History Recap / TheFlash2014S1E20TheTrap

** Cisco mentions [[Film/BackToTheFuture Marty's Polaroid]].

* FlashbackBPlot: The episode flashes between the present-day and the time Barry was in a coma. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSqq2kLk0A0 A deleted scene]] would have added another flashback to the episode, from Caitlin's point of view.

* DramaticIrony: Shortly after learning that in 2024, he'll be married to Iris, Barry is jokingly told by Captain Singh to never get married, almost literally bumps into the future Mrs. West-Allen, and is told by her current boyfriend if his own intention to propose. This all happens in one scene, too.

* DownerEnding: Eobard out-gambits Team Flash and kidnaps Eddie as "insurance".

* AdultFear: In the flashback, Joe has been keeping a vigil at Barry's hospital room ever since his accident (according to Iris, he's barely eaten or slept in weeks), not knowing whether his charge will wake up from his coma. During a flatlining phase, Joe frantically calls out for the doctors.

* TwoLinesDifferentTimes: The episode flashes between the present-day and the time Barry was in a coma. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSqq2kLk0A0 This deleted scene]] would have added another flashback to the episode, from Caitlin's point of view.

** TheStinger of episode 3 showed Eobard installing a security camera in Barry's lab at CCPD.

** Cisco compares the "dream-viewer" device to films such as ''Film/{{Dreamscape}}'' and ''Series/{{Inception}}''.

* PoliceAreUseless: According to Eobard Thawne at least, he says the police will remain "inconvenient" for 100 years.

-->'''Eobard Thawne:''' It's been an education, watching you grow up all these years... science fairs and soccer games. No hint, no sign, no trace of the man you will be one day for whom I have nothing but hate. And to be clear, ''nothing'' is forgiven. There will be a reckoning. I promise you, Barry Allen, that you will die.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Both a mild case and subverted - upon learning of their relation, Eddie assumes that whatever Thawne was up to revolved around him. Wells quickly corrects him, saying he was merely "insurance."

-->'''Barry:''' It was all a setup. We thought we set a trap for him, but he--he set a trap for us.

* BookEnds: LukeYouAreMyFather playing out in both the opening and closing acts.

** Thawne's facade as the kindly Dr. Wells comes to an end, and the protagonists discover the truth about him. Well, at least some of it.
** Barry unknowingly gives Iris a shock while in the Flash suit - the same shock she received while he was in the coma.

** TheStinger of episode 3 showed Eobard installed a security camera in Barry's lab at CCPD.

** In a flashback, Iris gets mildly shocked when she touches Barry. When she touches The Flash at the end of the episode, the same thing happened, thus finally figuring out that The Flash is Barry.
** Eobard's security camera installed in Barry's lab at CCPD that was shown during TheStinger in episode 3; it turns out to be a part of a ''much'' more extensive surveillance network.

--> '''Thawne:''' It's been an education, watching you grow up all these years... science fairs and soccer games. No hint, no sign, no trace of the man you will be one day for whom I have nothing but hate. And to be clear, ''nothing'' is forgiven. There will be a reckoning. I promise you, Barry Allen, that you will die.
* ThisWasHisTrueForm: Of a sort. When Bates!Thawne dies, he reverts to the featureless and eyeless form that he'd taken on when he admitted that he couldn't remember his original appearance.
* WhamEpisode: Definitely qualifies due to all the [[InternalReveal Internal Reveals]] and the end of Thawne's kindly professor facade. And this time, there's no [[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E15OutOfTime time travel to undo it]].

** Barry tells the others how he traveled through time in "Out of Time"/"Rouge Time".

** The 2024 newspaper names Oliver as ComicBook/GreenArrow, ''not'' The Series/{{Arrow}}. In fact, it may not even be Oliver but his son, Connor Hawke [[note]] which is strongly backed-up by the fact that Oliver has an illegitimate child in this continuity. Based from the show's timeline, Oliver's child (born 2007-2008) would be old enough to be a KidHero by 2024 [[/note]], the second Green Arrow in the comics.

Team Flash sets a trap for Wells, hoping to trick him into confessing to murdering Barry's mother.

* BodyDouble: Wells uses the shapeshifting Hannibal Bates as one.

* TheChessmaster: If Wells had not proved himself this before, he certainly has now.

* EvilIsHammy: Wells/Thawne, [[TheSpock of all people]], is ultimately revealed to be this once he reveals himself.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: There are a bunch of little hints that Wells is actually Bates. Such as him raising his hand, without vibrating it. He also takes off his glasses with his left hand, a key tell in his previous appearance. Bates wears shiny dress shoes as Wells, but it has been shown several times that Wells almost always wears sneakers. But mostly the whole slipping past the barrier meant to block out speedsters and being unable to dodge the bullets.

** Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and Joe find out that Harrison Wells (the fake one) is actually Eobard Thawne and that he traveled back in time to murder the young Barry Allen, not Nora Allen.

* {{Irony}}: In a flashback Wells muses to himself that despite his hatred for Barry, Fate conspired that he would have to turn Barry into the Flash in order to get home.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Both a mild case and subverted - upon learning of their relation, Eddie assumes that whatever Wells was up to revolved around him. Wells quickly corrects him, saying he was merely "insurance."

* OutGambitted: Wells had surveillance on Barry and all of his friends, and so he knew all along that they were onto him and that they had set a trap for him.

* RedHerring: Based on the title of the episode, there ''seem'' to be a number of points where Wells is deliberately leading the heroes into a trap, including being the one to set the frequency on the dream machine, calling Barry to a building that's on fire (which as far as anyone is concerned he may have started himself), and instructing Barry to rotate his arms to put out the blaze. However, these ultimately appear to be fruitless. The titular trap happens in the climax.

** Cisco thinks of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' when he remembers Wells stabbing him in the heart.

* SinisterSurveillance: Wells/Thawne has cameras ''everywhere''. Turns out he's been doing it for '''years'''.

* ThisWasHisTrueForm: Of a sort. When Bates!Wells dies, he reverts to the featureless and eyeless form that he'd taken on when he admitted that he couldn't remember his original appearance.

** Barry tells the others how he traveled through time.