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Why Is Harrison So Worried About Barry?

All I know after watching Tuesday night's episode is that I never want to get on The Flash scientist Harrison Wells' bad side, whether or not Wells turns out to be a villain. The way he reamed Cisco for letting the cold gun get stolen made us all cringe in sympathy for him, and seemed to throw us even further than ever off the trail of figuring out exactly what exactly Wells wants. One second he's killing people without a moment's hesitation and the next he is claiming, "You know how I feel about weapons, they don't belong in S.T.A.R. labs." The only motivation that seems to have remained constant is that Wells is very committed to protecting Barry.

We still have very little inside information as to why he is concerned with Barry in particular, aside from the cryptic newspaper headline that tells of Barry's disappearance years in the future. But that headline also implies that The Flash has lived just fine up until that point, so why would Harrison be concerned with something happening to him now?

This adds more fuel to the fire of the idea that Harrison Wells has traveled back in time, because if he did, his mere presence in their time stream might have an effect on the sequence of events, which would give him some obligation to protect Barry from whatever he has disrupted. But the way he wants to protect Barry seems a lot more personal than just keeping The Flash alive, as if he was once close to Barry in some way. Could it be that he knows Barry in some other timeline? Or that maybe he is somehow related to Barry in a way that would make him fear for Barry's safety?

That is, of course, assuming that he isn't secretly a villain, and doesn't have some other selfish reason to keep Barry safe until the moment is just right. As usual, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Image: Cate Cameron/The CW