparently been rumblings that Reverse-Flash is a descendant of Eddie's, which would explain why Reverse-Flash didn't kill present-day Eddie in the STAR Labs chamber. It's a bit headache-inducing trying to get all of or most of the pieces in this puzzle to fit, but that adds to the fun of the show. The story isn't finished yet, which makes the wait for any new information all the more agonizing.




Adding to the tragic feel of the entire episode is Ronnie Raymond's return to the fold as Firestorm. The fact that he denies all facets of his past sets him up to be redeemed somewhere down the line. It gives the series another avenue of story to be explored that isn't Barry-centric and develops his support system at the same time. Firestorm also apparently has a stopping effect on Reverse-Flash which could indicate that either the Rogues Gallery or those in the Pipeline can be used to engage the Flash's arch-enemy in battle. It would be supremely ironic if the meta-humans Dr. Wells helped put away were the ones that defeated him in the end. That is, if he truly is the Reverse-Flash. All indications are leaning that way, but that could all change in the future.