Minor spoilers ahead for Episode 18 of The Flash Season 4.
The second half of The Flash Season 4 has seen The Thinker slowly picking off the remaining bus metas to absorb their powers. Up until this point, only one of the metas remained a mystery to Team Flash, and all they had was a name: Edwin Gauss. The next episode will finally introduce him in the flesh. We have a first look at Gauss in STAR Labs, and he's... well, he's not what we expected. Check him out!
Now, I'm not one to knock a man who loves his Pringles, even if they are the Arrow-verse brand name version of Pringles, but Edwin Gauss does not have the look of a man who understands the seriousness of his situation while hiding in the bowels of a lab to try and avoid a murderous supervillain. Ralph sitting next to him has a far more appropriate expression; Gauss has a smile so carefree that I have to imagine there are more than Pringles to it. He was described in the casting notice as a thirty-something hippie type of man.
In fact, if we were only going off of the casting notice, the Flash version of Gauss looks exactly what we should have expected. He was described as a guy who's more of a hippie than somebody who belongs on the superhero scene, and his life is turned upside down by developing powers after his time on the bus. What is unexpected about Gauss' look is that he doesn't appear at all like somebody who will become Folded Man.
In DC Comics lore, Folded Man (a.k.a. Edwin Gauss) was a renowned genius and youngest student ever to graduate from MIT. Driven by a quest to surpass Einstein, he designed a suit that enabled him to travel between dimensions and even into the second and fourth dimensions. He earned the name "Folded Man" due to his two-dimensional ability to fold himself completely flat, enabling him to see in any direction. Notably, the comics Folded Man can open portals between dimensions. This is what he looks like:
The knockoff Pringle-loving hippie (played on The Flash by Arturo del Puerto) doesn't look like the Folded Man we'd expect. The Flash may go in a different direction with Edwin Gauss/Folded Man than fans predicted. We'll have to wait and see. His powers could undoubtedly be an asset to Team Flash, but they could also motivate The Thinker to work his hardest to get his hands on him. For Gauss' sake, hopefully he hangs out down in the pipeline (with or without Ralph) until Team Flash manages to defeat The Thinker.
Tune in to The CW on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of The Flash. David Ramsey of Arrow is slated to appear before the end of the season, so be sure to watch to find out what Arrow's Diggle has to do in Central City. If you're still in the market for other series to watch, check out our midseason TV premiere schedule and our summer TV premiere guide.
