The Flash Season 5 Finale: What Does The Ending Really Mean?

8. The Origins Of Reverse-Flash's Master Plan Explained

For months, Eobard Thawne has both intrigued and confused us with his mysterious plan, as he has been seemingly helping Nora West-Allen save her father from the impending Crisis. Well, after Ralph helped us all figure out the truth (he was merely crafting his own escape by manipulating Nora into destroying Cicada's dagger), it was only a matter of time until it all became a reality.

Following on from Team Flash's defeat of Cicada, the superheroes showed up in 2049 in a bid to stop the freed Reverse-Flash and, although they managed to subdue and defeat him in battle, they weren't able to foresee the major changes to the timeline or how those changes would provide him with an opening to escape. However, before the villain sped off, he explained how his ingenious plan came to be.

Thawne didn't concoct his get-out-of-jail strategy when Nora came to see him in 2049, no, he had been planning it as early as 2015. How is that possible, you ask? Well, the answer is simple: Time travel.

According to him, it was the moment in which Nora and Barry showed up in the time-vault and revealed that they were trying to drain dark matter from Cicada (after they had travelled back to 2015 in the show's 100th episode) that truly set it all in motion. Thus, whenever he ended up with Cicada's dagger strapped to his chest, he was able to craft a plan using his knowledge of the timeline in order to get Nora West-Allen to trust him and inevitably de-power the dagger.

Things really did come full-circle, after all.