Still reeling from the big revelation about Thawne and Nora, Team Flash reads her diary to learn her story.
- Affectionate Nickname: Thawne calls Nora "Little Runner".
- Antagonist Title: Referring to Nora's Starter Villain.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Godspeed combines Thawne's use of tachyons and the Velocity-9 formula to give him his speed powers and plans to make a stable formula that gives him powers permanently.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: No one in Nora's time believes there's a new speedster, even with video evidence, because there hasn't been a speedster since the Flash disappeared. It turns out they're technically right; Godspeed is a normal who is using V-9 to temporarily gain speed, and Nora had her powers before the Flash disappeared, they were just suppressed. For whatever reason, the Speed Force isn't making any new speedsters.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Lia suggests that Dioxygen Diflouride
(aka FOOF) would make a good ingredient in Velocity-9. Problem is the only way FOOF reacts with anything is to blow it up.- Made worse when they actually find a 16-gallon barrel of the stuff, stored at room temperature. And try to open it up, with an unprotected human in the room. That should have killed her even if the crazy speedsters didn't.
- And yes, they do want to add sulfur to the mix. Not even A. G. Streng could make that work.
- Atrocious Alias: The first few suggestions Lia makes for Nora are...not the best.
- Bad Liar: Thawne immediately sees through Nora's flimsy excuses to see him the first time.
- Bait the Dog: After hearing the full story, Barry asks to be left alone with Nora making the audience think this will be their reconciliation. But alas, not.
- Big "NO!": Nora, when Godspeed kills Lia.
- Call-Back: Thawne teaches Nora to phase through walls the exact same way he taught Barry. And he also tells her "Run, Nora, run!".
- Calling the Old Man Out: Nora rebukes Future Iris for hiding from her everything about The Flash and her powers.
- The Cameo:
- Chekhov's Gunman: August Heart, Godspeed's civilian identity, briefly runs into Nora at the Flash museum early in the episode. Nora later remembers him upon seeing the photo of him the CCPD brings up.
- Continuity Nod:
- Since the episode takes place before she traveled into the past, Nora wears her hair in the same braided ponytail she used to before cropping it to the shorter bob-style she wears presently.
- Lia refers to “that purple speedster who only showed up for a day”.
- The building Godspeed steals his final piece for the formula from is the Tracy Brand Building, presumably owned by HR’s former lover.
- Create Your Own Hero: Godspeed's lightning attack on Nora shorted out her meta-dampener, causing her powers to manifest.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is Nora's Origins Episode.
- Death by Origin Story: Nora's closest friend Lia is killed by Godspeed during the origin story of her becoming XS.
- Death Row: Implied in earlier episodes, but in this one Thawne explicitly confirms that he's been condemned and the timer is in fact the countdown until his execution.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Nora briefly runs into August Heart at the Flash Museum, before finding out later that he is Godspeed.
- Dramatic Irony: The video message Barry recorded for Nora just before he would disappear saying how he would always love her is in direct contrast to the cold dad, facing Nora now.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- When Lia mentions that she tripled Nora's coffee, the latter is able to deduce that all the 3 chemicals Godspeed stole are made to produce a drug for him.
- Nor realizes that Godspeed's powers are based on his ingestion of Velocity-9 when she was reviewing exhibits about Zoom and Trajectory and realizes that Godspeed's lightning briefly turned blue too.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Seemingly with Thawne, as it appears he has come to be genuinely fond of Nora, even asking Barry not to blame Nora for her actions, since all she ever wanted was a chance to get to know her father.
- Foreshadowing: The others calm down about Nora working with Thawne after reading her diary, but Barry doesn't which is a big indicator on what he does at the end of the episode.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Godspeed. Cool costume aside, he's introduced as just some guy in the future who decided to start abusing Velocity-9. He barely gets any dialogue, much less character development.
- A God Am I: Godspeed, like other Velocity-9 users, named himself that after answering Lia's exclamation of "Oh my god".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Godspeed had no reason to shoot lightning at Nora or kill Lia, this ended up giving her access to her powers and driving her to take him down.
- Hope Spot: Once Nora reveals her whole story, it looks like she and Barry will reconcile...only for Barry to banish her to the future.
- I Have No Son!: Barry exiles Nora to the future and says that he will stop her from coming back to the past. So in other words, he's disowned her as his daughter.
- Irony: It's Iris, the parent that Nora was initially frosty to, who is advocating for her, while Barry, the absent dad she's held up on a pedestal for decades, is treating her with outright hostility.Iris: It's Nora, our daughter.
Barry: She lied to us, since the first day she got here! - Jerkass Ball: Barry's feelings towards Nora are blinded by his feelings towards Thawne. Everybody else is much more understanding, but Barry can't get over her working with Thawne, culminating in him banishing her to the future without consulting anybody else, not even Iris. Thawne lampshades this noting how Barry was always too emotional.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sherloque is correct that the Team's anger at him is somewhat misplaced - sure, he could've said something earlier, but he still revealed the truth...just as Nora was working up the courage to do it herself.
- Mirror Character: It's not commented on, but Barry's obsession with Nora working with Thawne and ignoring the circumstances and intent behind it has eerie parallels towards Thawne's irrational and illogical hatred of Barry for "making" him the villain.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The look on Nora's face says it all, after Barry exiles her from the past, and Team Flash.
- My Greatest Failure: Nora's friend Lia was killed because she was too inexperienced to stop Godspeed.
- Mythology Gag:
- Lia's name is the same as that of the Flash of Earth 9, Lia Nelson.
- Many towards Nora's origin lifted from the pilot.
- Nora running late to a crime scene.
- Nora waking up after an accident to "Poker Face" and then discovering her powers.
- Running into a van the first time her powers woke. For extra trivia: the van belongs to a laundromat named Gambi and Sons, named after the Rogues' resident tailor, Paul Gambi.
- Thawne coaching Nora how to run through a wall just like he did with Barry in "Tricksters".
- Dayton Labs was founded by Steve Dayton/Mento of the Doom Patrol in the comics.
- Bug and Byte were a brother and sister duo of villains that Firestorm faced in the comics.
- Future Iris is writing an article in Coast City, home turf of Green Lantern.
- Lia's line, "You know I'm equally a fan of our fleet-footed super friends."
- Never My Fault:
- Once again Sherloque believes himself completely blameless for having kept from The Team since the beginning of his suspicions of Nora, only speaking up when she was at her most vulnerable. Iris knew he had suspicions but he still blindsided her when he put Nora on the spot.
- After banishing Nora, Barry goes to confront Thawne about him "taking" Nora from him, even though Barry's the one who pushed her away because he's letting his hatred for Thawne overpower his parental love for Nora.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Iris' refusal to tell Nora about her true heritage. Nora went to Thawne to ask his help on a new speedster in town, completely oblivious to his "relationship" with her family.
- Nora's first superheroics with her powers botches a police takedown of bank robbers Bug and Byte because she keeps crashing into policemen and their cruisers. Her uncontrolled static charge also shorted out her gauntlet and all their equipment. Fortunately the two were caught further down the street after exhausting themselves.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Godspeed zaps Nora in the chest, which, unknown to either of them, shorted out the power dampener Iris implanted on her daughter, allowing her to awaken her powers.
- No Sympathy: Barry is the only one who doesn't feel any sympathy for Nora after hearing her story.
- Older Than They Look: In the future, Iris looks quite well for somebody pushing 60. The only indicator to her age was a few strands of white in her hair.
- Origins Episode: For Nora.
- Sherlock Scan: Upon noticing the worn out soles on her new shoes, the friction burns on her clothes, her face being flushed, and the familiar windburns, Thawne is instantly able to deduce that Nora is a speedster. Of course, he probably already knew anyway, depending on whether he had already met her in the past-future.
- Sole Survivor: Apparently after the Red Skies Crisis, Thawne was the only speedster left.
- Starter Villain: Godspeed is this for Nora, not receiving any real characterization and existing solely to help her discover her powers.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Nora feels some pity for Thawne after seeing him being given electro-shock therapy as part of his "repentance" by a particularly sadistic guard.
- That One Case: Cicada is this to Nora, it's the one Barry never solved so she's obsessed with solving it, just like Barry was obsessed with finding the man who killed his mother, the elder Nora.
- The Reveal:
- Nora found out about her speed when Godspeed's lightning fizzed out the dampening chip Iris put in her.
- Nora began seeing Thawne to ask his help to catch Godspeed, a new speedster in town, Hannibal Lecter style (and how to control her powers).
- At Iris' request all of the West family and their close friends kept mum about Nora's powers.
- Gideon was the one who told Nora about her dad being the Flash since Iris wouldn't.
- Nora decided to go back in time after seeing the video message Barry recorded for her during the Crisis.
- This Cannot Be!: When Nora sees the camera footage of a speedster with white lightning — there was never a speedster with white lightning recorded being seen in Central City before.
- This Is Unforgivable!:
- Nora is very angry with Iris when she finds out about the dampening chip and tells her that she essentially lost her daughter now.
- Barry is able to forgive Nora about many things...but continuing to work with Thawne after she learned what he did to him, to his teammates, and especially his mother is the one he can't. He refuses to let her explain herself and banishes her to the future.
- Video Wills: Barry recorded one for Nora, apparently during the Red Sky crisis.
- The Voice: Oliver in Barry's recorded message to Nora. He could be heard frantically looking for Laurel and telling the other heroes to dodge an incoming attack.
- Wardens Are Evil: The warden in charge of Thawne obviously enjoys torturing the latter with electric shocks.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Godspeed like all speedsters generates an electric charge and is capable of throwing lightning. Even so, Nora defeats him by setting him up to be hit by the electromagnetic radiation of a satellite dish transmission, which completely nullifies the Velocity-9 in his system.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Predictably, Iris calls Barry out for throwing their own daughter in the Pipeline, and especially Sherloque about keeping his suspicions about Nora to himself and the extremely blunt way he revealed it all to Team Flash which ended with her husband throwing their daughter in the Pipeline.
- For that matter the entire Team is rather pissed off at Sherloque for pretty much lying to them once again since the beginning.
- Barry as mentioned above is livid Nora continued to lie to them and work with Thawne even after everything she learned about him.
- Wham Episode:
- Barry banishes Nora to the future, telling her he'll feel her try to come back and stop her from doing it.
- We also learn that the aftermath of the 'crisis' is even worse than we thought. Not just Barry, but Wally and Jay vanished as well, as well as lesser known speedsters, to the point where the idea of a new villain with Super-Speed is considered unbelievable because that's not a thing anymore. (It's also curious that Jay's civilian identity is known to average joes on Earth-1, though if it's like the comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths, this universe might be the one created from the few that survived the events.
- Wham Line:Barry: (To Nora) It's time to go home.
- Wham Shot: A new speedster never before seen — Godspeed.
