In The Man In The Yellow Suit (S01E09),
Kill Eddie? We've been shown that Wells is in fact Reverse-Flash in this continuity. So why wouldn't he kill Eddie instead of leaving him alone?
EDIT: Thanks for all the answers, but seeing as how the question was asked before we learned the true identity of Wells and it was answered by the episode itself, I'm only going to upvote answers that provided a theory or answer that made sense or correctly guessed what was going to happen.
What we do know is this:
In his Braille-lair, Dr. Wells has technology capable of seeing into the future. The future appears to be mutable with events in the present changing the outcomes of the future. We are not sure if they are prognostications/predictions or whether his access to the future is "realtime".
Wells admitted to being an accidental time traveler himself (as we suspected). We do know he is also a schemer, a liar, a manipulator and a murderer with hidden motives to everyone. His interest in metahumans, alive or dead, borders on the obsessive. He has admitted to not being able to return to the future unaided.
Wells gathers information on every metahuman they face and any one with talents he can utilize, he does, even scavenging from their corpses. He is almost never surprised by them. It's as if he almost expects them.
We now know Wells is the Reverse Flash, and using holographic technology (as well as the ability to manipulate a visual afterimage using his super-speed) he can appear at more than one place at one time. I suspect the Reverse-Flash has some form of temporal anomaly which is why he destabilized the force-field when he was captured.
Cisco's investigations into Well's behavior reveals a sophisticated hologram planted by Wells to create the subterfuge of the Reverse Flash attacking Star Labs in S1-E15.
The Reverse-Flash is, at the moment, faster than Barry Allen. He also still needs Barry for something, otherwise he would have killed him at the stadium. If we consider that both the Flash and the Reverse-Flash were present at Barry's mother's death, there will eventually be a moment where, using the tachyon emitter (or as supposed in S1E15 using raw super-speed), one or both will end up traveling in time.
It is clear the Reverse-Flash is not complete. He was gathering technology for a reason. Why gather tachyon-emitting technology when you are already the fastest man alive, unless you have no choice.
The Reverse-Flash has a surprising grasp of the personal relationship between Detective West and Iris. All it took to get him to back off was to threaten Iris. Not everyone has access to a supersuit and personal police information.
Ergo:
I believe the reason Reverse-Flash did not kill Eddie, is because he IS Eddie or as Wells admitted a distant ancestral relative. The Reverse-Flash killed or did an extreme takedown of everyone else in the room. Eddie? He disarms and ignores after a momentary stare. And Detective West? He hesitates to kill immediately using his super-speed. A moment of conscience, perhaps?
Consider:
Doctor Wells didn't appear to have the Flash's regenerative abilities, reminding us of the canon concept of the Reverse-Flash using technology to emulate the Flash's powers. It is now hinted that Wells does not need his suit to use his super-speed, a departure from the canon.
Wells has said repeatedly Barry has to survive to fulfill his destiny at the Crisis of the Red Skies (an event we know as Crisis on Infinite Earths from the canon comic series) so what is the Reverse-Flash but a way to gather resources and experiment with the technology.
Because Eddie is a distant relative of himself. Wells/Eobard is from 136 years in the future. His existence is dependent on Eddie having kids, and those kids having kids, etc. He didn't kill Eddie so as to ensure his own future existence.
There's several possibilities here the main reason surely has everything to do with who Eddie is...Eddie Thawne. Granted there have been multiple reverse-flashes but given what happened to Nora Allen I'm assuming we're talking about Zoom here and not Hunter Zoloman.
So who is Zoom? In the comics Zoom is Eobard Thawne a man born in the 25th century before coming back in time to our own. (Also at some point goes back slightly further to kill Nora Allen). Thawne is obviously descended from some other Thawne probably as far back as our own century and in the comics he does in one Malcolm Thawne
Barry's long lost twin brother who pretty much stalks him
So we have several possibilities
Eddie Thawne is a younger Eobard Thawne and therefore can't risk harming him.
Just hearing the Thawne last name might have been enough to say "lets not risk knocking off an ancestor of mine before he's had a chance to make more ancestor's of mine"
Possibilities 2 and 3 both say that Zoom could still be Wells either moving around really really fast so he appears in 2 places at once, at different points in their timelines or what we saw was a remote controlled Zoom controlled by Wells. Hell theoretically Eddie, Wells and Zoom could all be the same person at different points in their life(possibility 1).
Major Spoilers: As confirmed in S1E15 of The Flash ("Out of Time"), Harrison Wells is actually
Eobard Thawne, a traveler from the 22nd Century who has been trapped in our time since he accidentally killed Nora Allen 15 years ago. He has been helping Barry control his powers and get faster so that he can use The Flash's speed to return to his own time. He also indicated that Eddie Thawne is a distant relative.
Therefore, we now know that he did not kill Eddie because
killing Eddie would corrupt his own timeline, possibly even erasing him from existence altogether if it's a direct relationship.
UPDATE: This is confirmed again by Wells himself in S1E20 "The Trap". Wells then discusses the relationship further in S1E21 "Grodd Lives", while tormenting Eddie about his future.
It did not show who the Reverse Flash was. It did show a couple other important things though:
Reverse Flash beat up Dr. Wells. Later, when Dr. Wells is being examined by Caitlin, he is not rapidly healing like Barry.
Additionally, when Reverse Flash is "paused" in the force field, Dr. Wells makes it very clear who Eddie is:
Wells: Detective Thawne, would you like to read his Miranda rights?
He is identifying, to Reverse Flash, who is in the room and who is important. Reverse Flash could still be Eobard Thawne, possibly a descendant of Eddie. By killing Eddie, he'd never be born.
Wells still appears to have knowledge of the future, probably even helping Reverse Flash to shape the future. But, it has not revealed who is actually in the suit yet.
Could it be that the data base he has is one he brought with him in the future? And how things can change in the past like back to the future with the photo, so can the data. Maybe he got hurt and can't travel through time and is stuck. He can still move fast but with the device he stole it could have acted like an anti paradox machine. I think eddie is wells. Perhaps iris dumps eddie. He asked how if she felt love for Barry. So she ends up with Barry and in his twisted mind thinks I got to be physical like Barry to get her to love me. I got to get rid of Barry and to trick her into thinking I'm him. Wells is collecting data on Barry. He might have failed in the future in killing Barry and is waiting for the moment that he no longer is with iris and says to himself. Okay. This is how you kill him and get her back. Never mind this fake fiancé. We know wells isn't his real name. That be a cool twist.
Dr. Wells is
the Professor Zoom (aka. The Reverse Flash)
And Eddie Thawne is
Malcolm Thawne, father Of Eobard Thawne.
So if Wells (Zoom) killed Eddie (Malcolm), he wouldn't have been born.
