The Flash (TV Series) Who Is Harrison Wells? (2015) User Reviews

What Proof?

[ThomasDrufke · 9/10 · 22 April 2015]

I feel like there have been several episodes this season that I crown as my favorite so far, but perhaps "Who is Harrison Wells?" is the perfect mix of pure fun and just a well directed episode. I think I may have to go back and watch the series over again to identify which one is my absolute favorite but if anything else, this episode gave us everything we could have possibly wanted in one short 42 minute story.

We knew the episode contained the detective bro crossover with Arrow, but we didn't know that Coast City would make an appearance! Apparently Hal Jordan and crew enjoy the best pizza around. But the actual crossover was really fun even though Arrow's best characters didn't make an appearance. Laurel was bearable and actually quite likable. Lance is always interesting to watch and I think Joe was the right guy to come in and tell him he needs to fix his relationship with Laurel. I think we are all tired of the soap opera like Lance days. I thought I would hate the idea of Laurel getting the 'Canary Cry' but once again the writers made it work within the universe. Meanwhile Cisco's geek out over the Canary was priceless and I almost saw a spark between him and Laurel there.

Another spark came from Caitlin and Barry this week, or I guess just Caitlin. Going all the way back to 'Crazy For You', Barry & Caitlin have seemed like a better on screen couple than Barry & Iris. I have always been a fan of Panabaker's performance on the show and tonight was another great example. Caitlin struggled with the teams' new plan against Wells, or rather opinions, because they have no idea what to do. She served as the audience's feelings this entire year. We have been wondering how much of these good deeds and feelings are legitimate and genuine. But if we're talking about this week alone, I really liked the 'Everyman' storyline. Sure, it was a villain of the week episode, but yet the mystique like powers fit well in with this week. Meanwhile Joe and Cisco went to Starling and investigated Wells' crime scene. It was pretty convenient, but like I said before it worked well. I have to say though, I really thought Wells was somehow going to kill Joe in that last scene. It seems likely that one of Barry's fathers will die this season and I really hope it's not Joe.

In the Flash style after credits (not-so-after-credits) we saw the crew find Wells' lair if you will. Once again it's not anything we haven't seen, but it was nice to see Barry find out more about Wells and the possible disappearance of himself in 2024. I think we would all be terrified to see that in print about ourselves. So even though Starling city seemed quite different than how it usually is on Wednesday nights, I think the crossover was as useful as it was fun. We are definitely headed for an insane final 4 episodes.

+Light Starling

+Cisco geeking out

+Panabaker's hidden feelings

+Everyman was different

+Detective bros

9.7/10

Killer Names

[pablo2896 · 8/10 · 23 April 2015]

The Flash: Who is Harrison Wells? Review

What was up with the villain's name in this episode; Hannibal Bates? That's like naming your child The crazy ass murderous killer.

And names where indeed the gripe that I had with this episode. It's called "Who is Harrison Wells?", and when I read the name I obviously had in mind a flashback-heavy, or at least a present set, Harrison Wells (or Eobard Thawne) centered episode. It might even have been called "Who is that ugly and slimy bald guy at the end?" and it would have had the same connection to the plot as the original. It did dwell on the lingering question if Wells could be a good guy or if he is all evil and a total douche for acting like a friend to the team but the only plot point that furthered the entire story was exposed in the epilogue.

Aside from the misleading name, this episode was solid. It featured a cool new power and took the opportunity to explore the funny situations that this particular power might cause, and it even gave us an entertaining, and honestly, visually impressive character swapping climactic fight. For that it deserves our praise.

The other furthering that The Flash offered us was that of the team- ups with the Arrow series. It was not a very usual team- up and that was a good surprise. The only major characters that came face to face where Laurel and Cisco, and yet the true team-up was Joe with Detective Lance. It was like positive energy clashing with negative (Lance is still kind of crazy I think) but, all in all, they helped each other out. My theory is that they mix-up so well because of their amazing chemistry in their individual shows. All of the actors seem to have an awesome time filming and it translates to the screen when performing. And the chemistry of both mixed into an episode just makes you look at this world as an organic one. An at the end they all got something out of the meeting. I can't wait to see the canary cry and laugh at a moment as funny as the one with Cisco's picture again.

Back in Central City, the team (that includes Eddie now, m'kay) tries to catch the shape-shifting crazy guy who is running across town having way to much fun. The one who got the best storyline out of this was Eddie, surprisingly. He had an opportunity to show morale & an interesting persona and he ended up with Iris hugging it out with him (maybe more than that but you get the point). The villain created some fun situations but the writers only exploited these without writing him a compelling and fun personality like in the case of Mark Hamill's "The Trickster". The visual effects department though, they got the chance to get shiny, just like the slimy frog-face on "Everyman". They created sleek looking fights and an impressive character model.

As I mentioned before, the epilogue gave the true plot-punch when the team (except Wells obviously) discovered the "Wellscave"and made Cisco almost drop the f-bomb. Now they know for sure and clear that Harrison Wells is the "Reverse Flash" and I want to see what their next move is and what the writers have planned for a finale. The Arrow Season 1 finale was a truly amazing surprise that blew my brains away 2 years ago because of how awesome it was and the scale that it suddenly achieved. I hope I am equally surprised by The Flash's performance in it's final episodes.

I hope this was the last episode with a "minor meta-human villain". The next episodes look to be promising and I really don't mind putting too much trust in the team behind the series. They have gained it through the escalating quality with which they have created a fun and sometimes fascinating adaptation to this DC character.

In the meanwhile this episode gets an 8 out of 10.

Ranking/Reviewing every Flash episode: Who Is Harrison Wells?

[lbramson · 10/10 · 10 June 2023]

Team Flash investigate Harrison Wells after they grow suspicious of his actions. This is when the plot of Season 1 really kicked into high gear! The investigation was in full swing by Episode 19 and this one benefited greatly because of that. Not to forget, Laura Lance aka The Black Canary from Arrow makes an appearance and has a great dinamic with Cisgoat Ramon. Both plotlines collide in an awesome kicker for this season-long storyline. From the investigation stuff to the countless iconic moments, Who Is Harrison Wells? Is one of the best of this season so far! Going above Power Outage with a 9.8/10.

Who is Harrison Wells?

[SpideyVerse23 · 9/10 · 22 January 2023]

This episode didn't really move the plot forward, but did what I expect from a Flash episode.

After Barry and Joe let Team Flash know about their suspicions about Wells, Joe and Cisco go to Starling City to investigate the car accident of Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan. We get a fun little crossover with Quentin and Laurel, and they manage to find something.

Back in Central City, Caitlin is having trouble being convinced about Wells, while Barry and Eddie deal with Everyman, a new metahuman. Eddie finally gets a good plotline without Iris and it was actually really good.

Nothing much happens in this episode, but it was a really surprising ending which gave the team some more clues about Wells.

Better than the last episode, but...

[gca_36 · 7/10 · 22 April 2015]

Well, this episode was much better than the last one, but don't get me wrong, it was far from being really good.

Likes: I liked the struggle of Caitlin with being disloyal to her mentor and boss Harrison Wells and how it was resolved by finding out a part of the truth about Harrison Wells. A shape shifter as a villain was OK, though the idea of shape-shifters is not so original anymore since it was used in other shows quite often (e.g. Supernatural). The cross-over between Arrow and The Flash worked and seeing Quentin Lance not acting like a douche as he did in the last Arrow episodes was refreshing.

Dislikes: Iris still being a bitch. To be honest, I don't like the Iris character at all and I think she is expendable. Anyway, she wasn't the biggest dislike in this episode. Two scenes which really ticked me off were, when the shape-shifter came to Barry's place and looked like Eddie and he fell for it. Come on, this was really lame. Especially if you consider Barry was talking on the phone to Iris about Eddie and everything happened a scene before. This was really a lack of logic and consistency. And the other scene was the final confrontation, when the shape-shifter became Caitlin and Flash hesitated. Not very convincing to me. Sorry, but sometimes the writers let Barry act like an idiot. He supposed to be a smart guy, right?

Jr. High school kids must be writing this junk.

[info-18832 · 1/10 · 17 September 2015]

Listen to the dialogue. One person says something and then the other person just talks. It is mostly non-responsive to the first person's comment. Then the first person answers back and it too is mostly non-responsive. It is an endless series of micro-speeches made by characters in a completely unrealistic fashion in an attempt to add drama and move the weak plot along.

The guy pulls out a high-tech device that looks like a metal detector, but it is not one. Instead, he declares that it detects "abnormal" waves. This is the sort of plot tool used by Jr. High School writers.

The police comment casually, "Sometimes we lie for love - especially when it comes to family." Geez! Yea, there's a lot of lying going on among families I guess. The notion is ridiculous, not to mention how this plays in the story.

The Shape-shifter meta-human, during a home visit had the investigators all fooled appearing as a benign grandma. Instead of continuing that hoax to complete the interview and exit leaving them no wiser, the shape-shifter runs out the back door and changes into a girl to escape. I.e., the whole super power and hoax was wasted only to gain a 20 foot head start running away. This of course makes no sense at all.

It is crap-TV at it's worst.

Beyond Unbelieveable

[jodi-44528 · 6/10 · 4 January 2019]

I realize that in these types of shows, a watcher has to just accept certain aspects of the world building. But this episode was simply beyond anything that can be believed. Too many instances of obvious mental mistakes by every character in the show. Too many times of no common sense - like allowing the two women to take Bates out of the lab. Knowing that he would escape! For the most part, this show is fun and a bit campy, but this episode was just too dumbed down for my taste. With so many options of viewing, the writing has to be a little bit more intelligent than what this offered. It's frustrating to be bored with something that has the potential to offer a delightful escape into the world of a 'superhero'

The calm before the storm

[Fluke_Skywalker · 7/10 · 17 April 2016]

Despite the title, the focus here isn't exclusively on the characters finding out what we've known for several episodes now. There's a freak-of-the-week with an interesting power that's used to very good effect, but unfortunately said freak is once again thinly developed. I guess that's okay since the villain hiding in plain sight is there. There's a looming menace to it all as we wait for the other shoe to drop, but letting the audience find out so far ahead of the characters is a bit of a dramatic no-no.

As is the case with most episodes, there's a balance between drama, tension and humor, with the latter playing especially well here. With this week's metahuman being a shape-shifter, you can imagine the fun the actors had being bad.

With four episodes left, you get the sense this is the calm before the storm. There's some definite wheel-spinning going on, but it nevertheless remains an entertaining and occasionally compelling 42 minutes of TV.