As Barry and Harry tackle with closing the breaches, a tar-based metahuman begins wreaking havoc. Meanwhile, Iris decides to do something about Wally's drag racing.
Tropes:
- All-Loving Hero: Barry shows sympathy for Harry betraying him to save Jesse, pointing out that Cisco gave up Barry's identity to save Dante and that they should help Harry save her, not abandon her and the rest of Earth-2's denizens to Zoom's wrath.
- Always Someone Better: Played for laughs when Cisco tries to claim the title of world's best hacker only for Caitlin and Barry to remind him that Felicity Smoak has him beat by a long shot.
- And I Must Scream: Joey Monteleone was stuck in the tar pit for two years. He says he couldn't see nor feel but still could hate.
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Anti-Climax Boss: Tar Pit goes down very easily following Barry's encounter with him at the race (less than a minute), no doubt to more room for the emotional issues involving Harry. - Artistic License – Engineering: The scenario that happens to Iris in this episode is exactly why they invented safety glass and made it standard in all automobiles for the last few decades. Any car you're likely to see on the road today, if it gets in a wreck, has windows that will crumble rather than shatter.
- Artistic License – Pharmacology: Iris' injury, while not minor, does not require her to be inflated with oxygen.
- Big Sister Instinct: This episode shows how much of one Iris has for Wally.
- Brain Bleach: The crowd at the racing strip pulls a Male Gaze on the new girl. This includes Wally, until he realizes that it's his sister. He asks her if she's trying to send him "to therapy".
- Call-Back: Barry justifies Harry's actions by reminding Team Flash that Cisco was forced to reveal the Flash's secret identity to Captain Cold in order to save his brother Dante.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Iris gives Joe a mild one as seen in What the Hell, Hero? below.
- Cassandra Truth: Harry warns Barry he'll betray Team Flash eventually to save Jesse, which Barry brushes off until Harry reveals he's telling the truth.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: When stealing Barry's speed lands Iris in the hospital, Harry confesses to his deal with Zoom out of guilt.
- Continuity Nod:
- Oliver Queen's mayoral campaign is mentioned in a radio broadcast.
- Cisco asks who the greatest hacker in the world is. Barry and Caitlin simultaneously answer: "Felicity Smoak."
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Not that it stuck, but Joey was dropped into a vat of boiling tar and he could feel parts of his face being seared off.
- A Day in the Limelight: For the West family and Harry.
- Deconstructed Trope: This episode highlights a problem with Super-Speed Reading: When you read it that fast, you're not storing it in your long term memory like you would if you were studying and absorbing the information at a normal pace. Barry has to re-read the books a couple times in order to refresh his memory.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Zoom injecting himself with Barry's speed is like watching a drug addict getting a fix.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Barry starts opening up to Harry, even trying to help him on some personal project...around the same time that Harry starts draining the Flash of his speed force energy for Zoom.
- Harry being locked up in Eobard's cell. Lampshaded by Barry.
- Fanservice: Iris' outfit during Wally's race is composed of shorts and a Stocking Filler. It literally causes a Male Gaze.
- Fantastic Drug: Zoom treats the Speed Force like this. While injecting himself with it, his hand shakes, but after he does, his body seems to relax, like an addict getting a fix. Then he immediately demands more.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Zoom promises to inflict one on Harry's daughter if Harry doesn't cooperate with his demands.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Two years after the particle acceleration explosion, small-time crook Joseph Monteleone starts his quest for vengeance as the metahuman Tar Pit.
- Idiot Ball: Iris dribbles it a bit. Confronting the man behind Central City's drag racing ring and telling him that she's writing an expose on him: Dumb. Recording and uploading the whole conversation to her newspaper: Smart. Not bringing anyone along in case that doesn't make him back off? Dumb. She could have easily gotten herself killed. Wally seriously asks if she has a death wish, and it's implied that the Flash having her back has made her far more reckless.
- Internal Reveal: Team Flash finds out about Harry's deal with Zoom.
- Killed Offscreen: It is revealed that Francine succumbed to her illness between the previous episode and this one.
- Manly Tears: Wally finally lets out the angst.
- Moment Killer: Familial version: The Wests spend one evening bonding together over pizza. Things seem to go well, until Iris mentions Wally's "hobby".
- My God, What Have I Done?: The fact that Barry couldn't stop a piece of glass that hurt Iris is what makes Harry confess that he stole Barry's speed.
- Mythology Gag:
- Wally's car has the same colors as the classic Kid Flash costume.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After Harry is imprisoned in the Pipeline, almost all the team wants to banish him. However, Barry points out that they would have done the same if they were in Harry's place.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Harry is so tormented by Barry's attempts to start a mentor relationship while he's stealing Barry's speed that he throws an eraser at his head. Then the whole team gets in on it, causing him to admit everything.
- One-Winged Angel: In his final scene, Tar Pit appears as a hulking golem of tar. When Barry uses the chemical Cisco developed on him, he reverts back to his human form.
- Out of Focus: Caitlin barely appears in the episode.
- Papa Wolf:
- Harry foreshadowed his betrayal by saying that Zoom would force him to choose between Jesse and Team Flash and that he would choose Jesse over them.
- Joe knocks out Harry and throws him into the Pipeline to stop himself from killing the man, since tampering with Barry's speed nearly got Iris killed. Later, he knocks out a disarmed Tar Pit, no doubt for his role in the incident.
- Barry lampshades this by asking Joe what he would have done if it was Iris who'd been kidnapped by Zoom instead of Wells' daughter.
- The Place: As the title suggests, most of the fight scenes with Tar Pit happen on highways.
- Pretty in Mink: Iris's outfit for the race includes a jacket with a fur collar.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Cisco asks Barry and Caitlin "who's the best hacker in the world?", they both answer "Felicity Smoak" without hesitation.
- Running Gag: Harry hates it when Barry casually uses Super-Speed Reading.
- Shout-Out: Barry taking out Tarpit with ice grenades looks exactly like Batman taking down Clayface in the climax of Batman: Arkham City.
- Super-Speed Reading: Barry uses his super speed to read all of the books required to understand Harry's scientific formulas.
- Take a Third Option: Barry points out that Harry isn't bothering to consider anything other than "Betray Barry" or "Let Zoom kill Jesse". Harry retorts there isn't one, until Barry comes up with one at the end of the episode: He'll take the team to Earth-2 to find and rescue her.
- Villainous Glutton: Zoom gets an immense power jolt from just 2% of Barry's speed, and immediately demands more of it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Iris calls Joe out on how he's acting like Wally's BFF instead of his father, and insists he should stop him from drag racing.
- As seen under Idiot Ball, Iris ends up on the receiving end of this trope from Wally.
- Worf Had the Flu: Cisco notes how Barry's speed seems to be lower than usual (courtesy of Harry's speed siphon on the Flash suit). This nearly costs Iris her life in one of the Flash's encounters with Tar Pit.
- You Are Not Alone: The core theme of the episode.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: After dropping Joseph Monteleone into the tar pit.Daniel Burge: I thought you said you weren't gonna kill him.
Clay Stanly: I say a lot of things.
