A recently returned XS, consumed with the Negative Speed Force, recruits Weather Witch, Brie Larvan — now calling herself Queen Bee — and Ragdoll to help her pull a heist.
- Aerosol Flamethrower: Sherloque intends to use one of these against Queen Bee's robotic bees, but can't get it to work. So Cisco uses a breach to send the bees away instead.
- And I Must Scream: Alluded to, Ragdoll needs to enter a small pipe to open McCullogh Tech's weapons vault from the inside, and Nora warns him that as soon as he gets there, he must immediately get out of the pipe lest the vault's power dampeners gets him stuck inside there.
- Atrocious Alias:
- How Larvan feels about Bug-Eye Bandit the moniker the heroes gave her; she prefers Queen Bee.
- Similar to Team Flash's reaction to the name Eobard, Joslyn finds Nora's made-up last name Ognats conspicuous.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Sherloque is terrible at acting like Flash through the hologram projector.
- Bait-and-Switch: When "The Flash" shows up and he is acting all ridiculous, you'd think it's Ralph in disguise at first. It turns out to be a hologram controlled by Sherloque.
- Birds of a Feather: The Young Rogues briefly find themselves bonding over having similar disillusionment with their respective parents (or, in Larvan's case, a mentor figure).
- Boring Yet Practical: How Cisco manages to sabotage the phone under the Rogues noses. He doesn't use high end tech or advanced programming that could be found by Larvan but simply tampers with the reception so the signal it's sending gets disrupted.
- Brain Bleach:
- Caitlin gets mildly disgusted when Ralph asks her if she's coming on to him.
- Joslyn finds her teammate Peter's powers gross and disconcerting.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Joslyn demands the Flash to come and reveal her his identity while showing some hostages. Unaware to them, one of those hostages actually is the Flash using a transmogrification device to pose as a McCulloch Technologies employee alongside Iris and Joe. He then opens his cuffs and reveals himself as the Flash.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Brie Larvan hasn't been in Central City since "All-Star Team Up" and was seen in the verse proper in Star City in the Arrow episode, "Beacon of Hope" where she was sent into coma.
- Ragdoll was last seen in "All Doll'd Up".
- Call-Back:
- Brie Larvan's stint in Star City gets a mention.
- Barry reviews a video of Cisco's forcefield and brings up Ray's nanites when thinking of ways to stop Nora.
- Captured on Purpose: The hostages kidnapped by the Young Rogues actually are Barry, Joe and Iris. They deliberately posed as McCulloch Technologies employees to defeat them.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: H.R.'s disguise pen from season 3 aids Barry, Iris, and Joe in taking the Young Rogues by surprise.
- Continuity Nod: After knocking out Ragdoll, Iris comments he's lucky she doesn't throw him off a building, which is a call-back to her previous showdown with Ragdoll, when he shoved a tied-up Barry, who was wearing meta-human dampening cuffs, off of a building, leading Iris to jump off of the roof to save her husband.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: To Season 1 episode "Going Rogue".
- Dark and Troubled Past: Weather Witch's mom couldn't look at her without seeing Mardon and made sure she knew it. So when she turned 13 she ran away and her mom never bothered to look for her.
- Discontinuity Nod: Ralph assumes that Caitlin is making a move on him, only for her to act with disgust over the notion; a nod to how in Season 4 Ralph was meant to be Caitlin's love interest, only for Panabaker to veto the idea.
- Distressed Dude: Sherloque and Cisco were kidnapped by the new group. Nora just wanted Cisco to hack Spencer Young's phone, but the others kidnapped Sherloque because he was in the way.
- Easily Forgiven: Nora is easily forgiven for the robberies she committed and for putting several people in danger even if it was for a good cause.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even under the influence of the Negative Speed Force, Nora insists on a no killing rule.
- Evil Costume Switch: Following Nora's use of the Negative Speed Force, she uses black lipstick and now wears a black jacket. Subverted in that Nora is just faking her defection, but the Negative Speed Force is making her angrier and impeding her judgment.
- Evil Plan:
- Subverted, Nora's plan wasn't to build a weapon to kill Cicada, but rather steal remains of a solar panel from the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to destroy her dagger. She allied herself with Young Rogues because she thought her parents wouldn't trust her, planning to return any stolen weapons.
- Cicada II's plan is to use the failed prototypes of Cisco's metahuman cure and the atomizer stolen from Thomas' lab to create a biological weapon that will wipe all metahumans out of Central City.
- Fake Defector: While the Negative Speed Force is making Nora more aggressive, she's just putting on an act to get a piece of technology that can destroy Cicada's dagger.
- Final Solution: Cicada II's Evil Plan is revealed to be this. She wants to create and disperse a biological weapon that will kill every metahuman in the city.
- Flat "What": Barry's response to Iris suggesting that Thawne's plan for Nora and Cicada might not be so bad.
- Foreshadowing: Nora insisting on a no-killing rule is the first clue she isn't really evil.
- Hate Plague: The Negative Speed Force seems to be this as whenever Nora gets angry the more like the Reverse-Flash she starts to act.
- The Heist: The Young Rogues plan to steal from McCulloch Technologies.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Nora's plan to ally herself with the Young Rogues. Even if she wanted to think better of Joslyn, she really should have seen the betrayal coming from the likes of Larvan and Merkel.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Sherloque deduces this about Cisco.
- I Meant to Do That: With Killer Frost going Achilles in His Tent, Ralph gives his "Seven Stages of Mourning" pamphlet to Caitlin. As soon as he suggests one tip from the pamphlet, Frost comes out just to shut him up. Ralph then brags to Caitlin that he managed to wake Frost up after all.
- Internal Reveal:
- Sherloque tells Cisco that Renee is a meta and reveals Renee that he knows about her being a meta.
- The Young Rogues learn that the Flash is Nora's father.
- In-Series Nickname: to differentiate her from her predecessor, Ralph refers to Grace as Shecada at one point.
- It Only Works Once: Weather Witch instantly sees through the hologram trick Team Flash used against her in her introduction episode.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Weather Witch works alongside Nora and even opens up about her past, just to drive her villainy home when she betrays Nora and casually admits to doing the same to Raya.
- Kick the Dog: Nora threatens Cisco with a vibrating hand to press a Trauma Button and to force him to hack Spencer Young's phone.
- Like Father, Like Son: Just like her father in Season 1, Nora is double-crossed by a set of Rogues she tried to make a deal with.
- Additionally, Joss's betrayal is a lot like Mark's scheme to kill Barry in season 2 episode 9.
- Mood Whiplash: Caitlin gives Ralph a very touching speech about how he deserves true love, he gently tells her that he's not into her, causing her to freak out in disgust in the most hilarious way possible, killing the moment.
- Mind-Control Device: The Young Rogues force Cisco to unlock Spencer Young's phone for them and Queen Bee uses it to allow her bees to put him and Sherloque in a trance. It doesn't last because Cisco snuck in bad reception.
- Moral Myopia: Under the influence of the Negative Speed Force, Nora is willing to turn on Cisco by kidnapping him and forcing him to hack Spencer's phone, but is shocked when the Young Rogues betray her shortly thereafter.
- Must Make Amends: Sherloque feels terrible about what he did to Nora and tries to make up for it.
- Mythology Gag:
- The false identity Nora gives Joslyn as part of their heist is Jenni Ognats, the civilian name of XS from the comics.
- Nora wants to rob McCullogh Technologies; McCullogh is of course the last name of Mirror Master II from the comics. The weapon she stole even looks like his mirror gun, which is what Cisco decides to call it.
- And the company is working with G. Simone, a reference to comic writer and namer of the Stuffed into the Fridge trope Gail Simone.
- Sherloque is able to get out of the cuffs because he trained with Earth-51’s Thaddeus Brown, the man who mentored DC’s most famous escape artist, Mr. Miracle.
- No Honor Among Thieves: The Rogues turn on Nora, wanting to use her to oust her dad's identity to make themselves "legitimate" Rogues. Also, previously, Joss abandoned Raya in Bolivia.
- No, You: When accused of being afraid of telling Kamilla that he's Vibe, Cisco insists he plans on telling her, but it's "hard to navigate the meta life-personal life balance." Sherloque makes a "chicken life balance" crack, to which Cisco responds "Man, YOU'RE a chicken-personal life balance!"
- Oh, Crap!:
- Barry when he sees Nora vibrating and her eyes glowing red just like the Reverse-Flash.
- Cisco makes light of the Young Rogues kidnapping him...until Nora's eyes glow red and her hand start vibrating.
- Poor Communication Kills: Though it's actually justified in this case, since Barry admits he wouldn't have gone through with Nora's plan if she told him, as it came from Thawne.
- The Reveal:
- The Negative Speed Force sucks positive tachyons out of the Speed Force to power itself like a parasite.
- Grace's true plan of killing all metas with the botched versions of the cure is revealed.
- Running Gag: Ironically, after Sherloque points out how people get his name wrong, he himself proceeds to get other people's names wrong.
- Shadow Archetype: The Young Rogues are this to Nora, representing what Nora would become if Barry and Iris well and truly gave up on her.
- Shout-Out:
- Cisco makes one to Sex and the City, calling his satellites Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte.
- Sherloque compares Cisco to Ralph Macchio.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: All the Rogues try to convince Nora that depending on parents will only lead to misery.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Joe tells Barry that he often has to choose between his job and his duty of being a father, and most of the time, he chooses the latter.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Weather Witch seems to have given up on redemption, ditching Silver Ghost in Bolivia for being "all talk" and becoming more committed to being a Rogue.
- Trojan Prisoner: Team Flash disguise themselves as the military brass that the Young Rogues took hostage.
- Uncertain Doom: After revealing that she abandoned Raya, Weather Witch tells Nora "Well at least YOU'LL die fast!", indicating that Raya might be dead.
- Villain Has a Point: Iris brings up the possibility to Barry that Thawne's plan might actually be the right thing to defeat Cicada II and that Nora really made him change his ways.
- Villain Team-Up: A newly corrupted Nora gathers Weather Witch, Queen Bee, and Ragdoll to help with her heist.
- The Virus: Cicada's plan is to use the prototype meta cures to kill all metas in the city.
