Except he specifically said Barry Allen, and that discovering that identity was the key to all of this. Theory I have is the explosion from the paper is Flash going ahead in time by however many years.
Also I was surprised by the episode. I perhaps shouldn't be-- it was the obvious solution in hind sight, and I'm sure some folks saw it coming. I just got caught up in the narrative enough to enjoy it as it came instead of puzzling out how he gets out of the everything. I heartily enjoyed it, and felt they brought a ton of loose ends to a satisfying close throughout the season.