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Recap / The Flash 2014 S 5 E 3 The Death Of Vibe

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After their encounter with Cicada, Team Flash turns to a new ally — Harrison Sherloque Wells in taking down their deadly new adversary, hopefully before he kills his next victim...


  • Always Someone Better: Sherloque is a so much better detective than Ralph that the latter gets basically forgotten by the rest.
  • Appeal to Flattery: Harrison Wolfgang Wells tries to get into Team Flash by praising Iris' beauty.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Sherloque asks Nora if someone else encouraged her to intervene in stopping DeVoe's Colony Drop. Her unsettled reaction suggests that the answer is yes.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis:
    • Sherloque is so good that he could deduce Cisco was getting over a break-up in a matter of moments! And during the confrontation with Cicada, he figures out where they are by listening to the crickets and getting told which trees are around.
    • Joe takes notice on how Cicada goes on and on about family and is able to deduce a lot from that.
  • Badass in Distress: Cicada manages to get the drop on Joe and hold him hostage as a lure to catch Vibe.
  • Bait-and-Switch: For a few tense moments, it seemed like the episode truly was killing off Cisco by showing that he was disintegrated. And then a breach opens behind a distraught Barry...
  • Berserk Button: The eco-friendly burglar at the beginning of the episode. The cashier better not put the money in a plastic or paper bag! He brought his own biodegradable one.
  • Big Brother Is Watching You: Somebody, probably the man himself, is watching Caitlin through a camera while she is deducing her (supposedly) dead father's message.
  • Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: The original Cicada was on his way to becoming one, conveniently meaning the heroes don't have to feel too bad about beating him up.
  • The Bus Came Back: Wolfgang Wells makes a brief return when the team enlists his help in tracking down Cicada.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Sherloque faking his death provides the inspiration for Cisco to fake his and get Cicada off his back (for now, at least). The inter-dimensional portal was an early element and later becomes key to Cisco's trick.
    • The old game Caitlin found, where she and her father would make up names for elements, is the key to deciphering the message her father left her.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Cicada tortures Joe with electro shocks from his dagger to get him to call Cisco to their location.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: A young Nora's visit to the Flash Museum features a hall dedicated to the Flash's villains where their iconic gear are stored: the Reverse-Flash suit (complete with the tachyon device attached), Heatwave's flamethrower, the Weather Wizard's wand, Savitar's armor, among many other trinkets.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Sherloque is flabbergasted that time travel threw off his deductions.
    • Played for laughs as Cisco is jarred that rather than his usual arrogant jerk self, German!Wells is a total Fan Boy for Barry, Iris and even Nora.
  • The Dreaded: Cicada, a villain no hero could catch. Not Team Flash, not the Legends, not Green Arrow, not Supergirl, or even the League.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Cicada turns out to have a young daughter in a coma.
  • Exact Words: The title "Death of Vibe"; Cisco is forced to pretend that Vibe is dead to appease Cicada.
  • Faking the Dead: The only way Cicada was going to leave was if Vibe was killed. An explosion, a hidden breach out, and Cisco leaving his costume behind managed to get the job done.
    • The inspiration for this plan was Sherloque trying to pull this on Team Flash earlier in order to get out of giving them a refund. Apparently he's done it before with one of his ex-wives (twice).
  • Flight: Cicada shows himself to be able to fly through unknown means.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Tons at the Flash Museum.
  • French Jerk: Sherloque is now the third french Wells in total and quite a bit full of himself.
  • History Repeats: Once again, Cisco and another Wells have an...intense relationship.
  • Jack The Rip Off: Cisco even compares Cicada to Jack the Ripper.
  • Kavorka Man: Sherloque is an insufferable jerkwad who, admittedly, looks like Tom Cavanagh. Not only has be been married and divorced several times - you'd think word would get around - but his second wife was also his fourth.
  • Killed Offscreen: Block was transported to a hospital after being stabbed by Cicada last episode, but apparently died on the way there.
  • Mad Bomber: Earth-1 David Hersch might not have become Cicada, but he is still a terrorist targeting the goverment.
  • Meta Twist: By this point, the audience is expecting the season's main Wells to be some kind of fraud or liar. Sure enough, Sherloque reveals he stopped putting in actual effort to find Cicada after it turned out to be the same guy in a few dozen universes. He just fakes the profile so the good guys have probable cause. But thanks to some unknown disruption, it's a different guy on Earth-1. Then he fakes his death; more evidence he's just a conman. And then Sherloque shows he does have actual detective skills; see Awesome by Analysis, above.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Nora casually mentions that the League was amongst the heroes who couldn't catch Cicada.
    • Nora mentions that Cicada's first victim was Floyd Belkin, the civilian name of Legion character Arm-Fall-Off Boy.
    • Kolins Woods is a reference to former Flash artist (and Cicada co-creator) Scott Kolins.
  • Nerves of Steel: Joe never shows fear towards Cicada even once while being intimidated and tortured. Only when Cecile appeared did he gets nervous.
  • Never My Fault: After being surprised about the fact that the resident version of David Hersch is not Cicada, instead of admitting that he was lazy and skipped the real detective work, Sherloque scolds Nora for not telling him that Earth-1's timeline is altered.
  • Not His Sled: Sherloque Wells has caught 37 different Cicadas, all of whom were their Earth's David Hersch, which is indeed his secret identity in the comics. Unfortunately, Earth-1 Cicada is not David Hersch; it's ambiguous if this because of Nora staying in the past or if it's similar to Jay and Jesse being the Flashes on their Earths and not a version of Barry.
  • Once a Season: It wouldn't be a new season without another Harrison Wells joining the team. This season's model is Harrison Sherloque Wells — he's just as insufferable as his namesake.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Nora mentions that the problem with Cicada is that nobody knows anything about him. The origins of his powers, his motivations, his identity - all a complete mystery. And he was never caught...
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The passcode to Caitlin's mother's records room is Caitlin's birthday.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: Cicada can use his dagger like this. Justified since he can at least draw his weapon back to his hand.
  • Punch-Clock Hero: Sherloque Wells agrees to help Team Flash catch Cicada...for a fee of course; he has a lot of alimony to pay for. Team Flash later browbeats him into working for them since they want a refund and he gave their money to his ex-wives (yes, plural).
  • Sherlock Scan:
    • Sherloque Wells, naturally, does this a lot.
    • Cisco later pulls one of his own when Sherloque is trying to bail on them.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Sherloque Wells is a living amalgamation of famous literary detectives — he's named after Sherlock Holmes, but his general demeanor and detection methods invoke Hercule Poirot.
    • Cisco refers to Sherloque as "Cumberbatch" and Cicada as "Michael Myers".
  • Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Averted. Nora mentions that other heroes tried to capture Cicada and failed.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Wolfgang Wells is far more amiable to all of Team Flash than he was to Harry and Cisco last season, though Cisco hasn't forgotten his past demeanor. He even thinks Wells is trying to troll him when the latter shows his new personality.
  • The Unreveal: The exact price Sherloque charged Team Flash with for his services: the most we get of it is that, according to Nora, it was pretty high even for someone from the future.
  • Wham Line:
    • Sherloque Wells asking Nora if she was encouraged to intervene and help her father with DeVoe's Colony Drop. He stops her from giving an answer and waves off the question; it's implied the answer is "yes".
    • Amongst her list of the heroes that tried and failed to stop Cicada was the League.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Barry scolds Nora when she attempts to kidnap David Hersch from police custody to force him to confess.
  • Work Off the Debt: The reasoning for keeping Sherloque on the team: since he basically scammed them, they're not letting him go until he pays them back.
  • Wound That Will Not Heal: Cicada has a strange-looking, glowing wound on his body that won't heal.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: Wait, Central City has 14 million people? Admittedly, this isn't entirely impossible, but have we seen anything onscreen to hint that Central City has a population that blows New York City's out of the water?

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