WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Flash Season 7, Episode 18, "Heart of the Matter, Part 2," which aired Tuesday on The CW.
The Season 7 finale of The Flash wrapped up the Godspeed story arc while once again featuring the return of the Reverse-Flash. Despite seemingly dying time and time again, the Flash's nemesis keeps coming back to menace the Arrowverse's heroes. Whether it be through time travel or multiversal shenanigans, it seems Eobard Thawne will always be around to fight the Scarlet Speedster and his friends. And with that being the case, let's take a look at all the times that the Reverse-Flash has escaped his demise throughout the Arrowverse.
The Reverse-Flash's first brush with death occurred in "Fast Enough," the Season 1 finale of The Flash. All throughout the season, the villain had been training Barry Allen up to increase his speed, with his ultimate goal being to use the hero's Speed Force connection to return to his own time. But right as Eobard is on the cusp of victory, his ancestor Eddie Thawne shoots himself, creating a paradox that causes Eobard to be erased from existence.
Eobard remains dead until the end of the second season when Barry travels back in time to prevent the villain from killing his mother. He then locks up the villain and goes to live in the new timeline he’s created, which Thawne refers to as Flashpoint. Barry is eventually forced to let Reverse-Flash go and allow him to kill his mother in order to fix the timeline.
After killing Barry’s mother again, the Reverse-Flash’s time remnant finds himself pursued by the Black Flash. In order to rid himself of the demonic speedster, Thawne seeks out the Spear of Destiny, which has the power to rewrite reality, and puts together the Legion of Doom to aid him.
Despite the villainous team's best efforts, the Black Flash eventually catches up with Eobard in Legends of Tomorrow’s Season 2 finale, “Aruba." During his final showdown with the Legends, the villain is caught off-guard by the Black Flash’s arrival and attempts to escape, but the spectral speedster catches Thawne and phases his hand through his chest, erasing him from existence. Unfortunately, not even this is enough to kill the Reverse-Flash, as he reappears in the Crisis on Earth-X crossover, with no explanation given for his return apart from time travel wackiness.
By the time of Season 5 of The Flash, Eobard has traveled to 2034 and been locked up in Iron Heights Prison, where Cicada’s dagger is being used to keep him de-powered. He is scheduled for execution, with a clock next to his cell counting down his days, and in his attempt to avoid this, Thawne makes contact with Barry’s daughter Nora and has her travel back in time to help her father fight Cicada.
Thawne’s plan succeeds at the last minute when Team Flash defeating Cicada in the past causes the dagger to vanish in the future right as Reverse-Flash is about to be executed. The evil speedster regains his powers and battles Barry, Nora and the rest of Team Flash before escaping once again. Sadly, as a result of Thawne's machinations, Nora is erased from existence.
Despite his promise to see Barry “in [their] next crisis," Reverse-Flash is completely absent from the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover. However, at the end of the third episode, the Anti-Monitor succeeds in destroying the multiverse and nearly everyone in it, including Eobard.
The surviving Paragons manage to band together and travel to the dawn of time, where they battle the Anti-Monitor’s forces while the Spectre restores the multiverse, bringing everyone who died back to life. In the wake of this event, Reverse-Flash is resurrected as negative tachyons and ends up in the mind of Harrison Nash Wells, along with all of Wells' other doppelgangers.
Eobard makes his grand return in The Flash’s Season 6 episode “Death of the Speed Force," in which he takes over Nash Wells’ body and locks him away in his own mind. The evil speedster is locked in the Pipeline but escapes in the following episode, “The Exorcism of Nash Wells, and attempts to return to his own time using a Time Sphere, only to be incapacitated by Barry and Cisco.
Barry and Cisco are then transported into Nash’s mind by Cecile, and with their help, he manages to overcome Reverse-Flash’s influence. Thawne is ejected from Nash’s mind, once again reduced to negative tachyons, and he remains trapped in this form until Season 7’s “Heart of the Matter, Part 2" when Barry is forced to restore Eobard’s physical body so he will help Team Flash defeat Godspeed. After the climactic battle, Reverse-Flash speeds off, vowing to learn how to become faster and defeat the Flash once and for all.
The Flash Season 8 is scheduled to premiere on Nov. 16 on The CW.
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