Recap / The Flash 2014 S 4 E 3 Luck Be A Lady

Team Flash confronts Hazard, a metahuman who brings bad luck to all but herself.

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• Affably Evil: Despite Becky knowingly causing havoc after gaining her powers, she nonetheless maintains her sweet and perky personality and after being foiled by Team Flash, she politely surrenders herself to Barry.
• Altar the Speed: Iris tries to do this with Barry before Becky's powers can affect their wedding plans.
• Amicable Exes: Wally and Jesse, they break up due to the complexity of their situation, living in parallel dimensions, not due to any animosity between each other.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite living in a world where magic is a thing, Barry brushes off the idea of being jinxed as ridiculous.
• Asshole Victim: No one feels sorry for Becky’s cheating ex when he gets a taste of her bad luck-inducing powers.
• Batman Gambit: It seems that the Thinker sent the Samuroid to provoke Team Flash into releasing Barry from the Speed Force, knowing and counting on it unleashing a dark matter wave and creating new metahumans. It's also hinted that he purposely selected and gathered together the twelve humans that became metas and had the bus at the spot Barry would appear at the exact moment.
• Beware the Nice Ones: During the funeral/wedding scene, the priest has an allergic reaction to the cinnammon incense that the altar boy used in the censer. When admonished by the other priest, he just gives a small smirk.
• Born Unlucky:
  • Becky Sharpe. Case in point, in the past three years, she's been rear-ended four times, had her identity stolen twice, and a cat burglar burgled her actual cat.
  • According to Cisco, his cousin Hector.
    Cisco: He got jinxed by an ex. Hasn't been able to find a mall parking spot for three years.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: Cisco tries to use Oliver's "You have failed this city" during the laser tag match, only to be immediately tagged.
• The Bus Came Back: Harry Wells.
• But Now I Must Go: Wally leaves Central City to go to Blue Valley, so he can finally move out from Barry's shadow.
• Call-Back: When a plumber begins saying "This house is...", Joe tries to finish the sentence with "Bitching?", calling back the translation of Barry's glyphs from the first episode of the season.
• Call-Forward: In her flashback, Becky hitches a ride on a bus, and it happens to include Kilg%re. As expected, this "meeting" is mere seconds before the very event that transformed them (as well as ten other hapless passengers) into metahumans.
• The Cameo: Violett Beane as a holo-recording of Jesse.
• Cassandra Truth: Harry showing up to tell Wally that Jesse broke up with him. The team has good reason to not believe Harry since he's tried to keep them apart before, but Wally later goes to Earth-2 to confirm the awful truth.
• Chekhov's Gun: The brief scene of the bus being in the pathway of the Speed Force opening up to release Barry in the season premiere turned out to be more critical than was first thought.
• The Chew Toy: Becky's life sucked before the mini-dark matter wave.
• Continuity Snarl: Played for Laughs, Harry, after seeing what happened when Cisco sprung Barry from the Speed Force, admonishes Cisco for not consulting him before opening the Speed Force. An incredulous Cisco argues that he clearly consulted Harry for advice, and they resort to bickering again.
• Create Your Own Villain: Barry's escape from the Speed Force is directly responsible for creating a literal busload full of new Metahumans.
• Curse Cut Short: Harry quickly reaches this point during his and Cisco's argument.
  Harry: I told you not to use them [the Speed Force portal calculations] without consulting me. I said, "Ramon, don't use the calculations without consulting me!!"
  Cisco: Yeah. I heard you! I didn't see the need for that!
  Harry: And that's why you should be cursed at!
  Cisco: What does that even mean?!
  Harry: What does it mean? It means you're a f—..!
  Cisco: Okay, y'know what? This is why we didn't contact you. 'Cause the last thing we need 'round here is more of your salty-ass attitude!
• "Dear John" Letter: Apparently Earth-2 uses "break up cubes" (involving Atlantean plastic, no less) that holds a holographic message for this purpose. They also come with a tissue in case people need to cry.
• Early-Bird Cameo: We’ll be seeing some of the people on the bus in the flashback in the coming episodes.
• Eating the Eye Candy: After commenting that Barry isn’t her type, mistaking her first confrontation at Jitters with him as a pickup, Becky still can’t help but admire and oggle his handsome features.
• Epic Fail: Several are caused by Hazard's powers but the epicest has to be when Barry slips on the casino coins and accidentally cuffs himself with power dampening cuffs.
• Equivalent Exchange: This actually works in Hazard's favor; her good luck comes at the expense of everyone else — which means the more good luck she experiences, the more bad luck the city experiences.
• Exact Words: The Thinker, through his Samuroid, really did want the heroes to bring the Flash back from the Speed Force. Maybe he did need the Flash for some other purpose, but the Speed Force opening up had the side effect of creating a new batch of metahumans, which is what he was actually after.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Thinker considers the fact that Becky was born in Florida to be "the first indignity in a life full of unfortunate circumstances".
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: A lot of the jinxes have prior setups, especially when it comes to the Flash. For example, Becky walks by a truck causing a deliveryman to spill a barrel of marbles just in time to thwart the Flash from going after her. This is repeated in the climax of the episode, where instead it was a massive payload of casino coins.
• Foregone Conclusion: With Violett Beane working on other projects, and thus Jesse having to be the Flash of Earth-2, pretty much everyone saw a Wally/Jesse breakup coming.
• Freudian Excuse: After being through so much bad luck, probably everybody would have acted the way Becky did with her powers.
• Friendly Enemy: Becky isn't really hostile at all, she just thinks that, after a life of misfortune, it is now her turn to be lucky and everybody else's turn to be unlucky. When Barry finally catches her, she doesn't seem to harbour a grudge.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Harry to the support staff he set up for Jesse; they couldn't deal with his abrasive attitude and his Drill Sergeant Nasty mentality, so they voted him out.
• Funny Background Event: While Harry is explaining the nature of a break-up cube to Wally, the rest of the team (standing behind the latter) have various, and changing, reactions, all of annoyance.
• Godzilla Threshold: To cancel out Becky's bad luck wave, Harry lets the Particle Accelerator go off.
• Graceful Loser: When Flash finally catches Hazard, she's actually pretty understanding about being arrested and comes along with no problems when he takes her in.
• Groin Attack: When Hazard meets up with her ex in a restaurant, her powers caused a waiter to accidentally spill hot soup on his pants.
• Hero of Another Story: Jesse. Harry spent the summer setting up a support team for her; Team Quick as it were.
• Hourglass Plot: In the first half of the episode, Cecile wanted Joe to sell his old house (much to Joe's reluctance). Near the end of the episode, Joe decides to sell his house, only for Cecile to change her mind that she wants to stay.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: When the particle accelerator unleashes a wave of energy that temporarily cancels out Hazard's powers, Cisco asks Harry how he knew that would happen. Harry replies "Lucky guess".
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Hazard — her life sucked before the dark matter wave — and she's ecstatic to finally have some good luck; if it weren't for the fact she robbed a bank and was extremely apathetic to the bad luck she was causing, Barry probably would've let her go.
• Internal Reveal: Zig-zagged. With Harry's help, Team Flash pieces together that the Samuroid was bait to release Barry to create a batch of new metas; this catches the Thinker off-guard.
• It's All About Me: Hazard really doesn't give a damn if others get hurt because of her powers, as she sees it, it's just their time to experience the crappy life she had been leading.
• The Jinx: Becky through her powers.
• Karma Houdini: Becky gets molested by a man at her casino job, her reaction causes him to spill his drink. She is fired for spilling the drink.
• Lady in Red: When first introduced to the new Meta Becky, she comes off in a lovely red ensemble that compliments her figure and her legs.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Barry and Iris openly celebrate another couple disbanding their engagement, opening up an opportunity for the ideal venue for their own wedding...which promptly burns down due to a freak soufflé accident.
  • It was really only a matter of time before Harry's extremely hostile personality completely alienated him from others, including his own family.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Cisco and Harry don't take very long until they are at each others throat's again.
• Manchild: Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin are playing laser tag at the episode's beginning.
• Memorial Photo: In her rush to marry Barry before more bad luck hits them, she climbs over the pews to turn around the photo of the dead man whose funeral they followed. She's so anxious she doesn't even let them have time to move the coffin.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Becky really has no idea what sort of havoc her powers are bringing, i.e. the more good luck she experiences at the cost of having various disasters in Central City.
• Mood Whiplash: The sight of Wally waiting at the Speed Lab for Jesse from Earth-2 looking goofy with a couple of presents and a wide smile, gets dashed when it was Harry instead who showed up. Seemingly subverted with Harry trying, again, to break his daughter up with Wally, except he was actually telling the truth, as Wally finds out on his own later.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Harry presents a breakup cube for Wally from Jesse made out of Atlantean material. Also a Continuity Nod, since Atlantis is referred to several times earlier in Season 2.
  • Hazard's casino outfit resembles her costume in the 1980s Infinity, Inc. series.
  • At the end of the episode, Wally decides to move to Blue Valley. In the comics, Wally West is from Blue Valley, Nebraska.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In freeing Barry from the Speed Force, Team Flash (and mostly Cisco) ends up unleashing a wave of dark matter that transforms a busload of people into new metahumans. A fact that Harry takes the time to yell at Cisco about.
• No Social Skills: Harry, who sees nothing wrong with being the go-between for Jesse and Wally's breakup in a very blunt matter. He's also clueless as to why he was kicked off Team Quick.
• Not so Dire: Barry and Cisco appear to be in the middle of a warzone, with Barry lamenting that he lost Caitlin and they're completely outnumbered. It turns out they're just playing laser tag. Against kids. And getting destroyed.
• Obliviously Evil: Despite her knowing she is causing bad luck, Becky doesn't seem to actually realize that said bad luck is becoming extremely dangerous. For example, when someone accidentally sets off a fire alarm, she doesn't even seem to hear it, only thinking the Flash's comment about there not being a fire is in reaction to her being "on fire" with her luck streak.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Barry's attempt to talk peacefully with Becky ends with her leaving him in Jitters with several looming accidents for Barry to stop so he can't go after her. After the commercial break, it was shown that Barry apparently prevented them all.
• Out of Focus: Wally, during the chaos that Hazard is creating, slips off to Earth-2 to try and patch things up with Jesse, and no one, not even The Team is none the wiser.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The more lucky Becky gets, the bigger the radius of bad luck happening to other people gets. It threatens the entire city during the climax.
• Put on a Bus: Wally comes to realize he really has no place on Team Flash anymore, and concedes that he really does need to find his own way, decides to leave Central City.
• The Reveal:
  • The new batch of metahumans were created when Barry was freed from the Speed Force; they were all on a bus and were hit with a dark matter wave when the wormhole opened up.
  • Cecille is pregnant.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The plane almost crashing after being hit by a goose is based on the US Airways Flight 1549 incident from 2009. The pilot is even an Expy of Captain Sully Sullenberger
• Self-Disposing Villain: In a sense. One effect of the "bad luck wave" that engulfs Central City in the climax is the restarting of the particle accelerator. However, once it finally goes off, it actually cancels out Becky's metahuman abilities, restoring the city to normal and allowing Barry to capture her.
• Serious Business: For Barry and Cisco at least, laser tag. They treat it like they're on one of their superhero missions, and are hamming it up for good measure.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • Becky, from a pre-meta frumpster to post-meta knockout.
  • Less significant and surprising, but something still has to be said of beautiful Iris looking even more stunning in the brief glimpses we get of her in her bridal gown.
• Shout-Out:
  • Joe uses a variant of the iconic Tagline from Jaws 2 when he returns to his house, which was just refurbished by Cecile.
  • When first introduced to Post Meta Becky/Hazard, the famous Frank Sinatra cover of the episodes title song plays over a sequence of her demonstrating her powers while nonchalantly robbing a bank.
  • Possibly In-Universe: After Barry is defeated in Laser Tag against a group of children, Cisco gives him Arrow's Catchphrase "You have failed this city!"
• Sinister Surveillance: Turns out, the Samuroid's severed head is still active enough to spy on S.T.A.R. Labs for the Thinker.
• Smart People Play Chess: At the end of the episode, the Thinker is shown playing virtual chess against himself.
• Take That!: This line from The Thinker:
  DeVoe: Subject was born in Sarasota, Florida; the first indignity in a life full of unfortunate circumstances.
• Tempting Fate: Considering the nature of Hazard's powers, the Team expect and voice their concerns that bad things are gonna happen, and it did. This episode has a lot of examples:
  • Becky herself says that barely catching up to a bus is the best thing that's happened to her today, stating that she finally got some good luck. Said bus is in the vicinity when Barry busts out of the Speed Force, transforming her and her fellow passengers in the process.
  • Iris wanted to Altar the Speed, piggybacking off a funeral just so she and Barry can get hitched...the priest suddenly had a cinnamon allergy reaction, and they couldn't get married as a result.
  • Right after Cisco says nothing's going wrong at S.T.A.R. Labs yet, the particle accelerator starts turning on.
• Unreliable Expositor: Played with. Harry makes his entrance into Earth-1 by informing Wally that Jesse has broken up with him. Given that he's lied before to break the two apart, the audience could easily surmise he's doing it again. ^note And the brief parts of the "Breakup Cube" that are seen could be faked However, by the episode's end, Wally travels to Earth-2 and confirms it for himself.
• Wham Line: Cecile telling Joe that she's pregnant.
• Wham Shot:
  • During the last part of Becky's flashback, she hitches a ride on a bus, and she meets the other passengers, one of which is Deacon, a.k.a. Kilg%re.
  • The Samuroid helmet on display at the Cortex lighting up, revealing it as a means for the Thinker to spy on the heroes.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Harry has this reaction towards the entire Team on releasing Barry from the Speed Force without consulting him, and their actions being the catalyst of transforming the bus load into Metahumans.
  • Caitlin delivers a small one towards Harry after his blunt recreation of Jesse’s breakup cube to a heartbroken Wally.
    Caitlin: [sternly to Harry] We are not done!
• You Are Not Alone: Amidst all of their bickering, Cisco assures Harry that he might have been booted out of his universe by his own daughter, but his second family will still be here for him.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Subverted: Harry can go back to Earth-2, he just won't be welcome because everyone there, Jesse included, finally got fed up with his bad attitude.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Barry's reaction when he learns that he was prevented from chasing after bank robbers because a hapless deliveryman spilled a barrel full of marbles on the street.