Check out Violet’s recap of Season 1 Episode 20 of The Flash, titled The Trap, where the team sets a trap for Dr. Wells to get him to confess murdering Barry’s mother! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 1 Episode 20: The Trap
We pick up where we left off in the previous episode, with Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin finding Dr. Wells’s secret room, and seeing the article from April 25, 2024 saying “Flash Missing; Vanishes in Crisis.” They realize that whoever is posing as Dr. Wells must be from the future. Caitlin points out the name on the byline: Iris West-Allen.
Gideon, the AI, greets Barry, and knows him from the future. Gideon tells Barry that Dr. Wells came here to kill him. Cisco’s tracker that he put on Dr. Wells’s wheelchair alerts him that he’s heading to the room. Barry asks Gideon not to tell Dr. Wells they were in there, and it accepts the command — because Barry is the one who created it. Barry takes the other two and speedily runs away just before Dr. Wells enters the room.
Eddie meets up with Joe at Jitters and asks him for his blessing to propose to Iris. However, Joe says no. Just then, Joe gets a phone call from Barry. They all meet at Joe’s house and fill Joe and Eddie in about what they discovered. Barry also confesses about his accidental time travel, and realizes that Cisco’s “dreams” may actually be memories. Barry wants to access Cisco’s memories somehow, and to get Wells to confess to killing his mom.
Back at STAR Labs, the trio works on creating a device that will allow Cisco to enter his dreams. Dr. Wells enters the room just then, and Caitlin makes up an excuse about why they’re making the lucid dreaming device. Cisco says that they’re still trying to come up with a communications device, and Dr. Wells gives them a few suggestions to help.
The next day, Eddie asks Barry to ask Joe why he said no about giving him his blessing.
That night, Barry, Caitlin, Joe, and Cisco try out the lucid dreaming glasses on Cisco. While wearing the glasses, Cisco reports to the others what is going on in his dream. He tells them that the Man in Yellow was just a hologram. Then, in the dream/memory, Dr. Wells comes into the room, and Cisco tells them that Dr. Wells is confessing to killing Barry’s mom. Dr. Wells’s hand begins vibrating, and Cisco starts to freak out, knowing that Dr. Wells is about to kill him. But Caitlin is able to pull him out of the dream just in time.
Just then, Barry gets a phone call from Dr. Wells asking where he is. Dr. Wells tells him the location of a fire at a high rise, and Joe realizes that’s where Captain Singh’s fiance, Rob, works. The Flash runs over there, and up to the floor that the fire is on, and finds that the sprinklers aren’t working. Dr. Wells tells Barry to rotate his arms at super speed, which will suck the air out of the room. It doesn’t work at first, and Barry starts to doubt Dr. Wells, but Dr. Wells tells him he needs to do it faster, and that he believes in him. Barry tries again, and it works. The fire goes out, and everyone gets out safely, including Rob.
Back at STAR Labs, Dr. Wells confronts Barry about doubting himself. He tells Barry that the only thing standing in the way of achieving his goals, and getting faster, is himself.
Barry returns home and talks to Joe about getting Dr. Wells to confess. Joe thinks all this is his fault for letting Dr. Wells take Barry from the hospital. But Barry says everything bad that has happened was Dr. Wells’s fault, and now he’s going to pay for it.
Cisco shows Barry, Eddie, and Joe the hologram that Dr. Wells had set up. Caitlin enters and lets them know that Dr. Wells is at a conference and won’t be back for awhile. Cisco shows them the force field that he built to prevent a speedster from getting inside the containment area. Barry tries it out, and bounces off, proving that it works. They all get assigned their roles for when Dr. Wells returns. Eddie’s is to protect Iris. Barry privately talks to Joe about Eddie’s proposal. Joe explains that he said no to Eddie about giving his blessing because one day Iris is going to wake up and realize that she married the wrong guy, but she’ll stay anyway. Joe knows that Iris has feelings for Barry.
Just then, Iris texts Barry. He goes over to his lab and meets up with her. She gives him a file of information proving that everything weird that has happened in Central City goes back to the night of the particle accelerator. She thinks that’s how The Flash got his powers too. However, Barry points out a flaw in her theory: he was affected by the particle accelerator but didn’t get any powers. He promises he’ll look at the file and they’ll talk later.
Dr. Wells returns to STAR Labs. When he asks Caitlin where Cisco is, she tells him that he’s in the bunker, and that he said that he thinks he figured out what went wrong when they were trying to catch the Reverse Flash. Dr. Wells heads down, and Caitlin warns them that he’s on his way.
Dr. Wells walks into the bunker, where Cisco is waiting. Caitlin watches on the monitor upstairs, while Joe and Barry are hiding in the bunker. Cisco tries to get Dr. Wells to confess to killing Barry’s mom, but they don’t quite get an admission. Dr. Wells approaches Cisco, who backs into the containment area and turns the force field on. However, Dr. Wells is able to step through, and begins to attack Cisco, but Joe steps out and shoots at Dr. Wells. Barry rushes after the bullets, but is only able to catch 2 of them before the 3rd passes through the force field and Barry is blocked out. That 3rd bullet kills Dr. Wells, and Barry is upset that they didn’t get a confession.
However, the body then turns into the no-faced shapeshifter. Then they hear Dr. Wells’s voice, who tells them he’s always one step ahead of them. He says it didn’t take much convincing to get Hannibal Bates to do this, just the promise of freedom. Barry and Caitlin angrily yell at Dr. Wells for what he’s done to them. Barry demands that Dr. Wells face him, and Dr. Wells promises that they will face each other again soon.
Cisco’s tracker shows that Dr. Wells is in the time vault, and Barry rushes over there. But it’s just Dr. Wells’s empty wheelchair. Then he sees several videos playing of all of them, and realizes that this was all a set up for them. Barry also realizes that there’s video of Iris. He reports back to the others that Dr. Wells has been watching all of them, everywhere. Then he rushes out to find Iris.
Meanwhile, Iris and Eddie are taking a walk across the bridge. Eddie begins his proposal speech, but the Reverse Flash interrupts. The Flash shows up, just as the Reverse Flash runs off with Eddie. The Flash promises that he will bring Eddie back to Iris, but just before he runs off, she feels an electric spark from his hand — and it clicks that Barry is the Flash.
The Reverse Flash brings Eddie to a warehouse, and introduces himself as Eobard Thawne. Eddie asks why he has his last name, and Wells says because they’re family. Eddie asks why he hasn’t seen him at any family reunions, and Wells says that as far as those guest lists are concerned, he hasn’t been born yet. Wells says that Eddie is simply his insurance.
Flashbacks
We see Barry in the hospital while he was in his coma, and he begins seizing. Dr. Wells comes to Joe and proposes to take Barry to his facility, saying that he can save him. Joe agrees.
Iris visits Barry at STAR Labs while he’s still in his coma. She tells him about Eddie asking her out, and her saying yes. She also talks about how Barry coming to live with them made them a family again, and that she needs him. She touches his hand, and gets an electric spark.
Dr. Wells sits with Barry, and comments how young he looks. He also muses that he could kill Barry so easily right now. He realizes the irony that he came here to destroy Barry, and then to get home, he has to be the one to create the Flash. Despite watching Barry grow up all these years, no sign of being the man that he hates, Dr. Wells promises that nothing is forgiven, that there will be a reckoning, and Barry will die.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 20 of The Flash: The Trap
Still loving The Flash. It kind of feels like everything from this season has built up to this episode, now that pretty much everything is exposed: they all know that Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash and killed Barry’s mom, and now Dr. Wells knows that they know, plus Iris has just figured out that Barry is the Flash. Where do we go from here for the remainder of the season? This felt like a season finale!
That’s crazy how Dr. Wells has had cameras on them everywhere, and has been monitoring every little aspect of their lives all along, even Iris. Creepy. He was good at covering up all this knowledge that he had. It was a pretty clever reverse trap that Dr. Wells set for the team, although he would have really had to spend a lot of time coaching Hannibal Bates and giving him a lot of detailed information for him to have given such a convincing performance. After I watched it a second time, knowing that the Dr. Wells that came into the bunker was actually Hannibal Bates, and not Dr. Wells, it seemed odd that someone other than Dr. Wells would have known to say the things that he said. How long have they had Hannibal Bates, and how long has Dr. Wells had this plan in place? It seems like he would have had to act quickly. But I’ll hold my suspension of disbelief for the sake of the show and the switcheroo that I didn’t see coming.
So apparently, in the future, Barry does something to Eobard Thawne that causes him to hate him. But I thought Eobard Thawne was from a more distant future than that, like hundreds of years in the future, not 20ish. Also, I think Reverse Flash probably interrupted the proposal and kidnapped Eddie because he needs Eddie to marry and have kids with someone else in order for himself to be born in the future. If Eddie and Iris get married, that screws up the timeline, and would make Eobard Thawne/Wells start to disappear, Back to the Future style. Or maybe it would just be an alternate timeline. I don’t know, it’s all timey wimey stuff, and the rules haven’t really been established yet. But that’s part of the fun, watching and figuring out how present events affect the future, and if things can be changed. In any case, Eobard would probably want Barry and Iris together, because that would be in line with what he’s working for the future to be, which seems like as long as that headline from 2024 stays the same, all is well, as far as he’s concerned.
But what is Wells planning to do next? What is he going to do with Eddie? I don’t see how releasing Grodd upon the team accomplishes anything, other than to put an infamous character in the spotlight for an episode! But I guess we’ll soon find out! Oh, and what’s Iris going to do with her newfound realization?
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 1 Episode 20: The Trap
I had a feeling that Wells/Eobard Thawne had been keeping tabs on the group. I didn’t think it was quite as in depth as we see in this episode though. He seems to have access to every bit of information that Barry had been sharing. I am bit curious though–in the alternate timeline where Cisco dies, why did Wells decide to kill Cisco that time, but not this time? I guess maybe because Wells knew about the plan, after seeing Barry and the gang meet, so killing him wouldn’t have been useful? The whole explanation from Wells is a bit confusing as to why he is handling things the way he is.
But what is the next move for Wells? He can only provide so much encouragement for Barry to run faster so that he can get home. I mean, everyone knows he is a bad guy now. Barry might just not run fast at all now!
I have to say, Joe is being a bit of a jerk to Eddie. I mean, Joe could say no because he doesn’t like Eddie, but it seems a bit odd to only say no because he believes that Iris belongs with another, namely Barry. But I have a feeling that Iris will get the proposal from Eddie one way or another.
As far as Barry’s future, it seems really bright right now, aside from the whole disappearing thing. He invented Gideon, he marries Iris, and seems quite successful. I guess that is something to look forward to.
But where does the series go from here? It seems that Wells could enact legal action against his former employees, and get his lab back. That would leave the team without a lot of resources. I guess I don’t really understand Wells’s end game now though, other than releasing Grodd next episode. I guess we will see how that goes…
Scenes from The Flash, Season 1 Episode 21: Grodd Lives
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Grodd Lives:
I thought the episode was excellent – from the twists and turns, it left the plot captivating as usual.