Warning: Spoilers for The Flash season 8, episode 17
The return of Matt Letscher’s Reverse-Flash risks a repeat of Barry Allen’s oldest mistake in The Flash. The promo for The Flash season 8, episode 18, titled “The Man in the Yellow Tie”, confirms that Barry’s new partnership with Meena Dhawan will lead to yet another confrontation with his greatest enemy. But surprisingly, it’ll be Letscher and Tom Cavanagh playing the character when they meet again.
For the past several years, all of Barry’s battles with Eobard Thawne have involved the version of the character that wears the face of Harrison Wells. Given his importance to the series and his recent conflict with Barry in the “Armageddon” event, it wasn’t exactly a huge surprise when Barry paid him a visit at his prison cell in Lian Yu. Somehow, The Flash is about to follow this up with a guest appearance from Matt Letscher’s Reverse-Flash, who was seen recently on Legends of Tomorrow. Based on what’s already known, it appears he’s the mystery “associate” of Meena Dhawan who helped her create an artificial speed source.
Needless to say, Thawne’s presence in Central City has the potential to cause all sorts of problems for the Arrowverse's Team Flash. Among the possible consequences of Reverse-Flash’s return are massive alternations to the timeline. However, it’s not just Thawne himself who may end up causing them. Barry has a track record of making some crucial mistakes when it comes to time travel. Barry has known since the beginning of his superhero journey that changing the timeline can lead to catastrophic results. He made his first time travel mistake when he tried to stop the Weather Wizard’s tsunami from happening and arguably made his biggest one ever at the end of season 2 when he saved his mother and created Flashpoint. And now, history is in danger of repeating itself. Barry’s interactions with Thawne in The Flash season 8 could inadvertently culminate in unforeseen changes to Reverse-Flash’s future, and in turn, Barry’s.
Barry’s exchange with Matt Letscher’s Reverse-Flash in the promo for “The Man In the Yellow Tie” hints that the latter hasn’t become the Reverse-Flash yet. Barry’s comment, “I’m supposed to believe you don’t remember who you are”, attributes the situation to memory loss, when in fact it may be that Barry is meeting Thawne at an earlier point in his timeline, perhaps before he became Reverse-Flash. If this is an Eobard Thawne who doesn’t have a personal relationship with the Flash, what Barry does and says in their upcoming encounter could influence some of his future decisions.
If Matt Letscher really is playing a younger and inexperienced Reverse-Flash who’s perhaps on the cusp of acquiring his speedster powers, Eobard Thawne’s fate could be forever changed when he crosses paths with his future enemy in The Flash season 8. As tempted as he may be to stop Thawne from embarking down his evil path, Barry must avoid that scenario. Because of his past experiences and mistakes, Barry knows very well the risks that come with changing people’s futures.
The Flash releases new episodes on Wednesdays on The CW.