Iris confronts Barry about knowing his secret. Meanwhile, Team Flash has to contend with Thawne's new threat to the city.
Tropes:
- Accidental Pun: From Captain Singh.David Singh: ...and maybe someone can contact the Flash. Maybe he can speed things up.
Joe West: *gives him a look*
David Singh: ...you know what I mean. - Antagonist Title: Not a hard guess who the Villain of the Week is.
- Badass in Distress: When Joe gets caught by Grodd, only in this case he's not getting himself out of this predicament.
- Batman Gambit: The team makes the assumption that Eobard is using Grodd as a distraction early on but feel they have no choice except to deal with the threat. But we never actually see Eobard and Grodd interact.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The basis for Grodd's loyalty to Eobard is how kind he was to Grodd when he was kept at S.T.A.R. Labs.
- Black Sheep: Eobard claims Eddie is this for the Thawne family, as a nobody in a lineage of great men and women.
- Break the Badass: Grodd is able to reduce Joe into a sobbing wreck.
- Call-Back:
- Cisco reports he called Lyla to get any info ARGUS might have on Eiling.
- Barry tries to replicate the "Super Sonic Punch" move he used to defeat Girder on Grodd, only for it to fail.
- Barry compares his first psychic assault by Grodd to when Bivolo (whom he calls by Caitlin's suggested nickname of "Rainbow Raider") used his Hate Plague powers on him.
- Car Fu: Grodd is defeated in the end by being tricked into jumping in front of a passing subway train.
- Celebrity Paradox: Cisco mentions Jurassic Park. While he doesn't exactly state which film, Peter Stormare, who plays Werner Zytle in Arrow, was in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
- Crazy-Prepared: Cisco is the one who thought to bring a banana along for the Grodd hunt. Too bad that "Grodd hate banana".
- Dead Hat Shot: When Joe wakes up under Grodd's captivity, one of the first things he sees is a cracked (and bloodied) hard hat, presumably from one of the sewer workers that Grodd killed back in "Crazy for You".
- Disappointed in You: Iris tells Barry that she is not angry but disappointed for not telling her his situation.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Joe tells the masked man to drop his gun, because Joe doesn't want to shoot said man.
- Enemy Mine: Eiling admits to Barry that he's letting him be because Thawne is their common enemy and he might come in handy somewhere down the line.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Grodd refers to Eobard as "father".
- Even Evil Has Standards: Lampshaded by Joe in regards to how even an utter psychopath like Eobard Thawne was disgusted by what Eiling was doing to Grodd when he was a test animal.
- Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Grodd climbs up a building and jumps, lunging toward the camera. Same deal.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Those red eyes Eobard has as part of his Reverse-Flash costume? They're not!
- Gossipy Hens: Caitlin and Cisco just couldn't help themselves to listen to Barry and Iris' conversation.
- Guyliner: Eowells's final form look now that he's openly evil.
- Hypocrite: Iris complains that Joe acts hypocritical when he always speaks of being safe even if he doesn't hesitate to jump into danger.
- Internal Reveal:
- This episode basically has Iris finally catching up to everything that has happened in the series barring the future newspaper.
- In relation to the above, the entire Team Flash discovers that Iris already knows (almost) everything.
- Joe and Barry learn of Grodd and his history with S.T.A.R. Labs.
- Team Flash discovers that Eiling knows Barry's the Flash.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Iris is totally right in calling her father out for keeping her in the dark about Barry being The Flash, but she also calls him out for not telling her how Barry really felt about her for years. Joe's response that it wasn't his secret to tell is a valid point.
- Kick the Dog: Eobard tells Eddie that his police career is going to be uneventful, which may be a lie, but this really applies when he shows him the newspaper article written by Iris West-Allen.
- "King Kong" Climb: Grodd, in a not so subtle Shout-Out to King Kong, as well as for the sake of having a Fly-at-the-Camera Ending.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Eiling tortured Grodd when he was a test animal in an attempt to create and control psychic abilities, so it's hard to blame Grodd for turning him into a meat puppet with those same powers.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Iris' What the Hell, Hero? speeches echo several fan complaints of the writers keeping Iris in the dark for so long.
- Manly Tears: Joe after Barry rescued him.
- Mind Rape: What Grodd's powers basically are.
- Mouth of Sauron: Grodd uses Eiling as a means to speak.
- Mythology Gag:
- Grodd's hatred of bananas is a trait carried over from his Justice League incarnation.
- The headband Barry wears to keep Grodd out of his head resembles the ones Solovar gave to Flash and GL in The Brave and the Bold.
- Eobard describes his family as a prestigious line, consisting of politicians. One of his descendants is president of Earth's government (specifically, Bart Allen's maternal grandfather).
- To the Golden Age Green Lantern, oddly enough. How did Alan Scott defeat Solomon Grundy when he first showed up and No Sold all of Alan's attacks? Lure him into the path of a speeding train.
- When Barry frees Eiling from the Pipeline, the cell's lighting makes him shine a bright blue hue, the same color as his nemesis Captain Atom.
- While obviously not the same, the building Grodd climbs in the end strongly resembles Smallville's Watchtower.
- Neck Lift: Grodd stops Flash's Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs by catching him by the neck and lifting him effortlessly.
- No-Sell: Grodd doesn't even seem to feel any of the attacks Barry throws at him. The most shocking, however, is when he catch the supersonic punch...
- Overused Running Gag: When Cisco makes yet another movie reference, Joe gives him an exasperated "you and your movies".
- Oh, Crap!: When the three of them start hearing a heavy noise in the sewer tunnels, Joe looks visibly nervous and asks if Grodd might be getting BIGGER as well as smarter.
- Pet the Dog: Grodd calls Caitlin "good," recognizing her as one of the scientists, besides "Wells", who was kind to him.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Grodd almost makes Joe shoot himself.
- Punch Catch: Grodd does this to a sonic punch, then uses the grab to immediately throw Barry aside.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: After his attempt at a sonic punch fails, Barry tries Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs. It doesn't work either.
- The Power of Love: Hearing Iris's voice is what Barry uses to overcome Grodd's psychic attack.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Attempted by Barry against Grodd, but the massive gorila barely seems to feel it.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When gloating about how prestigious the Thawne clan is/will be, Eobard basically tells Eddie that he (Eddie) is/will be the biggest loser of the clan.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: As if Eobard having these in Reverse-Flash mode wasn't enough, Grodd has them constantly.
- Sequel Hook: Grodd is still alive...and very angry.
- Shout-Out:
- Given that Grodd is the villain, Cisco naturally gives these to The Exorcist, Planet of the Apes, King Kong, and Jurassic Park.
- Cisco mentions ROUSs as being in the sewers.
- Grodd climbing up the skyscraper at the end is very reminiscent of King Kong.
- Joe calls the masked thief Goldfinger before his unmasking.
- Spoiler Title: Unsurprisingly, Grodd survives being hit by a speeding train.
- Stealth Pun: Grodd spends the entire episode really angry (going ape).
- Swiss-Cheese Security: S.T.A.R. Labs apparently, at least without Thawne around. Iris just randomly walks in while an unmasked Barry is talking with Caitlin and Cisco.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Averted; after being spared from shooting himself, Joe sees Grodd sniffing the air and offers Grodd a banana, thinking he's looking for that. Unfortunately, Grodd hates bananas.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Eiling's survival was shown in the PaleyFest trailer.
- Two Girls to a Team: Iris starts being integrated into Team Flash.Barry: The three of us took on Grodd and rescued Joe. Together, we can do anything.
Caitlin: Actually, it was the four of us. - The Unreveal: Why exactly did Grodd control Eiling into pulling a gold heist?
- Wham Shot: The episode ends with Eobard's ticket back home...and it's the particle accelerator! He's been hiding out under the heroes' noses literally this whole time.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Iris gives Barry and her father each an earful for keeping her Locked Out of the Loop, saying outright that she and others might have been in less danger if she had known the truth.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Eddie muses that with a name like Eobard, you'd have to be from the future.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Apparently Joe had a fear of gorillas before learning of a psychic super-intelligent one.
- The Worf Barrage: Remember that supersonic punch the team spent half an episode preparing against the Girder? Well, against Grodd, the results are...not nearly as impressive.
