While Barry trains Dr. Dhawan, he makes a shocking discovery about whom she is working with.
Tropes Featured in this Episode:
- Aborted Arc: Diggle's ongoing arc comes to an end when he decides to reject the cube and go back to his family, with the original plan for him to become a Green Lantern cancelled. The box is Retconned so that instead of holding a Green Lantern ring, the box itself is some kind of cosmic cube that grants access to parallel realities when opened.
- All-Loving Hero: Barry, as per usual; when it becomes clear that this Eobard Thawne is not the same as the Eobard he previously knew, they share a handshake and he later waves off Meena's apology for nearly killing him.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: By the end of the episode, Barry considers Letscher-Thawne to be a totally different person from the villainous Reverse-Flash he used to be before his memory loss and holds no ill will towards him.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Meena Dhawan gets corrupted by the Negative Speed Force.
- Bank Robbery: Cecile foils one with her increased powers during the beginning of the episode.
- Beard of Sorrow: John sports one, having been all around the world to try and solve the mystery of the cube, being haunted by the voices inside it, all while neglecting his family.
- Big "NO!": Cavanagh-Thawne, when John rejects the cube.
- Cassandra Truth: Letscher-Thawne insists he's telling the truth about everything, that he's never met Barry or the Flash, and that he does genuinely love and care about Meena. Unsurprisingly, Barry (and likely the audience) does not buy it...at first...but eventually becomes convinced (even without using lie-detecting methods like Cecile) that he's telling the truth, which still seems to be the case by the episode's end—he has amnesia, likely after being once again resurrected by the Time Wraiths following his sacrifice to guard a fixed point in time.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Barry approaches Cavanagh-Thawne to help him understand what's happening with the other Thawne, and then Diggle goes to the same one to ask for help opening the cube.
- Continuity Nod: Lots of them.
- The title is a reference to the Season 1 episode "The Man in the Yellow Suit", and features antagonism between Barry and Thawne as a major theme of the episode, just like that one did.
- Since Dr. Dhawan is giving herself artificial speed, Allegra wonders if she will lose her emotions and become "Spock Flash", like Barry in the first Arc of Season 7.
- John Diggle makes an appearance, still trying to solve the mystery of the green-glowing box.
- Ray Palmer makes a short appearance, telling Team Flash what happened to Letscher-Thawne, something he himself learned from Nate.
- The dam is the same one that Barry fought Pied Piper on previously.
- The Corrupter: Cavanagh-Thawne tries to talk John into seizing the power of the cube and taking control of the universe.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Cavanagh-Thawne says the other version isn't him, Barry realizes that Letscher-Thawne must be from another timeline. When Cavanagh-Thawne discusses his device, Barry further realizes the darker Speed Force energies are what's affecting Dhawan and can destroy her.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: John tells Cavanagh-Thawne that a man like him would never understand how one could choose his family over power.
- Fauxshadowing: Several parts of the Green Lantern mythos have appeared in the show lately, such as having the Breakout Character of Blackest Night Deathstorm as an Arc Villain, or having Cecile use the Emotional Spectrum, Rainbow Raider-style, to thwart a bank robbery. This episode reveals that the green box Diggle found was not, in fact, a Green Lantern ring.
- Flashback:
- Of Letscher-Thawne and Dr. Dhawan meeting and falling in love.
- To Diggle's journey of trying to open the cube, with one showing Luke Fox in particular.
- Of Letscher-Thawne being apparently killed by Black Flash on Legends of Tomorrow, coming back as the guardian of a fixed point in time and dying again.
- Have We Met?: Since his mind got wiped, Letscher-Thawne has no idea who Barry is and is very irritated about the latter's hatred towards him.
- I Have This Friend: Barry introduces himself to Dr. Dhawan as a friend of the Flash.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Letscher Thawne ultimately manages to talk Meena down, despite her initially claiming that the Meena he knew is dead, by reminding her of their love.
- Insufferable Genius: Downplayed, but in the Flashbacks at least it seems that the only thing Letscher-Thawne initially retained from his old self was the ego, as he calls all of Dr. Dhawan's other candidates idiots after easily solving her equation.
- Internal Reveal: Ray Palmer brings Team Flash up to speed about what has been happening with Letscher-Thawne.
- Kick the Dog: Cavanagh-Thawne just cannot resist doing this, taunting Diggle over Oliver's death.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Letscher-Thawne has no memories past the last year. Apparently, the Time Wraiths resurrected him after his heroic death over in Legends of Tomorrow to give him another shot at life, without the baggage of his past villainy.
- Love Redeems: Letscher-Thawne, despite his amnesia, was initially driven by the invisible desire to become a speedster. However, after getting to know Meena, he fell in love with her and even gave up his only chance to become a speedster by putting her inside the B.L.O.C. when she fell into cardiac arrest.
- Mythology Gag:
- Cavanagh-Thawne mentions the Orrery of the Worlds, the Bleed of Mandrakk and the Source Wall. He also uses the phrase "Cosmic Odyssey", which was the title of a comics miniseries heavily featuring John Stewart.
- When John throws the cube away, a familiar symbol appears on it for a second.
- When Ray comes up in a video call, he says he's fighting off an infestation of serpent creatures from the Morlaidh dimension, leaving to get his sword. In the comics Morlaidh was a shrunken city of aliens that Ray Palmer protected while wielding a sword during a period where he couldn't return to normal size.
- Thawne suffering from memory loss while in the present day is reminiscent of the The Return of Barry Allen story-arc.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: John manages to open the cube, and inadvertently notifies Deon of Cavanagh-Thawne's location.
- Noodle Incident: Ray mentions the Quincy P. Runk Institute is having a minor infestation of serpent creatures from the Morlaidh dimension.
- Not Me This Time: Cavanagh-Thawne is still behind lock and key, not having to do anything with Letscher-Thawne appearing.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Cavanagh-Thawne reveals to John that he was only able to open the cube because he was starting a new life and control of his destiny. Since then, he hasn't been ready to open it again.
- Out of Focus:
- Despite a power-up and even being mentioned in the official synopsis of the episode, Cecile only appears briefly at the beginning and at the end of the episode.
- Caitlin and Mark only appear at the very end.
- Opening Narration: Dr. Dhawan provides it.
- Power High: After being corrupted by the Negative Speed Force, Meena keeps draining electricity around the city because she needs more, even trying to destroy the dam.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Meena, after being corrupted by the Negative Speed Force.
- Redemption Earns Life: The time remnant of Thawne who genuinely underwent a Heel–Face Turn in season 7 of Legends of Tomorrow before being killed by an evil robot Sara Lance is again resurrected by the Time Wraiths in 2022, this time to live a normal life in Central City as a relatively good-natured scientist with no memory of his evil past, and even allowed the chance to fully love someone.
- Refusal of the Call: After finally managing to open the cube again and being tempted by it, John ultimately rejects and throws it away, choosing his family over cosmic powers.
- Shout-Out:
- Chester, as usual, makes a reference, this time he exclaims "Holy Francis Sumner!"
- While standing on the dam and shooting lightning everywhere, a corrupted Dr. Dhawan exclaims "Unlimited Speed!", probably in a reference to Emperor Palpatine.
- Cavanagh-Thawne is reading The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Signature Move: Meena prepares to kills Barry with the "Vibrating Hand" move, the same one Thawne always used.
- The Stinger: Two.
- Mark shows Caitlin a concept for a machine he made to resurrect Frost.
- Deon appears before Cavanagh-Thawne, apparently having plans for him.
- Technicolor Eyes: Cecile's eyes glow in all colours of the rainbow while she uses her powers.
- Took a Level in Badass: According to Gideon, Cecile's powers have increased up to 1000%. This enables her to easily foil a bank robbery and prevent a mugging without having to call back-up, by projecting debilitating emotional states onto the bad guys.
- Un-person: Cavanagh-Thawne says that there are no records whatsoever about a Dr. Meena Dhawan in the future.
- Wham Shot: Dr. Dhawan's partner is nobody less than the depowered and now twice resurrected time remnant of Eobard Thawne.
