Though he sat out “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” The Flash season 6 teased the return of Reverse-Flash in its last episode, when Nash received a vision of one of his doppelgängers with Thawne-like glowing red eyes. The show aired its latest installment, “Death of the Speed Force,” on Tuesday night and it featured the comeback of Barry Allen’s eternal nemesis in the flesh. Or, at least, Nash’s flesh. And his newest evil plan was revealed. Spoilers: it has a very familiar end-goal.
Following his visions of other Wellses, Nash asks Cisco to help him figure out if his doppelgängers could still be alive post-“Crisis.” Having just returned from his fact-finding mission of Earth-Prime, Cisco has got enough on his plate and so brushes him off. Later, after receiving some stern words from Caitlin, Cisco seeks out Nash to apologize and lend a hand. However, the man he meets is not Nash, but Reverse-Flash possessing his form.
In a callback to the memorable moment when Thawne killed Cisco by phasing his hand through his chest in season 1, Thawne recreates his old move. However, it doesn’t work as he doesn’t have his speedster powers in Nash’s non-meta body. Team Flash is able to subdue him and lock him in the Pipeline and it’s here that Eobard lays out his aims: to kill Barry Allen and all of his friends and loved ones. But, er, you know, actually succeed at doing it this time.
To be fair, Thawne’s shenanigans did un-write Nora from reality back in season 5, so it’s never good news when he’s back in town. Especially now, as this episode established the Speed Force is dying, so Barry’s speed is depleting. In fact, the promo for next week’s episode of The Flash, “The Exorcism of Nash Wells,” teased that the Scarlet Speedster will be pushed to take drastic measures to make sure he’s strong enough to face Thawne.