With Frost facing an unjust punishment for her past crimes, Caitlin goes to great lengths to save her sister. Meanwhile, Barry's efforts to protect Speed Force Nora lead to a shocking discovery.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Law: Probably the most blatant example in the Arrowverse so far. A court absolutely cannot require or compel a person to take any type of drug, medication included, unless it's been fully tested and approved by the FDA, a process which takes years, while the meta cure hasn't even existed that long. It's also not even within a judge's prerogative to issue a penalty that isn't ratified by legislation.
- Even if the judge did rule that way, it would never make it past an appeals court, and Cecile could have appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, which would take decades, all while Frost was out on continuing bail.
- The district attorney's stunt of accusing Frost in open court also wouldn't fly; in real life, she'd be sanctioned for belting out the accusation in court when she could have easily called a sidebar. Also the break-in couldn't legally be factored into sentencing without proof she was directly involved, evidence of foul play wouldn't be enough alone.
- The entire process is also displayed incorrectly. The attorneys don't request a certain sentence, you have to submit a recommendation before the sentencing hearing, and to recommend an atypical sentence requires a motion and at the very least a separate hearing on whether or not the proposed sentence is constitutional. Also the length of Frost's prison term is completely at the judge's discretion, a request from the defendant and the wishes of the prosecutor don't really change anything, so Cecile's throwing her own words back at her was completely unnecessary.
- The simple fact that Cecile allowed Frost to enter a guilty plea without having a pre-negotiated sentencing agreement is rank incompetence for any defense attorney.
- The Bus Came Back: Norvok makes an appearance at the trial.
- Continuity Nod: A.R.G.U.S. appears.
- Crazy-Prepared: Kramer had the cure replicated beforehand due to suspecting it being destroyed.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Alexa not having control over her actions as Fuerza is directly compared to her past as a drug addict.
- In addition to the already existing themes of the corrupt justice system and holding somebody's past against them, Frost's speech about how it is wrong to try and change what a person is in order to punish them rings eerily similar to conversion therapy.
- Eaten Alive: How the Speed Force describes the other Forces attacking her felt like.
- Exact Words: The prosecution’s argument for Frost being depowered was "to ensure that this extremely dangerous criminal no longer threatens our good citizens." Once Frost proposes the alternative punishment of life in prison without parole, Kramer tries to interject that the state isn’t interested in that punishment, only for Cecile to point out that Frost's proposal does exactly what the prosecution wanted.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Speed Force turns against Barry and Iris, manipulating them into helping her kill Alexa.
- Fantastic Racism: Coupled with Freudian Excuse. Kramer is revealed to hold a grudge against meta-humans - rather than Frost specifically - because she was once betrayed by a meta-human, and subsequently came to desire the depowering of any meta-human who doesn’t use their powers for good; when Frost proposes an alternative punishment of life in prison without parole, Kramer outright tries to argue that isn’t something the state is interested.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: While Barry tries to calmly explain the situation to Alexa, the Speed Force calls her a monster.
- The Heist: Caitlin, Cisco, and Kamela break into CCPD to destroy the meta human cure.
- Heroic BSoD: Cecile becomes desperate after the scheme to destroy the cure gets uncovered, saying that they lost.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Not wanting to become a legal precedent for metahumans being forcibly cured, Frost willingly enters life imprisonment.
- It's All About Me: Frost accuses Caitlin of being selfish in her effort to keep her out of prison, as she doesn't understand Frost not wanting to take the cure. Caitlin eventually concedes this.
- Make an Example of Them: Kramer specifically wants to set legal precedent with Frost, in order to force the cure on every metahuman criminal in the future.
- Manipulative Bitch: The Speed Force shoots a lightning bolt at Iris in order for Barry to deflect it and thus generate enough power to kill Alexa.
- Must Make Amends: Frost makes it clear that she wants no foul play to bust her out.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Frost is certainly not happy with her friends for destroying the meta cure, which only makes her situation worse.
- Nothing Personal: Both Kramer and Joe affirm their respect for one another despite disagreeing on many things.
- Put on a Bus: Kramer leaves Central City.
- Put on a Prison Bus: Frost asks for a life imprisonment sentence and gets it.
- The Reveal: Turns out Fuerza targeted Abra Kadabra because Alexa was mad at him for destroying one of her housing projects.
- Self-Serving Memory: The prosecutor says only Killer Frost could have had motive to destroy the meta cure; it seems she forgot about the hundreds of meta criminals in Central City who probably wouldn't be too keen on the possibility of having their powers taken away.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Alexa Rivera, who is completely shocked upon discovering that she is Fuerza.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Barry, Iris, and the Speed Force trying to get ahold of Fuerza is given the same weight as the trial against Frost.
- We Need a Distraction: Caitlin distracts the front desk while Allegra tries to disable the cure. When Allegra gets caught by Kramer, she then distracts the latter while Caitlin disables the cure herself.
- Wham Episode: A major one. Frost ends up getting life imprisonment while Speed Force Nora undergoes a Face–Heel Turn.
- With Us or Against Us: The Speed Force tells Barry this when deciding to kill Alexa.
