Who is Harrison Wells?

"*If this is Dr. Wells, then who have we been working for this whole time?"
"Dr. McGee said that after the accident, Wells became a completely different person. It's because he is a different person.*"
—Caitlin Snow and Barry Allen after learning "Harrison Wells" was never Harrison Wells and is someone completely different

## Information

### Written by

Ray Utarnachitt
Cortney Norris

## Chronology

### Blog post

Post 9 "Chapter Seven: Hannibal Bates"

"**Who is Harrison Wells?**" is the nineteenth episode of the first season of *The Flash*, and the nineteenth episode overall. It aired on April 21, 2015.

## Plot

Barry runs to Coast City to get pizza, and contemplates his suspicions, that Harrison Wells is the Reverse-Flash. He runs back home, where Joe, Cisco, Caitlin and Eddie are waiting. As they start to think, Joe decides to go with Cisco to Starling City in order to learn, what really happened 15 years ago, when Wells' wife, Tess, supposedly died in a car accident. Caitlin disagrees and suddenly walks away. As Joe and Cisco are away, Barry and Eddie will hold down the fort.

Meanwhile, a bank worker robs deposit boxes. The next day, Eddie is interrogating the robber. She claims it's not her in the camera footage. As Eddie explains it to Barry, and seeing that the worker has absolutely no criminal registry, both agree this is a meta-human case. Iris arrives, and Eddie is forced to lie that Joe is taking a couple of days off, and Barry follows suit. When Eddie asks when is Iris coming home, she spitefully says when it feels like it. As Iris leaves, Eddie hopes Joe and Cisco find out something, as he is getting tired of lying to her.

In S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry tries to convince Caitlin without success, as she needs real proof about Barry's suspicion. Wells overhears them, and wonders what proof she needs. Caitlin lies that it's for a meta-human case, indicating that the seed of doubt has been planted in Caitlin. Meanwhile, in a jewelry store, a man is trying to sell stolen diamonds. Eddie is on the job and calls Barry to help. As Eddie chases the robber, he catches him and they fight. He manages to beat Eddie and escape, but Barry arrives. He warns he can't outrun him, but he claims he doesn't have to. He touches a teenage girl, and transforms into exact image of her. Barry loses the meta in the crowd.

Barry returns to the labs to inform Wells and Caitlin. They start digging for cases, where accused pleaded innocence despite the fact they were seen. Looking at the first such case, they find the name Hannibal Bates. Meanwhile, in Starling City, Joe and Cisco meet with detective Quentin Lance about Wells' car accident. They ask if they could see the accident site. Laurel Lance shows up and wants to talk to Cisco in private. Laurel claims he knows Barry, meeting him when he was in Starling City last time, alongside her friends Felicity Smoak, John Diggle and Oliver Queen. She then reveals she knows Barry is the Flash and that Oliver is the Arrow. Cisco doesn't believe her, but then she reveals she is the Black Canary. Cisco finally believes, and Laurel asks him to adjust the sonic device her sister, Sara, used.

Back in Central City, Caitlin goes through articles about Wells, trying to soothe her doubts. She decides to go to Wells' home and talk with him. In there, she rings the doorbell. But right before Wells opens the door, Barry speeds her away, and she is upset that Barry spied on her. He asks what was she doing at Wells house. Caitlin claims she was going to talk with him to get answers on her own. Barry says she can't. Caitlin reveals why she is unwilling to believe Barry: after the particle accelerator exploded, the following nine months were the worst of her life. She lost Ronnie, her job and much else, and only Wells stood by her during that time, and the idea that Barry and the rest are going to ruin his life is too much for her and pleads that if what Barry says is true, that Wells is the Reverse-Flash, everything about her life will have been a lie. Barry pleads with her not to do anything, if not for him, then for his father. Caitlin is shocked he would use his father against her, but she agrees not to do anything until Joe and Cisco return.

Later, Eddie and Barry go see Hannibal Bates' only remaining relative, her grandmother, to learn something about him. She takes them in and offers them coffee. But soon they notice she's gone, and realize Bates was impersonating her. He attempts to escape as a young woman with Eddie chasing him. Wells and Caitlin warn Barry that Bates can't touch him, so he has to run normally. But during the chase, he touches Eddie and transforms into him and shoots two cops, framing Eddie. The event was recorded on a police car camera.

Eddie is apprehended and DA Cecile Horton has no choice but imprison him. Barry attempts to figure out how to get him free. He calms down Iris, who is nearly in shock about Eddie. Meanwhile, in the accident site near Starling City, Lance has taken Joe and Cisco there so they can examine it. Cisco starts searching with his detector device for tachyon traces, while Joe and Quentin discuss about their daughters. Cisco finds traces.

Barry attempts to convince Horton, but fails. Unwilling to let Eddie go to prison for a crime he didn't commit, he tries to speed him away, but Eddie refuses to be a fugitive and he tells him this isn't like with his father, that he was helpless as a kid to do anything to get him out, but he can get himself out, not to try to hide him or anything, but find Bates and get him out the right way. Barry goes home and talks with Iris on the phone, when Eddie knocks on the door. However, it's actually Bates and he knocks Barry out cold and transforms into him, while locking him in a closet. Caitlin arrives and explains to fake Barry how she figured out a way to stop Bates. She also apologizes and suggest they bury the hatchet about last night and catch Everyman (Bates). They leave, leaving the real Barry behind.

At the accident site, Cisco is digging, when he hits something: a decayed human arm, followed by the head. Quentin attempts to call it in, but Joe stops him, and explains that if the corpse is who he think it is, then all the people who would know about this are in danger. Thus he tells him to keep this under wraps. Meanwhile in S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin is fixing a serum for Everyman, while Bates, as Barry, is seemingly smitten by her. Eventually he manages to kiss Caitlin. Caitlin is stunned by this, but she kisses him back and they are interrupted by Iris' arrival and she explains that through digging, she learned about similar frame-ups as Eddie's. She then shows the footage about Eddie's shooting: he fired with left hand, but Eddie is right-handed. Fake Barry attempts to take out his gun to kill them, but he is shocked with a taser by Wells, who points out that real Barry is right-handed, too. Iris demands that she will take Bates. Wells tries to deny it, but Iris insists. Caitlin comes along to help her. In the car, Iris explains Caitlin about the blog for all strange things that have been going on in the city, and mentions that the Burning Man (Ronnie) is also in it. As the women are forced to stop in a red light, Bates transforms into a little girl and starts screaming, alerting nearby construction workers into thinking that he's being kidnapped. He manages to escape and Iris and Caitlin can do nothing to stop him.

Caitlin finds the real Barry tied up and gagged. She rescues him and they go to S.T.A.R. Labs. Meanwhile, Cisco and Joe are leaving, and Cisco gives Laurel the new sonic device, which he calls the Canary Cry. Laurel then hands him a photo, in which Cisco is with Black Canary and warns him if he shows it others, she'll kill him.

In S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells has learned that while Bates can shapeshift into anyone, he can't copy any meta-human powers, so Barry is free to touch him. Caitlin gives him the serum. Barry's stolen cellphone pings in Central City Airport and he heads there. He manages to locate Bates, and he tries to run. Eventually, Barry corners him and a fight follows, in which Bates transforms into all the people she has turned into, including Caitlin, Iris and Eddie, even Barry as the Flash. Barry eventually defeats him, and injects the serum on him, and he falls unconscious.

The footage about Barry's fight with Bates is shown to Horton, and she is stunned. Eddie is released. Barry hands Horton a list of all the robberies Bates pulled off impersonating another. Horton takes it and tells Barry he saw the Flash once, and thought he is cool. Eddie arrives and hugs Iris, and tells her he has been distant because he's been working with the Flash.

Bates is locked up in the pipeline. Wells is intrigued what Bates really looks like, and he reveals himself as a deformed man, who can't remember, who he really is. Barry then takes Caitlin to his lab in CCPD, where Cisco and Joe reveal to Caitlin that the corpse they found is the ***real*** Harrison Wells. Caitlin can't believe it, but Cisco ran the DNA test twice, which cannot lie. This leaves everyone with a question: if the corpse is the real Harrison Wells, who is the one they thought was Harrison Wells? All they know, is that he is a different person entirely.

"Wells" has come to the CCPD to give his regards to Eddie. As "Wells" leaves, he asks Joe did he enjoy his time in Starling City. Joe reveals he was working on a case. Joe asks did he ever go back to his old home. He says no as it has too many memories of Tess. He then asks Joe, does he ever talk about Iris' mother. He answers no, and "Wells" points out their similarities in that regard. "Wells" then leaves.

In S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco runs with Barry and Caitlin a 3D model of the labs he made in order to find out, what caused the malfunction, which resulted in the particle accelerator exploding. He never checked any areas outside the cortex or pipeline before, so now he checks the place. He finds a space that is labeled as "Unknown", as it shouldn't be there. They check the corridor, and find the entrance to the Vault. They enter, and uncover the suit of Reverse-Flash, confirming that "Wells" is indeed him. They also see the future news article.

## Cast

### Starring

* Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Candice Patton as Iris West and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Rick Cosnett as Detective Eddie Thawne and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
* T.J.Williams as Tyler West/Ghost-boy and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Tom Cavanagh as Professor Eobard Thawne and Hannibal Bates/Everyman
* Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West

### Special guest stars

* Katie Cassidy as Assistant District Attorney Laurel Lance
* Paul Blackthorne as Captain Quentin Lance

### Guest stars

* Danielle Nicolet as District Attorney Cecile Horton
* Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh

### Co-starring

* Paul Almeida as Uniform Cop #1
* Ray Boulay as Construction Worker
* Naiah Cummins as Teller
* King Lau as Hulking Man
* Laiken Laverock as Little Girl
* Maxine Miller as Old Woman
* Atlin Vera Mitchell as Nina and Hannibal Bates
* Paul Moniz de Sa as Jeweler
* Martin Novotny as Hannibal Bates
* Marshall Virtue as TSA Agent
* Barbara Wallace as Grandma Bates
* Chris Webb as Trusting Man Face

## Production

Preparation ran from February 2 until February 11, 2015. Shooting ran from February 12 until February 24, 2015.

## Trivia

* The billboard "Welcome to Coast City" represents Ferris Air which in DC Comics, employs the Modern Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
* Quentin tells Joe that Laurel has kept something from him for months, referring to Laurel keeping Sara's death a secret from him, which was a major event in Season 3 of *Arrow*.
* This is the third episode of the Arrowverse and the first episode of *The Flash* to be named after a person in a civilian sense, after "Sara" and "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak".
* Everyman's identity, Hannibal Bates, is a play on the names of two infamous fictional serial killers, Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates.
	+ One of Everyman's forms is a disguise as his own grandmother. This is a reference to Norman Bates in *Psycho* when he disguises himself as his own mother, Norma Bates.
* Laurel's new sonic scream weapon is stylized as the Canary Cry, an allusion to Black Canary's signature superpower in the comics, known as the "Canary Cry".
* When Joe looks at a photograph in the incident report for the car wreck, the date 2000-04-16 can briefly be seen, meaning Eobard Thawne killed Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan on April 16, 2000. This is about a month after he killed Nora Allen on March 18, 2000, a date confirmed in the later episode "The Man Who Saved Central City".
* The music used when Team Flash enters the Time Vault at the end of the episode is a slowed-down version of the track used at the end of "The Man in the Yellow Suit" when "Harrison Wells" entered the Time Vault and unlocked the area containing the Reverse-Flash suit.
* The author's name on the 2024 newspaper article is too blurred to read, likely to hide the fact that it is now written by Iris West-Allen, which is revealed in the next episode, "The Trap".
* Eddie implies he and Iris make love regularly, having accidentally told Joe its been "weeks" since the last time.

## Goofs

* When Barry says, "This person can actually transform into anyone they touch," Eobard raises his eyebrow, but when the shot cuts to a close-up of Eobard, his expression is slightly different and his eyebrow is not raised.

## Gallery

### Videos

The Flash 1x19 Promo "Who is Harrison Wells?" (HD)PromoThe Flash 1x19 Extended Promo "Who is Harrison Wells?" (HD)Extended promoThe Flash - Who is Harrison Wells? Extended TrailerNew extended promo
## References

1. ↑ "The Brave and the Bold"
2. ↑ Andrew Kreisberg (@AJKreisberg) - Twitter

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