As Eobard Thawne sets up his last gamble, Mia and Despero enter the scene.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Part IV ended with Thawne apparently going to recruit someone, possibly another returning supervillain, which is forgotten because Thawne finds out his time is literally running out.
- Asshole Victim: Thawne, to pretty much the greatest degree imaginable. He goes out of his way to insult and agitate Team Flash at the same time he's waiting for them to save him from being a victim of his own Evil Plan.
- Back from the Dead: Subverted with Damien. He lasts longer than he expected in this new timeline, but only so he can say goodbye to Nora once more before fading away.
- Batman Gambit: Thawne knows that Barry's Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude means they will still look for a way to save him even after all the horrible things he's done to them (and flat-out admits the horrible things he will still do to them after he's been saved). Of course, he also doesn't have any other options at this point anyway.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: While both Mia and Despero have tried to hold back in the past, they insist that Thawne has to be stopped and destroyed completely, no matter what.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Thawne is saved by Team Flash, but he's reduced to a powerless human once again.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Despero takes control of Mia and forces her to attack Barry's team.
- Brought Down to Normal: The fate of Thawne.
- The Bus Came Back: Mia, who was last seen in the Arrow finale.
- Call-Back:
- The team uses the same method Jefferson used to drain Barry's speed to depower Thawne.
- In the previous season it is stated that to be an unimaginable horror for a metahuman to have their powers forcibly removed from them, being somewhat of a metaphor for conversion therapy in real life as it's trying to forcibly change who someone is. Of course if anyone actually deserves this fate, it's Thawne.
- The Cameo:
- Dinah, Laurel, and William appear in brief shots, via recycled footage.
- Nora Darhk briefly appears as the timeline fully resets to swap her back in for her father.
- Nora West-Allen and Bart photo-bombing a picture from 2014 in the police station.
- Captain Obvious: When power goes out in STAR Labs, Chester says "Frak, we just lost power!"
- Continuity Nod: Mia is still searching for William. A flashback of his abduction in the penultimate episode of Arrow is shown. At the end of the episode, she decides to go to her mother for help (on Iris's advice).
- Cruel Mercy: The fate of Eobard Thawne. He lives, but his speed is removed from him, seemingly permanently. He even describes it as his own personal Hell.
- De-power: Both Despero and Thawne lose their powers.
- Diving Kick: After siphoning the energy of the Flame of Py'tar, the Flash runs up the side of a building before jumping off and dropkicking Despero with the same energy.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted, as Mia is quite hostile towards Damien.
- Evil All Along: Despero was the despot of his world, not a rebel fighting a despot.
- Evil Is Petty: Thawne as usual. See The Reveal.
- Face Death with Dignity: Damien is not afraid to go, especially knowing that his beloved daughter is still safe.
- Family of Choice: Caitlin describes Team Flash as hers.
- Fate Worse than Death: Thawne considers that living without his speed is this, comparing it to Hell itself.
- Fighting from the Inside: During the "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight between Team Flash and Mia, Iris points out that she was intentionally holding back and keeping herself from killing the team.
- Good Is Not Soft: As Thawne learns the hard way. Barry, Iris and Caitlin are all perfectly willing to simply let Thawne die, and even when they save his life, they leave him without his powers.
- Hand Wave: How the problem of Thawne being Immune to Fate is dealt with: according to Barry (who has little experience with this type of thing beyond time travel itself), his methods of using Damien's time stone caused a single, cohesive timeline that makes the Negative Speed Force unable to keep him alive anymore.
- Heroic Rematch: While initially, Barry does only marginally better against Despero than before, he finally defeats him after extinguishing the Flame of Py'tar.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: After eight years, Thawne finally reveals what he thought Ronnie was; an "idiot."
- Honor Before Reason: Joe insists that, as heroes, they must save Thawne's life, even after Thawne admits that the first thing he'd try to do afterwards is kill them all again.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: In the span of a single episode Thawne has gone to having everything he wanted and gloating at his greatest victory over Barry, to having absolutely nothing and being forced to beg his nemesis just to help keep him from being erased from existence permanently.
- I Did What I Had to Do: How Despero justifies himself after Barry confronts him with having been a tyrant, not a rebel leader.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Thankfully, Team Flash eventually manages to reach Mia and make her shake off Despero's influence.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Mia, after she sees Damien still alive.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despero adamantly stresses that even without the original series of events, Thawne can still cause another Armageddon.
- Kick the Dog: Thawne mocking Caitlin and insulting Ronnie.
- Knight Templar: Despero is willing to blow up Central City in order to kill Thawne because the latter might still be capable of causing Armageddon.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Chester is delighted to make Mia's acquaintance.
- Last Villain Stand: At this point, Thawne has been cut off from all of his resources and teammates, and is right back to trailing Barry in speed. He’s still not giving up and wants to stay clear of the paradox that will kill him.
- Logical Weakness: The Flame of Py'tar, for all its power, is still a flame - thus, Barry is able to harness it with a vacuum and then disperse it.
- MacGuffin: Before dying, Damien gives Joe a mysterious stone, which he says Joe might need some day.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: To battle Despero one final time, Chester revealed he used the material from the PED to create a set of golden boots that can capture and direct energy, finally giving Barry his iconic golden boots.
- Moment Killer: Barry unknowingly interrupts Chester and Allegra talking, when Chester was just planning to make a move on Frost's behest.
- Murder by Inaction: Most of the team, sans Chester, Allegra, and Joe, think that the best way to deal with Thawne is to simply wait until he fades away.
- Mythology Gag:
- Thawne reveals that he first met Barry when the latter time-traveled to his era on a case unrelated to Thawne, which is how they first met in most versions of his origin story.
- Also, when Eobard explains why he hates Barry, Barry notes only a sociopath would get angry at something so petty. Which outright states, though heavily implied and basically confirmed before, this Eobard is also a clinical sociopath.
- Not Me This Time: Mia's first confrontation with Thawne at the beginning of the episode, asking for her brother's whereabouts. In this case, however, Thawne sincerely has no idea who she's talking about.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Played with. Despero's claims of being the heroic rebel fighting a despot were all lies. He was the despot on his homeworld. However, he is still genuine in wanting to save Earth, no matter what the cost; see Knight Templar.
- Questionable Consent: When Mia is arguing with Iris over Thawne's fate, she brings up the fact that he had manipulated her into becoming his fiancé despite being responsible for almost all of her misery.
- The Reveal:
- We get more backstory as to why Thawne hates Barry so much. As was previously established in "The Reverse-Flash Returns," Thawne originally wanted to be a hero like the Flash, and that time traveling revealed his destiny as Barry's greatest villain. However, the specific event that made Thawne snap was when he was about to save a group of people and reveal himself to the world, only for a time traveling Barry to arrive and save the crowd that Thawne wanted to save.
- It's also revealed that Despero himself was the tyrant in his story, not the rebel hero, which is more in line with his comic self.
- Sarcasm Failure: The otherwise ever-mocking Thawne is silent and looks mildly perturbed when Caitlin tells him that she has hated him for eight straight years.
- Save the Villain: Team Flash protect and ultimately save Thawne.
- Seen It All: After eight seasons of dealing with Thawne’s pettiness, Barry barely reacts to Thawne admitting that the tipping point for his grudge against Barry was when a future version of the latter saved some people that Thawne was going to save as a newly-minted Flash.
- Shipper on Deck: Frost for Allegra and Chester.
- Shout-Out: Chester uses "frak" as a replacement curse word, which became popular due to Battlestar Galactica (2003).
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Caitlin interrupts Thawne's speech towards her, making it clear that she is very willing to let him die, seeing it as distinctly different from abandoning the Hippocratic Oath.
- The Stinger: As a police officer at CCPD mentions that everything should be back to normal, Bart and Nora suddenly insert themselves into a photo from 2014.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After so many years of doing nothing but manipulating Team Flash with the rare exception, it is of no surprise that most of them are fully willing to simply let Eobard Thawne fade from existence and not bother them ever again.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Thawne is about to be erased from time — for the third time — and somehow everybody knows it will be permanent this time and they know down to the minute exactly when he'll disappear. Somehow the solution is to sever his connection to the Negative Speed Force, even though it had been previously stated that the Negative Speed Force can protect against this sort of thing. The only real explanation given is that Barry claims that he had created a single, cohesive timeline (in contrast to the variable time stream in Legends of Tomorrow) which makes it impossible for the Negative Speed Force to solve it.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Thawne doesn't even bother to check behind him in the CCPD, allowing Mia, a normal person, to trip him from behind.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Thawne gloats to Barry's face how he will keep looking for ways to kill him after the team has saved him. Even when they do save him, he's upset because he lost his speed.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After his connection to the Flame of Py'tar gets severed, Despero swears revenge and disappears in a stream of fire.
- Villain Has a Point: Despero is very right in pointing out how many times Thawne weaseled himself out of dying and that Barry should take this one chance to be rid of him forever.
- Villainous Breakdown: The entire episode is basically this for Thawne, especially when it becomes clear that Team Flash is willing to simply let him die. It culminates when they remove the Negative Speed Force from him altogether.Thawne: You think you've saved my life...You took my speed. My speed is my life! You took my life! And left me in hell.
- Villains Want Mercy: The premise of the episode. After everything he's done to them. Thawne wants Team Flash to save his life because changing the timeline means he's going to fade away.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Despite what a monster Thawne is, Joe is furious when Barry and Iris are considering letting him die, calling out that it’s not what they do and that they are supposed to be better than that.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Mia is flabbergasted at Team Flash actually considering saving Thawne.
