The Flash: Season 1, Episode 19

The Flash

Episode Title: “Who is Harrison Wells”

Channel: CW

Director: Wendy Stanzler

Writers: Ray Utarnachitt and Cortney Norris

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 43 min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: April 21, 2015

“Who is Harrison Well?” didn't really answer any questions the audience has regarding the character, we already know much more than the characters on the show. It did serve to get Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, and Joe up to speed on most of what the audience knows. Cisco is already on board with the idea that Wells isn't who he says he is, but Caitlin is going to take some convincing, so to that end Joe and Cisco headed to Starling City to investigate the crash that made Wells the man we know, and killed Tess.

While seeing the Lances pop up on The Flash might not have been the crossover we wanted, it proved to be pretty fun and important to some of the characters going forward. Cisco's fanboy reaction to learning that Laurel is also the Black Canary was humorous, and allowed her to acquire the character's trademark Canary's Cry. The interactions between Joe and Capt. Lance served another purpose, one which won't be noticed on The Flash going forward. They bonded over the complications in their lives in regards to work and their daughters and near the end it almost seemed that Joe got through to Lance. Maybe the next Arrow will show us a softening of his stance towards his daughter's supposed betrayal of his trust. The most important thing to come out of the Starling City scenes was the discovery of the body of the real Harrison Wells.

Before finding the body Caitlin was unwilling to accept the possibility that the man that has helped them all so much was actually the Reverse Flash. She went so far as to show up at Wells' house, ready to talk about their suspicions. Only Barry's appearance and a super speed fueled moment of Ding Dong Ditch, got Caitlin out of there before she could inadvertently tip their hand to the bad guy. With the incontrovertible evidence of Wells' body sitting in Barry's lab hopefully she's on board now.

The metahuman case was better than usual this week. A shapeshifter, who can assume anyone's physical form upon touching them, was running around committing crimes and leaving innocent people behind to take the blame. This resulted in Eddie being arrested for shooting two cops, shenanigans with Barry including a kiss with Caitlin, and Iris and Caitlin being set upon by some angry construction workers, being accused of kidnapping. The last one bothered me a little bit, it just seemed like sloppy writing. If they were transporting a shapeshifting metahuman, and had developed a serum that took his power away, why wouldn't they give him a dose of the serum before driving through town with him handcuffed in the back seat? That writing snafu aside it was a well handled baddie of the week. After the apprehension of Everyman he instantly became one of the more sympathetic villains on the show when he revealed that he doesn't even know what the real him looks like anymore.

Other odds and ends included Eddie revealing half of the truth to Iris, admitting to working with the Flash, but not revealing the hero's secret identity. Also it was necessary to show evidence of a metahuman to the District Attorney in order to clear Eddie's name. I'm interested in how officialdom reacts to their new knowledge. I might be reading too far into things, but Capt. Singh seemed to give a knowing look to Barry when the information came to light, almost as if he suspects Barry of being more than meets the eye. It's probable that I was imagining that, but it would help Barry replace some of the resources he might lose once the imposter Wells is dealt with. I hope it doesn't come to that though and that the writers find some way to keep the real Harrison Wells around, Tom Cavanagh has been superb on the show and it would be a shame to lose his presence.

Conclusion: With the new evidence Cisco and Joe discovered it appears that everyone is on board with the idea that Wells isn't really Wells. With the season arc barreling towards an exciting conclusion and the case of the week being more entertaining than usual this was a very enjoyable episode of The Flash.

Rating: 8/10