The love story between Barry and Iris was a long time coming. It was even hinted at as early as season 1 of The Flash. They’ve been through so much in the past few years, but could the upcoming seventh season hint at the return of a certain someone that died so they could be together? More importantly, could this person be Cobalt Blue?
Barry Allen and Iris West are one of DC Comics’ most iconic couples outside of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. They started out engaged before later marrying. They had twins, Don and Dawn Allen, who would inherit their father’s metahuman abilities. However, there was a relative that not even The Flash himself knew existed. Who was this individual? A long-lost twin brother going by the name of Malcolm Thawne aka Cobalt Blue.
The CW series, The Flash puts a spin on Barry and Iris’ relationship from the beginning where they begin as childhood friends. They later become foster siblings after Nora Allen is murdered. Henry Allen is framed for his wife’s murder leaving their son to be raised by Joe, Iris’ meant-to-be widowed father.
Barry always had a crush on Iris, but was unable to vocalise it until they were both adults. The pair were to be married in a proper wedding ceremony, except it was attacked by Nazi invaders. After the threat subsided, they wed with their friends Oliver and Felicity in a double wedding officiated by John Diggle.
However, the WestAllen marriage hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. If the synopsis for season 7 is anything to go by, they’re in for unresolved issues with what comes next.
Synopsis For Season 7 And A New Threat
The synopsis for the upcoming – and delayed – season 7 is as followed according to Comic Book:
“Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) lived a normal life as a perpetually tardy C.S.I. in the Central City Police Department. Barry’s life changed forever when the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded, creating a dark-matter lightning storm that struck Barry, bestowing him with superspeed and making him the fastest man alive — The Flash. After a thrilling cliffhanger last season which saw the new Mirror Master (Efrat Dor) victorious and still-at-large in Central City, The Flash must regroup in order to stop her and find a way to make contact with his missing wife, Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton).
With help from the rest of Team Flash, which includes superheroes Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes), Ralph Dibny (Hartley Sawyer), and Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh), as well as the Flash’s adoptive father Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), Meta-Attorney Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet), tough cub reporter Allegra Garcia (Kayla Compton) and brilliant tech-nerd Chester P. Runk (Brandon McKnight)…Flash will ultimately defeat Mirror Master. But in doing so, he’ll also unleash an even more powerful and devastating threat on Central City: one that threatens to tear his team—and his marriage—apart.”
The synopsis reveals something that we’ve wanted to see for a while, but we never thought we’d get. We know Eva’s story has to end for the next threat to happen. However, the adversary that Team Flash – but more specifically Barry and Iris – will have to face will be someone more personal.
If fans are right, the threat after Mirror Mistress will be the return of Eddie Thawne, Iris’ late fiancée who will probably be Cobalt Blue. Please bear in mind that this is simply a theory.
Note
The synopsis for Season 7 was released before Hartley Sawyer was fired.
DC Comics History Lesson: Who Is Cobalt Blue?
[Please note this version of Malcolm Thawne/Cobalt Blue comes from the New Earth continuity of DC Comics]
DC Comics introduces Cobalt Blue as the long-lost twin brother of Barry Allen.
Nora Allen had been pregnant with twin boys and the night they were born, another baby was born to the Thawnes. The doctor who delivered the child had been drunk and had sent the nurse home. The Thawne child had been strangled by the umbilical cord and died. Realising his mistake of not being able to save him, the doc took the second Allen child and handed him to the other couple.
Nora and Henry were told that one twin had been stillborn. They raised the ‘surviving’ child as Barry while the Thawnes raised the thought-to-be dead Allen baby as Malcolm.
Malcolm was raised by con artists who had an ability that involved a blue flame to heal people. They ran a scam where they used petroleum jelly dyed blue and passed it off as a healing remedy. Every member of the family had this ability to heal except for the adopted Thawne.
After a series of arguments with his parents, Malcolm learns the reason he can’t be taught to use the family ability. He is not biologically theirs. He tracks down the doctor that delivered him and the situation is explained. This is a bad move on the doc’s part as the adopted Thawne kills him.
Malcolm starts a life of crime and finally gathers the strength to confront Barry. Envious of his brother’s life, Thawne gets a job as a janitor at CCPD to spy on him and witnesses the incident that gives Allen super speed.
After learning more about the blue flame from his adoptive grandmother, Malcolm feeds his hatred for Barry into a talisman that allows him to steal the speed of speedsters. This leads him to become Cobalt Blue.
Was Eddie Thawne Set Up To Become Cobalt Blue From The Start?
During The Flash season 1, Eddie serves as a romantic rival to Barry who is the ancestor of Eobard Thawne. Despite being an ‘original’ character, he did harbour some resentment towards Iris’ foster brother given the close bond they shared.
Not to mention, he was deemed a pretty boy by Joe who was his detective partner. During the months Barry is in a coma, Eddie starts dating Iris who covers up her relationship once the CSI wakes up. However, the romantic entanglement between the budding journalist and the detective didn’t stay quiet for long.
As time went on, Eddie became suspicious of Barry and saw the Flash as a menace to Central City. However, he later learns that his rival and his girlfriend were always destined to be together which causes friction with Iris. Though, it did force her to realise that she had feelings for Barry.
Eddie commits suicide to stop his descendant Eobard which later proves futile as the evil speedster keeps coming back.
If Eddie is coming back, does this mean he was always set up to become Cobalt Blue? The short answer is perhaps it is merely coincidental and he was created to stop Reverse Flash.
The long answer to that would seem to have been met with no definitive solution. Why? Well, we don’t know if this was ever intended as the first season was so long ago. If he had been intended to be Cobalt Blue, why did the writers wait so long for this to happen? Many of the writers who worked on Season 1 are likely no longer with the show.
Iris’ Unresolved Feelings
Iris might’ve married Barry, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t have unresolved feelings for Eddie. After all, they were engaged at the time he died. Also, she spent an entire season mourning his death. During this time, she considered where her relationship with her foster brother would take her if she chose to pursue it.
However, given time has passed since Eddie’s death, Iris married Barry as predicted. Though, this will put her in an awkward position if her ex were to come back from the dead. She’s loyal to her husband, but she had a fierce loyalty to both the men who were after her heart.
Eddie wasn’t an idiot. He knew how Iris felt about Barry from the beginning and he thought her feelings for him [Barry] would disappear. They are going to be revisiting the Eddie/Iris/Barry love triangle, but there’s more baggage given WestAllen’s marriage.
Barry To Become Jealous?
Let’s say Eddie does come back. Will Barry become jealous, knowing that his wife still has feelings for her late fiancé? It’s hard to say given that Thawne basically sacrificed himself for Team Flash. He did a lot of good things in the end, but his relationship with Barry was always touch and go.
If there’s flirting between Iris and Eddie, it will be a massive issue especially since the journalist is very much taken. Also, it’s bound to rub Joe up the wrong way given how long it took for his daughter and foster son to get together to begin with.
There will be a load of awkwardness for the OG Team Flash as they – much like Joe – know how much Iris and Barry fought to be together. They might not think anything will happen with Eddie, but they know Allen will do anything to protect his wife.
If push comes to shove, there might be a whole situation that is similar to the comics where Eddie spies on Barry and ends up jealous as he [Barry] got the life with Iris that he [Eddie] could’ve had if he hadn’t died.
Team Flash’s Reactions
If Eddie is returning as Cobalt Blue or as himself, it will probably be major déjà vu for Team Flash. Caitlin and Cisco will know about the history between the dead detective and their two very married leaders.
Though, Chester, Allegra, Frost (probably), Nash, Kamilla, Ralph (if he’s still on the show), and possibly Cecile won’t know about the history between Barry, Iris, and Eddie so it will need to be explained to them.
Joe will probably caution Barry and Iris to trend carefully given what happened pre-Crisis with Eddie. He will also know that his daughter grieved the man she was going to marry before Barry. He might think that she only married the fast man alive as a consolation prize since she couldn’t marry who she originally wanted. We also know he [Joe] struggled to accept that his partner could’ve been his future son-in-law.
Eddie Thawne: The Ultimate Evil?
If Eobard was able to come back from the dead, then so can Eddie. But will he be vengeful and think Barry stole his life? Possibly. While this is just speculation, we need to think of how many forces would want to tear WestAllen apart? There’s a load of enemies who would want Flash dead but not the woman who is his lightning rod.
There’s very few enemies of the Flash that know Barry Allen and his superhero ego are the same person. But Eddie, if he does return and is the villain, will know all his enemy’s secrets including his link to Iris. If this were to be exploited, it would turns heads in the way Barry handles the situation as the woman he loves and their family will be in danger from an all-too-familiar threat.
There’s so many ways Eddie could become evil but we think the whole ‘Barry stole my perfect life’ scenario would be fitting even if it has been done a million times before. Though, the situation would fit given how he felt about his rival having feelings for his girl.
