Line #56 Recap/TheFlash2014S2E5TheDarknessAndTheLight


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flash_s02e05.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Light her up.]]
3
4	'''Season 2, Episode 5''':
5	!The Darkness and the Light
6
7	The S.T.A.R. Labs team must deal with the unexpected arrival of Earth-2 Wells. But when a metahuman called Dr. Light shows up in Central City, they must decide whose advice to follow: Dr. Wells', who wants to use Dr. Light to lure out and fight Zoom, or Jay Garrick's, who wants to talk Dr. Light down and avoid confrontation with Zoom.
8
9	----
10	!!Tropes:
11	* AccidentalMisnaming: Earth-2!Wells calls Ronnie "Ricky" and Cisco "Crisco". It's not out of malice, but rather because [[{{Jerkass}} he really doesn't care about any of them]].
12	* AlmostKiss: Jay and Caitlin. Sadly interrupted by an explosion from Dr. Light.
13	* AntagonistTitle: The Light in the title refers to Dr. Light.
14	* TheBigDamnKiss: Barry and Patty get one at the end of their date.
15	* BadassBookworm: As if his fondness for {{BFG}}s wasn't enough of an indicator, Earth-2 Wells is shown to be very capable in a fistfight when he and Jay come to blows.
16	* BlindDate: Not a true example, but Barry makes a {{pun}} about it--he has a date with Patty right after Dr. Light used her powers to temporarily blind him.
17	* {{Bookends}}: The episode begins and ends with a scene on Earth-2 involving a speedster.
18	* BoomHeadshot: Iris performs a non-fatal one on Dr. Light, only knocking her helmet off.
19	* BulletCatch: Barry saves Wells from three of them.
20	* CallBack:
21	** Joe mistakes someone for Thawne and shoots him with three bullets. Fortunately, Barry was luckier than with Everyman.
22	** Barry recreates Eobard Thawne's Speed Mirage trick from "Out of Time", only he makes a lot of mirages instead of just one.
23	* ChekhovsGun:
24	** Literally: Because of Wells' "return", Joe decides to give Iris a gun. She later uses it to shoot Dr. Light.
25	** Wells' metahuman detector; shown at the beginning and later used by him to figure out Cisco's got superpowers, as well as to convince the rest of Team Flash.
26	* CompositeCharacter: The Dr. Light from this episode combines aspects of at least two different Dr. Lights from the comics. Her overall appearance (and her gender) is adapted from the Kimiyo Hoshi incarnation of Dr. Light, but her being a villain rather than a superhero is from the Arthur Light incarnation of the character. Plus, none of the Dr. Lights in the comics have been Linda Park.
27	* TheConstant: Aside from Big Belly Burger, Jay jokingly calls coffee "the one constant in the multiverse".
28	* CoolVersusAwesome: Patty's reaction to King Shark vs. the Flash.
29	-->'''Patti:''' I just saw a half-man, half-shark thing take on the Fastest Man Alive. [[QuirkyTown I love this city.]]
30	* CutLexLuthorACheck: Jay's primary beef with Wells is that he used the metahuman panic to make a profit on metahuman-detecting devices.
31	* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: Wells implies that people under Zoom's influence are far more violent and desperate then they were in their own world.
32	* DramaticIrony:
33	** Caitlin assures Cisco that his having powers will ''not'' make him evil. However, the audience knows that her more traditionally evil alter-ego, Killer Frost, will make her debut later in the season. We just don't know which Earth this Caitlin comes from, and Earth-2 Wells at least makes it clear that Earth-1 Caitlin, so far, does ''not'' have any metahuman powers. Suffice to say, when she does show up, it'll be a little more than unsettling.
34	** ''Immediately'' after Earth-2 Wells says, "Everyone loses someone they care about, Snow. The real test of character is what you do once they're gone.", Joe walks in...and immediately begins shooting at who he ''thinks'' is Eobard Thawne.
35	* DullSurprise: Wells-2, learning about Eddie's suicide.
36	--> '''Iris:''' You...look just like him.\
37	'''Harry:''' I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?\
38	'''Cisco:''' Her fiancée died because of him.\
39	'''Harry:''' Oh. [{{beat}}] [walks away]
40	* EarlyBirdCameo: Excusing the {{pun}}, Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl) gets a proper scene ahead of her ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' appearance.
41	* EvilTwin: Dr. Light is one to Earth-1's Linda Park. Causes problems when Dr. Light decides [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne to kill Linda and take her identity]] [[SympathyForTheDevil to escape Zoom.]]
42	* FaceYourFears: Earth-2 Wells and Jay both tell this to Barry (notably the ''only'' thing they agree upon), and Earth-2 Wells tells this to Cisco.
43	* AFatherToHisMen: Iris and Linda's boss performed a HeroicSacrifice by shielding the latter from Dr. Light.
44	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Earth-2 Wells is rapidly becoming this. His presence constantly reminds everyone of what "the first Dr. Wells" did to all of them, [[IAmNotHim much to his chagrin]]. Not helping matters is that this Wells is less FauxAffablyEvil and more of a straight-up {{Jerkass}}.
45	-->'''Cisco:''' ''Our Dr. Wells may have been evil, but you're just a dick.''
46	* HeroicBSOD: Jay has a minor when when confronting Wells forces him to admit that he is utterly terrified of Zoom.
47	* HeroicSacrifice: Iris and Linda's boss shields the latter against her EvilTwin at the cost of his own life.
48	* IHaveYourWife: Earth-2 Wells' daughter is being held captive by Zoom.
49	* INeedAFreakingDrink: The weirdness this week is bad enough that Cisco has to specify that he needs an ''alcoholic'' drink, not a coffee.
50	* InSeriesNickname: Cisco dubs Earth-2 Wells "Harry" to differentiate him from his Earth-1 counterpart and said counterpart's impersonator.
51	* InternalReveal: The team finds out that Cisco is a metahuman.
52	** A downplayed variant comes from Barry learning that Joe learned from Dr. [=McGee=] that [[Recap/TheFlash2014S2E4TheFuryOfFirestorm Wells broke into Mercury Labs]].
53	* {{Irony}}:
54	** Cisco, resident [[TheNicknamer Nicknamer]] for most of the series, doesn't come up with one for ''himself''; instead, Barry and Caitlin suggest "Vibe" for him.
55	** Cisco makes small talk with the new Jitters barista about the city's metahumans and how the chances of meeting one would be most unlikely. She is Kendra Saunders, the future Hawkgirl.
56	** Joe claims Dr. Wells is "wearing the face of the man that killed [Barry's] mother" when really the [[AccidentalPun reverse]] was true.
57	* JerkassHasAPoint:
58	** Despite being an all-around jerk, Wells-2 is completely justified being angry at Earth-1 Flash and Team, as they constantly treat him and blame him as if he was Eobard Thawne.
59	** Wells is also right about what he says about a person losing those they care about. Everyone will lose a loved one, but the real test of character comes in what they do after the tragedy. He is also right in that Cisco should get over his reservations to stop Zoom.
60	* KillAndReplace: It is revealed why Atom-Smasher killed his Earth-1 duplicate just as Dr. Light tried to -- to escape Zoom.
61	** However, Atom-Smasher continued trying to kill the Flash even after murdering his double.
62	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn[=/=]SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: A scene of Wells looking up his alternate's history starts with Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good" playing; Cisco then walks in and complains about his taste in music.
63	* LightEmUp: Dr. Light's power. Specifically, she can generate light as hot and bright as a ''star'', as well as weaponize hard light.
64	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Joe shooting at Wells upon seeing him at [=STAR=] Labs, thinking he was Thawne.
65	** Subverted in regards to Iris: after being informed about Wells, [[CharacterDevelopment Joe goes to tell Iris]] (and give her a gun).
66	* LoopholeAbuse: [[DiscussedTrope Mentioned by Joe]], after giving Iris a gun due to "Wells"' reappearance.
67	-->'''Joe''': You can't murder somebody...that everybody thinks is dead, right?
68	* MaleGaze: The camera, both InUniverse and out, lingers several times on Patty's chest area during her and Barry's date.
69	* MsFanservice: Patty wears a [[CleavageWindow revealing]] burgundy [[SexyBacklessOutfit dress]] during her date with Barry.
70	* MurderByMistake: Doctor Light accidentally kills her doppelgänger's boss when attempting to kill Linda, resulting in a temporary VillainousBSOD.
71	* MythologyGag:
72	** [[{{Comicbook/Aquaman}} Atlantis]] exists in Earth-2, and Jay's been there before. He mentions one of his best friends is from there, and that it's actually above water.
73	** The decision to make Dr. Light a CompositeCharacter; specifically, the fact that both comics!Light and this Light are ''[[InterchangeableAsianCultures Asian]]''.
74	** When discussing Cisco's power, Caitlin dismisses the idea of powers making people evil, when she herself has a superpowered evil comics counterpart, Killer Frost. (Though this episode also shows Wells-2's metahuman tracker give her a negative reading.)
75	** Wells insisting and Jay admitting Barry is faster references the comics where it was established for some time that Barry (and later Wally West when he took over the role as Flash) is much faster than Jay Garrick.
76	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Barry calling Dr. Light "Linda" upon seeing her face confirms to her that there is an AlternateSelf to KillAndReplace.
77	* PetTheDog: Earth-2 Wells tries to show some sympathy for what Thawne-as-Wells did to Barry.
78	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Earth-2 Wells tears Jay a new one for being too soft on the metahuman breachers and on dealing with Zoom.
79	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
80	** A politer version, but Jay washes his hands of the team when they decide to follow Dr. Wells' advice and try to confront Zoom sooner rather than later.
81	** Doctor Light also attempts this after being thwarted in killing her Earth-1 counterpart, but is stopped at the train station by the Flash.
82	* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: Jay and Earth-2 Wells eventually come to blows, and Barry's forced to do this.
83	* SunglassesAtNight: Barry wears them during his date with Patty when he's temporarily blinded by Dr. Light. It has a camera attached to it so he can be aided by Cisco. He eventually takes them off when Patty catches on to his blindness.
84	* TallDarkAndSnarky: Earth-2 Wells, a charismatic and seemingly well-loved public figure on his own Earth, is also highly sarcastic and quite the {{Jerkass}} towards Earth-1's Team Flash. The fact that there's no wheelchair makes his height much more obvious.
85	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Jay suggested that Dr. Light can be reasoned with. Barry tries it, but seeing her identity as Linda Park of Earth-2 makes him lose focus on it.
86	* TemporaryBlindness: Barry suffers this after his first encounter with Dr. Light, who startled him with the revelation that she's the doppelgänger of his ex, Linda Park. He then has to go on a date with Patty while his eyes recover, and enlists Cisco's help in a ZanyScheme to get through the night.
87	* TrademarkFavouriteFood: Earth-2 Wells is also fond of Big Belly Burger, a similarity that Cisco is less than pleased to discover.
88	* VillainousBSOD: As pointed out by Jay and Wells, Doctor Light is ''not'' a murderer. At least, she wasn't at the start of the episode. She doesn't take it well.
89	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Joe's perfectly reasonable reaction to walking into a room and encountering Wells is to pull out his gun and fire multiple shots.
90	* WrongGenreSavvy: Barry and Cisco try to pull off some classic TV date shenanigans since Barry has gone blind for his date. Patty isn't fooled, both because she is a detective and because she's not an absolute moron. She ''does'' appreciate the effort Barry goes to just to keep the date while blind.

Context Recap / TheFlash2014S2E5TheDarknessAndTheLight