With Thawne having rewritten reality, Barry finds himself targeted by his former allies, forcing him to team up with an old foe.
Tropes
- And This Is for...: After Alex Danvers and Ryan Wilder issue a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Barry, they list off a few of the people he's supposedly killed in this future.Alex: That was for Ray, and for Nate.
Ryan: And that was for Sara.
Allegra: And this...(hits Barry with a light blast) is for Cisco! - Anguished Declaration of Love: Chester and Allegra have one as Barry erases the Bad Future, followed by The Big Damn Kiss, which confuses the hell out of Caitlin.
- Anti-Magic: Before confronting Damien, Chillblaine and Frost have Constantine put a protection spell on them so Damien cannot directly attack them with his magic. Doesn't stop Damien from magically reflecting Chillblaine and Frost's own ice blasts back at them though.
- Ascended Fanboy: By rewriting Barry's history and assuming his place as the Fastest Man Alive, Thawne is basically living out his lifelong, pre-villainy dream of being the Flash (as was established way back in "The Reverse Flash Returns").
- Back from the Dead:
- Damien Darhk is alive again as a result of Thawne’s machinations.
- At the end, it's confirmed that Joe is again alive as a result of Barry fixing Thawne's damage to the timeline.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Barry shows up in Damien's penthouse, Darhk immediately sees something different about him...which turns out he was referring to his reduced speed.
- Bad Future: Thawne is the Flash and seen as a hero, Barry is Reverse-Flash and a villain, Iris is in love with Thawne, the Legends are dead, Cisco and Ray are dead, Ryan Choi never married and had a kid, and Damien Darhk is alive.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of finishing off Barry right then and there, when he is at just 5% of speed capacity, Thawne opts to let him suffer by having him fade out of existence by midnight. Needless to say, it backfires.
- Brought Down to Badass: Damien is a former League of Assassins assassin, after all. Even without being able to directly affect them with magic, he still gives Chillblaine and Frost a run for their money in hand-to-hand combat. It's only when the rest of the team arrives that he loses.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Referenced by Barry when Damien Darhk questions why he doesn't remember taking the PED from Ray's cold, dead hands. "When you've killed as many people as I have, you start to lose track." Damien buys it, since Barry is "Even darker than I am. Pun intended."
- But Now I Must Go: Ryan Wilder leaves three quarters of the way through the episode, as Luke called from Gotham due to Two-Face turning up.
- Butterfly of Doom: Thawne's alterations of the timeline not only see him as the heroic Flash and Barry as the evil Reverse Flash, but Damien Darhk is alive and well and responsible for the deaths of the Legends, Cisco (who was ARGUS director here) and Ray Palmer (who was still a tech philanthropist but not a Legend as well).
- The Cameo:
- Nora shows up via recycled footage and a picture on Damien's desk.
- Averted with Joe. Despite being revived and Barry talking to him on the phone, we don't see him nor hear his voice. Barry does confirm he is alive and well, though.
- Call-Back:
- Damien's speech about love towards Barry is quite similar to the one he gave Sara in "Guest Starring John Noble". He also reminds Barry about how he restarted a universe as the Paragon of lovenote .
- The Legends are dead, including Nate, Ray, and Sara. This may be Eobard Thawne finally trying to correct his error in letting them live when he got his hands on the Spear of Destiny.
- Similar to the above, the Bad Future takes place in a Villain World of Eobard Thawne's making, much like he did in Doomworld.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Why Damien initially declines to help Barry after learning this version of Barry is good, until he reveals that Damien's daughter Nora is alive in the correct timeline.
- Continuity Nod:
- Chillblaine and Frost went to John Constantine for a protective spell. Damien mumbles how much he hates him. Which might be another change to the timeline, given that in Legends Damien was pleased when Nora pretended she was engaged to Constantine rather than Ray Palmer.
- When Barry and Damien attack STAR Labs, Cecile uses Psycho-Pirate's mask.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Barry is on the receiving end of one from the Justice League at the beginning.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Turns out the Armageddon Despero was talking about was Barry having to destroy the world in the altered timeline to build up enough speed to go back in time.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Thawne reveals he had one during the interim between Seasons 7 and 8 after the Godspeed fight. If Barry is now faster than the Reverse-Flash, then how can Thawne hope to beat the Flash? By becoming the Flash.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Barry manages to convince Damien by appealing to him being a father. While Nora Darhk is dead in the new timeline, Barry shows him the Heroic Sacrifice Damien did to save her from Mallus in the original timeline.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For all his pettiness at taking over Barry's life Thawne balks at Barry accusing him of doing all of it just to cause Armageddon. As Thawne points out, why would he go through all that trouble to set up a perfect cushy life for himself just to destroy the world and kill everyone?
- Evil Is Petty: Thawne as ever — though "Armageddon" might just take the cake for sheer spitefulness.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: As Despero predicted, Barry does destroy the world, but only in the alternate Bad Future timeline so he can go back in time and undo it.
- Forced to Watch: Back in present 2021, Despero has killed all of Cecile's friends in front of her, trying to force her to reveal Barry's location. When she tells him that she doesn't know, he kills her too.
- Fugitive Arc: Barry as the Reverse-Flash, hunted by people who are supposed to be his friends, and having to turn to Damien Darhk of all people for help.
- Funny Background Event: Caitlin's reaction to Allegra and Chester's mutual Anguished Declaration of Love in the Bad Future is hilarious because (for her) it comes completely out of nowhere.
- Heel–Face Turn: Damien when Barry shows him what happened to his daughter and himself in the original timeline.
- Hero Antagonist: All of future Team Flash (except Eobard, of course), Alex and Ryan Wilder for Barry and Damien.
- Impersonating the Evil Twin: To get Damien Darhk's help in altering the timeline, Barry pretends to be the Reverse-Flash Barry that Damien remembers. It works pretty well until Barry refuses to kill Team Flash, since basically all he has to do is imitate Thawne.
- Interrogated for Nothing: Despero tried to force Cecile to tell him where Barry was by killing off Team Flash. Unfortunately, she legitimately didn't know where he was. It wasn't until everyone was dead that Despero finally believed she was telling the truth.
- It Has Been an Honor: Right before Barry attempts to reset the timeline, he and Damien shake hands, expressing this trope.
- Jerkass Façade: Ryan Choi, in contrast to him being married in the original timeline, acts like the stereotypical Spock-esque jerk towards the concept of love. But it turns out, he is really just afraid of it and actually hates the thought of waking up alone for the rest of his life.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": When Damien chokes out Ryan and Chester, he takes a moment to geek out at a Tupac Shakur poster.
- Legacy Character: Ryan Choi took over as the Atom for Ray Palmer after the latter's death.
- Most Definitely Not a Villain: Meeting Damien, Barry tries to play being the evil Reverse-Flash but his actions (like not just randomly killing some cops) let Damien see through him fast.
- Mythology Gag:
- A few to Flashpoint:
- Barry trying to convince someone he's the Flash by putting the costume on...only to have the Reverse-Flash costume appear instead.
- Damien Darhk is filling in for the Thomas Wayne Batman, where Barry recruited him into helping restore the timeline, with Damien motivated by the notion that his offspring can be brought back to life (Bruce in Thomas's case, Nora in Damien's).
- In the end, Thawne is reduced to wearing a cheap, ill-fitting yellow suit straight out of the original comics.
- The episode also loosely resembles The Return of Barry Allen - specifically, the notion of Thawne taking over Barry Allen's life and becoming the Flash.
- A few to Flashpoint:
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In hindsight, restoring Thawne from his disembodied state and recruiting him to help defeat Godspeed may not have been the best idea.
- Noodle Incident: Ryan Wilder mentions how she had to face her own "lady in red" speedster.
- Not Me This Time: Thawne tells Barry that despite everything he's done, he's not responsible for Armageddon, as he'd rather live in his perfect world than see it destroyed.
- Off on a Technicality: Why Damien is out of prison, according to a news report.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; the episode features both Ryan Wilder/Batwoman and Ryan Choi/the Atom.
- Out-of-Character Alert: After Team Flash are knocked out, Barry tells Damien that they can kill them later, which makes him realize this isn't the evil Barry he remembers.
- Poor Communication Kills: Subverted in regards to Chester and Allegra. While it initially seemed like that Allegra thought he ghosted her when he went away in the morning (to buy breakfast), she knew exactly what was going on and ghosted him out of fear of letting anybody get close to her.
- Prophecy Twist: Despero was right, Barry is going to cause the Armageddon of 2031...in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Relationship Upgrade: Various people in the Bad Future are shown to be in various stages of relationships in 2031:
- Ryan Wilder and Sophie Moore are married and are planning on adopting a child.
- Frost and Chillblaine are a bonafide Happily Married Battle Couple.
- Chester and Allegra have been in an on-again, off-again relationship for years but finally decide to get back together again at the end of the episode...just as Barry destroys the Reverse-Flashpoint timeline.
- Reset Button Ending: Barry, with a combination of his speed, Darhk's time-stone, and a device called the Particle Eradication Distributor, is able to undo all of Thawne's changes simultaneously and reset the timeline - not just erasing the Bad Future, and bringing Joe back to life, but also undoing the events of the last few episodes (STAR Labs being shut down, Barry losing his job etc.).
- The Reveal: Barry wasn't acting out of his mind - Thawne was Gaslighting him by wearing his face and doing the things Barry was accused of.
- Revealing Hug: Although Thawne lets Iris embrace him, he drops his smile as he contemplates his next move against Barry.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Barry's hand starts fading several times as Thawne's timeline will solidify at midnight and he will cease to exist.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Despero is completely unaffected by Barry resetting the timeline, memories and all.
- Rule of Symbolism: When Thawne is revealing his rewritten history to Barry, the two face each other in costume, without their masks on. Red light is shining from Barry's face, while Thawne has yellow light instead. Not only does this reference the color of their changed lightning when they run, it also represents who they truly are in the original timeline.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Barry is able to convince Damien to aid him in fixing the timeline by stating how, in the real one, his daughter is alive and Damien was the one who sacrificed his life to save her. Thanks to their teamup, Barry is able to fix the damage to the timestream, stopping Despero's Armageddon and saving Joe West.
- Shipper on Deck: Alex, and eventually Ryan Choi too, for Allegra and Chester.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The Legends' absence here is explained as them being killed.
- Something Only They Would Say: Iris is troubled by how "Reverse-Flash" called her "my lightning rod" which is something only her "husband-to-be" Thawne calls her.
- Special Edition Title: The opening theme replaces Barry with Thawne.
- Stable Time Loop: It turns out that the Armageddon in 2031 was caused by Barry being chased by Thawne around the world as he tried to reach Mach 20 in under 2 minutes in order for his plan to reset the timeline to work. Despero traveled back in time just before the world was destroyed, blamed the Flash for Armageddon, and targeted him in 2021 - setting into motion the chain of events that leads to Barry traveling to 2031 and causing the catastrophe.
- The Stinger: Thawne comes to the present, apparently freeing somebody to help him turn the tables against Barry.
- Swapped Roles: As far as everyone is concerned, Thawne is the noble, heroic Flash and Barry is the evil, warped Reverse-Flash.
- Timey-Wimey Ball:
- As usual for this show. Despite Thawne having killed Barry as a child, somehow he's still around to become the Reverse-Flash. In fact, it appears that Thawne has altered Barry's timeline in three contradictory ways (ruining Barry's life in 2021, making himself the Flash and Barry Reverse-Flash from the beginning, and killing Barry as a child) and each one affects Barry in a completely different way: the first alters Barry's timeline as it's happening, the second Barry has Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory for, and the third is a Delayed Ripple Effect.
- Not to mention Despero killed all of Team Flash in front of Cecile even though they're still alive in the future.
- The Un-Reveal:
- Thawne may have confirmed he was behind Joe's death and sabotaging STAR Labs, but he didn't confirm whether or not he planted the evidence that links Barry to Joseph Carver.
- The bearded man standing next to Ryan Choi is never named and never utters a single line.
- How and why in this reality Barry became the Reverse-Flash with a history seemingly identical to Thawne's (especially since he was killed as a child) and why the Speed Force would ever choose Thawne as a champion are never explained.
- Only Luke/Batwing is mentioned as being back in Gotham, leaving it still up in the air how everything with Alice and the current storyline with Mary will eventually play out on Batwoman.
- It isn't revealed how Nora Darhk died in the altered timeline, just that she was an adult when it happened, judging by the picture of her in Damien's penthouse.
- Villain Team-Up: Proposed by Barry as Reverse-Flash to Damien Darhk to get his help. Apparently in this timeline they've done this a lot.
- Wham Shot: In-universe as Barry tries to prove it's him by releasing his Flash outfit...only for it to form into a perfectly fitting Reverse-Flash suit.
- Would Hurt a Child: Thawne caps off his expositional taunts about the altered timeline by revealing that he murdered Barry when the latter was a child.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Damien Darhk, of all people, manages to convince Barry that he is strong enough to overcome the odds, reminding him of The Power of Love and that he is its Paragon.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Barry tries this to get through to everyone he's not the villain. It's especially pushed to Iris to remember whom she loves.
- You Monster!: Cecile calls Despero this for killing all of Team Flash while interrogating her for Barry's location.
