On Dr. Ambres' urging, Cicada comes out of hiding to resume his killing spree. Team Flash tries to stop him but he injures Nora in the process.
- All-Loving Hero: At the end of the episode, Barry plans on appealing to Cicada's humanity by trying to cure his niece.
- Answer Cut: Sherloque wonders who this "other mastermind" is, followed by a shot of his own reflection in the computer screen.
- Beware the Nice Ones: After Nora is injured, Barry becomes more than willing to kill Cicada, and he very nearly does it before Nora arrives and talks him down.
- The Bus Came Back: Norvok and Peek-A-Boo.
- Call-Back: Cecile remembers how Joe once asked her for help in transporting metas, back in "Rogue Air".
- Curb-Stomp Battle: As soon as his powers are restored, Barry's fight against Cicada in the climax is quickly and brutally shifted in his favor.
- Declaration of Protection: Mutual between Caitlin and Killer Frost at the end, once Caitlin assuages Frost's fears about using the cure.
- Deus Exit Machina: The team would have actually captured Cicada in the first encounter for the episode had it not for Killer Frost transforming back into Caitlin to tend to Kyra May's injuries.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jones accessing the meta register from his home computer is what gives Cecile proof about his criminal activity.
- Dirty Cop: Officer Jones who hates metas ever since Spin brainwashed him. He gives Dr. Ambres a police log of metahuman arrests which she then gives to Cicada, which he repurposes for his hit list. He also tells Cicada about the metas being put into federal custody.
- Dirty Coward: Peek-A-Boo teleports herself, and only herself onto the helicopter while the evacuees are under threat from Cicada.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Jones has a brief appearance during Singh's briefing of the Cicada situation. Later he gets outed as The Mole for Cicada.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- Barry realizes since Nora's presence stopped him from killing Cicada that maybe if they can wake Grace up, it might bring Cicada back to his senses.
- Cecile talking to Barry about the anger he's feeling toward Cicada causes her to realize that she's sensed that same sort of anger before, which leads her to look at Jones as the source of the leak.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Even if most metas become criminals, Team Flash isn't just going to sit idly by and let Cicada kill them, especially since in the eyes of the law they've already paid their debt to society after serving their prison sentence.
- Captain Singh is disgusted that Officer Jones violated his oath as cop to help a mass murderer like Cicada.
- Face–Heel Turn: Officer Jones, after being brainwashed by Spencer Young.
- Friend on the Force: Villainous example with Officer Jones for Orlin.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Cecile compares the rage Barry feels over Nora's injury to Cicada's own genocidal rage. When they fight again in the climax, Barry goes completely berserk, beating Cicada into submission with his bare hands and coming within an inch of killing him. His voice even drops into a threatening growl much like Cicada's, as he pummels Cicada and vows that he will never hurt Nora again.
- Hidden Depths: Norvok reveals he used to work at a Zoo before the Accelerator exploded. The reason he has a snake in his head is because he was trying to get a dangerous viper off a kid when the dark matter wave hit. He also shows a more noble side in helping Ralph evacuate the metahumans.
- I Can't Feel My Legs!: Nora, after Cicada breaks her back. Thankfully, she quickly regenerates.
- Internal Reveal: Sherloque tells Iris about his investigation, when she goes into Mama Bear mode about him grilling her over his lingering suspicions.
- Irony: The Big Bad Cicada's blood is what's gonna help create the cure for the metagene of all things.
- It's All About Me: Norvok initially only joins Team Flash's efforts out of self-preservation. By the end of the episode however, he seems to be taking steps towards honestly reforming.
- It's Personal: Injuring Nora is when Cicada goes from being a Big Bad to take down to being another Arch-Enemy in the same vein as Thawne, Zoom or DeVoe. Barry in particular is angry enough to kill him.
- Jerkass: Peek-A-Boo opts not to use her powers to help evacuate the other metas."Every meta for themselves".
- The Juggernaut: Cicada straight-up breaks out of an ice restraint by Killer Frost.
- Just in Time: Ralph pulls the last meta, Norvock, up to the transport helicopter just as Cicada's dagger zooms toward Norvock, missing him by mere inches.
- Killed By The Adaptation: Carl Bork, who in the comics went straight as the muscle of The Power Company, and was still alive as of the Flashpoint Cosmic Retcon.
- Lady Macbeth: Dr. Ambres actively pushes Orlin to commit more murders.
- Misplaced Retribution: Officer Jones justifies his newfound hatred for Metahumans and actions in aiding Cicada based on his experience with being brainwashed by Spin, a normal human.
- Man of Kryptonite: Not only is Killer Frost immune to the dark matter-draining effects of Cicada's dagger, it's revealed her ice powers can also neutralize it, allowing Barry to recover his Super-Speed enough to give Cicada a beating.
- Morality Pet: If Nora hadn't showed up when she did, Barry would've killed Cicada. Barry sincerely thanks Nora for bringing him back.
- Mythology Gag: Among the deceased meta names are Kyra May and Dwayne Geist. The latter is an obscure hero that debuted in Detective Comics during the Bloodlines crossover (although in the comics his name was "Dwayne Gyer" and his codename was "Geist").
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- Once Killer Frost keeps Cicada's dagger at bay, Barry uses his powers to mercilessly pummel him and would have gone for a killing blow if not for Nora's arrival.
- Earlier, Barry and Nora examined Carl Bork's body and noted he was repeatedly stabbed on top of being inflicted with blunt force trauma.
- No Sympathy: Officer Jones might've been brainwashed by Spin but Singh and Cecile have nothing but cold contempt for him for aiding Cicada's mass murder spree.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Cecile points out that Barry's anger at Cicada is not that different from Cicada's anger at what happened to Grace, and she tells him that he's risking it consuming him. At the end, Barry has an epiphany that he and Cicada are alike in another way: they're both fathers who love their children, and he decides to try and wake up Grace in the hopes that she can convince Orlin to stop, just as Nora did for Barry.
- Not Me This Time: Shawna finds the Flash on her doorstep, but she said that she wasn't up to anything this time. Shortly, Shawna shoots this back at the Flash when she thought he depowered her somehow.
- Papa Wolf: Nora getting injured drives Barry to come at Cicada in an absolute rage that makes the anger he felt at Thawne killing his mom and later Zoom for killing his dad look positively mild in comparison.
- Poke the Poodle: Killer Frost keeps sabotaging Cisco and Caitlin's attempts to create the meta cure by messing up the latter's equations. Caitlin's reactions make it look like a childish tantrum.
- Poor Communication Kills: Much of the "sabotaging the cure" plotline could have been avoided if Killer Frost had just been up front with Caitlin about her concerns instead of refusing to give her the time of day. Thankfully, it works out in the end.
- The Power of Hate: Barry's previous attempts at fighting Cicada hand-to-hand without his powers were very much in the latter's favor. Driven by rage over Cicada crippling Nora, however, he does a much better job of holding his own, although he doesn't get an edge in the fight until his powers come back.
- Shout-Out:
- Ralph mentions Sister, Sister when talking to Caitlin.
- When Caitlin tries to talk Killer Frost about the latter's misgivings with the meta-cure, Frost pretends not to hear her by singing the "I love you" song from Barney & Friends.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Killer Frost keeps sabotaging Caitlin's attempts of creating a cure at first.
- Unexplained Recovery: Norvok apparently has his snake back in his head again despite Amunet cutting it out last season, though he doesn't actually use it.
- Unstoppable Rage: Barry in full on Papa Wolf mode vs Cicada, powers or no powers. Cicada is lucky to have escaped alive.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Carl Bork gets murdered by Cicada in his introduction scene.
