History Recap / JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E12DividedWeFall

-->'''Flash:''' You lose.\\

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Superman tries with Lex, only to learn the latter is now playing along instead of being a possessed victim.

As the League regains consciousness, Flash stands, unsteady, and then fades completely away, to the horror of his teammates. Luthor weakly gloats that he had indeed killed Flash. But now is the moment of truth for an enraged, grieving Superman: He seizes Luthor, and his eyes glow red. Wonder Woman moves to intervene, but Batman stops her as this is Superman's decision. Superman's eyes return to normal and he releases his grip on Luthor, to the villain's genuine surprise. At the end of the day, Superman is not a Justice Lord – No matter how much he wishes he could do what that one did at this moment. Then J'onn shouts that Flash is still alive, and he can sense Flash telepathically. Shayera reaches in the direction J'onn is pointing, and her hand touches a portal to some other dimension, the "Speed Force", into which Flash has been taken. From within, Flash is enraptured with the realm, which is "calling him home" and wants to give in to it. Alarmed, Shayera shouts for him to resist it and seizes his hand, with all six Leaguers form a chain with Batman as the anchor, and it takes all their combined strength and will to pull Flash back into reality. Flash mentions if he ever goes that fast again, he won't be able to come back. A short distance away, a relieved Waller tells the President to call off the air strike against Brainiac.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: The Flash is regarded as the nicest member of the team. But when push came to shove, Flash showed he had the raw power to take down the godlike Braniac/Luthor entity single-handidly...

** As well, The Flash can never attain the speed he uses to beat Brainiac ever again on pain of being absorbed by the Speed Force.

** A subtle one dating back to [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E8StolenMemories when Superman first met Brainiac]], where Luthor theorized in a then throwaway line that Brainiac could give to Humanity would be a potential cure for Cancer. Here, we find out that Brainiac managed to cure the Kryptonite-Based Cancer that was affecting Luthor ever since ''[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E8And9InjusticeForAll Injustice For All]]''; Essentially proving Lex right all along.

* DarkestHour: The newly formed Lexiac prepares to bring about the end of the world. With the closest help an hour away, the Big 7 are the only ones in a position to stop it. In all the confusion, Flash is the last Leaguer standing.

* DidNotSeeThatComing: Lexiac completely writes off Flash as a threat. Problem is, Flash's powers prove to be *devastating* to Lexiac, and takes him down in *moments* once he stops holding back.

* FullFrontalAssault: Lex is stark naked when Brainiac is removed from his body.

** Flash's Justice Lord counterpart is made to look like Hunter Zolomon/Zoom.
** At the end, Batman quotes the ancient Roman line “who watches the watchmen” to Green Arrow. The reference to ''{{ComicBook/Watchmen}}'' is unmistakable and speaks on whether the superheroes can be trusted to act in humanity’s best interests without being corrupted by their own power. Green Arrow’s assurance that they can is a rebuttal to ''Watchmen''’s premise that they can’t.

* NeckLift: A very angry Superman to Luthor when he thought Flash died.

** Luthor when he saw that part of his armor was destroyed when the Flash punches him, and realizes the Flash is racing around the world to punch him several times, with increasing intensity.

* PhysicalGod: Brainiac-Luthor, in his final form. Strong and durable enough to inflict a CurbStompBattle on Superman and the rest of the League (the former has himself beaten ''actual'' gods like Darkseid) and in possession of various powers from shapeshifting, to technopathy, to vast intellect and knowledge, to telekinesis, to being able to create sapient beings with a thought (ones capable of trading blows with Superman, no less). He planned to use his newfound power to build a machine that would allow him to remake the universe.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Lexiac regarded Flash as the least of the Justice League. This was a bad move on their part, as Flash showed he had the raw power to take them down *by himself*...

* BreakingSpeech: A few of the Justice Lord MechaMooks attempt to deliver these to their organic counterparts.
-->'''Lord-Superman:''' We've lost their trust. The people are ''afraid'' of us. Power corrupts, after all. And who has more power than ''Superman''?\\
'''Lord-Hawkgirl:''' Do you think there's a ''single'' person on Thanagar or Earth who doesn't despise us?\\
'''Lord-Green Lantern:''' We loved the traitor. Loved and lost her... forever!\\
'''Lord-Flash:''' Slacker! Child! Clown! We have no place here among the world's greatest heroes.

-->"The people are afraid of us. Power corrupts after all, and who has more power than Superman?"

-->'''Lord!Superman:''' We've lost their trust. The people are ''afraid'' of us. Power corrupts, after all. And who has more power than ''Superman''?\\
'''Lord!Hawkgirl:''' Do you think there's a ''single'' person on Thanagar or Earth who doesn't despise us?\\
'''Lord!Green Lantern:''' We loved the traitor. Loved and lost her... forever!\\
'''Lord!Flash:''' Slacker! Child! Clown! We have no place here among the world's greatest heroes.

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: When trying to pull the Flash out of the Speed Force, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern call him by his real name, Wally.

* CallForward: Once he was convinced by the crowd to not disband the Justice League, Superman proposes some ideas so the League will be CloserToEarth (literally and figuratively). This opens the way for the Metro Tower, which would become the League's primary headquarters in ''Beyond''.

* ChekhovsGun: You remember back in the episode "Dark Heart" how the Atom commented that General Eiling was stupid for preserving some of the Dark Heart? He was right, and this is why.

** Flash's Justice Lord counterpart is made to look like Zoom.

* MechaMooks: Lexiac sending drones to fight the League as a distraction, and Luthor decides to turn these drones into copies of the Justice Lords.

* ChekhovsGun: You remember back in the episode "Dark Heart" how the Atom commented that General Eiling was stupid for preserving some of the Dark Heart? He was right, and this is why.

* ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: Lord Superman briefly morphs into Luthor when the real Superman has him at the ropes, forcing the latter to back down.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: This episode provides the page quote.

* ChekhovsGun: You remember back in Dark Heart how the Atom commented that General Eiling was stupid for preserving some of the Dark Heart? He was right, and this is why.

* MythologyGag: Flash's Justice Lord counterpart is made to look like Zoom.

** And again right after, mocking the "death" of the Flash, [[TooDumbToLive in front of a bunch of very alive heroes]] and a [[DidntThinkThisThrough ''very'' pissed off Superman, while completely defenseless]], leading to his line of realization below.

** [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E14GhostInTheMachine 8 real life years ago]], Brainiac implanted a copy himself inside of Lex Luthor and waited for an opportunity like Project Cadmus.

* DarkReprise: The ''JLU'' theme song gets one when the Brainiac copies transform into the Justice Lords.

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Superman tries this with Lex, only to learn the latter is playing along instead of being a possessed victim.

* MythologyGag: Flash's Justice Lord counterpart is made to look like Professor Zoom.

** Luthor himself when he saw that part of his armor was destroyed when the Flash punches him, and realizes the Flash is racing around the world to punch him several times, with increasing intensity.
* OpponentSwitch: Superman and Wonder Woman do this, as do Green Lantern and Hawkgirl (who take the chance to work out some frustration over their breakup). The other Leaguers don't bother.

* TrashTheSet: Lexcorp Tower, a staple of Lex Luthors' business influence ever since the second episode of WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries ends up destroyed by Brainiac (who had built a starship to try escaping inside the upper levels of the tower).

** And again right after, mocking the "death" of the Flash, [[TooDumbToLive in front of a bunch of very alive heroes]] and a [[DidntThinkThisThrough ''very'' pissed off Superman, while completely defenseless]].

* TrashTheSet: Lexcorp Tower, a staple of Lex Luthors' business influence ever since the second episode of WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries ends up destroyed by Brainiac (who had built a starship to try escaping inside the upper levels of the tower).

* ThisIsThePartWhere: ''You kill me right?''

* CanonImmigrant: This episode launched the idea that breaking the light barrier would imprison the speedster in the Speed Force unless they had an anchor (though this was hinted at in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'').

->"''[[TemptingFate Are you going to fight me,]] [[JustAKid boy?]]"''

* CanonImmigrant: This episode launched the idea that breaking the light barrier would imprison the speedster in the Speed Force unless they had an anchor (though this was hinted at in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''.)

-->"I'm not the man who killed President Luthor. Right now, [[BeingGoodSucks I wish to Heaven that I were, but I'm not."]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Flash.

-->"We are one, and we comprehend. We can build a machine that will allow us to absorb the information of the entire Earth in a single stroke. And then the galaxy, the entire Universe! [[AGodAmI We'll]] ''[[AGodAmI remake]]'' [[AGodAmI the Universe!]]"

* FusionDance: After absorbing The Dark Hearts' nanomachines, the two of them use it to create a single body for them to share.

** Luthor gets another near-victory (albeit most certainly a [[PyrrhicVictory Pyrrhic one]]) after Flash has gone into the Speed Force, when Superman is about to fry him in violation of his ethics.
* NeckLift: A very angry Superman does this to Luthor when he thought Flash died.

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: When trying to pull the Flash out of the Speed Force, Shayera calls him by his real name, Wally.