Barry and Ralph go undercover in search of Sue Dearbon. Cecile tries to help Chester adjust after stabilizing.
Tropes
- Always Close: Appropriately for the films this episode parodies, Barry and Ralph defuse the bomb with exactly 1 second to spare.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The Monitor's door is infused with eternium, preventing Barry from phasing through it.
- Auction of Evil: Meister hosts one in the climax to find anyone willing to buy his Kill Sat.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Barry is horrible at trying to act like a criminal.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: A lot of spy fiction parodies, and just as many lampshades are made of them.
- Bluff the Impostor: January Galore tricks Barry and Ralph by misnaming the host and them going along with it.
- Blunt "Yes": Or "Ja", in this case, when Ralph asks Meister if he is really willing to kill tens of thousands of people in Central City simply to sell his weapon.
- Breather Episode: This episode is a Lighter and Softer, fun episode with a Bond parody and some romantic comedy. Much needed in between episodes dealing with Bloodwork and Barry’s impending death.
- The Bus Came Back: Chester, Allegra and her cousin Esperanza.
- Cliffhanger: Bloodwork attacks Ralph in The Stinger.
- A Day in the Limelight: Recurring characters Chester and Allegra get a decent amount of focus. Especially notable since the only regulars this episode follows are Barry, Ralph, Nash, and Cecile.note
- Did Not Get the Girl: Natalie rejects Chester but he takes it very well.
- Everyone Has Standards: Played for Laughs. Ralph plays into Tuxedo and Martini spy staples but criticizes Meister for pretty much copying said cliches wholesale, outright complaining when he just parrots a line from Goldfinger.
- Evil Is Hammy: Meister, naturally, as a reference to James Bond villains.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Ramsey's new look is just hideous.
- Expy: Remington Meister for many Bond villains but Goldfinger in particular and January Galore for Pussy Galore, both featured in Goldfinger.
- Forgot About His Powers:
- Zig-zagged. First subverted when Barry decides to use his super-speed instead of Ralph’s lower-key approach and ends up blowing their cover. He seems to have learnt his lesson in the climax because neither he nor Ralph use their powers, even when Central City’s at risk of destruction and there’s no reason to remain stealthy at that point.
- While Ralph and Barry at least have the excuse of not wanting their identities revealed, Ultraviolet has no reason at all to not use her powers in the climactic fight.
- Graceful Loser: Meister actually congratulates Barry and Ralph for the great show after being beaten.
- Gratuitous German: Meister throws in a lot of (horribly pronounced) German words.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Barry and Ralph when they dress up in tuxedos a la 007.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Meister doesn't care to unmask the Flash, citing Secret Identity Apathy. Had he done so, Ralph's plan in the climax wouldn't have worked because the man wouldn't let him interrupt the auction.
- Hope Spot: When Barry manages to shut down the Death Trap, only for it to go haywire and start shooting up the whole place. Subverted when he and Ralph decide to use one of its stray lasers to break out of their dampeners.
- Human All Along: Nash believes the Monitor to be a fraud and is hellbent on exposing him.
- Impostor-Exposing Test: January Galore, one of the guests at the party, tricks Barry and Ralph into revealing they crashed the party by calling the host "Meyers", whose name is actually Meister.
- Internal Reveal:
- Ralph learns that Barry plans on Passing the Torch of Central City's protector to him.
- Nash explains the multiverse to Allegra, and accidentally tells her that Barry is the Flash.
- Kill Sat: Meister's "Ring of Fire" weapons platform.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Frost coaching Cecille on how to help Chester on his date, much like how Danielle Panabaker is the director of this episode.
- The blatant James Bond references are of course also called out in-universe.
- Leeroy Jenkins: When Nash shows Team Flash the entrance to the Monitor's hideout, Barry rushes and tries to phase, only to be pushed away. In his mission with Ralph he isn't any better, as he is very willing to rush the mission and attack them as the Flash.
- The Load: Barry of all people for most of the episode, being all too eager to just bust in as the Flash, which gets both him and Ralph nearly killed.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The initial investigation into Sue Dearbon's disappearance leads Ralph and Barry to discover a plot to blow up Central City with a Kill Sat, which they ultimately foil. However, they don't even end up finding Sue.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Chester waking up, and, finding himself in STAR Labs, has the time of his life...until he sees his obituary.
- The entire episode in general is very over-the-top and upbeat...until Ramsey suddenly appears and attacks Ralph at the end.
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Again suavely played straight by Ralph but humorously botched by Allen Barry. He gets it right by the end though.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Barry just running in as the Flash gets both him and Ralph captured, restrained by power dampeners and nearly killed by a laser.
- Out of Focus: Iris, Ramsey (until the end), Joe and Frostnote to a lesser extent.
- Passing the Torch: Barry publicly endorses Ralph as a capable protector of Central City, so that it will be easier for him to take over the Flash’s responsibilities post-Crisis.
- Playing Cyrano: Cecile to Chester via Earpiece Conversation. Like many uses of this trope, this does not go well. Frost quickly points this out and suggests Chester be himself.
- Playing Drunk: In his role as the distraction during the climax of the episode, Barry pretends to be drunk out of his skull, wandering out onto the stage where Remington Meister is auctioning his doomsday weapon.Barry: (slurring; wine bottle in hand) This isn't the bathroom!
- The Reveal:
- Nash mentions that Allegra reminds her of someone close to him, possibly her Doppelgänger.
- It was previously hinted that there was some mysterious evil organization that was The Man Behind the Man for Esperanza/Ultraviolet. Here, that organization is seemingly revealed as being Remington Meister's criminal cabal.
- Shock and Awe: Meister uses electrical attacks via special brass knuckles.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode makes endless references to James Bond films.
- As part of his bit, Barry decides to counter January Galore's $500 million bid on the doomsday device:
Barry: $500 million and one! ...dollar. (smugly) "The Price Is Right" rules.- When Ultraviolet is tasked with removing Barry from the stage, his response (again, as part of the bit), is an awed "I love Mortal Kombat!"
- After a failed dating attempt, Chester says he feels like Alderaan on a bad day.
- Ralph notes the “Ring of Fire” is probably not a Johnny Cash reference.
- When messing around in S.T.A.R. Labs, Chester finds a “sonic wrench” and attempts a bad English accent to say “Hello governor, I’m the Doctor!”
- Swapped Roles: For once, Barry is actually the impatient one and Ralph is the one trying to teach him.
- Three Lines, Some Waiting: While Ralph and Barry do their investigation and Nash enlists the help of Allegra in his dig, Cecile decides to help Chester try and hook up with Natalie.
- Tuxedo and Martini: You could probably count on one hand the number of times Ralph and Barry's plotline didn't reference James Bond.
- Wham Shot: The Stinger to the episode ends with Ralph getting tackled off of a balcony by Ramsey.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Central City’s varying location has been usually put as Missouri and either hundreds of miles away from or in the same county as Star City, which itself is either somewhere on the West Coast or the Midwest. The Kill Sat map puts Central City roughly where real-world Richmond, VA is.
- The World Is Not Ready: Nash explains this as the reason why knowledge of things like the multiverse aren't known to the public. The ones who do discover that such things are real tend to be able to process it without being overwhelmed but outright revealing these things as public knowledge would be too much for most to handle.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: In-universe. Nash promises Allegra “the scoop of the century” in exchange for helping him. He does tell her about the multiverse and Mar Novu as well as that she can’t write about any of it because the public wouldn’t be able to handle it.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Nash encourages Allegra not to be afraid to become like her cousin.
- Chester and Cecile do this to each other.
