Barry trusts his instincts during a murder investigation, believing the suspect, despite the overwhelming evidence against him. Meanwhile, Iris gives Allegra an opportunity to be a mentor.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Team Flash, for whom believing in the impossible and giving people second chances is a regular Tuesday, suddenly refuse to do it for Birch at first. They do come around, though.
- The Atoner: Jaco genuinely wants to make up for his mistakes and give his son a good life.
- Birthday Episode: This episode takes place on what would have been Henry's birthday.
- The Bus Came Back: Max Adler returns as Jaco Birch.
- Call-Back: We see flashbacks to Henry being imprisoned for Nora's murder, and later him being released. It's outright stated that memories of this are what's fueling Barry's determination to prove Birch's innocence.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Harold does this to his father Jaco, indicating a coldness towards his father. This is one-sided, as Jaco desperately seeks to connect with his son, which he ultimately does by the episode's end, at which point Harold calls him "Dad".
- The Chains of Commanding: The hierarchy at the Citizen leads to conflict once more, with Taylor going to Iris when Allegra shuts down her story about Rosie Levin, who approves it. Then Allegra abandons her during the interview to do her own story about Lydia.
- Continuity Nod: Flash reminds Frost of herself being framed by Chillblaine.
- Continuity Snarl: Cecile tells Barry she's unwilling to use her empathic powers on a client. This after the last few seasons, in which she used them on all and sundry, often without people's consent. In fact, the only reason Allegra isn't in Iron Heights is that Cecile used her powers on Allegra without permission to sense she was innocent! Given that she goes back to using her powers on Chester the following episode, it's probably not Character Development.
- Due to the Dead: Barry, Iris, Joe, and Cecile gather to remember Henry and his life at the end of the episode.
- Everyone Has Standards: Jaco may have violent anger issues, but he claims he'd never actually kill someone.
- Frame-Up: Some yet unknown meta framed Jaco for the murders of Stan and Donna. At the end of the episode, he is still at large.
- Good Feels Good: Jaco, after saving the city.
- Instant Costume Change: In between Barry grabbing Frost and them arriving at the scene, she's changed from civvies to her usual combat attire. Maybe they stopped off on the way to change?
- The Lava Caves of New York: In real life Missouri (where Central City is stated to be located) is not located on a fault line nor does it have any geothermal activity beneath it; though, this is at least somewhat justified here due to the unique aspects of Jaco's powers that even he was unaware of.
- Lethal Lava Land: What Central City nearly becomes by the episode's end as a strange result of Jaco's powers flaring up.
- Nice Guy: Although we already knew Henry was one, this episode adds more proof: Joe recounts how Henry once skipped his own birthday party to take care of a patient.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Allegra, letting her bias get in the way, ditches an interview with an influencer in favor of writing a story about an ex-con she was friends with in prison. While it turns out to be well-written, Iris reams her out for leaving a reporter she was supposed to be supervising in the lurch. Not only that, that reporter now wants revenge for both abandoning her and stealing her front page.
- Not Helping Your Case: Jaco's extremely impulsive behaviour doesn't win him any favours, particularly him breaking out of a prison transport, trying to intimidate Donna (who ends up dead shortly after) and trying to take his son by force.
- Not Me This Time: Jaco is a criminal who fought Team Flash before, but insists he's not guilty of murder.
- Old Friend: Allegra meets Lydia Sanchez, an old acquaintance from her days in prison, who is trying to get by. She later writes an article about her struggles.
- Papa Wolf: Jaco is incredibly protective of his son.
- Parental Abandonment: Harold's mom has been in and out of his life since his birth.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Jaco inadvertently almost causes a volcano eruption under Central City.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Allegra gets one from Taylor over her abandoning her.
- Revenge: Taylor promises to destroy Allegra for stealing her story.
- Shout-Out: Chester says that Jaco is about to turn Central City into Mount Doom.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Jaco's past and anger issues are used against him when he is suspected of killing two people.
- Allegra using her managerial authority and personal relationship with Iris to get her article published before Taylor's understandably does not go down well with the latter, and a simple apology from Allegra doesn't resolve the situation.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Jaco almost does so, preparing to incinerate Korber. Thankfully, Barry talks him down just in time.
- Villain of the Week: Subverted. Initially this seems like a standard episode of this format, where some Hidden Villain is trying to frame Jaco and this villain will be taken down in the climax. While Jaco is proven innocent by the episode's end and his arc is likely complete, the real villain behind this is still unknown by the episode's end, leading into a full-blown Story Arc.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Jaco's reaction to being arrested, with only Flash doing so initially.
