‘The Flash’ Said an Emotional Goodbye to Several Main Characters in the Season 7 Premiere

Spoilers for The Flash Season 7 premiere “All’s Wells That Ends Wells” past this point.

If you thought The Flash was going to ease into the new season without a bunch of twists and turns and massive changes? Well you thought wrong, my friend. Like most of The CW’s lineup, before The Flash can move into Season 7 proper, it needs to wrap up the final few episodes left over from the stellar Season 6, which was cut short because of COVID… Meaning this week’s episode is the ramp up to the “end,” not a new beginning. And along with that ramp up came the end of not just “Nash” Wells (Tom Cavanagh), but every iteration of the character Cavanagh has played over the course of seven seasons.

Before you get too worried: no, Tom Cavanagh is not leaving The Flash. Though Wells and all his multiversal doubles seem to be gone for good after the events of “All’s Wells That Ends Wells,” a representative for The CW confirmed to Decider that we will see Cavanagh on the show again, though declined to clarify which form Cavanagh might be taking. (My money is on the villainous Eobard Thawne, who wears Cavanagh’s face but isn’t technically a Wells from any universe).

But even with Cavanagh not saying goodbye for good, the episode still worked as a fitting tribute to six plus seasons of storytelling. In the hour, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) barely has any speed left, spending most of his time in a cryogenic chamber in order to preserve what little of the speed force is left as he tries to track down the evil Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor). The solution? An artificial speed force that Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight) has been working on with Nash.

They all realize pretty quickly that the way to power the artificial speed force is with the multiversal energy Nash Wells got infused with after last season’s Crisis on Infinite Earths event. What they don’t know is that Nash is still able to see all the different versions of Wells from throughout the multiverse — including a new actor character named, what else, Orson Welles — and not only that, it needs an organic anchor to hold the energy. That organic anchor has to be Nash Wells.

This leads to a fun sequence where Wells, neglecting to mention the whole organic anchor thing, causes Allegra (Kayla Compton) to accidentally redirect all the Wells inside Barry. That means Gustin gets to do several extremely terrible, but also extremely hilarious Tom Cavanagh impressions, before Nash confesses that he knows he needs to sacrifice himself to save Barry’s life.

On take two, it works, and Nash restores Barry’s speed through the artificial speed force, as well as reintegrating all the various Wells into his own body (not in that order). As the Wells are wiped out of existence and shoved into the artificial speed force, we get a much more poignant, far more emotional take on the characters than the goofy one Gustin did. The goodbyes go in reverse order, and it’s a bittersweet reminder of how all the Wells have been an anchor of their own for Barry, and The Flash as a whole. Gone are conflicted explorer Nash Wells, detective Sherloque Wells, beatnik goofball H.R. Wells, and finally the grim but focused Harry Wells. we don’t get to see Season 1’s Harrison Wells, because again that was actually Eobard Thawne in disguise.

But we do get that final reminder of what Wells has meant to Barry, a final speech about the enduring legacy of The Flash, and of course, one final, “Run, Barry, run.”

Given Team Flash is changing dramatically this season, something that Barry addresses to Chester and Allegra in the aftermath of Wells’s sacrifice, it’ll be interesting to see how they deal without Cavanagh’s charmingly goofy presence on a regular basis. Perhaps there is another Wells out there — after all, despite what the heroes think, there is still a multiverse thanks to fellow DC TV shows Stargirl, Doom Patrol, Titans and others.

Chances are, though, that Cavanagh will pop up in yet another iteration (or perhaps a previous one) in a new and surprising way. It’s a new day for Team Flash, and they’ll be facing some of their toughest challenges yet without a Wells by their side. But at least, thanks to his sacrifice, Barry can run.

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

Where to watch The Flash