Winn returns from the future to stop an evil doppelganger of himself from another Earth.
Tropes
- Action Dad: Winn reveals that he is a father, and he is very capable in a fight.
- Bullet Catch: Winn blocks the bullet Toyman fires at Chester Dunholtz with his ship.
- Bullying a Dragon: Investigating someone as powerful and dangerous as Lex Luthor results in some not-so-subtle death threats against William.
- The Bus Came Back: Winn travels to 2020 to stop his evil doppelganger. Chester Dunholtz also returns, having last been seen in Season 1's "Childish Things."
- Call-Forward: Winn notes that in the future, the base set up by Kara & the other heroes after Crisis is known as the Hall of Justice.
- Clark Kenting: Winn finally gets in on the action by posing as "Marty" from Metropolis at the end of the episode merely by wearing glasses, now that the public thinks that Winn Schott became Toyman and his face was all over the Internet recently threatening to cause massive destruction. And this works.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Said word for word by Brainy when he breaks Toyman out of the prison transport in the first scene.
- Continuity Nod: When revealing the Tower to Kara, Alex & Winn, J’Onn mentions the base that Barry created after Crisis, and notes that it inspired him to create a separate base to the D.E.O in National City - Kara & Alex immediately draw comparisons to the Arrow Bunker & S.T.A.R. Labs. Time will tell if the security is any better.
- Crazy-Prepared: J'onn creates an office for the Superfriends to be able to work once Lex or Lena inevitably betray them.
- Didn't See That Coming: Brainy is taken aback by both the initial failure to capture Toyman and as Lex's wildly unpredictable, chaotic nature, which makes it impossible to properly control him.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: How Toyman speaks to the public.
- Everybody Lives: Luckily, Team Supergirl is able to prevent any civilian casualties during Toyman's rampage.
- Evil Doppelgänger: Toyman for Winn, coming from a different, probably destroyed Earth.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Toyman quickly breaks free from Lex's and Brainy's control.
- Evil Is Petty: Lex, true to form, brings up a line from an article of William's that annoyed him immediately after they meet; Lex thought William was making a crack at his weight, but William retorts that his remark actually concerned Lex's bloated ego.
- False Friend: Lena pretends to mend her friendship with Andrea in order to get information about Leviathan.
- Friendship Moment:
- Subverted between Lena and Andrea, as Lena is only manipulating Andrea as a means to get Leviathan.
- Winn tells Brainiac 5 that he still considers him a friend despite secretly working with Lex to stop Leviathan, although he is still disgusted by that.
- Kara also takes William with her to game night, making him a part of the clique.
- Happily Married: Winn is married to a woman named Aila and they have a daughter together, Mary.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Brainy tearfully tells Winn that he is afraid to lose himself working together with Lex.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks to Toyman's actions, Winn's public image takes a major beating. In the future, a bounty is placed on his head, and even after that future is prevented, the very public nature of Toyman's attack forces Winn to go around in disguise.
- Home Base: J'onn has set one up at his home, as he wants his friends to have a safe place without government or corporate oversight. He calls it "The Tower".
- Hypocrite: Lena is now pulling almost the exact same thing with Andrea that she was so pissed about Kara doing to her. What's more, unlike Kara, Lena is faking her friendship with Andrea, and she's doing it to serve her own goals (whereas Kara, at worst, mistrusted Lena while nevertheless genuinely considering her a friend).
- Internal Reveal:
- Lena learns that Brainy is working together with Lex, just as Winn does by the end of the episode.
- Winn learns about everything that has happened since he was away, with J'onn linking their minds.
- Lex finds out that Gemma Cooper is Gamemnae and a part of Leviathan.
- It's Personal: Toyman wants to kill Dunholtz because the version of him on his Earth was responsible for ruining his father.
- Like Father, Like Son: Unlike the normal Winn, Toyman is doing everything to carry on his father's legacy.
- Mythology Gag: Winn tells Nia that her great-granddaughter Nura Nal is one of his best friends and "a kickass Legionnaire." In the comics, Nura Nal is Dream Girl, a member of the Legion of Superheroes. This doubles as a Continuity Nod, as it explains Brainy's initial reaction to learning Nia's name and his refusal to tell her about the future.
- Named After Someone Famous: Winn reports that many children in the future are named "Kara" in honor of Supergirl. He considered naming his own daughter after her (with his wife supporting the idea), before settling on naming her "Mary", after his mother.
- Panthera Awesome: Toyman has two robot tigers. During the fight with them Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" plays. The university's mascot where his attack takes place is also a tiger. And Nia's nickname for Brainy was also Wildcat (she mistakes her Prophetic Dream with still not being over Brainy).
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Kara and William engage with this with Lex, with William in particular confronting him about the death of Russel Rogers. Lex then takes Kara aside and bluntly tells her to rein William in, or else something bad will happen to him.
- Redemption Rejection: Winn tries talking down Toyman to no avail.
- The Reveal: In the Post-Crisis timeline, Andrea was never activated by Leviathan (yet).
- Relationship Upgrade: William and Kara suddenly realise that they are attracted to each other...after standing too close to one another.
- Secret-Keeper: Winn promises not to tell anybody about Brainy working together with Lex.
- Ship Tease: Romantic tensions flare up between William and Kara (as much of the fandom suspected).
- Shout-Out:
- The alias "Marty" that Winn uses at the end when around William was likely taken from Marty McFly, the protagonist of Back to the Future (also the source of this episode's title).
- Toyman says he will act when he has "One million followers", holding his little finger to his mouth like Dr. Evil.
- Take That!: Trolling and hate speech under the anonymity of the internet receives a few potshots. Winn even states that in the future, there are anti-trolling laws which prevent World War III!
- Tempting Fate: Winn is confident that the events of the previous timeline can't be worse than what he's already dealing with. Cut to him throwing up into a bag.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Toyman amasses a horde of online followers supporting his terrorism. In fact, he only starts going after Andrea after he reaches a million followers.
- Wham Shot: Toyman!Winn has downloaded his consciousness onto his laptop.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Both Kara and William call Andrea out for capitalizing on a terrorist threat. She doesn't really care.
- Working with the Ex: Nia and Brainy have a hard time working together, with Nia understandably still being bitter and Brainy barely able to keep his cold composure.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Winn gives both Nia and Kara some pep talk.
