‘The Flash’ Introduces Season 6’s Harrison ‘Nash’ Wells (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 6, Episode 3 of The Flash, “Dead Man Running.”]
A new season of The Flash means a new Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh).
Nash makes his debut in “Dead Man Running,” in a couple of scenes that show he is definitely one who “lives of life of intrigue and sensuality,” as Cavanagh previously told TV Insider.
Iris (Candice Patton) is the first one to learn of the most recent version to arrive on Earth-1, through her intern Allegra. Iris quickly scoops the story up from the newest addition to her staff (but must deal with keeping the secret of the multiverse and the various versions of Harrison Wells from Allegra and keeping her around later).
Iris recruits Cisco (Carlos Valdes) to help her track down the doppelgänger, and he arrives on scene via zip line. (Cisco’s “Indiana” nickname for this Wells is quite appropriate. Nash is probably the most action-oriented Wells we’ve ever seen, at least for an extended period of time and not just on the Council.) But this Wells isn’t interested in making friends, choosing instead to grab Cisco by the throat and pin him against the side of a building as he demands why they’re following him. “Oh, great, another angry one,” Cisco groans (as best he can).
Wells thinks they’re after the “priceless gem” in his hand and warns them “it gives nightmare hallucinations to all of its victims.” He follows the beeping of the device on his wrist to Iris, and when he’s distracted as she introduces herself, she tases him.
(The CW)
After Dr. Harrison “Nash” Wells (as it says on his techno fanny pack) wakes, Iris explains they’re friends of the Council of Wells. “Oh, those idiots,” Nash says. Iris and Cisco stop him when he tries to scan Iris again, and he explains he’s searching for an artifact that contains the same particles — of eternium, a multiversal element — he’s reading off her. However, he notes, the readings were stronger in the alley.
“Listen, Indiana, I don’t know how they do things on your Earth, but this ain’t Temple of Doom,” Cisco tells him. “And what is eternium supposed to be? Some kind of stolen mystical element from the tiki gods you suddenly have to return?” Those things may not exist, but Nash assures them that metahumans, aliens, and false gods worshipped by simple-minded people that find comfort in myths do. “I dispel those myths,” he says.
Cisco tries to stop him from leaving, even tells him how they get off to a rocky start but eventually bond, but Nash makes his escape using a kind of smoke grenade. The team probably shouldn’t expect things to go like they have in the past with Cavanagh’s characters.
Then, in the final scene of the episode, Nash returns to the alley where Iris and Cisco found him and opens the manhole cover, looking down. “It’s here,” he says.
What do you think of the latest Harrison Wells?
The Flash, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW
