Recap / The Flash 2014 - S2, E22: Invincible

Barry must adjust to his returned and newly-improved speed and confidence just as Zoom leads an army of Earth-2 villains to attack Central City.

Tropes

• Arch-Enemy: Hunter Zolomon/Zoom manages to truly become this for Barry the same way Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash did: By killing one of his parents.
• Arc Words: "You're not invincible, you know?"
• Badass Driver: Wally mainly relies on Car Fu to fight metahumans.
• Badass Normal: Possibly Wally, as he still doesn't show any signs of being a metahuman. Still, it doesn't stop him from doing his heroics against metahuman criminals using only his Badass Driver skills.
• Bait-and-Switch: Cisco's visions of dead birds first appear to be related to Laurel or her death in Arrow. It's actually about the destruction of Earth-2.
• Big "NO!": Barry screams a particularly anguished one as Hunter murders Henry before his eyes. A scream that was shown in the trailer for the episode, no less.
• Bluff the Imposter: Black Siren determines that Cisco is not his Earth-2 counterpart by throwing an object and watching him catch with his right hand.
• Bond One-Liner: Black Siren after destroying Mercury Labs.
  Black Siren: Boom!
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Black Siren's biggest flaw is her penchant for Evil Gloating after she had her opponents badly beaten instead of just killing them off.
• The Bus Came Back: Dr. McGee returns after an eleven episode absence.
• Call-Back:
  • Most of Cisco's lines to the Black Siren whilst in disguise are the same ones that Reverb said to him.
  • In a Rewatch Bonus on the episode "Welcome to Earth-2", you could see that Reverb was actually ambidextrous or at least cross-dominant.
• Car Fu: Used by Wally (in epic fashion) to save Barry from Black Siren.
• Continuity Snarl: Sara apparently knows Team Flash despite the fact that during the Pilot Episode of Legends of Tomorrow, Sara clearly doesn't know who Cisco is when (Earth-1) Laurel told her sister about who made her White Canary suit.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Cisco and Caitlin disguise themselves as their respective Earth-2 counterparts, both of whom are now deceased, just to distract Black Siren.
• December–December Romance: A Ship Tease between Henry and Dr. McGee happens. Zoom sinks it before anything can fully develop.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Caitlin has PTSD after having been abducted by Zoom, and it's portrayed in a very similar fashion to real world victims/survivors of sexual violence.
• Downer Ending: In literally one swoop, Zoom ruins an already Happy Ending by killing Henry.
• The End of the World as We Know It: At the end of the episode, Cisco sees a vision of Earth-2 being torn apart by what appears to be a wormhole.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As sinister as she is, Black Siren is visibly bothered by whatever Zoom's other plan is.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Zoom in his "Not So Different" Remark claims that Barry is just pretending to be a hero like he himself was, complaining that being Jay was "exhausting." He doesn't seem to understand that Barry actually is a hero, nor that his "exhaustion" may have been because he was trying to keep up two sides of an Arch-Enemy structure. He also seems to believe that Barry is going to turn evil after watching his father being killed which is unlikely at best.
• Evil Is Hammy: The Black Siren certainly sounds like this.
• Evil Is Petty: Zoom kills Henry in the old Allen house just to prove his point that he and Barry are the same.
• Evil Twin: The leader of Zoom's team, Black Siren, is the Earth-2 version of Laurel Lance.
• Foregone Conclusion: Between Henry returning to Central City, and Barry's overconfidence the entire episode, plus the "NOOO!" from the trailer, many fans spotted Zoom's hand through Henry's chest from a mile away.
• Face Death with Dignity: Henry is really calm in his last minutes.
• Friendship Moment: Harrison Wells from Earth-2 has one with Joe when everyone is discussing the vibrational device that targets people specifically from earth 2. Joe expresses concern for Harry and his daughter Jesse as, being natives of Earth-2, they would get affected as well. This leads to a wisecrack from Harry that Joe snappily responds to.
  Joe: Harry and Jesse are from Earth-2, how do we keep the pulse from hurting them?
  Harry: Why detective, I didn't know you cared.
  Joe: Yes you did.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A non fatal example. Harry gives his "Anti Earth-2 Sonic Protector" to Jesse when hers failed/malfunctioned.
• Ignored Epiphany: The Speed Force had warned Barry that his powers didn't mean he would be immune to tragedy, but he spends almost the entire episode blissfully running around as if nothing could possibly ever go wrong again. He pays for it in horrendous fashion at the end of the episode.
• Impersonating the Evil Twin: Cisco and Caitlyn do this, posing as their late Earth-2 counterparts to stop Black Siren. She figures it out, but they still delay her from destroying an occupied building before Barry sets off a pulse to incapacitate all of Zoom's henchmen.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: Black Siren is able to expose Cisco and Caitlin as imposters when she tricks Cisco into catching something with his right hand, whereas Reverb was left handed.
• Insistent Terminology: Harry is very insistent that people from Earth-2 vibrate at a "higher" frequency rather than a "more erratic" one.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Wally learns The Flash's true identity at the end when Zoom abducts Henry. Tina McGee also learns, but she indicates she's already known for awhile.
  • Tina also finds out that the Harrison Wells who stole from her isn't the one she knew.
• Ironic Episode Title: The episode features the people around Barry repeatedly warning him about being too overconfident (blatantly hammered with the episode's Arc Words) which he ultimately learns the hard way after his father's death.
• Killed Off for Real: Zoom kills Henry right in front of Barry.
• Lampshade Hanging: While cleaning Barry's bleeding ear, Caitlin wonders why they have to deal with many villains who attack with sonic-based weaponry.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Caitlin nearly makes a Precision F-Strike when she sees Cisco accidentally using his vibe powers.
  Caitlin: What the what?
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Anyone who doesn't watch Arrow or hasn't caught up with it will have Earth-1 Laurel's death spoiled by this episode.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Team Flash decided to not tell Quentin and Sara about Earth-2 Laurel.
• Moment Killer: Quite literally. Zoom zooms in and kidnaps Henry not only during a celebration party, but during when Cisco is telling everyone about his visions regarding Earth-2's destruction.
• Mood Whiplash: Everything seems good as Barry and his team saves the day, and everyone is celebrating the victory until Zoom shows-up and kills Henry.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Black Siren appeared in the Justice League episode "Legends" as a resident of an alternate Earth, serving as an expy of Black Canary.^note Originally the Black Canary, as well as the Justice Society, was gonna be featured in that episode. The show also gives her a natural Canary Cry as a metahuman ability, one powerful enough to topple buildings, much like Canary's comic book counterpart.
  • Sparks fly between Dr. McGee and Henry, a nod to Barry and Tina's romance on the 90's Flash series. Unfortunately, Zoom kills him before anything more can come of it.
  • In her opening voiceover, Iris says that we can only see the light in the blackest of nights.
  • Zoom talks about things holding Barry back. Hunter Zolomon from the comics also used this reason to go after Wally West's loved ones.
  • Wally's car has the same color schemes as his New 52 costume.
  • Zoom's belief that Barry is one bad day away from being like him is a pretty direct reference to the plot of The Killing Joke. He kills Barry's dad in front of him for pretty much the same reason that The Joker crippled Barbara Gordon in front of her father.
  • Cisco uses the comic version of Vibe powers for the first time, albeit unintentionally.
  • Zoom's army and Flash fighting them might be yet another allusion to Knightfall, where Bane wears out Batman by staging a massive breakout.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, Team Flash sans Harry are close to Laurel despite the fact that only Cisco has had a proper conversation with her onscreen.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Zoom once again invokes this on Barry by comparing their similar backgrounds, right before he kills Henry.
• Orcus on His Throne: Zoom lets his army run amok in Central City by themselves, and doesn't even lift a finger when he clearly sees the Flash back in action.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Cisco and Caitlin when they realize Black Siren is seeing through their bluff.
  • Cisco when he realizes that the odd vibes he's been getting all episode are about Earth-2's destruction.
• Orbital Shot: The camera circles around Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin toward the end when they're talking in the pipeline.
• Out of Order: This episode takes place after the first season finale of Legends of Tomorrow, seeing Caitlin suggesting that Sara is now aware of Laurel's death. Said episode airs two days after this one.
• Rule of Cool: How exactly Cisco and Caitlin were able to find the exact same clothes as their Earth-2 counterparts (which includes a very specific wig and pair of contact lenses in Caitlin's case) can be very jarring. But hey, it's awesome to see anyway, so fuck details!
• Sadistic Choice: Stated by Zoom as the reason why Barry could never beat him; as long as Zoom put innocent people in danger Barry would always go to help them first instead of focusing on the reason why they were in danger to begin with and thus ultimately stop even more people from being put in danger.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Tina McGee reveals that she figured out that Barry was the Flash.
• Sequel Hook: Black Siren is imprisoned at S.T.A.R. Labs after her defeat. Considering that she shares many characteristics and elements with her comics counterpart more than Laurel, a room for a redemption arc is possible in the future.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story: After so many years in prison and then leaving Central City, Henry Allen finally comes back to stay with Barry, only to get murdered by Zoom.
• Shout-Out: While Cisco is being plagued by visions of dead birds, he remarks that "It's like a Hitchcock movie in my head."
• A Sinister Clue: Cisco's Evil Counterpart is left-handed, which exposes Cisco and Caitlin's ruse.
• Sixth Ranger: Tina McGee aids Team Flash in this episode, and is part of the celebration at the end.
• Smug Super:
  • Barry throughout the episode, thought most of it can be justified with him overcoming his angst of his mother's death, and he hadn't made a lot of mistakes this time around.
  • Black Siren loves to demonstrate how powerful she is instead of just finishing the job off.
• So Proud of You: Henry tells Barry he is proud of him before being killed by Zoom.
• Sudden Downer Ending: The Earth-2 metahumans are defeated, Zoom is forced to flee, and things are looking up so much that Team Flash decides to have a gathering. Then, in the last few minutes of the episode, Cisco gets a vision of the end of the world followed in quick succession by Zoom swooping in and murdering Henry Allen.
• Take a Third Option: Barry is faced with either immediately taking on Black Siren to prevent her from bringing down multiple buildings with hundreds of victims or carrying out the plan to incapacitate all the Earth-2 villains at once. Cisco comes up with the idea of how to delay Black Siren long enough for the plan to work.
• Take That, Audience!: Black Siren's snarky "Bye, Bye Birdie!" suspiciously looks like a mockery at Laurel's Hatedom as the phrase was used by them as celebration regarding Laurel's death on Arrow.
• Title Drop: Iris and Henry mentioned the word "invincible" to describe Barry's confidence in his speed.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Barry's been acting like a Fearless Fool ever since he came back from the Speed Force. And then Zoom kills his dad.
    Barry: The Speed Force is with us. How could we possibly lose?
    • Tellingly, the last shot of the promo was Barry's anguished "NOOO!" The same "NOOO!" that ended the episode.
  • Black Siren boasts "Nothing on this Earth can stop us!" just before Team Flash's sonic weapon activates, bringing down all the Earth-2 metas (save for Zoom, who escapes back to their Earth) in one shot.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Harry really demonstrates how much he's changed since he first appeared on Earth-1: joking casually with the others, easily working as a member of the team, and showing genuine concern for more people than just his daughter.
• Trailers Always Lie: The episode's promo and synopsis suggest that Zoom's metahuman army will play a larger role in this episode and that they will be led by Black Siren. Majority of them are arrested at the beginning of the episode while Black Siren was fought on her own, though her rank as The Dragon was mentioned.
• Trash the Set: Black Siren destroys Mercury Labs.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Zoom escapes through a portal to avoid Team Flash's sonic weapon. Subverted when he comes back at the end of the episode for one hell of a Downer Ending.
• Wham Episode: To the extent that you'd almost think it was the Season Finale. Barry and Iris decide to make it official, Zoom is revealed to have a hidden agenda (heavily suggested to involve destroying the planet), Cisco starts developing the same abilities Reverb had, Wally finds out Barry is The Flash, and Zoom kills Henry Allen. The Arrowverse is also possibly introduced to the actual Black Canary of the franchise.
• Wham Shot: Cisco's second vision of dead birds falling, "expanding" to make him see Earth-2 collapse.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Learning that he is The Chosen One of the Speed Force causes Barry to become a Fearless Fool. He is humbled the hard way.