“Who is Harrison Wells” is episode nineteen of season one of The Flash.
At the end of the previous episode, “All Star Team Up”, Joe and Barry told Caitlin and Cisco that they believed that Harrison Wells was the Reverse-Flash. Caitlin defended Wells but Cisco was silent. This was because Cisco had been having visions that Wells was the Reverse-Flash, and had killed him (in the alternate timeline of “Out of Time”). Cisco believes that Wells is the Reverse-Flash.
This episode opens with Barry narrating how he is getting faster, as if something is chasing him. He says that there is; it’s his past and it’s getting closer. Barry is running to Coast City. Back at Joe’s, Eddie, Cisco and Caitlin are also there. Joe says that he sent Barry out for pizza. Which is why Barry was heading to Coast City – to get pizza.
Barry returns and Joe says that, after six months of investigating Harrison Wells, they have got nowhere. So it is time to go back to the beginning. Joe and Cisco are heading to Starling City, which is where Dr Wells had his car accident. Dr McGee had told Barry that, after the accident, Wells became a completely different person. Indeed he did; in “Tricksters” Eobard Thawne had become Harrison Wells. Caitlin, who isn’t really onboard with this whole idea as yet, says that losing the love of your life can change you. Cisco wants Caitlin to cover for him with Wells; she isn’t happy about lying to Harrison.
Elsewhere, a woman at a bank, Nina, is asked by another employee to open the door. Nina is the last person and she says that she has one more thing to do before she leaves. Once Nina is alone in the bank, she goes into the safe deposit boxes and empties one of them. Eddie is showing Nina her stealing from the bank on a CCTV recording. Nina says that the woman looks like her, but isn’t her. She left work early and her husband can verify this. Eddie points out that her husband could lie.
Eddie tells Barry that everyone he has spoken to says that Nina is the kindest, nicest most honest person they know. Eddie things maybe there is a meta-human who can control minds and asks if that’s possible. Barry enquires whether that’s a real question. Iris turns up looking for her father; she and Eddie are not living together because she gave him an ultimatum – if Eddie loves her, he needs to tell her what is going on. Once Iris leaves, Eddie says to Barry that he hopes Joe and Cisco find something in Starling City, because Eddie is just about done lying to Iris. About everything.
In a jewellery store, a man is trying to sell the items stolen from the safe deposit box. The jeweller goes into another room and finds the serial number of one of the diamonds being sold on the stolen property list and contacts the police. Eddie calls Barry, telling him he needs the Flash. Before Barry arrives, Eddie and the man get into a fight. When Barry turns up, he tells the thief that he can’t outrun him. The man says he doesn’t need to, touches a teenage girl – and duplicates her, down to her clothing.
Dr Wells tells Barry and Caitlin that programmable matter is just a theory currently (but could it be related to how Eobard took Harrison Wells’ form?) and it appears that this meta-human can turn into anyone they touch. If he touches the Flash, he could expose Barry as being the Flash, and he might take more than physical characteristics – he might duplicate Barry’s powers as well. Barry suggests looking for any crimes similar to Nina’s, where a person was caught on CCTV committing a crime but claimed that they were innocent.
The first dated back to a month before the particle accelerator accident. A man claimed that his co-worker, Hannibal Bates, had framed him. Bates (who is named after two fictional serial killers, Hannibal Lector and Normal Bates), was reported missing by his grandmother. Barry and Eddie go to see her, but she is actually Hannibal – and she had touched Eddie. Barry wants to know how to catch Hannibal if he can’t use his superspeed; the answer is to run like a normal person. However, Eddie apparently shot two police officers and gets arrested for it. Barry needs to find some way of clearing Eddie’s name. Which could be tricky. Eddie is one of many people that the doppelgänger has touched, and things get complicated.
Caitlin wants to talk to Wells, because after the accident Wells stood by her when she lost everything. If Wells is the Reverse-Flash, it will ruin her life because everything will be a lie.
In Starling City, Joe and Cisco see Captain Lance. Lance says that the car accident was an open and shut case; Wells lost control, crashed the car and Tess died. Joe and Cisco want to see the scene of the accident anyway. Laurel Lance turns up whilst they are there, and Cisco likes the look of her. She asks if Cisco works at S.T.A.R. Labs with Barry, and asks for a private word. Laurel tells Cisco that she knew Barry when he visited three friends of hers; John Diggle, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak. Then she tells him that she knows Barry is the Flash and Oliver is Arrow. Because she’s the Black Canary. Laurel would like Cisco to help modify a sonic device that belonged to her sister. Whilst they are there, Joe has a talk with Lance that may help with the latter’s relationship with his daughter.