Light her up.
Season 2, Episode 5:
The Darkness and the Light
The S.T.A.R. Labs team must deal with the unexpected arrival of Earth-2 Wells. But when a metahuman called Dr. Light shows up in Central City, they must decide whose advice to follow: Dr. Wells', who wants to use Dr. Light to lure out and fight Zoom, or Jay Garrick's, who wants to talk Dr. Light down and avoid confrontation with Zoom.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Earth-2!Wells calls Ronnie "Ricky" and Cisco "Crisco". It's not out of malice, but rather because he really doesn't care about any of them.
- Almost Kiss: Jay and Caitlin. Sadly interrupted by an explosion from Dr. Light.
- Antagonist Title: The Light in the title refers to Dr. Light.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Barry and Patty get one at the end of their date.
- Badass Bookworm: As if his fondness for BFGs wasn't enough of an indicator, Earth-2 Wells is shown to be very capable in a fistfight when he and Jay come to blows.
- Blind Date: Not a true example, but Barry makes a pun about it—he has a date with Patty right after Dr. Light used her powers to temporarily blind him.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends with a scene on Earth-2 involving a speedster.
- Boom, Headshot!: Iris performs a non-fatal one on Dr. Light, only knocking her helmet off.
- Bullet Catch: Barry saves Wells from three of them.
- Call-Back:
- Joe mistakes someone for Thawne and shoots him with three bullets. Fortunately, Barry was luckier than with Everyman.
- Barry recreates Eobard Thawne's Speed Mirage trick from "Out of Time", only he makes a lot of mirages instead of just one.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Literally: Because of Wells' "return", Joe decides to give Iris a gun. She later uses it to shoot Dr. Light.
- Wells' metahuman detector; shown at the beginning and later used by him to figure out Cisco's got superpowers, as well as to convince the rest of Team Flash.
- Composite Character: The Dr. Light from this episode combines aspects of at least two different Dr. Lights from the comics. Her overall appearance (and her gender) is adapted from the Kimiyo Hoshi incarnation of Dr. Light, but her being a villain rather than a superhero is from the Arthur Light incarnation of the character. Plus, none of the Dr. Lights in the comics have been Linda Park.
- The Constant: Aside from Big Belly Burger, Jay jokingly calls coffee "the one constant in the multiverse".
- Cool Versus Awesome: Patty's reaction to King Shark vs. the Flash.Patti: I just saw a half-man, half-shark thing take on the Fastest Man Alive. I love this city.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Jay's primary beef with Wells is that he used the metahuman panic to make a profit on metahuman-detecting devices.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Wells implies that people under Zoom's influence are far more violent and desperate then they were in their own world.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Caitlin assures Cisco that his having powers will not make him evil. However, the audience knows that her more traditionally evil alter-ego, Killer Frost, will make her debut later in the season. We just don't know which Earth this Caitlin comes from, and Earth-2 Wells at least makes it clear that Earth-1 Caitlin, so far, does not have any metahuman powers. Suffice to say, when she does show up, it'll be a little more than unsettling.
- Immediately after Earth-2 Wells says, "Everyone loses someone they care about, Snow. The real test of character is what you do once they're gone.", Joe walks in...and immediately begins shooting at who he thinks is Eobard Thawne.
- Dull Surprise: Wells-2, learning about Eddie's suicide.Iris: You...look just like him.
Harry: I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?
Cisco: Her fiancée died because of him.
Harry: Oh. [Beat] [walks away] - Early-Bird Cameo: Excusing the pun, Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl) gets a proper scene ahead of her Legends of Tomorrow appearance.
- Evil Twin: Dr. Light is one to Earth-1's Linda Park. Causes problems when Dr. Light decides to kill Linda and take her identity to escape Zoom.
- Face Your Fears: Earth-2 Wells and Jay both tell this to Barry (notably the only thing they agree upon), and Earth-2 Wells tells this to Cisco.
- A Father to His Men: Iris and Linda's boss performed a Heroic Sacrifice by shielding the latter from Dr. Light.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Earth-2 Wells is rapidly becoming this. His presence constantly reminds everyone of what "the first Dr. Wells" did to all of them, much to his chagrin. Not helping matters is that this Wells is less Faux Affably Evil and more of a straight-up Jerkass.Cisco: Our Dr. Wells may have been evil, but you're just a dick.
- Heroic BSoD: Jay has a minor when when confronting Wells forces him to admit that he is utterly terrified of Zoom.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Iris and Linda's boss shields the latter against her Evil Twin at the cost of his own life.
- I Have Your Wife: Earth-2 Wells' daughter is being held captive by Zoom.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: The weirdness this week is bad enough that Cisco has to specify that he needs an alcoholic drink, not a coffee.
- In-Series Nickname: Cisco dubs Earth-2 Wells "Harry" to differentiate him from his Earth-1 counterpart and said counterpart's impersonator.
- Internal Reveal: The team finds out that Cisco is a metahuman.
- A downplayed variant comes from Barry learning that Joe learned from Dr. McGee that Wells broke into Mercury Labs.
- Irony:
- Cisco, resident Nicknamer for most of the series, doesn't come up with one for himself; instead, Barry and Caitlin suggest "Vibe" for him.
- Cisco makes small talk with the new Jitters barista about the city's metahumans and how the chances of meeting one would be most unlikely. She is Kendra Saunders, the future Hawkgirl.
- Joe claims Dr. Wells is "wearing the face of the man that killed [Barry's] mother" when really the reverse was true.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Despite being an all-around jerk, Wells-2 is completely justified being angry at Earth-1 Flash and Team, as they constantly treat him and blame him as if he was Eobard Thawne.
- Wells is also right about what he says about a person losing those they care about. Everyone will lose a loved one, but the real test of character comes in what they do after the tragedy. He is also right in that Cisco should get over his reservations to stop Zoom.
- Kill and Replace: It is revealed why Atom-Smasher killed his Earth-1 duplicate just as Dr. Light tried to — to escape Zoom.
- However, Atom-Smasher continued trying to kill the Flash even after murdering his double.
- Left the Background Music On/Suspiciously Apropos Music: A scene of Wells looking up his alternate's history starts with Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" playing; Cisco then walks in and complains about his taste in music.
- Light 'em Up: Dr. Light's power. Specifically, she can generate light as hot and bright as a star, as well as weaponize hard light.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Joe shooting at Wells upon seeing him at STAR Labs, thinking he was Thawne.
- Subverted in regards to Iris: after being informed about Wells, Joe goes to tell Iris (and give her a gun).
- Loophole Abuse: Mentioned by Joe, after giving Iris a gun due to "Wells"' reappearance.Joe: You can't murder somebody...that everybody thinks is dead, right?
- Male Gaze: The camera, both In-Universe and out, lingers several times on Patty's chest area during her and Barry's date.
- Ms. Fanservice: Patty wears a revealing burgundy dress during her date with Barry.
- Murder by Mistake: Doctor Light accidentally kills her doppelgänger's boss when attempting to kill Linda, resulting in a temporary Villainous BSoD.
- Mythology Gag:
- Atlantis exists in Earth-2, and Jay's been there before. He mentions one of his best friends is from there, and that it's actually above water.
- The decision to make Dr. Light a Composite Character; specifically, the fact that both comics!Light and this Light are Asian.
- When discussing Cisco's power, Caitlin dismisses the idea of powers making people evil, when she herself has a superpowered evil comics counterpart, Killer Frost. (Though this episode also shows Wells-2's metahuman tracker give her a negative reading.)
- Wells insisting and Jay admitting Barry is faster references the comics where it was established for some time that Barry (and later Wally West when he took over the role as Flash) is much faster than Jay Garrick.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Barry calling Dr. Light "Linda" upon seeing her face confirms to her that there is an Alternate Self to Kill and Replace.
- Pet the Dog: Earth-2 Wells tries to show some sympathy for what Thawne-as-Wells did to Barry.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Earth-2 Wells tears Jay a new one for being too soft on the metahuman breachers and on dealing with Zoom.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- A politer version, but Jay washes his hands of the team when they decide to follow Dr. Wells' advice and try to confront Zoom sooner rather than later.
- Doctor Light also attempts this after being thwarted in killing her Earth-1 counterpart, but is stopped at the train station by the Flash.
- Standing Between the Enemies: Jay and Earth-2 Wells eventually come to blows, and Barry's forced to do this.
- Sunglasses at Night: Barry wears them during his date with Patty when he's temporarily blinded by Dr. Light. It has a camera attached to it so he can be aided by Cisco. He eventually takes them off when Patty catches on to his blindness.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Earth-2 Wells, a charismatic and seemingly well-loved public figure on his own Earth, is also highly sarcastic and quite the Jerkass towards Earth-1's Team Flash. The fact that there's no wheelchair makes his height much more obvious.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Jay suggested that Dr. Light can be reasoned with. Barry tries it, but seeing her identity as Linda Park of Earth-2 makes him lose focus on it.
- Temporary Blindness: Barry suffers this after his first encounter with Dr. Light, who startled him with the revelation that she's the doppelgänger of his ex, Linda Park. He then has to go on a date with Patty while his eyes recover, and enlists Cisco's help in a Zany Scheme to get through the night.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Earth-2 Wells is also fond of Big Belly Burger, a similarity that Cisco is less than pleased to discover.
- Villainous BSoD: As pointed out by Jay and Wells, Doctor Light is not a murderer. At least, she wasn't at the start of the episode. She doesn't take it well.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Joe's perfectly reasonable reaction to walking into a room and encountering Wells is to pull out his gun and fire multiple shots.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Barry and Cisco try to pull off some classic TV date shenanigans since Barry has gone blind for his date. Patty isn't fooled, both because she is a detective and because she's not an absolute moron. She does appreciate the effort Barry goes to just to keep the date while blind.
- You Are What You Hate: Wells-2 is completely against any meta sent to Earth-1 by Zoom, blatantly stating they cannot be trusted as Zoom has ways of making them do worse things than they would normally do. He should know as he too was sent by Zoom, who kidnapped Harry's daughter.
