The realization that HR Wells is not who he claimed to be was a big discovery in the last episode of THE FLASH. As was the revelation that Caitlin’s powers are slowly taking her over. Will the mild-mannered scientist really turn into Killer Frost?
During a visit to THE FLASH set in Vancouver, the cast spoke with journalists about Caitlin’s icy powers, the creation of HR Wells and Wally’s dreams of Flashpoint.
Building HR Wells. Tom Cavanagh (Harrison/HR Wells) had a lot of input in the creation of this new character, as he did in previous iterations of Harrison Wells. “That’s all me. Last year I was trying to fill in the gaps of what we don’t have on a daily basis on our show. We had a big bad but not a daily antagonist. Everybody is so winning on our show. They’re so great. Barry’s great, Iris is great, Caitlin’s great, Cisco is great. And I thought it would be great if there was a guy who wasn’t great, and that’s what I was last year. I was a daily antagonist, someone you couldn’t trust. A malcontent. A bit of a bitch. Socially inept. But ultimately, he was kind of a good guy. In the first season, he seems good but he’s bad. In the second season he seems bad but he’s good.”
“And in this season, well, I wonder what he is?,” Cavanagh explained. “A bit of a con man. But I thought, instead of filling in the thing like I did last year, there are gaps that we have on our show, and I’m going to fill in that gap and do it sort of in the same way, be a part of something that is not a circle that we have on our show. But I didn’t want to repeat myself from last year so what I thought I would try this year is a guy who fills it up with comedy, if you will, or a bit of a con man. The same element of if you can trust him or not is there, but in a different way.”
Changing the Dynamic. The revelation that HR is not the scientist he claimed to be hit Cisco pretty hard. Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) hinted that this revelation will change the dynamic between the two men “tremendously.” He went on to explain that “this has been a really interesting dynamic to explore with Tom. I found that regardless of which character he’s playing, Tom seems to just fit right into it really seamlessly. That has been wonderful to work with. That’s like being given a different tool in your toolbox. The dynamic with HR is going to be interesting and fun, for sure…..It’s really going to give Tom Cavanagh a lot of play time and has given him a lot of play time so far. You can expect a lot of HR’s business and backstory to be rooted in some of this writing of his and specifically the narrative that he’s tackling will reveal itself over upcoming episodes.”
“It’s also funny because it’s not a Wells that we can easily count on all the time. That’s something that’s quite different from the other Wells, not being a scientist,” said Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West). “I mean, he’s already wearing the face of a man that’s burned us,” Ramon agreed. “He’s sort of got the chips stacked against him. Or the cards stacked against him? The odds are against him.”
Fulfilling His Destiny. When Barry created the Flashpoint timeline we saw that Wally had embraced his speedster identity: Kid Flash. But when Barry changed things back those powers were gone. The longing, however, is not. In this week’s episode, Wally starts having dreams of being Kid Flash. Londsale hinted that “For Wally, ever since we met him, he’s always been missing something in his life. Originally, that was his father and sister that even despite not knowing about them. So now that he has that, now it’s discovering that there’s something missing in him. I think he has always felt a little bit unsure of his place and what he’s supposed to do in this world, especially dealing with the fact that he’s having dreams and knows that there’s potentially another path he can take with that.”
As Wally’s dreams start to overtake him, we’re going to see him strive for something that could end in disaster. But Londsale warned that “What we’ll see is that he’s not reckless for no reason. His passion, there’s a desperation and as he wants to prove himself, we’ll start to understand why he is reckless. He sometimes maybe doesn’t put enough value on his own life, which is something that he needs to learn. It’s definitely going to go deeper and deeper as these dreams go further and manipulate in different ways, and he’ll definitely be more affected, not necessarily as just more reckless but it will strike a struggle in him.”
Caitlin’s Powers. Expect to see the discovery of Caitlin’s powers continue. Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow) said that “episodes 5, 6 [this week], 7 [next week] are a little bit more Caitlin-heavy than they have been earlier this year”. But Caitlin is not eager to reveal the truth to the others yet. Panabaker said that she’s hiding her powers “because I think she doesn’t understand it. I think that conversation would be a little bit difficult, like, ‘Hey guys, I don’t have any answers, but here you go,’ especially for Caitlin as a scientist and someone who is focused on always having the answers. She wants to get this figured out for herself before she comes to the team.”
Don’t miss an all new episode of THE FLASH tonight (November 15) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW (U.S.) and CTV (Canada).
