The Reverse-Flash Returns

"There's nothing you can do about it. This is his origin story, and it's going to happen no matter what you do."

- Harrison Wells to Barry Allen on Eobard Thawne.

"The Reverse-Flash Returns" is the eleventh episode of the second season of The Flash and the thirty-fourth episode overall. It aired on January 26, 2016.

Synopsis
When Cisco gets a vibe of Eobard Thawne, Barry and the team don't believe it. But, after an attack at Mercury Labs, Christina McGee confirms that the Reverse Flash is back. Meanwhile, Iris and Francine share a nice moment that brings Iris closer to her brother, Wally.

Plot
The team discovers Turtle is dead and Jay suspects Dr. Wells is responsible. Meanwhile, Cisco asks Dr. Wells for help in controlling his vibing abilities. Harrison determines they are connected to Cisco's fear response and triggers a vibe which alerts the team that Eobard Thawne is back. Wells surmises that this version of Eobard is from a point in the future before he went back in time to kill Barry's mother and was thus protected from being erased with Eddie's sacrifice. Retrofitting goggles to induce Cisco's vibes, the team learns that Eobard is planning to use tachyons to return to his future. Barry arrives and destroys Eobard's tachyon machine. After a race around the city, Barry stops Eobard and imprisons him at the particle accelerator. However, his capture causes a rupture in the timeline that threatens to kill Cisco, so Barry is forced to send Eobard back to the future to save his friend. Meanwhile, Patty discovers Barry is the Flash but, when he refuses to acknowledge it, she chooses to leave the city. Caitlin tries to find a cure for Jay's illness.

Trivia

 * This episode closely resembles the plot of the 90's comic book storyline The Return of Barry Allen. That storyline also involved a younger version of Eobard Thawne traveling to the past for the first time, while his future self had fought the Flash Family many times already, Thawne arriving at a time when Barry is dead and his former sidekick Wally West is the current Flash. In The Return of Barry Allen, Eobard is actually a huge fan of Barry who got plastic surgery to look like him, but his trip to the past and the trauma of learning about his 'future' death at Barry's hands scramble his memories to the point where he believes that he is Barry. His true identity is eventually exposed, prompting Wally to trick him into returning to his own time, with his fear and the trauma of the recent events addling Thawne's memories of his time in the past while contributing to his future vendetta against Barry.
 * The goggles Wells gives to Cisco resemble the comic book outfit of Vibe in the New 52.
 * Tina is supposed to die at 9:52PM, another reference to the number 52.
 * Cisco says "Bye, Felicia" to Eobard, a reference to the 1995 film Friday in which the quote is used.
 * Jay Garrick's Earth One counterpart Hunter Zolomon is a reference to another comic book character. In the comics, Zolomon is a criminal profiler and a close friend of Wally West. He goes on to become Zoom after an accident involving the Cosmic Treadmill.
 * The events of this episode are later referenced in the Supergirl episode "Worlds Finest", in which Barry repeated the process that he and Eobard Thawne used with Supergirl in order to return to his Earth.