History Main / FlashbackEcho

* ''[Series/{{Highlander Highlander}} The Series]'' uses this every episode. Immortals have centuries of memories to draw upon, and will invariably flash back to an event similar to the present.

* [[Series/Highlander Highlander The Series]] uses this every episode. Immortals have centuries of memories to draw upon, and will invariably flash back to an event similar to the present.

* ''MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', around 85% through the main storyline, after [[spoiler:Snake attempted to chase down the Peace Walker whilst riding the Boss's horse, said horse breaks it's back after being thrown off an extremely steep hill, Snake (i.e. The Player) is then forced to euthanize said horse, before (or after, depending on how long the player takes to pull the trigger) Snake has flashbacks to the climax of Operation: Snake Eater, in which he was forced to finish off the Boss, whom was helplessly suffering from wounds attained in her previous battle with Snake, with a single round from her Patriot]].
** ''MetalGearSolid4'' has Snake dream about his mission in Shadow Moses from ''MetalGearSolid'', which is not only playable, but the sequence also doubles as a NostalgiaLevel with gameplay elements and graphics directly used from the Playstation version!

** Cypress [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/2010/11/bowling-for-bozos/has one herself]] ([[http://www.lastres0rt.com/2011/06/i-think-johnny-cash-wrote-a-song-about-this/ explained here]]), but backfires given that instead of jumping into a pool of ''water'' ([[WrongGenreSavvy ala the flashback]])... [[spoiler: she jumps into some flesh-dissolving nanotech!]]

* In a season 4 episode of ''{{Angel}}'', "Ground State", electro-girl Gwen Raiden electrocutes and kills Charles Gunn. She immediately flashes back to an event in her childhood in which she accidentally kills a boy she was making friends with. [[IncrediblyLamePun Shocked]] with herself, she revives Gunn within twenty seconds or so.

* In ''{{Xenogears}}'', Elly is speaking to a mob of mutated humans, offering to sacrifice her body to them in order to ease their pain. In the middle of her speech, the game flashes back to Sophia[[spoiler:, her previous incarnation,]] saying the same words.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'' did this in the first episode where an odd looking knife sparks Gwen's memory and overrides the amnesia drug she was slipped earlier.
* ''{{Lost}}'' loves to do this. Every episode contains a flashback that usually has some relevance to what is currently going on in the episode, focusing on the central character for that episode.

!!Examples

** During Guts and Casca's first time, Guts ends up flashing back to [[spoiler:his traumatic childhood rape at the hands of Donovan]], which almost leads to [[spoiler:Casca getting strangled to death]]. The rest of the scene sees the two more than making up for this.

* ''ForeverKnight'' does this OnceAnEpisode (or more) with Nick flashing back to a situation earlier in his life which paralleled his current predicament.

* In ''HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets'', Dumbledore asks Harry, "Is there something you wish to tell me?" in such a way that it's suggested he knows whatever the "something" is and is trying to give Harry the opportunity to come clean himself. Later on he asks Tom Riddle the same thing in the diary flashback.

<<|FlashbacksAndChronology|>>

* If a character sees a large fire and starts having a FreakOut because it triggers a traumatic flashback of when they were a kid and almost got trapped and killed in a fire. Flashbacks of forgotten or repressed traumas may be incomplete, mysterious and foreboding.
* As above, but with nostalgic or otherwise meaningful events.
* A person reminds someone of a different person they used to know, and they flashback to memories of that person, sometimes represented by visually superimposing the old person's image over the new person's.
* A flashback to ThatOneCase or an event that was [[MyGreatestFailure someone's Greatest Failure]] brought on by a similar event, may lead to MyGreatestSecondChance.
* Any flashback to an event because HistoryRepeats.

* In the ''{{Batman}} Confidential'' storyline "The First League", various events trigger Bruce Waybe having flashbacks to a meeting with a Chinese superhero group when he was travelling the world before taking the Batman identity. Most notably his first encounter with the JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, which leads to a LetsYouAndHimFight situation that exactly parallels a training exercise with the Chinese team.

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* In ''HarryPotter and the Chamber of Secrets'', Dumbledore asks Harry, "Is there something you wish to tell me?". Later on he asks Tom Riddle the same thing in the diary flashback.
** And then both Harry and Tom respond with the same "No, sir, nothing."
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* In {{Killer7}}, during the final phase of Chapter Smile, Garcian can stop by each floor of the Union Hotel and see bloodstains at the same places where [[spoiler:he, as Emir Parkeriner, killed (and assimilated as alternate personalities) the six people of the Smith Syndicate, who all happened to be staying there at the time]], bringing back painful memories.

* {{Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker}}, around 85% through the main storyline, after [[spoiler:Snake attempted to chase down the Peace Walker whilst riding the Boss's horse, said horse breaks it's back after being thrown off an extremely steep hill, Snake (i.e. The Player) is then forced to euthanize said horse, before (or after, depending on how long the player takes to pull the trigger) Snake has flashbacks to the climax of Operation: Snake Eater, in which he was forced to finish off the Boss, whom was helplessly suffering from wounds attained in her previous battle with Snake, with a single round from her Patriot]].

* In a season 4 episode of ''{{Angel}}'', "Ground State", electro-girl Gwen Raiden electrocutes and kills Charles Gunn. She immediately flashes back to an event in her childhood in which she accidentally kills a boy she was making friends with. Shocked with herself, she revives Gunn within twenty seconds or so.