Furious that Barry banished Nora to the future without consulting anybody else, Iris, accompanied by Ralph, takes Thawne's Time Sphere to bring her back. Meanwhile, Caitlin must work with her estranged mother in order to stop a returned Icicle.
- Aesop Amnesia:
- As Iris called out, Barry keeps making rash decisions based on his emotions, like Flashpoint and going into the Speed Force and leaving her behind.
- Carla still keeps up the cold, aloof, and icy demeanor that drove her daughter away. She can't go five minutes without taking passive-aggressive potshots at her daughter and refuses to take any responsibility for their terrible relationship.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Barry asks Iris if she does not resent Nora for associating with Thawne, she answers decidedly that she does not.
- Bait the Dog: Just as it seems that Caitlin and her family are getting a happy reunion, her father gets killed by Grace.
- Beware the Nice Ones: We always knew Barry could get angry, but this time we see him truly lose all his shit at Iris.
- Big Damn Heroes: Sherloque answers Joe's SOS to save Barry from Icicle's attack even though he was previously told to leave.
- Blame Game: Carla blames Caitlin for freeing Thomas, while Caitlin in turn calls her out for keeping the whole thing a secret.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Barry and Iris both make good points during their argument over banishing Nora to the future; Barry is correct to believe that Thawne is manipulating Nora and Iris is right that Barry shouldn't have made that decision without her. They reconcile in the end and agree that they need to work together as a family to help their daughter.
- Broken Pedestal: Nora's view of Barry, leaving her so enraged that a man she loved so much could just abandon her, she becomes corrupted by her anger.
- Brutal Honesty: Sherloque, once again, is pretty blunt when it comes to Nora being untrustworthy.
- The Bus Came Back: Icicle, having not been seen for several episodes.
- Calling the Old Man Out:
- Caitlin calls her mother out for never having been there for her. Her mother however retorts that she left first.
- While not directly to Barry, Nora screams at Iris asking how Barry could just abandon his own daughter.
- The Corrupter: Thawne seems like a rare non-evil version towards Nora, genuinely wanting to help her reunite with her dad, even if it means showing her how to use the Negative Speed Force.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Cicada II effortlessly gives Killer Frost a real beating.
- The Dark Side: The Negative Speed Force is finally referenced as the source of Eobard Thawne's Super-Speed. While it can't be tracked (or at least not as easily) by the Speed Force users such as the Flash, it also is fueled by The Power of Hate, to the point that even Thawne doesn’t want Nora using it.
- "Dear John" Letter: Ralph and Cecile catch Iris writing one of these to Barry, but manage to talk her out of it.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Barry banishing Nora. Since Thawne is manipulating her, it just made her easier prey for him.
- As Killer Frost points out, Icicle blasting Caitlin's hands and her meta cuffs, thus allowing her to shatter them, was not the best idea.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: The more Barry tries to defend himself about exiling Nora, the more his selfishness in his thought process becomes apparent.
- Dying as Yourself: Thomas after freeing himself from Icicle's control, jumps in between Cicada II and Killer Frost, just before the former delivered a killing blow. He could have probably survived by allowing Icicle to take over and heal him, but that would put his family at risk.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When discussing with Thawne about Barry perceiving whenever she travels to the past, Nora remembers that Thawne cannot be perceived by Barry and asks him about his source of energy. Thawne discourages her from using it, though.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: To Iris's surprise, Thawne seems to genuinely care about Nora.
- Feud Episode: Barry and Iris fight over Nora being sent to the future. They make up when they realize that individually, neither will be enough to help her.
- Fighting from the Inside: Thomas reasserts himself just as Icicle is about to kill Caitlin.
- Friendship Moment: After proving himself to the team, Ralph convinces Sherloque to stay, telling him that he too is part of the family now.
- From Bad to Worse: In addition to the fallout from banishing Nora, Cicada II kidnaps her past self, and then Icicle comes back to town after a months-long absence.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Just as Cicada II throws her dagger at Killer Frost, Thomas puts himself in front of his daughter, fatally getting stabbed in the back.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Cicada II doesn’t appear until the main conflict of the episode is resolved, and leaves with the stolen tech.
- Hope Spot: Just after Thomas manages to overcome Icicle for good and it looks like the Snow family is reunited, Cicada II shows up, resulting in Thomas pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to save Caitlin.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Iris calls Barry out on his time-traveling mishap and about sending Nora to the future without talking to her. To get Nora back, she goes to the future herself without talking to Barry. She grudgingly ends up agreeing with Thawne that her approach could not work.
- Internal Reveal: The team learns of Barry banishing Nora this episode.
- It's All About Me: No matter what Barry claims, his banishing Nora was more about his hatred of Thawne than her keeping secrets from the team. Iris calls him out on it, hard. And the more he tries to defend himself, he only digs himself deeper; special mention when he tells Iris that Eobard is manipulating Nora and he still justifies banishing her was a good idea.
- Jerkass Realization: Barry comes to regret exiling Nora, especially after seeing Thomas sacrificing himself to save Caitlin.Thomas: Families shouldn't leave family.
- Mama Bear: Iris is livid that Barry banished their own daughter and takes matters into her own hands by using the Time Sphere to get her back. She also doesn't want her daughter anywhere near Thawne.
- Mood Whiplash: The happy reunion between the Snow Family is cut short when Cicada II shows up on the scene.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Eobard regrets teaching Nora how to access his Negative Speed Force, after seeing just how angry she is.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: One of the reasons Iris is upset with Barry for banishing Nora back to the future is that he did it before she could even say goodbye.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By exiling Nora, Barry just inadvertently put her closer to Thawne the man he hates most. Desperate to get back to the past, Nora talked Thawne into teaching her how to access the Negative Speed Force, and by giving into all her negative emotions, Nora is now essentially Reverse Flash II, complete with the Red Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Ralph just reading over Iris' shoulders, who is typing a letter towards Barry after their argument.
- Papa Wolf: Thomas manages to wrestle control of his body from Icicle when he's within a hairsbreadth of stabbing Caitlin, then he takes Cicada II's dagger in the back to save Caitlin. The sacrifice is also what gets Barry to regret exiling Nora.
- Poor Communication Kills: When Carla snaps about Caitlin letting her father out of his prison, Caitlin fires back on how she wouldn't have if her mother hadn't lied to her about her father being dead for twenty years and instead been honest about her dad becoming "an ice monster."
- The Power of Hate: Nora harnesses it to get back to 2019 with the Negative Speed Force, and get her vengeance on her father.
- The Power of Love: According to Eobard, this is the only way that Barry and Iris will be able to save Nora from herself.
- Rage Breaking Point: Seeing Iris coming to get her and not Barry is what gives Nora the push to access enough hate and anger to go back through time via Thawne's Negative Speed Force.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Iris spends the first three minutes giving Barry a really good dressing down based on how he banished Nora based on his emotional state, only the latest in a line of poorly-thought-out and rash decisions; that he's ignoring Nora's motivations about wanting to meet a father she never met, and of course that she is Nora's mom and she should've been consulted in this decision and, more pointedly, she doesn't hold it against Nora at all for working with Thawne just to meet her dad.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: After giving in to her hatred, Nora begins sporting these.
- The Reveal:
- While Eobard has the same overall powers as any speedster, they're amplified by his own Negative Speed Force, created when he discovered his destiny as Barry's greatest villain. This allows him to move across time without alerting any other speedsters. It's accessed purely on negative emotions like anger and wrath. It's also the source of his trademark Red Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- It was Carla who invented the idea of messages with fictional elements.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Sherloque nearly left the team when they call him out for meddling with Barry's family.Joe: Wells, you're done enough!
Sherloque: Perhaps I have done enough. - Taking the Bullet: Or rather the dagger, in Thomas Snow's case, right In the Back.
- Title Drop: According to Carla, it's the nickname Thomas fashioned for his family.
- This Is Unforgivable!: How Iris feels about Barry banishing Nora without her input. Almost to the point that she is seemingly working on a "Dear John" Letter before being stopped by both Ralph and Cecile.
- Villain Has a Point: Eobard gives Iris some good (though unwanted) parental and relationship advice: The only way to save Nora is for her and Barry to do it together as a family; if she continues to stay mad at Barry, she's just mirroring her husband's poor decision-making.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Iris really gives it to Barry for taking Nora back to the future and for disregarding her feelings for Nora. The others are much more subdued about it, but have similar sentiments.
- Wham Episode: Cicada II makes off with both her younger self and the Atomizer, Icicle injects his wife with a formula that could turn her into a frost meta, before dying as Thomas Snow at Cicada II's hands, but most of all Nora becoming so entrapped in her anger at her father, she becomes in tune with the Negative Speed Force.
- Wham Shot:
- After Caitlin assures Carla that she didn't become a meta due to her blood not turning a vial from green to white, after they leave, the audience sees it do just that.
- Nora coming back to 2019, with Red Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Caitlin makes peace with her mother, and wakes her father Thomas out of his Superpowered Evil Side, only for Thomas to die Taking the Bullet from Cicada II.
