The Flash: The Thinker's true plans revealed

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from the fall finale of The Flash. Read at your own risk!

The next step in DeVoe’s master plan came to light during The Flash‘s fall finale — and Barry paid the ultimate price for it.

After being abducted by DeVoe, a.k.a. The Thinker (Neil Sandilands), Barry (Grant Gustin) was able to foil his plans and escape. Or so he thought. The Thinker had actually downloaded his consciousness into telepathic meta Dominic (Kendrick Sampson), who had just been saved by Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker). Hence, The Thinker has infiltrated Team Flash.

To top it all off, earlier in the hour, viewers saw newlyweds Barry and Iris (Candice Patton) unwrap a mysterious knife set that was missing one piece. Well, The Thinker used that missing knife to stab DeVoe’s body, alerting the police and effectively framing Barry for murder.

While Barry is heading for prison — and a trial, per the promo for the winter return — The Thinker’s ultimate plans remain to be seen. Dominic simply mentioned bringing about “The Enlightenment,” whatever that means.

The upcoming story line is likely a nod to the 24-issue comic book story arc The Trial of the Flash, in which Barry was put on trial for killing Reverse-Flash after his arch nemesis attempted to slay Barry’s second wife — Reverse-Flash had already killed his first, Iris West.

The show adapting Trial has been a possibility for a while. Not only did Barry once spot himself in a prison jumpsuit while running through time, but the season 4 premiere dropped another major clue via Barry’s jumbled speech after coming out of the Speed Force. “Your Honor, I’m innocent, I didn’t do this, I didn’t kill anyone” now makes a lot more sense in hindsight.

The Flash returns Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.