Barry, Cisco and Harry travel to Earth-2 to rescue Jesse, and Barry takes the place of his Earth-2 counterpart to locate Zoom, but encounters the alternate Ronnie Raymond, Caitlin and Cisco—Earth-2's Deathstorm, Killer Frost and Reverb—who are working for Zoom. A new metahuman shows up in Central City challenging the Flash and Jay, Joe and Caitlin have to deal with him.
Tropes:
- Alternate History:
- Nora Allen is still alive in Earth-2.
- Ronnie became the dominant personality in the Firestorm matrix instead of Prof. Stein and they were never separated.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome:
- Iris', Caitlin's and Cisco's counterparts are badasses, while Barry's and Deadshot's counterparts are more of wimps, and Joe's and Tokamak's are more normal.
- Besides the Metahuman app which everyone in the city has, Barry notes that a lot of technology on Earth-2 is only at the theoretical stage back on Earth-1.
- And I Must Scream: Earth-2 Stein. Ronnie hasn't let him out in years and he rarely talks anymore.
- A God Am I: Cisco-2 says that he and his counterpart could be gods with their powers.
- Bad Boss: Zoom immediately shows up to kill both Deathstorm and Reverb the moment they go beyond his orders.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends with a Barry being kidnapped by a speedster.
- Buffy Speak: When Reverb proposes his plan to Cisco for the two of them to work together and gain more power, Cisco accuses his counterpart of attempting to "Cloud-City-Vader" him.
- Butt-Monkey: Earth-2's Floyd Lawton is a terribly ineffective cop, not even being able to shoot somebody at point blank range.
- Canon Welding: The wider Multiverse is shown during the trip to Earth-2, with glimpses of CBS's current Supergirl and 1990s Flash series.
- Continuity Nod:
- One of the breaches Barry closes is the place where his team sent Grodd to Earth-2 earlier in the season.
- Barry knows who (Earth-2) Deadshot is because back in his Early-Bird Cameo in Arrow Season 2, he said that he was tracking down Oliver's activities up until that point. Well, that and the fact that (Earth-1) Deadshot was a worldwide infamous criminal.
- Crossover:
- Albeit brief, the lead character of Supergirl makes a brief appearance among a number of images from alternate Earths.
- In real life, Supergirl's cameo was significant as a rare case of a cross-network crossover as Supergirl was airing on a competing network at the time.
- Darkest Hour: Zoom has captured Barry, Jay is fighting a losing battle against a meta-human without his speed, and the last breach may close permanently stranding Barry and Cisco if Jay can't fix it.
- Didn't Think This Through: The whole plan of rescuing Jesse is met with numerous hiccups, starting with the fact that closing the 51 breaches destabilized the last remaining one (which the team used, trapping them on Earth-2) and they have no idea where Zoom is holding her or how to find her without Cisco's "Vibe" powers working properly on Earth-2 due to it having different frequencies from the original Earth.
- Distressed Dude: Both Barrys are kidnapped by the end of the episode.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Cisco sees his evil Alternate Self being killed by an evil speedster in the same manner he was killed by Eobard Thawne in an altered timeline during Season 1.
- Barry kidnaps his Earth-2 counterpart to pull a Twin Switch. At the end of the episode, Barry was kidnapped by a speedster who wants his speed.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A bunch are seen during the trip to Earth-2:
- A green hooded archer, who is likely Connor Hawke (the future Green Arrow) who will be appearing on Legends of Tomorrow.
- Jonah Hex, who also will be appearing on Legends of Tomorrow.
- A Flash played by John Wesley Shipp also appears for the first time on this series.
- Epic Fail:
- When Velocity 7 fails on Jay, it doesn't just cost him the Speed Force. It almost knocks him out and sends him stumbling stunned right in front of Geomancer. It took Joe shooting Geomancer in the chest a few times to save Jay.
- "Deadshot" gets one when he empties his revolver at Reverb at extreme close range, each one misses and Lawton gets a vibe blast for his efforts.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Killer Frost and Deathstorm genuinely love each other. Killer Frost is devastated when he dies.
- Evil Twin:
- The Earth-2 counterparts of Caitlin, Ronnie, and Cisco are all evil meta-humans working for Zoom.
- Inverted with Floyd Lawton, who on Earth-2 is a Central City cop, but is a terrible shot.
- Also, inverted with Leonard Snart, who's Mayor of Central City on Earth-2.
- Also, Henry Hewitt, a simple lab assistant here.
- Captain Singh's alternate is shown in an early scene being arrested, looking (and sounding) like a gangbanger.
- Evil Is Hammy: Danielle Panabaker is clearly having a blast as Killer Frost; so is Carlos Valdes as Reverb. Geomancer loves Chewing the Scenery as well.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Wells tries and fails to invoke the trope to stop Barry from getting distracted by Joe-2's death, despite that this is his own universe he's talking about.
- Faux Affably Evil: Reverb (evil Cisco) seems like a polite villain while talking to Vibe (good Cisco), but threatens to destroy Killer Frost's entire nervous system in the next moment when she tries questioning him.
- Foreshadowing:
- The trip to Earth-2 includes a glimpse of Supergirl, who Barry will be visiting in a few weeks in her series.
- There's a gorilla in a natural-type setting, possibly indicating another encounter with Grodd in Gorilla City.
- Cisco is wondering what his Earth-2 counterpart is like early in the episode. Cue the climactic scene.
- Barry, Cisco and Caitlin's Earth-2 counterparts all foreshadow developments the main ones will eventually make.
- Barry-2 is in a relationship with Iris West-Allen.
- Caitlin-2 is Killer Frost.
- Cisco-2 has powers our Cisco will go on to learn.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Eddie Thawne is listed as a phone contact on Iris and Barry's phone in their home in Earth-2, showing that he's still alive on Earth-2. He's listed alongside Hal, Bruce, and Diana.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Killer Frost's introductory scene sees her giving a kiss to a crook, freezing his face in the process. And we only hear the shattering sound...
- Happily Married: Earth-2 Barry and Iris.
- He's Back!: Averted. It seems like Jay is finally back to being a super speedster, only for Velocity 7 to wear off leaving him to crash and burn.
- Hypocrite: Harry spends the majority of the episode talking about how the lives of Earth-2 people shouldn't matter to Barry and Cisco while complaining that they need to find Zoom to save his daughter—a person from Earth-2.
- Idiot Ball: Barry and Cisco were explicitly warned by Jay to not expect that anything or anyone is the same as on Earth-1. But the two of them keep fouling up on that and it costs Joe-2 his life and getting Barry caught.
- If I Do Not Return: Cisco wrote a letter for his parents and brother and asks Caitlin to send it to them if he does not return from Earth-2.
- Ironic Echo Cut: Done to show the parallelism of the two Earths, specifically;
- Immediately after the scene where Iris-2 tells Barry that he and her father hate each other to the core, the scene cuts to the main Earth where Joe is shown being really concerned about Barry.
- The scene where Killer Frost says she loves killing breachers is followed by a scene showing Caitlin worried for her friends' well-being on the other side.
- The scene in Earth-2 where Joe takes the Fireball for Iris is followed by a scene in the main Earth that shows him telling Wally to not leave his office while an evil Metahuman is on the loose.
- Ironic Nickname: Detective Lawton gets called "Deadshot" as mockery for his appalling marksmanship.
- I Want Them Alive!: Zoom gives these instructions to his subordinates with regards to The Flash. Reverb and Deathstorm disobey, and Zoom promptly kills them.
- Insistent Terminology: Earth-2 Joe and Barry are not fond of each other, calling each other Joseph and Bartholomew respectively...until Earth-2 Joe winds up on his deathbed.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Barry preferred not to tell his father about the travel to Earth-2 out of fear of being dissuaded by him.
- Manly Tears: Barry when he talks to his late mother's Earth-2 counterpart. Also Joe-2 on his deathbed.
- Mythology Gag: As to be expected in an episode like this, a whole lot of them.
- Deathstorm and Killer Frost are lovers, playing off the attraction Firestorm and Killer Frost have demonstrated from time to time in the comics.
- Barry-2's phone has buttons labeled Hal, Diana, and Bruce (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Batman).
- Barry-2 and Iris are married.
- Floyd Lawton-2 has the nickname "Deadshot" because he is utterly incompetent with a firearm. He can't even load a revolver without dropping rounds everywhere. He empties his gun at Reverb from less than 20 feet away and doesn't hit him once.
- Barry-2 wears a bowtie, something that Barry Allen in the comics was known for.
- A hand holding a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring is seen during the dimensional warp.
- A glimpse of the Flash from the 1990's series can be seen during the warp.
- Melissa Benoist appears as Supergirl during the warp. Shortly before the episode aired, it was confirmed that the shows' shared crew had been able to negotiate a crossover between the CW and CBS.
- Similar to Earth-3 in the comics, some characters' Earth-2 counterparts are inverted in morality.
- Jay needing to boost his speed. In the comics, Jay is nowhere near as fast as Barry (or any other characters in tune with the Speed Force).
- Seen in the breach tunnel are multiple (if not infinite) Earths swirling around.
- Nora-2 thanks Barry for sending her and Henry a vacation ticket to Atlantis.
- Nora is still alive in Earth-2. In the pre-Crisis comics, Barry's mother was never killed and both Barry's parents are Happily Married without incident, until she and her husband passed away soon after the Crisis. (In fact, Barry was practically the only superhero who has both parents living.)
- Being disguised as his Earth-2 counterpart, Barry now has to take off glasses when he changes into his superhero alter ego - just like a certain other DC character always does.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Jay's return to superheroics is cut short when the Velocity 7 drug he took fizzles out.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Barry carelessly impersonating his Earth 2-version is what gets Joe killed in the end.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Joe-2 is not fond of Barry, and the feeling is apparently mutual.
- Out of Focus: Wally only appeared for a single scene. While Iris also only appeared near the beginning, her Earth-2 counterpart is prominent in this episode.
- Person as Verb: Cisco to his Earth-2 counterpart:"Are you Cloud City Vadering me right now?"
- The Place: The episode is set primarily on Earth-2.
- Remake Cameo: A literal case with John Wesley Shipp, as stills from his tenure as The Flash were glimpsed.
- Rescue Arc: The main reason Barry, Cisco and Harry are in Earth-2 is to rescue Jesse. At the end of the episode, Barry needs rescuing as well.
- The Reveal: Turns out Zoom didn't steal Jay's speed. It was Velocity 6. Jay took it before in order to enhance his powers, but it had the unforeseen side effects of negating his speed, and it's slowly killing him as well.
- Samus Is a Girl: At hearing the mention of a Detective West, Barry believe it to be Joe, but it was actually Iris instead.
- Shout-Out:
- Before stepping through the portal, Cisco mentions that he has no spit. Harry immediately points the reference to Jaws, but Cisco says he's not saying it for the reference: his mouth has just gone dry.
- When they arrive in Earth-2, Cisco says "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
- Cisco calls Reverb "Mirror, Mirror", a reference to the infamous episode of Star Trek: The Original Series where the heroes meet their evil counterparts.
- Cisco points out the similarities of Reverb's We Can Rule Together speech to what happened in Cloud City.
- In Zoom's prison we see a man in an iron mask.
- Upon arriving on Earth-2, Cisco said "Holy 2001".
- Lawton unloads a revolver at Reverb from only a few feet away, only to miss every shot. Reverb looks around confused, before firing back. Do they have Pulp Fiction on Earth-2?
- The two Ciscos' shared delivery of the word "Doppelganger" references the Man from Another Place from Twin Peaks.
- A Simple Plan: The plan was that Cisco would vibe Zoom's location, Barry would grab Jesse and then pop back to Earth-1. Unfortunately Cisco's powers don't work on Earth-2 due to frequency differences, so Barry decides to impersonate his Earth-2 counterpart in order to gain Zoom intel at the CCPD, but gets distracted by Iris-2 and everything goes to hell.
- Simple, yet Awesome: Jay's rather ordinary helmet does this twice. Barry grabs a replica off a statue of Jay to reflect Deathstorm's fireball at Killer Frost, forcing them to retreat in their first fight. Then Jay demonstrates a trick where he uses his helmet like a directional speaker to hit a target with a sonic blast.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Carlos Valdes as Reverb is not present in any trailers concerning the promotions of this episode.
- Static Stun Gun: Both Harry and BARRY himself found Barry-2's fanboying annoying. So Harry gives Barry a stun gun and Barry gladly uses it on his counterpart.
- The Starscream: Cisco-2 tries to take over Zoom's operation...and then gets a vibrating hand for his troubles.
- Title Drop: Harry does it once they crossed over.
- Unholy Matrimony: Earth-2 Caitlin and Ronnie.
- We Can Rule Together: Earth-2 Cisco tries to win over his Earth-1 counterpart, telling him that he can teach him the full extent of his powers.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Earth-2 Cisco, Joe and Ronnie did not make it out of this episode alive.
- Wham Episode:
- Alternate versions of the main characters are introduced, many of them being evil and working for Zoom.
- Barry is taken prisoner by Zoom.
- Jay reveals that he used Velocity-6 on his home universe and it's killing him and not allowing him use of his Super-Speed.
- Evil!Cisco reveals that Cisco can make effective use of his powers, not just to see alternate timelines.
- Alternate versions of the main characters are killed.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Barry-2 disappears early on, even as the action keeps cutting back to the STAR Labs office Harry and Cisco are keeping him in.
- Wolverine Publicity: Killer Frost was heavily used in promoting this episode. So was Deathstorm.
- You Can't Fight Fate: More of a parallel universe rather than a time-travel example - despite being completely different in several respects, Earth-2 Cisco and Ronnie also end up dying like their Earth-1 counterparts.
- You Have Failed Me: Reverb and Deathstorm get killed by Zoom because of this:Zoom: (Having just killed Deathstorm) What did I say you were to do if you encountered another speedster?
Reverb: Leave him unharmed.
Zoom: (gestures to Barry) Does this look unharmed to you? (proceeds to kill Reverb)
