Cisco and Chester find themselves trapped in the 90s. Meanwhile, Iris tries to bond with the now-physical Speed Force.
Tropes:
- The '90s: Specifically, the December 4th, 1998 version of Masonville.
- Accidental Time Travel: When trying to identify a Force reading, the Still Force pulls in Cisco and Chester.
- Advice Backfire: In order to get Deon to end the time loop, Chester tells him that his future is still his to decide. Deon takes this advice...by focusing on deciding the future for everyone.
- All of Time at Once: When Deon begins using his powers at a greater length, he brings in things from multiple time periods. He even causes the main cast to wear clothes from different eras.
- Amnesia Loop: A fail-safe of Deon's control over Masonville, allowing him to reset the minds of people breaking out of their time period character. Cisco temporarily became a victim of this effect after the first loop.
- Arc Words: "I don't believe in quitting.", which is something Chester's dad used to say to him. Chester adopts this phrase during the last confrontation with Deon.
- Back to School: Cisco and Chester try to fit into a high school setting to conduct an investigation on the Still Force user's identity.
- Big Man on Campus: What drives Deon. He'd been a rising star quarterback in high school until he suffered a crushing knee injury in the championship game. While the second-string quarterback led the team to the championship, Deon's career was over and he was stuck as a used car salesman.
- Birds of a Feather: Iris comments how Chester and Cisco must've been separated at birth.
- Breather Episode: After the new arc's first two episodes, this one is much more lighthearted and comedic.
- Bring It: Frost's response to Joe telling her that Kramer is after her.
- Call-Back: The Still Force's mishaps in the present are not unlike when the Legends broke time and created Anachronisms.
- Can't Take Anything with You: Before figuring out that they traveled back in time, Cisco and Chester realize that their modern smartphones and van didn't remain with them.
- Career-Ending Injury: Deon experienced one during the high school championship game, resulting in him becoming a used car salesman after graduation.
- Celebrity Paradox: A poster for Fallen could be seen when Cisco and Chester walks by a Blockbuster video store. The film has Cress Williams, who plays the eponymous Black Lightning (2018).
- Cold Open: The episode starts with a roman soldier, a submarine and a T-Rex appearing in Central City.
- Continuity Nod:
- The central setting is Masonville - a small town Barry briefly mentioned having a pleasant detour in when he was six years old.
- Frost mentions Norvock helping move her stuff into Caitlin's room and is still shown to be into making abstract art.
- Chester's dumpster diving habit makes a comeback, and its origin is revealed in this episode. It was because it was instilled on him by his father.
- A Day in the Limelight: With Barry out of commission for a while, Chester gets to be the protagonist for the episode.
- Disappeared Dad: Chester reveals that he felt neglected by his dad as a kid and reveals that his death in a car accident was on the very next day. He manages to talk with him and finds out he truly cared for him and helped make him the man he is today.
- Dumpster Dive: Chester takes Cisco to a dumpster so he can find spare parts to use.Chester: See? One man's trash is another man's—Cisco: Another man's reason for a tetanus shot?Chester: I already got my tetanus shot...
- God in Human Form: The Speed Force, who experiences the physical world for the first time.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Anyone breaking the illusion of the day's events causes the Still Force to reset back to the start of the day. The first loop even reverts Cisco's memory back to his year-appropriate 7 year old mind.
- I'm Mr. [Future Pop Culture Reference]: Chester substitutes his name to John Boyega, in order to talk to his past father.
- In Medias Res: The episode opens with Natalie from Jitters encountering the various anachronisms the Still Force brings to Central City, before going back to 24 hours earlier.
- In Spite of a Nail: December 1998 is generally as normal, although in any case, the Timey-Wimey Ball nature of this series means that the time travel will generally be forgotten In-Universe, and this will probably get not much of a Continuity Nod.
- Internal Reveal: Joe tells Frost that Kristen Kramer is targeting her for her crimes as Killer Frost.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Cisco briefly loses his memories when time resets on them, although Chester manages to help him remember their mission.
- MacGyvering: Turns out Chester inherited this skill from his dad.
- Mic Drop: One of the people Cisco and Chester talk to does it.
- Moral Myopia: Deon makes a big deal out of his knee injury and not becoming a football star, yet he mocks Chester when he brings up losing his dad.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Speed Force begins feeling guilty over taking the form of Barry's mother after thinking he sees them as a reminder of her dying. Iris assure them that it's not the case, that he sees the Speed Force as a happy memory of when Nora was in her son's life.
- Mythology Gag: Cisco briefly wonders if Turtle 2.0 is responsible for the time wave. In the comics, Turtle was revealed to be the original Still Force conduit.
- Not So Above It All: The Speed Force acts surprisingly human.
- Oh, Crap!: Frost says it verbatim when Deon's powers changes her outfit into something out of The '60s.
- Outdated Outfit:
- Amusingly, Cisco and Chester's outfits would be more in place during the early 90s, rather than the late 90s.
- Deon's Still Force alters Team Flash's clothing from different time periods. Notably, Frost likes hers enough to actually keep it.
- Out of Focus: Barry takes a backseat in this episode.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Cisco and Chester are men in their 30s wearing clothes half a decade out of date trying to pass themselves off as high schoolers. Nobody seems to notice except for Parker, and that's because of what they say rather than how they look.
- Red Herring: The Force detector goes off when a guy named Parker comes into the room, only for him to just be someone trapped in the loop as well. The source of the reading is later revealed as Deon, who had been there as well but just left.
- The Reveal: Cisco determines that Deon is the Still Force, and then realizes that Fuerza must therefore be the Strength Force, and Psyche must be the Sage Force.
- Saying Too Much: Parker accidentally gives away that he's part of the time loop by telling Cisco that The Matrix didn't come out yet.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the episode is a reference to the Idiosyncratic Episode Naming used by Friends, which is the second Arrowverse episode to use it.
- Cisco and Chester seeing a Blockbuster video store, which tips them off that they traveled back in time. It proudly guarantees to have Space Jam in stock, along with posters for Fallen and Practical Magic (all of which are films produced by Warner Bros.).
- The approach of a T-Rex is heralded by ripples in someone's drink.
- Cisco cites his and Chester's situation when a barrier surrounds them as being "Under the Domed".
- Chester asks how they can get back in time without a Delorean or a hot tub.
- The concept of someone warping time and space to create an idyllic world and avoid reality is reminiscent of a series by DC's rival which aired around the same time.
- Deon compares Cisco and Chester to Steve Urkel.
- Upon learning that Deon's Career-Ending Injury was unchangeable, Chester referred to it a "fixed point".
- Frost says she doesn't care if Kramer is Xena: Warrior Princess.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Played with. While Chester does manage to talk Deon down and convince him from letting go of the past, he leaves with the intention of changing everybody's future now.
- Time Travel: Cisco and Chester travel back to 1998.
- Too Smart for Strangers: Mentioned by Cisco when a reset of the "Groundhog Day" Loop temporarily resets his mind to that of his 7-year-old self. He thus no longer recognizes Chester and sees him as a threat.
- Trigger Phrase: Mentioning things that happened after the date the time loop is set in causes the person under the influence to remember everything
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Like Psych in the previous episode, Deon retreats after being confronted.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: When Cisco is mentally regressed to his age on December 4th, 1998, he states that he is 7 years old, placing his date of birth between December 5th, 1990 and December 4th, 1991. Chester also states that Cisco is 30 in present-day, which could only be true if the present-day was on or after December 5th, 2020. However, 'Timeless' (3 episodes later) was confirmed to still be in mid-2020. Considering that Cisco would know his own age better than Chester would, it can be assumed that Chester's estimate is slightly off.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Deon mentions that no matter how much he tried, his powers wouldn't let him change the moment he injuried his knee in the championship game.
