I like to think of "The Trap" as the dark mirror to the biggest events that sprang from "Out of Time." In particular, the climactic scene in the latter episode is the impetus for the titular trap that Team Flash set for Dr. Wells. As traumatic as it was that Wells/Eobard Thawne went "Kali Ma" on Cisco's heart, it was arguably the most powerful single scene in The Flash's inaugural season. So it was a very smart move for the writers to build this episode around that moment. The trap wasn't going to work, obviously, but that dysfunction is also a great springboard for some exciting potential future events. Just not into the far future, unless Barry suddenly develops the ability to move forward in time. 

That's how the episode kicks off, though. The teaser is an extension of the ending to "Who is Harrison Wells?", with Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry discovering the "time vault" with Gideon and the future headline that Barry vanishes in the future. The article is written by Barry's future wife, Iris West-Allen, and Barry also has a cushy job as director of the CCPD's CSI division. Oh, and he also happened to invent Gideon. If this timeline holds, the teaser is just a taste of what future storylines will populate the show. Like "Out of Time," the existence of multiple timelines does give rise to just about anything that the writers can come up with, whether it sticks to the comic book canon or diverges away from the source material.  

The fact that Barry finds out he will be married to Iris in the future conveniently impacts certain events in this episode. I acknowledge that Iris has long been a problem character for the series. While I don't share the outrageous level of vitriol for the character that other fans of the show do, the writers haven't done her any favors by being on the outside of knowing Barry's secret. This episode goes a long way (at least in terms of Iris) towards rectifying that fact by having her figure out the connection between the particle accelerator explosion and the rise of the meta-human activity in Central City on her own. She also makes a key connection from the past to the present regarding Barry that should hopefully pay off by the end of the season.




It still doesn't make any sense to keep her in the dark this late, but it's at least some progress. She is capable of being something besides the foil in a silly love triangle. Instead, the onus is actually on the men around Iris that are weaker than her. I stuck up for Joe in "Who is Harrison Wells?" when he stonewalled Eddie on making decisions for Iris' benefit. It felt like he was acting out of a sense of fatherly protection, but now, it has escalated into some disturbingly controlling behavior that doesn't paint him as such a good guy. Part of the Iris problem for the show is that she doesn't make decisions for herself. Her character is determined by the decisions of the major men in her life. His rationale for denying Eddie's marriage proposal makes a lot of sense, but it would be far less distasteful for, like her discovery of Barry's secret, Iris to find out that she doesn't fit with Detective Pretty Boy on her own.







Apart from that egregious error with Joe's character, he and Eddie are involved in far juicier plotlines in this episode. Joe and his memories prior to the start of the series give legitimacy for Team Flash to go ahead with the plan to trap Dr. Wells into admitting that he killed Nora Allen. The plan fails because, as Wells/Eobard tells our heroes, he is always one step ahead of all of them. He's likely suspected this since the reset of the timeline by Barry so all the pieces are in place for his endgame. He knows the future because he has likely seen it come to pass. How then does Barry fight an opponent who knows what's coming? Eddie must factor into this because eventually in time, Barry might have to choose to kill Eddie in order to eliminate Eobard and possibly save his mother along with the real Harrison Wells. 



That is, if Eobard is Eddie's direct descendant. If he's far off from his family line, he needn't likely worry too much about this simple solution to the complex season plot. Even if there wasn't the rush of successive reveals that made "Out of Time" work so well, this episode resets the board by setting Wells loose. He no longer has to keep his secret so tightly guarded, and his fount of knowledge makes him an incredibly dangerous opponent. Barry has lost a mentor, though Eobard still needs to develop the Flash's abilities in order to get back home. I would think that this isn't going to be resolved all too easily.