"What does the fastest man alive do on his day off? Before the lightning bolt, if I wasn't still at the crime lab, I'd be at home chillin'. But now my days off are different. Now they aren't so lonely. The lightning didn't just give me speed, it also gave me friends."
Barry runs into Leonard Snart for the very first time, sparking a rivalry that will span seasons. Meanwhile, Felicity Smoak pays Barry a visit from Starling City.—Barry's opening
Tropes:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Barry and Felicity have a bonding moment at the end of the episode over this, noting that although they are perfect for each other they each are pining away after other people (Oliver and Iris).
- Actually Pretty Funny: The wistful smile on Snart's face when Cisco calls him "Captain Cold" implies he likes the name.
- Ascended Meme: While working out on the treadmill, Barry starts getting boastful and asks Felicity if she wants to see him run backwards...and he loses his footing. Looks like the writers knew about the jokes that were made about the promotional poster.
- As You Know: Iris reminds Barry how he met Felicity. Probably done for those who don't watch Arrow.
- Ballistic Discount: A black-market arms dealer makes the mistake of meeting Snart without any guards. Snart kills him to get the cold gun for free (and to keep him from telling anyone else about it).
- Birds of a Feather: Barry and Felicity. Lampshaded by Iris.
- Black Dude Dies First: The first Innocent Bystander that dies on Barry's watch happens to be a black guy.
- Both Sides Have a Point: On the one hand, Cisco had every reason to create a means of subduing Barry, since he didn't know him that well at the time and had no guarantee that he wouldn't turn out to be another dangerous metahuman. On the other hand, it was monumentally stupid of him to A) not tell anyone about the cold gun and B) not keep it somewhere more secure than a simple locker.
- Brandishment Bluff: Cisco uses a larger cold gun (actually just a bunch of LEDs stuck to a vacuum cleaner) to threaten Captain Cold.
- Character Shilling: When Felicity goes from S.T.A.R Labs, Wells gratuitously gushes about how great of a person Felicity is.
- The Chessmaster: Leonard Snart meticulously plans his thefts down to the second, which has worked for him in the past until someone shows up fast enough to screw up the timing.
- Continuity Nod: Blackhawk Squad Protection Group is mentioned.
- Create Your Own Villain: Barry's first fight with Snart inspires him to up his game and become Captain Cold.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Exploited by Snart. He derails a train, knowing that Barry would try to save all the passengers, giving him enough time to attack and escape.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Played for Laughs. Barry uses his speed to crush Cisco and Caitlin at Ping-Pong and Operation respectively, at the same time.
- More seriously, Barry also wipes the floor with Snart and his hired goons and would've caught them if it wasn't for being forced to make a choice between them or getting a gunshot victim to a hospital.
- Dramatic Irony: Iris gets hit with this a lot this episode.
- Iris being a Shipper on Deck for Felicity and Barry not realizing that Barry is in love with her.
- Iris telling her father "No more secrets".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In his brief cameo, Mick has a different accent than he would have during the rest of his appearances and subsequent series.
- Foreshadowing:
- In Barry's day off, he spends time playing games with his friends, beating Cisco and Caitlyn at ping-pong and Operation, respectively, but losing to Wells in chess.
- One of the high-tech weapons Snart gets from his dealer is an extremely powerful flamethrower, foreshadowing another Rogue, Heat Wave (who cameos briefly at the end of the episode).
- Snart also makes a brief mention of his sister. She appears later in the season and becomes a Rogue.
- The Heart: Combined with Big Sister Mentor. By drawing on her experience working with the Arrow, Felicity gives advice to Barry, encourages the team and helps end Cisco and Barry's fight.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: The arms dealer who provides Captain Cold's ice gun hadn't.
- He Knows Too Much: Leonard kills the dealer for being the only one who knew about the cold gun.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Felicity gets this reaction when she comes to the trivia contest wearing a Little Black Dress. Eddie Thawne's jaw practically hits the floor.
- Hollywood Hacking: Felicity hacks into Central City's municipal data network in about three seconds (after Cisco said it would take 30 minutes) by typing a bit on a computer that happens to be sitting nearby.
- Knuckle Cracking: Felicity does this before going hacking, and hurts her knuckles in the process.
- Museum of Boredom: The chief exhibits in the museum are the jewel that Captain Cold is targeting and a stand dedicated to a guy who saved hundreds of cows from a flood. In fact a major tip-off to the museum's staff that Cold is planning a robbery is that he took the tour twice, which apparently no-one has done before.
- Mythology Gag:
- While Felicity is nervously blabbing about what might happen to Barry, she mentions that she worries that he will run too fast and become "dust in a red costume". This literally happened to him when he performed his Heroic Sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- The other potential problem she mentions is premature aging, an issue that would affect Bart Allen.
- The diamond is from Kahndaq, DC's go-to fictional Middle Eastern country and home of Black Adam.
- The museum employee who calls the police wears an name tag identifying him as Dexter Myles. In the comics, Dexter Myles is the curator of the Flash Museum. Also, the trivia contest host is Oswald Loomis AKA a Superman (and as of the New 52, Nightwing) villain called the Prankster.
- During the trivia contest one of the scientists mentioned is named Erdel. Saul Erdel is the scientist responsible for teleporting J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter to Earth. The corresponding portrait shows Nicola Tesla though, which would me more appropriate since Erdel was not very famous in the DC universe, and wasn't likely to appear in such a contest.
- Snart mentions his sister. In the comics Lisa Snart goes by the name Glider and is a member of the Rogues. He also mentions a diner which is a location from the comics.
- Snart lists the CCPD's response time to an armored car as 182 seconds. Flash v.2 #182 was the issue in which Geoff Johns introduced much of the backstory about Snart's father, an abusive police officer, that gets mentioned in this episode.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cisco invents a gun to defeat the Flash. He doesn't tell anyone, leaving it unguarded and easily stolen.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For the first time on the show, Wells is openly furious, yelling at Cisco for creating and then losing the Cold Gun.
- Sequel Hook: Captain Cold recruits Heat Wave at the end, laying the foundation for the Rogues.
- Shipper on Deck: Iris for
Barricity, of course. - Shout-Out: Barry's line about trains is similar to the line about flying from "Superman".
- Lampshaded when Felicity asks, "Isn't that airplanes?"
- Smart People Play Chess: Wells beats Barry at chess, which is also a nod to Wells' as a master planner.
- Super Prototype: Cisco threatens Snart with the prototype cold gun, a massive thing that needs a giant power supply that Felicity and Caitlin are lugging around. Subverted when we find out it's actually the Star Labs vacuum cleaner with LED's stuck on.
- That Came Out Wrong: Felicity, as per usual.Felicity: I want to see it. [Beat] And by it, I mean your speed, in case you thought I was talking about something else, which I wasn't.
- Tranquil Fury: Harrison Wells is scary when he's angry.
- Weapon for Intimidation: Cisco bluffs Captain Cold with a vacuum.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Barry chews Cisco out but good when he learns who built the cold gun.
- Xanatos Gambit: Snart plays it against The Flash by using a train to escape. He was expecting the Flash to chase after him, where Snart could manipulate him into saving everyone on board, but even if he didn't show up, he could get away anyway.
