The Speed of Thought

"Those Wells, they took some getting used to, didn't they? If we learned anything from them, it was that our greatest weapon against darkness isn't our superpowers. It's our humanity... and our love for each other."

—Joe West

"The Speed of Thought"
Information
Season 7 » Episode 2
Episode number	135 of 184
Original airdate	March 9, 2021
Written by	Jonathan Butler Gabriel Garza
Directed by	Stefan Pleszczynski
Chronology
Preceded by	"All's Wells That Ends Wells"
Followed by	"Mother"

"The Speed of Thought" is the second episode of the seventh season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-thirty-fifth episode overall. It aired on March 9, 2021.

Synopsis

When Barry suddenly gains the power of speed thinking, he attempts to use his new gift to save Iris. While Barry is thrilled with his new power, Cisco is hesitant to trust it. Meanwhile, Eva must face a shattering truth.[src]

Plot

Allegra with the fanny pack.

Cisco Ramon has returned from Atlantis to join Team Flash as they retire Nash's fanny pack to the "Hall of Fallen Friends" that has been made in S.T.A.R. Lab. After the service, Allegra Garcia mourns Nash by staring at his picture with Maya and talking to Cecile Horton.

In the Mirrorverse, Iris West-Allen has found Kamilla Hwang and the two go to their S.T.A.R. Labs to find David Singh.

The artificial Speed Force causes Barry to be able to think in super speed; he is able to calculate and foresee scenarios and their outcome before they occur and can pick which potential timeline he wishes to happen. Barry and Cisco realize they do not need Ramsey Rosso's blood to free their friends from the other dimension; they can absorb the necessary particles from Eva McCulloch herself. Allegra reveals that she has seen a note Iris wrote within the Mirrorverse so they know where Iris will be and when.

Eva continues her campaign to destroy Black Hole and all weapons that were created from her research. The Flash and Cisco go to a warehouse that Eva is raiding; to assist them, Barry called Frost. During the battle, Frost is injured because Barry refuses to help. However, when the three get back to the laboratory, Barry knows the exact solution necessary to save Frost's life. When asked about his choices, Barry reveals that he calculated the most logical, not emotional, outcome that will help their ultimate cause.

Frost as a speedster.

Eva goes on television to promote herself as the head of McCulloch Technologies when Barry exposes for all to see that she is a mirror duplicate of the real Eva McCulloch. The others cannot believe what Barry has done; once again, he says that it was the most logical action needed to make Eva fallible to their assault. Barry calculates that only two options are available, the freedom of Iris or the freedom of David and Kamilla; there are not enough particles for all three. Barry mentally weighs his options and makes a logical decision.

In the Mirrorverse, David meets with Kamilla and Iris, but falls violently ill. Iris realizes that those who were hit with energy from the mirror gun become sick. Kamilla falls, as well. Iris tries to assist them.

Cisco, Frost, and Allegra learn that Barry has lost his emotions. They confront him. The discussion becomes a battle where Frost takes Velocity X, becomes a speedster, and uses both her speed and her cryokinesis to stop him. Ultimately, Barry wins, because he already calculated this timeline and its outcome. He causes his friends to fall unconscious.

Barry forces Iris from the Mirrorverse into Earth-Prime against her will; though she resisted, Barry did not care because he calculated that he needs Iris to fight Eva. Iris then has a seizure.

Harrison Wells

Barry's emotions return as he realizes that he has hurt everyone, because he cannot process emotions in his calculations; he has no love for anyone. In anger, he destroys the artificial Speed Force machine.

Elsewhere, Harrison Wells is alive.

Eva decides that she is tired of being an outsider in this dimension and begins dragging people into the Mirrorverse with Officer Daisy Korber as one of her first hostages.

Cast

Starring

• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash
• Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen
• Danielle Panabaker as Frost
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
• Danielle Nicolet as Defense Attorney Cecile Horton
• Kayla Compton as Allegra Garcia and Maya (photo)
• Brandon McKnight (credit only)
• Efrat Dor as Eva McCulloch and Dr. Eva McCulloch
• Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison Wells, Dr. Harrison "Harry" Wells (archive footage), Harrison "H.R." Wells (archive footage), Harrison Sherloque Wells (archive footage), Harrison Nash Wells (archive footage), and Professor Eobard Thawne (archive footage)
• Jesse L. Martin as Captain Joe West

Guest starring

• Patrick Sabongui as Chief David Singh
• Victoria Park as Kamilla Hwang
• Natalie Sharp as Millie Rawlins/Sunshine

Co-starring

• Jessica Hayles as Arielle Atkins
• Stephanie Izsak as Officer Daisy Korber and Daisy Korber

Uncredited

• Bre Blair as Tess Morgan (archive footage)
• Morena Baccarin as Gideon (voice)
• Matt Letscher as Professor Eobard Thawne (archive footage)

Trivia

• This is the highest rated episode of Season 7 with a rating of 8.2 on IMDb.
• This is the first episode of the series to not feature Brandon McKnight (Chester P. Runk) after being promoted to a series regular.
• S.T.A.R. Labs has a hall for mementos of fallen allies.
  • The Harrison Wells
    • H.R.'s drumsticks
    • Harry's glasses
    • Sherloque's brandy bottle
    • Nash's bandolier
  • Snart's goggles
  • XS's jacket replica
  • Ronnie and Stein's quantum splicer
  • Jesse Wells' jacket
  • Gypsy's stun pistol
  • Oliver Queen's original mask
• Eva completely snaps in this episode, coming up with an insane new plan.
• Harrison Wells is shown being revived at some point after Eobard Thawne killed him, presumably moments after.
  • Apart from his appearance as a corpse in "Who is Harrison Wells?", the original Earth-1 Harrison Wells was never seen before this episode outside of his debut, "Tricksters", which aired nearly six years prior to this episode.
  • The scene at the end of the episode reuses Harrison's death scene from "Tricksters", along with new footage of Eobard using his speed to bury Harrison in the nearby grove where his body was found by Cisco Ramon, Joe West, and Quentin Lance in "Who is Harrison Wells?".
• This is Matt Letscher's first appearance in the Arrowverse since 2017, albeit through archive footage.
• Earth-1 Wells appears in the montage at the beginning of the episode despite having never interacted with Team Flash. This is possibly foreshadowing for his return at the end of the episode.
• When Barry explains his reasoning for making Eva unstable, he references the statistic the fandom has noted about the Big Bads; when they are stalled by emotional breakdowns (in penultimate episodes), Team Flash has the greatest chance to win.
• All of Barry's choices while he operates solely on logic are the right ones, which he would have ignored if influenced by his emotions; a callback to all the times he's given his enemies the lead by letting compassion get the better of him and set him back at the cost of more lives before victory. He acted in a similar manner to Clifford DeVoe after gaining enhanced intelligence. It is worth noting that in that state, Clifford DeVoe also displayed a similar weakness of not being able to predict emotion; though Barry simply ignores emotion, while DeVoe lost all concept of it.
  • Barry's behavior while affected by the artificial Speed Force's side-effect, caring only about the best results with no regard for the well-being of his friends, is similar to Brainy's emotionless state after rebooting upon being tortured by the Children of Liberty in the Supergirl season 4 episode "Red Dawn".
• Frost becomes the second non-speedster to use one of the Velocity serums, Velocity X. The first non-speedster to use one of the serums was Trajectory.
• The injury Frost suffers from Eva in this episode ends up benefiting her in an unexpected way at the end of "Central City Strong".