History Recap / TheFlash2014S5E22Legacy

* KarmaHoudini: Thawne, yet again, gets away with everything.

* BittersweetEnding: Cicada is gone and Grace is no longer her. Cisco gives up his powers, completely of his own volition (as he didn't want "Vibe" to be all he is remembered for), and is completely happy with it. But Nora is erased from existence and Thawne is once again free in the world. And it's ''confirmed'' that a flux in the timeline moved up the Crisis to 2019.

* GodzillaThreshold: {{Defied}} by Nora. She doesn't want to become corrupted by the Negative Speed Force, she'd rather die as herself.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: In Grace's mindscape she sees two Orlins. One is Cicada I and the other is her Uncle Orlin, who realized his mistakes.

** Ralph Dibny is holding a folder tagged Dearbon. Dearbon is the maiden name of Ralph Dibny's wife in the comics.

** Nora succesfully appeals to Young!Grace's inner goodness.

* BigDamnHeroes: Nora and Barry stop Thawne from killing the prison guards by turning back time to prevent it.

* CurbStompBattle: Thawne tries to take on all of Team Flash at once, and fails ''horribly''.

* TheDogBitesBack: Once Thawne is freed, he kills the sadistic guard that was torturing him for the past fifteen years. Until Nora and Barry stop it.

** Cisco finally tells Kamillia he's Vibe.

* ItsAllMyFault: Nora feels responsible for everything that's happened and intends to fix it after she learns she was nothing but Thawne's UnwittingPawn.

* WhamShot: TheStinger sees the future newspaper detailing Flash's disappearance be altered due to a time flux: the date changes from 2024 to 2019.

** Ralph Dibny is holding a folder tagged Dearbon. Dearbon is the surname of Ralph Dibny's wife in the comics.

* SequelHook: Thawne tells Barry he'll meet him again in the next "crisis"; TheStinger basically flat out clarifies his remark by having ''the'' Crisis be moved up to 2019.

** And the biggest reveal is how deep Thawne's manipulations went. As established, after ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', Eobard wound up in the year 2034, where he was captured and imprisoned. Fifteen years later, towards the end of his imprisonment and near his supposed execution, he struck an accord with Nora, who wanted to know more about her father, who had disappeared in 2024. In the course of these visits, Thawne taught Nora how to use her newly-discovered powers to travel back to see her dad as a young man, eventually helping him with stopping [=DeVoe's=] Enlightenment. However, that played right into Eobard's hands as it resulted in the creation of Cicada, having gotten the information about him from Nora at a later point in her timeline. With the vera dagger Cicada uses being the source of negating Thawne's powers, he ensured that the dagger would be destroyed in the past thus restoring his powers.

* SequelHook: Thawne tells he'll meet Barry again in the next "crisis"; TheStinger basically flat out clarifies his remark by having ''the'' Crisis be moved up to 2019.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Thawne was a dangerous BigBad in the first season due to being a speedster faster than Barry. But now when faced up against all of Team Flash with their powers and advanced weaponry and gadgets, he's no match and is very quickly defeated.
** Though in fairness he was up against the entire team which he hadn't actually done before. The trope is subverted when he was up against just Barry and Nora, as he outpaced them and even pulled a few tricks he hadn't done before such as his speed mirage acting completely independently and going in different directions, meaning Thawne would have to be going ultra fast even by speedster standards just to be going back and forth and still being ahead of Barry and Nora.

* RealityEnsues: Once Team Flash is assembled in front of him and they are fully prepared, Thawne didn't actually stand a chance. Their coordinated teamwork was enough to get the upper hand.

** though In fairness he was up against the entire team which he hadn't actually done before. The trope is subverted when he was up against just Barry and Nora, as he outpaced them and even pulled a few tricks he hadn't done before such as his speed mirage acting completely independently and going in different directions, meaning Thawne would have to be going ultra fast even by speedster standards just to be going back and forth and still being ahead of Barry and Nora.

* PutOnABus: Both Carlos Valdes and Jessica Parker Kennedy depart here.

* VideoWill: Nora leaves one in her Time Diary for her parents to find.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Future!Iris's shitness at being a parent and her lies to Nora meant that Nora went to Thawne, who taught her to go back in time. This led to the events of Season 5 happening and the dagger being destroyed and Thawne being freed. It ''also'' leads to Nora being erased due to the changed timeline. Iris's inability - or unwillingness - to be a "good" parent led to the loss of her daughter and (shortly after) her husband too.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Thawne knew that if Cicada's dagger was destroyed Nora would be rewritten, but as along as he lives that's all that matters.

* CombinationAttack: The Team Flash members use their techniques to attack Thawne.

* DisappearsIntoLight: Both Cicada II and Nora experience this when they are RetGone'd.

** Thawne also halfheartedly apologizes for the time he killed Cisco in an altered timeline. He mentions that Nora was a daughter in the same way he spoke about Cisco, saying that he taught her what was to have a daughter.

* NoSell: The cure doesn't work on present Grace because of the shrapnel in her head negates it... until the dagger's destroyed.

** And the biggest reveal is how deep Thawne's manipulations went. As established, after ''Series/CrisisOnEarthX'', Eobard wound up in the year 2034, where he was captured and imprisoned. Fifteen years later, towards the end of his imprisonment and near his supposed execution, he struck an accord with Nora, who wanted to know more about her father, who had disappeared in 2024. In the course of these visits, Thawne taught Nora how to use her newly-discovered powers to travel back to see her dad as a young man, eventually helping him with stopping DeVoe's Enlightenment. However, that played right into Eobard's hands as it resulted in the creation of Cicada, having gotten the information about him from Nora at a later point in her timeline. With the vera dagger Cicada uses being the source of negating Thawne's powers, he ensured that the dagger would be destroyed in the past thus restoring his powers.

* TheUnreveal: Although Caitlin and Killer Frost both approve of the costume Cisco made for them, what it looks like isn't shown to the audience.

* WhamShot: TheStinger sees newspaper detailing Flash's disappearance be altered due to a time flux: the date changes from 2024 to 2019.

* TimeyWimeyBall: Nora is erased from existence. Except afterwards Nora's journal continues to exist. Following the Series/LegendsOfTomorrow rules of time, this means the timeline has not yet been permanently set. Cue Seried/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019. Not to mention the SanDimasTime example above, which ''really'' strains how Thawne's plan even worked if the events around it are entirely rewritten.

* TimeyWimeyBall: Nora is erased from existence. Except afterwards Nora's journal continues to exist. Following the LegendsOfTomorrow rules of time, this means the timeline has not yet been permanently set. Cue CrisisOnInfiniteEarths.

* LossOfIdentity: Nora fears this if she goes into the Negative Speed Force to save herself. So she opts to go as herself.

** Thawne got the idea to manipulate Nora when she talked about Cicada all those years ago in 2015. It was just a matter of time.

** It's subtle, but Thawne's statement that the Negative Speed Force protects its users from changes to time explains how he keeps coming back.

* ShaggyDogStory: Nora's entire motivation for coming to the past and interfering with the timeline was to ensure Barry does not disappear in 2024. Not only does Thwane reveal that the event ''will'' happen regardless of any timeline changes, Nora's interference actually ''accelerated'' it from happening in 2024 to ''2019''. To rub salt into the wound, she effectively erases her own existence as a result.