WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Love Is a Battlefield," the latest episode of The Flash.
Meet the new Iris West-Allen, who isn't at all like the old Iris West-Allen.
In "Love Is a Battlefield," the latest episode of The Flash, Barry almost didn't recognize his wife -- and for good reason. After all, when Iris was sucked into the mirror at McCullouch Tech last week, she never left it. As it turns out, someone else is walking around in her body.
Throughout the episode, "Iris" pulled stunts that took Barry for surprise. First, she made them delicious pancakes for breakfast, despite being a terrible cook. During their dinner date at an upscale restaurant, she spoke fluent Italian. Then, as they embarked on a mission to stop Amunet Black and her boyfriend Goldbelt from starting a gang war, she pulled risky moves, like breaking a bottle over a thug's head and striking out to stop the villains on her own.
Of course, "Iris" had excuses for her changed behavior. The pancakes were a result of her New Year's Resolution; the Italian was because of a story she wrote about Little Italy. She chalked up her overall attitude to the fact that she had to plan for a life without Barry leading up to "Crisis on Infinite Earths," claiming that the difficulties she experienced caused her to grow. That seemed plausible enough, as the excuse convinced both Barry and her father Joe.
However, at the end of the episode, "Iris" looked into a mirror for the first time, and her reflection looked none too happy. In fact, the real Iris stood on the other side, banging on the reflective surface that separated them. "Get away from him!" she screamed. "Barry! That's not me! She's not me!"
Though the episode never revealed the identity of the person possessing Iris' body, we have an educated guess. After all, McCullouch Tech shares a name with Evan McCullouch, the DC Comics character who became Mirror Master. Between that and Eva McCullouch's mysterious disappearance on the show, it certainly seems like Eva is the best candidate for the perpetrator behind The Flash's own version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Plus, Efrat Dor is slated to appear on the show as Eva sometime in the back half of Season 6.
Similarly, the episode didn't reveal how this false Iris knows so much about their lives, but there's an easy explanation for that. After all, Iris was able to watch her doppelganger hug her husband through the mirror in their apartment. If she was able to figure out how to jump between mirrors within hours of being trapped in the mirrorverse, her predecessor must certainly have been able to do the same. As a result, it's possible that the person possessing Iris' body has been watching them through reflective surfaces for months, if not years. That would give them special insight into not only their relationship, but their secrets as well -- and that could be dangerous for Team Flash moving forward.
Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/CT on The CW, The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Nicolet and Hartley Sawyer.