As Barry tries and tries to get faster to combat Zoom, Team Flash is caught off guard by an evil female speedster running amok in Central City.
Tropes:
- AB Negative: Played with. Harry says that Jesse's blood type is "PZ negative." Presumably this is an Earth-1 blood type under a different name, but they have no idea which one. Thankfully, Harry is a match, so they don't have to figure out translating the blood types on the fly.
- An Aesop: Drugs Are Bad, even if it's fictional. Though more like performance-enhancing drugs are bad, showing how taking shortcuts can cause long-term harm.
- Antagonist Title: Not a hard guess on who's the Villain of the Week.
- Anti-Villain: Eliza was turned evil by her addiction to V-9.
- Big "NO!": Barry does this upon learning that Jay Garrick is Zoom.
- Bizarre Human Biology: Of a sort. Apparently, Earth-2 has a blood type called "PZ-negative".
- Black Boss Lady: Jesse reveals that Beyoncé is a senator on Earth-2.
- Bookends: The episode begins and ends on the same waterfalls.
- Broken Pedestal:
- When Team Flash learn that Jay is Zoom, Barry goes to the canyon and screams.
- Also a literal example, as when the team starts getting suspicious that Jay is Zoom, Barry shatters the glass box holding Jay's helmet, which has been mounted on a pedestal.
- Jesse completely lost her trust in her father after she learned that he killed Turtle.
- The offscreen situation in which the respected mayor that Scott Evans unmasked turned out to be supported by the Mafia.
- When Team Flash learn that Jay is Zoom, Barry goes to the canyon and screams.
- Celebrity Paradox: Eliza Harmon mentions Law & Order. Some actors were major cast members of its different shows, such as...
- Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), who was one of the long-running cast members of the parent series. Bonus points for Joe being present when Eliza mentioned the franchise.
- Jamey Sheridan (Robert Queen), who was one of the main cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
- Colin Donnell (Tommy Merlyn), who, as of this episode, is one of the main characters of Chicago Med, which officially takes place in the same universe as the Law & Order shows.
- Alex Kingston (Dinah Drake Lance) was a Recurring Character in Law & Order: SVU.
- Colin Salmon (Walter Steele) was a Recurring Character in Law & Order: UK.
- Isabella Hoffman (Clarissa Stein) was one of the main characters of Homicide: Life on the Street, which officially takes place in the same universe as the Law & Order shows.
- Many actors from this universe have also guested on the franchise at different points, some more than once as a different character, such as Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow), Susanna Thompson (Moira Queen), Caity Lotz (Sara Lance), Wentworth Miller (Leonard Snart), Ciara Renée (Kendra Saunders), Neal McDonough (Damien Dahrk), Peyton List (Lisa Snart), Seth Gabel (Count Vertigo), and Emily Kinney (Brie Larvan). Like Joe above, Caitlin was also present when Eliza mentioned the franchise.
- It is yet to be revealed if the main Arrowverse shows share some characters with the Supergirl universe. If that's the case, then Laura Benanti (Alura Zor-El and Astra) was a Recurring Character in Law & Order: SVU. Mainstays Melissa Benoist (the titular Supergirl), Mehcad Brooks (James Olsen) and Jeremy Jordan (Winschlow Schott, Jr.) have also guested on the same show, with Jordan guesting twice as different characters.
- Chekhov's Gun: Cisco uses his drones again, this time as net-holding safety devices for the canyon jumping's test.
- Chekhov's Skill: Barry dashing In a Single Bound.
- Continuity Nod: When Cisco is in denial that Jay could be Zoom, Barry reminds him that speedsters can appear two places at once.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The reason why Scott Evans couldn't bring himself to trust the Flash is that back when he was a journalist, he exposed a corruption scandal in a mayor's office. The mayor was young and loved by everyone just like the Flash, only difference is that the mayor was bought out by the mob.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mainly involving the Velocity drugs.
- Eliza Harmon being a Velocity drug addict is portrayed like a Real Life junkie getting hooked.
- Barry's complaints about other speedsters taking velocity drugs to go faster is basically presented as a hard-working athlete always at the losing end of his competitors who use performance enhancement drugs.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Barry notes that Trajectory's lightning turned blue, just like Zoom's, just before she disintegrated and Caitlin interprets the disintegration as being her cells breaking down from the Velocity-9. Wells suggests that Zoom might be dying because he'd also taken Velocity and he needs Barry's speed to stay alive. Then they all realize to their horror that Jay had taken Velocity and his cells had been breaking down as a result, which causes Cisco to connect the apparently random vibes he's been getting of Zoom and his proximity to Jay's helmet.
- Fair Cop: Eliza calls Joe handsome before Caitlin presents him to her.
- Faux Affably Evil: Trajectory is outright jovial when she has Team Flash at gunpoint.
- For the Evulz: Trajectory gets off on both V-9 and the chaos her speed causes.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Iris unintentionally got her boss, Scott Evans, interested in her.
- In a Single Bound: Barry's Chekhov's Skill for the episode. He's struggling to do it at first, but it comes into play when Trajectory destroys the bridge while he's chasing her.
- Instant Expert: Eliza hasn't been taking the Velocity-9 for very long, yet she already seems to have mastered her Super-Speed. While this technically applies to virtually every metahuman encountered on the show, it's particularly jarring here given that these powers are the same ones possessed by The Hero, who has nearly two years of training and experience under his belt. Though that may also be because her intelligence and her desire for chaos helped speed up the learning process.
- Downplayed, as Eliza only really displays mastery of 'running fast' and using the force generated to damage a bridge. She doesn't appear to have any knowledge of phasing, throwing lightning, running up walls or on water, or creating windblasts with her arms. She's faster than Barry due to the V-9, but that's it.
- Internal Reveal:
- Jesse finds out that Harry killed the Turtle.
- Team Flash finds out Jay is Zoom.
- It's All My Fault: Caitlin blames herself for changing Eliza into Trajectory. Wells counters that there's "plenty of blame to go around."
- Jekyll & Hyde: Eliza Harmon and Trajectory.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Scott Evans isn't particularly friendly about the Flash, but what he is correct about is that journalism requires reporting the truth and that metahumans need to be held accountable for their actions.
- Knight Templar Parent: Jesse confronts her dad about always putting her life above the lives of countless innocent people, no matter the cost.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The scene at the club really illustrates the fact that Wally is the only main cast member to not know The Flash's true identity.
- Mythology Gag:
- Once again, there's a nod to the Flash's iconic Heroic Sacrifice: after overdosing on V-9, Trajectory becomes Deader than Dead, and all that's left of her is her costume.
- Opal City is the home of Starman.
- Trajectory's costume resembles Johnny Quick's. Justified; after becoming a speedster in Season 3, Jesse is given Trajectory's costume (slightly altered) to wear as her own.
- Barry cannot make the jump acrosss the canyon when there are drones available to catch you, but later makes a jump across a collapsed bridge. Just like a certain other jump is impossible with a safety rope.
- Never My Fault: Eliza states she shouldn't be taking the drug, but Trajectory claims that it's Snow's fault for making it so easy to reverse-engineer it.
- No Body Left Behind: Happens to Trajectory after taking too much V-9.
- Oh, Crap!: Caitlin has one, when she realizes that someone from Mercury Labs probably reversed-engineered Velocity 9.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Invoked by the person being OOC for once.
Caitlin: Cisco's right, we need a break. And if I'm saying we need a break, you know it's serious!- Harry doesn't want Barry to take the V-9 drug, contrasting earlier in the season where he was the one who introduced the concept to Team Flash, for the very reason that he wanted Barry to go faster.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Cisco was totally right about bringing his safety drones in case Barry couldn't jump through the canyon.
- Barry's distrust of "Jay" is revealed as this.
- Psycho Serum: The Velocity-9 is firmly cemented as this. Not only can it cause rapid cellular degeneration in those who take it, but in the case of Eliza/Trajectory and possibly even Jay/Zoom, it seems to introduce psychotic tendencies.
- Put on a Bus: Jesse leaves Central City on a bus for Opal City, in order to stop her dad from giving in to his darker urges.
- The Reveal: Zoom is dying and he wants Barry's speed to cure it.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Although much of Team Flash's deductions about Jay being Zoom are sound, they're wrong about one thing - the Jay that Zoom killed wasn't a speed mirage but an actual person. In addition, while not technically unsound, their guess ignores the obvious possibility that Trajectory and Zoom could have blue lightning as a result of their faster speed rather than due to the source of their speed.
- Rule of Symbolism: Barry smashing the memorial to Jay to get to his helmet clearly reflects his Broken Pedestal.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Ultimately, Team Flash is completely unable to or needed to do anything to stop Trajectory, who ends up dying as a result of her own actions of excessively taking V-9, even when Barry's managed to increase his speed to Mach 3.3.
- Ship Tease: Between Jesse and Wally note , although Jesse leaving at the end of the episode will likely put this on hold.
- There was one between Barry and Iris as well early in the episode.
- Shout-Out:
- Jesse is watching a documentary about Beyoncé leaving Destiny's Child. She reveals that Beyoncé is a senator on Earth-2.
- Harry turns out to be a fan of Kanye West.
- Eliza Harmon mentions the Law & Order franchise, creating a huge Celebrity Paradox (see above) for the Arrowverse.
- A fun Shout-Out to The Big Bang Theory when Barry races out to the canyon he failed to jump across at the beginning for his Skyward Scream, as this is highly reminiscent of time Sheldon did the same thing while dressed as the Flash.
- Skyward Scream: Barry has an epic one at the end of the episode after discovering that Jay is Zoom.
- Split Personality: Eliza developed one due to the Velocity-drug. Whether this is unique to Eliza or a side-effect of the drug is unknown.
- Spotting the Thread: Barry mentions that Trajectory's lightning turned blue just before she disintegrated, and Caitlin suggests the disintegration was due to the Velocity-9 causing her cells to break down. That leads to the "Eureka!" Moment when they realize who Zoom is.
- Super Hero Origin: Implied to be one with Jesse, given that she is injected with Velocity-9 and the fact that Trajectory's costume is recovered by Team Flash after she disintegrates (a costume which, incidentally, bears a certain resemblance to that of Jesse's dad from the comics; see Mythology Gag above). However, Jesse is also Put on a Bus at the end of the episode.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Trajectory has no trouble breaking into STAR Labs. It's par for the course.
- That Came Out Wrong: Briefly, when Harry tells Jesse that if she's going to go out clubbing with Team Flash, she has to bring "protection." She finds this wording not necessary, but he actually means his metahuman detector.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Scott and Iris don't take a single sip of the coffee that they ordered.
- This Can Not Be: Barry is shocked at Trajectory's existence, noting that all Earth-1 speedsters got their powers from a particle accelerator explosion.
- Understatement: At the end, Cisco asks Harry where Jesse is, to which Harry says that she "went out" as if she were to return soon, when Jesse actually left because Harry would do anything morally ambiguous without hesitation to protect her.
- Wham Shot: Trajectory taking V-9, going faster and her lightning turning blue like Zoom's, then running so fast that she disappears into nothing, leaving only her costume behind.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Once again, taking all his previous records in consideration, Barry's new clocked top speed of Mach 3.3 is laughably low.
