Poor Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett). Not too long ago, he had a great partnership at work on The Flash with Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), a great girl at home with Iris West (Candice Patton), and a budding friendship with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). Then, he found out about meta-humans, Barry’s secret identity as The Flash, and that Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) is not really Dr. Wells, but instead some distant relative from the future. Now, the once sensible Eddie is going to be approaching things a bit differently, if he makes it out of captivity alive.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, actor Rick Cosnett talked about how this latest experience, in the hands of Dr. Wells, has changed Eddie very deeply, that Eddie is very conflicted about everything, what his character’s advice for saving the city would be, just how hard he’s going to take learning that Barry and Iris are married in the future, that the season finale is an “epic episode” with a “big twist,” and that Season 2 is going to be crazy.

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Collider: What do you think it’s going to take for Eddie to actually break free of Dr. Wells?

RICK COSNETT: Well, I’ve been down there for awhile now, wherever the hell I am. I can actually tease that the gang are eventually going to find me, in some form. I just can’t say what, or that they rescue me. Let’s just say that he’s a very changed man. This whole thing has been a big thing in his life, as one would expect when you’re captured by a supervillain, and then you find out that you’re his descendent and that your girlfriend is going to marry your best friend. It sucks.

At this point, do you think Eddie wishes he could join Team Flash, in some way, or do you think he wishes he could just run as far away from Central City as possible?

COSNETT: I don’t know. He’s so conflicted. People have really felt very sorry for him lately, and they should. That’s a wonderful thing. He doesn’t know whether he actually does want to join Team Flash, as a human being who is very vulnerable and very mortal, or just run away from the whole big mess.


This next episode will see The Flash teaming up with Arrow again, but also with Firestorm and Captain Cold, who always seems to have his own agenda. And then, there’s Eddie, who’s nice and a good detective. How do you think he would advise Barry Allen to handle this entire situation, if Barry ever actually came to him for advice on what to do to save the world?

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Image via The CW

COSNETT: Why doesn’t anyone come to Eddie? Eddie seems to really have his head on his shoulders and make sensible decisions. He would probably be like, “Hey, guys, let’s just buy a warehouse in the middle of nowhere and start our own S.T.A.R. Labs?” God knows, Caitlin and Cisco are smart enough. They’re always ten steps ahead. They could start a more edgy, ghetto, outlaw superhero warehouse, and then come back to Central City and save everything. Caitlin and Cisco could be the brains, and Eddie could be the brawn. 

What should fans brace themselves for, in regard to the finale? How worried should they be that not everyone will make it out intact?

COSNETT: They should be worried. It’s going to be a pretty epic episode. So many things have happened this season. Obviously, we’re going to have to do something really spectacular. There’s a big twist. Apparently, it’s looking amazing. The episode is really gonna be huge. It was so fun to do. There are going to be a lot of changes. 

When you finally got to read the finale script and you found out where everything and everyone would ultimately end up for the season, what was your reaction to it all? Could you ever have seen it turning out the way that it did?

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COSNETT: No, I couldn’t have. It was, “Oh, my god!” Sometimes we steal the scripts from other departments that get them before us, and we have a quick flip through. This last one is going to be a winner.           

Could you immediately see where things might be headed for Season 2, or did you immediately have questions about what could possibly be coming next? 

COSNETT: We all have questions, a lot of the time. We have, since the beginning. We’ll be having dinner with the producers, and you’ll have a mouthful of quinoa, and then you’ll be like, “Wait, what?! Who?! What?!” That often happens. I don’t know what I’m allowed to tease about Season 2, but it’s gonna be crazy. And I just love that we’ve introduced Grodd now because he’s a definite fan favorite.


When you learned about the storyline with Dr. Wells really being somebody else, that he was also the Reverse Flash, and that he was related to Eddie, what was your reaction?

COSNETT: I loved it. I was really excited to work with Tom [Cavanagh]. I think he’s a great actor, and he’s really funny. We also hadn’t had a storyline together. I really find it thrilling for my character to be able to interact with other people in the story that he hasn’t seen before, and how they are going to react to him, and what their relationship is like, and all of that stuff. I was really looking forward to it, and it was really fun, working with Tom. We knew, quite early on, that we were going to be related, so we bonded. We both grew up in Africa, funnily enough. Your imagination starts coming into play, and I thought I started looking like Tom, for a second there. It’s such a wonderfully intricate plot, and I love the way that Tom has played it. It’s been really cool to see how he could be both Eobard and Wells, at the same time. It really feels cool. It’s an honor to be such a big part of the story, and to be on a show that so many people are interested in, and to work with such wonderful actors, like Jesse [L. Martin] and Grant [Gustin], and everyone. It’s really thrilling. I feel very lucky.

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Eddie got included in knowing about Barry Allen’s secret, a lot earlier than people might have expected him to. How is he dealing with knowing the truth? Does he think that what Barry does as The Flash is cool, or would he rather than Barry go back to being Barry?

COSNETT: I think, at first, he just couldn’t believe that he missed it. That’s been spinning in his mind, the whole time. He was like, “Hang on, wait, so this whole time?!” Now, there are just so many things happening that I don’t think it’s really even had a chance to settle itself in. It’s so wonderful because he’s so conflicted. On the one hand, he really likes Barry. He knows he’s a great guy, and he knows that he’s not really trying to take Iris from him. But at the same time, he also knows that we’re all just human beings. That’s what’s so great about Eddie. He really weighs things. As a person, he really makes well thought out, grounded choices, and he seems to have no bitterness. He makes decisions from a very centered place. He’s only human, but at the same time, he never really seems to judge people. That’s what I really like about him.


How do you think this knowledge of Barry and Iris being married in the future will really affect him? Has he even fully wrapped his head around that information?

COSNETT: That information drops really, really hard on him. Now, things change. Before, he made very careful decisions. Now, we’ll see Eddie settle into a totally different place within himself. This whole experience really changes him. His reactions to everyone, after this, are going to be very interesting to see.

The Flash airs on Tuesday nights on The CW.

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Image via The CW