Why Did ‘The Flash’ Reveal The Thinker’s Identity In Season 4 Premiere?

“The Flash” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed that introducing the identity of The Thinker (Neil Sandilands) in the Season 4 premiere was a deliberate choice they made while structuring the new season.

In an interview with TV Guide, Kreisberg said that there are two reasons why they decided to unveil this year’s big bad at the beginning of the season of the CW series. The first reason is that they didn’t want to employ the same narrative structure they used in previous seasons. Kreisberg admitted that they had already used the trope of a mysterious villain that turns out to be someone the team knew all along with the Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh) in Season 1, Zoom (Teddy Sears) in Season 2, and then Savitar (Grant Gustin) in Season 3, so they decided to mix things up this season.

The second reason is that they wanted to slightly course correct after Savitar’s long game failed to create an impact last season.

“It’s a constant problem for these kinds of shows about how much you reveal and how much do you hide the bad guy?" Kreisberg told the news outlet. “One thing I think we might have done last season, we might have done a disservice to ourselves last season because we knew who Savitar was at the beginning, and I think we waited too long to reveal it to the audience, and then we lost what I think could have been some valuable real estate exploring that.”

“This season we just wanted to be cards up and reveal here’s the bad guy at the end of episode 1, and they’re going to get on him fast,” Kreisberg continued. “This season we really worked on having a plan where trying to figure out who the villain wasn’t what the issue was. The issue was, we know who he is, but how do we stop him?”

Kreisberg’s fellow executive producer Todd Helbing pointed out that The Thinker, aka Clifford DeVoe, is the smartest man in the world, so taking a trial-and-error approach against him won’t work. “This guy is the smartest guy in the world. You can’t just be like, ‘Oh let’s try this and see if it works,’” Helbing told the news outlet.

But before Barry (Gustin) and the rest of Team Flash can come up with a plan to take down The Thinker, they should first find out why the villain is doing what he’s doing. Without revealing The Thinker’s ultimate objective, Kreisberg teased to TV Insider last September that DeVoe “has a need” for The Flash.

Helbing also told TVLine that The Thinker is motivated by something personal that he experienced rather than a desire for world domination.

“The Flash” Season 4 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.