Like how the heck Reverse-Flash is back when Eddie died last year

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The Reverse-Flash is back, and with him, a whole new set of questions — “How?!” being the main one. As Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) prepares to face the man that not only killed his mother, but also turned him into the man he is today, EW turned to executive producer Andrew Kreisberg to get some answers to The Flash fans’ burning questions:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How different is the dynamic between Barry and this Reverse-Flash (Matt Letscher) since he’s from an earlier timeline?

ANDREW KREISBERG: What’s interesting about it is this Thawne hasn’t experienced last season yet, and Barry has. On Barry’s side, there’s a lot stronger feelings — a lot more anger, a lot more betrayal, and in some cases, that’s blinding Barry to what he needs to do. It’s really an episode about Barry coming to terms with what he wants to do and what he should do regarding this version of Thawne. There are some great surprises and some character interactions between this Thawne and all of our characters. Again, they all have the benefit of having enjoyed last season and he hasn’t.

Without making my head hurt, are you going to explain how the Reverse-Flash is back given Eddie’s (Rick Cosnett) death?

Yup. [Laughs]

When Barry ran through the time stream last year, he saw himself in jail. Will that be addressed this season?

Not this season. There’s a very famous comic book, “The Trial of The Flash,” where Barry was arrested for murder. We wanted all of those little future things to have a little nod to the comics, which is why we saw The Flash museum and why we did that little bit. It wasn’t something that was consciously have planned, per se, but it was a fun way to honor the comic book. While it always goes through our filter, we do tend to take a lot of stories and ideas from the comics, and that was a way to honor the comics.

How is Barry handling losing Patty (Shantel VanSanten), and could this open up his eyes back up to Iris (Candice Patton) again?

That could definitely happen. Right now, he’s reeling a little bit. Zoom is the splinter in his foot; it’s the thing that’s out there and ruining everything for him. What’s really going to happen after Patty’s last episode, which is this week, is it’s really this need to get Zoom. Barry is still haunted by that video message that Wells [Tom Cavanagh] left, which said he’s never going to be happy. Now that he’s lost Patty, he’s decided that stopping Zoom is the only way he’s ever really going to be happy and disprove Wells/Thawne’s hypothesis.

What can you tease about the identity of Zoom and when we might learn more about him?

We’ve never played this card down on a villain before, which is neat and interesting to us. As the season progresses, more will be revealed. We obviously don’t want to give too much away, because we’ve made his identity a mystery that’s part of the ongoing storyline. We’re really jazzed about the storytelling choices that we’ve made this season. So far, the audience has gone with them, and we hope they’ll continue to do so.

Is Zoom a familiar face we already know?

Like I said, we’d like to keep the mystery alive.

What’s next for Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) journey as Vibe?

He’s going to have some interesting experiences on Earth-2. He’s going to be starting to embrace his power a little bit more. At the beginning of the season, he was quite terrified of what it meant. We’re now slowly transitioning into him not being quite as scared as he used to be and really seeing the value of doing what he can do. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said to Luke Skywalker, he’s ready to take the first step into a larger world.

How far will Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) go to help Jay (Teddy Sears) get his powers back?

When she lost Ronnie [Robbie Amell] both times, he was literally snatched out of her life in an instant, and there was nothing that she could do but watch Ronnie sacrifice himself. But this time it’s really different. She’s really come to care about Jay and he’s slowly dying. The thing that can save him happens to be her specialty, biochemistry. She’s determined not to let what happened to Ronnie happen again. She’s hell-bent [on figuring] out a way to save him. It gives Caitlin a real drive for the back half of the season, to have this problem in front of her and to really want to work to solve it.

Given that the Arrow flash-forward maintains that Barry missed the funeral because of Zoom, should we expect the ultimate showdown between the speedsters at the end of the season?

I don’t know. We haven’t figured out all of that stuff yet. We’re still working out the back half of the season.

Will we see Barry learn any new speed tricks this season?

The Lightning Throw was his big new one for this year. The Flash can do a lot of amazing things, but like David Nutter, who directed the pilot, always said, “You want to make sure he doesn’t get too good at his powers too quickly, because then he becomes unstoppable, and it gets harder and harder for us to devise ways for him to be in trouble.” I think the Lightning Throw is going to get a couple more outings.

We know Harry is working with Zoom, but is there any chance that he killed the Turtle in service of helping Barry? Or is the risk of losing his daughter just too great?

How that plays out is going to be part of the fun of the season. I want to leave as much mystery to that as possible. What’s been so interesting about this iteration of Harrison Wells, and the truly amazing way that Tom has been portraying him, is you’re never quite sure where you stand. Essentially, at his heart, this is a decent man who has been put in an impossible situation. Last season, he was an indecent man who had been put in an impossible situation. In some cases, him working cross purposes with our team is familiar to last season, but it’s such a different person and it’s coming from such a different place. How it ultimately plays out — whether Wells ultimately decides to follow through with Zoom or whether he switches his allegiances again — is part of the enjoyment of watching the show.

Any word on a potential crossover with Supergirl?

No. We’re making Flash, and we’re making Supergirl.

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