Ray and Felicity show up in Central City again to get some more scientific help on the ATOM suit. When a robotics expert starts killing people using mechanical bees, the whole crew jumps in to help. Meanwhile, Eddie's knowledge of the Flash's identity threatens his relationship with Iris, and Cisco starts to have memories of the aborted timeline from Out of Time.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Physics: Both of the solutions proposed to the problem of the ATOM suit's electronics overheating — applying an insulator and further miniaturization — are both things that make heating problems worse, not better, in the real world. In fact, the latter is the principal reason why computer CPUs have stopped getting faster for the last decade or so
: further miniaturization would have caused them to produce more heat than could be safely dissipated. - Attack Drone: The main function of Brie's robotic bees.
- Bee Afraid: Unfortunately, they are the Villain of the Week's Animal Motif.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: How Ray and Cisco come up with Brie's moniker.
- Breather Episode: After an episode riddled with flashbacks of Eobard Thawne stalking and murdering the real Harrison Wells, and Team Arrow suffering another wrenching defeat, this week's adventure seems relatively tame in comparison.
- Broken Pedestal:Barry: [to Felicity] Wells wasn't just their [Cisco and Caitlin] boss, he's their mentor. Their hero. My hero...
- The Bus Came Back: Dr. McGee. This is also Felicity's third Crossover from Arrow.
- Crazy-Prepared: Barry's suit has a remote-controlled defibrillator.
- Crimefighting with Cash: Lampshaded.Caitlin: What is it with billionaires being superheroes?
- Dramatic Irony: Tina McGee says that after Tess died, "it was like Harrison Wells became a completely different person." She has no idea just how true that really is.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Felicity beats the Brie's bees that were chasing Barry and says that she dropped the mic. She explains that is a metaphorical one because she doesn't have an actual microphone that can be dropped, giving the one fixed to the desk a nudge.
- Double Take: Since Atom was being chased by robotic bees, Cisco suggests that he fly into the water. Ray is fine with the idea...until he remembers his suit isn't waterproof.
- Dueling Hackers: Felicity vs. Brie.
- Evil Counterpart: Brie to Felicity.
- Facepalm: Barry facepalms when Ray and Felicity explain that there's a problem with the suit in their own special incredibly awkward way.
- Foreshadowing: Ray says at one point that the secret to the suit turned out to be going smaller. Most versions of Atom can change size at will.
- Forgot About His Powers: Barry seems to have forgotten about his ability to phase through objects so that the bees wouldn't be a threat to him. To be fair, it might be easier to phase through one big object than through many small ones that move independently.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Dr. McGee says this verbatim to Brie. She fired her because she intended to harm people. Brie doesn't take it well.
- It Only Works Once: A defibrillator in Barry's suit shorts out immediately after using it to revive him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The episode ends with Cisco recalling the events of "Out of Time". Just as the credits begin, an image of the Reverse-Flash appears for a split second.
- Harmful to Minors: At the beginning of the episode, Barry arrested a guy for "indecent exposure".
- Hollywood Hacking: Brie Larvan's hacking is so strong it makes sparks fly off of Felicity's computer!
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Barry helps Eddie mend his relationship with Iris.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Felicity spoiled three important plot points from Arrow, namely; Oliver being forced and contemplating to join the League of Assassins, Laurel becoming Black Canary and Thea training under Malcolm.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Felicity, having come to Central City at an awkward time, makes a meta-comment on the differing tone between The Flash and Arrow:Felicity: I thought Central City was supposed to be the fun one.
- Eddie complaining about how practically everyone but Iris knows about Barry being the Flash.
- Felicity, having come to Central City at an awkward time, makes a meta-comment on the differing tone between The Flash and Arrow:
- Letter Motif: Brie Larvan a.k.a. The Bug-Eyed Bandit is an evil blonde who wears a black outfit and has Bees as her Animal Motifs. If you want to go further with Actor Allusion, her actress'
Star-Making Role is named Beth, whose base of operations is (literally) in a Green(e) house. - Locked Out of the Loop: Joe insists that Iris remains this concerning Barry's secret identity towards Eddie and Barry. He also feels the same way about Caitlin and Cisco knowing about Barry's investigation of Thawne. At least at first. It is even lampshaded at the fact it seems like only Iris is the only person to not know Barry is the Flash.Barry: [after Eddie tries to tell something to Barry but doesn't because Felicity is next to him] Don't worry, she knows.
Eddie: So everyone but Iris knows?
Barry: It seems that way. - Mad Scientist: Brie's robotic bees are supposed to be used for agricultural purposes, but she insisted on making them as weapons. Hence, she was fired from Mercury Labs.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: A variant. Eddie being a Secret-Keeper for Barry and having Iris Locked Out of the Loop is clearly straining their relationship.
- Mundane Utility: A more serious example than most: Barry using his powers as an emergency defibrillator to save Cisco.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Ray Palmer flies in on his ATOM suit, Caitlin asks "Is that a bird?", prompting Cisco to follow up with "It's a plane?" This references a common line used to herald Superman's appearance in early stories: "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!" Doubles as Actor Allusion since Brandon Routh, the actor who plays Ray Palmer, also played Superman.
- Ray getting inspiration from the bees is a possible reference to the Super Dictionary, in which he could talk to bees for some reason.
- Cisco suddenly getting memories from the aborted timeline makes sense when comic Vibe's powers received new applications relating to dimensional barriers.
- Brie Larvan is a supervillain that makes terrible puns based off her villain gimmick.
- Palette Swap: A very minor one (compared to the obvious Reverse Flash costume), but Brie's chair is the same Zuo Unico chair as the one Felicity uses in the Arrowcave, only in white. Especially notable when they are cyber-dueling. Might double as Strange Minds Think Alike.
- Pun: Subverted when Brie threatens to "buzz herself in". When someone is threatening to murder you painfully, puns lose their sting.
- Pungeon Master: Brie Larvan is an evil variation of this, specializing exclusively in bee puns.
- Punny Name: Brie Larvan.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Somehow Cisco is able to remember that he found out about Thawne and then was killed for it, despite Barry's Cosmic Retcon. It comes to him in his dreams, and if someone uses the right Trigger Phrase when he's awake.
- Shout-Out:
- Cisco's reaction to the bees is a twist on Indiana Jones' famous line. Surprisingly, he avoids (or resists) a reference to either The Wicker Man (2006) or DC's own Amazons Attack!.
- Plus the "Ain't nobody got time for that" meme. Along with the Mythology Gag when Ray shows up, it's a veritable storm of Shout-Outs and Mythology Gags.
- Squishy Wizard: After Felicity disables the robotic bees, Barry effortlessly dispatched Brie.
- Stealth Pun: Barry captures a man for indecent exposure. In other words, a "flasher".
- Strange Minds Think Alike:
- Ray and Cisco hit it off very quickly since they're both technical geniuses. They even come up with the moniker for the Villain of the Week simultaneously.
- Also, Felicity and Ray seem to share a wavelength.Caitlin: [muttering] ...God, there's two of them.
- See also Palette Swap, above.
- Synchronized Swarming: Brie's robotic bees take the shape of her face for her to communicate with Dr. McGee and state her villainous motivations.
- Taking the Bullet: Cisco sees a surviving robotic bee about to sting Ray and shields him.
- That Came Out Wrong: Apart from Felicity's regular examples of this, Ray initially explains that he flew the Atom suit to STAR Labs because he is having trouble keeping it up. (The suit, up in the air, that is.)Ray: Nononono, the sex is great!
Caitlin: ...God, there's two of them. - Too Dumb to Live: Dr. McGee declines the police's protection after finding out that Brie was targeting her (after she already killed two people). She claimed that she could take care of herself, despite not taking any security precautions at all and would have easily been killed if Ray had not intervened. Even she acknowledges that her decision was unwise.
- Too Much Information:
- Immediately after his That Came Out Wrong moment, Ray quickly explains that he means the suit, and he and Felicity quickly affirm that their sex life is fantastic.
- Eddie, on the other hand, laments that he and Iris haven't had sex for two weeks. He says this to Iris's father.
- Trigger Phrase: Cisco's memories of the old timeline come back when Ray says he's very clever (in the same room where Thawne, said it, too). Same when Joe name-drops the Reverse-Flash.
- We Used to Be Friends: It is revealed that Doctors McGee and Wells were close friends, maybe even Platonic Life-Partners, until Wells' and Tess' accident "changed" the man. The last part is true in a literal yet horrifying way.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Cisco is not happy to find out this new villain's motif.
