Who Really Is the Man Underneath That Yellow Hood? The Flash's Reverse Flash Speaks!

Spoiler alert! Who's the real Reverse Flash?

By Sydney Bucksbaum Apr 01, 2015 1:00 AMTags
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For most of tonight's episode, we thought The Flash was playing a trick on us.

The very first scene of "Tricksters" blew our mind in the most confusing way possible. We finally got to see what happened the night Barry's (Grant Gustin) mother was murdered in slow motion, meaning we were treated to one of the coolest fight scenes between the Flash and the Reverse Flash as they kicked and punched and raced each other around Nora Allen (Michelle Harrison). But when the Reverse Flash ran out of the house, his powers gave out, and he pulled off his mask to reveal...not Tom Cavanagh?!

Warning: major spoilers below! Avert your eyes now if you have yet to see tonight's epic episode of The Flash, "Tricksters!"

CW

Nope, the man wearing the yellow mask on that fateful night 15 years ago was actually Scandal's big bad and The Carrie Diaries sweet dad Matt Letscher!

Of course, by the time the hour was up, we learned that Letscher is the real face of Eobard Thawne, and after he got stuck in the past, he used future tech called genetic camouflage to copy Harrison Wells' (Cavanagh) DNA, stealing his body and his life for the next 15 years. The real Wells was killed in the process.

This twist was so huge we had to get Letscher on the line to talk all things Eobard, Wells and the Reverse Flash! Check out our full Q&A with the new villain below:

E! News: That moment when you took off the Reverse Flash mask and it wasn't Tom under there, but it was actually you, that completely blew my mind.
Matt Letscher: [Laughs] Oh good! We're hoping to blow some minds across the world tonight so I'm glad it worked on you.

CW

How hard was it keeping your role on The Flash a secret, especially since any hint would have ruined the biggest surprise on the show so far?
I took it pretty seriously. [Executive producer] Andrew [Kreisberg] called and said, "We want you to do this but you can't tell anybody." My kids are huge Flash fans so I kind of had to tell them, but those are the only people I told! The hard part was making sure that they didn't tell anybody. But they were really good at keeping that secret.

So the showrunners reached out to you, not the other way around?
Yeah, I had worked with Greg [Berlanti] and Andrew before on Eli Stone and I loved it. They had the idea and reached out to me. They didn't have to do much to sell me on it. I understood who he was and how it affected everything that's been happening this entire season leading up to it. I was like, "I got to do this, this is just too juicy." And I love the approach Greg brings to this kind of superhero/metahuman construct. He focuses equally on both the fantastical elements and the very real, emotional life. They may be metahumans but they're still humans before everything else. So I knew this would add dimension to Wells and what Tom Cavanagh has been doing the entire season so well and I definitely wanted to be a part of it.

CW

Did Tom help coach you on how to play Eobard before you got on set?
No, we didn't plan it out. Tom knew exactly what he's been doing from the beginning of the season, and I hadn't been cast yet. When I got the job, I definitely rewatched some episodes. And I already had been watching the show so I knew what he was doing. Without trying to mimic him completely, which is impossible, I tried to take certain tonal elements of what he'd been doing throughout the season and incorporate it into what I was doing. In that sense I definitely learned a lot from Tom.

Andrew told me that tonight's episode won't be the last we see of you on the show. What can you tease about when you're going to return?
[Laughs] I can tease that I am going to return and that's about all I can tease! I'm still in super-secret lockdown when it comes to information about what's going to happen in the future but I will be back! For sure.

This season?
Yeah, I'll definitely be back this season, and hopefully for about 10 or 12 years beyond that. [Laughs.]

CW

And on that note, are you hoping that Eobard is going to want to look like his real self again, giving you a more permanent role on the show?
Yeah, of course! Working on this show has been a dream. I would not mind sticking around, but we'll see! We'll see how the story plays out.

What are you most excited for fans to see from you in the future on the show?
I'm most excited to see how this affects the journey of Harrison Wells, what it does for Tom and where this takes him next. I think it's going to be pretty cool. I think it's going to take that character on a whole other leg of his journey that none of us saw coming. I'm really curious to see where that goes.

What's been your favorite part about playing Eobard so far?
Wearing the suit is very exciting. It's always special anytime you get to wear a metahuman suit. It's a great Hollywood moment you'll always treasure. And I always love playing characters whose motivations are somewhat murky.

Cate Cameron/The CW

You're cultivating quite a career for yourself playing characters with murky motivations. Off the top of my head you've got The Flash, Scandal, The Mask of Zorro…what is it that attracts you to these nefarious roles?
Oh boy, this is one of the great questions of philosophy. I think there is a darkness in all of us, and these kinds of roles, you're allowed to act completely without caring about other people. You can act out your desires, your thoughts, you can do it and there are no repercussions for you morally or personally. It allows you to unleash whatever that beast inside that people more or less have. Beyond that, it's always fun to play the villain! But it's funny you say that, because I'm sure other people will say, when I take the mask off, "There's Carrie Bradshaw's dad! What's he doing there?" Depending on what your demographic is, you might have distinctly different responses to me playing Eobard Thawne.

Watch the new, minute-long super-teaser trailer for the rest of the season above now! And be sure to check back after the West Coast airing for more scoop from the showrunners on what's coming next!

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.