Exposed to a mysterious device, Barry starts rapidly aging, and must find a cure before it's too late.
Tropes
- Adaptational Nationality: Dr. Pytor Orloff is Russian in the comics, but appears to be American here.
- Big "NO!": Dr. Orloff, when his machine gets destroyed.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Singh comes back to assign Barry to this week’s case.
- Gideon is used by Chester and Barry to analyze the effects of the aging on his powers.
- Call-Back:
- Caitlin's attempt to bring back Frost includes use of the mirror gun that separated them in the first place.
- Cecile utters the "Run, Barry, run" line.
- Fatal Flaw: Singh brings up to Joe that he always had problems letting go of things and adjusting his life to changes. This makes Joe rethink and eventually reconcile with retirement.
- Fountain of Youth: Downplayed, as Barry gets de-aged to 29 years old.
- Heroic Willpower: Despite physically aging over 100 years old while using his powers, Barry keeps going until he destroys Dr. Orloff's machine.
- Immortality Immorality: Dr. Orloff wants to gain eternal youth and immortality by draining the life out of all of Central City.
- Internal Reveal:
- Singh learns that Kramer knows Barry's secret. He also gets to know Allegra.
- Barry learns that Caitlin is trying to resurrect Frost.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After Dr. Orloff drains the Flash's youth and later tries to drain the entire city of their youth, the episode ends with him being rapidly aged and Flash telling him to enjoy what time he has left in prison.
- Liquid Assets: Dr. Orloff's machine uses gamma radiation to somehow transfer other people's youth to himself.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Orloff, combined with Evil Genius, who wants to find eternal youth, by taking it from everybody around him.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Due to the effects of the aging, Barry's powers are severely weaking. When he tries to throw a lightning at Dr. Orloff, it dissipates.
- Present Absence: Iris is still sorely missed by her entire family.
- Rapid Aging: The effect of this week’s villain, Dr. Pytor Orloff.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Barry's mental capacity is affected alongside his physical stamina.
- Shoot the Dog: Barry destroys Caitlin's laboratory to stop her from going down a self-destructive path in trying to resurrect Frost.
- Shout-Out:
- Barry and friends are playing Dungeons & Dragons at the beginning and the end of the episode. At the beginning, Joe isn't very invested, but he finds his passion for the game at the end, even coming dressed as Gandalf.
- While discovering Barry's condition, Chester exclaims "Holy Benjamin Button!".
- The Sociopath: Dr. Orloff is willing to subject all of Central City to a Cruel and Unusual Death of Rapid Aging in order to make himself immortal.
- Time Skip: After Dr. Orloff is defeated, the episode jumps ahead 1 week.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- The weekly speech is delivered by Singh to Joe for a change, encouraging him to accept that life changes and that it's not always a bad thing.
- Cecile also gives one to Barry, telling him about her grandma, who also never gave up and always looked at the time ahead of her.
