Barry tries to help Cisco prepare for the Crisis, while Ramsey becomes increasingly desperate to save his own life.
Tropes
- All for Nothing: All of the trouble Barry and Cisco went through to procure a cure for Ramsey's HLH, and the subsequent argument between the two, turns out to be for nothing when it proves ineffective on Ramsey and he starts killing people left and right. That being said, the episode's final scene implies the device Cisco built for Nash as part of this deal will prove important later on.
- The Anti-Nihilist: Barry as the Flash tells Ramsey that while everyone dies, what one does for people is important.
- Being Good Sucks: Joe is unhappy that Barry will most likely die in Crisis despite having saved more people than the CCPD.
- Call-Back:
- The serum Nash helps Barry and Cisco steal was taken from the Dominators following their failed invasion.
- Joe mentions Chyre, his old partner from back in the Pilot. Since Ralph used to be a cop, he was also acquainted with Chyre.
- Caper Rationalization: Given that McCulloch Technologies stole an alien miracle cure and have withheld it from the world presumably for profit, no one feels remorseful when Nash, Barry, and Cisco steal it from them.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Ralph quips about Halloween after Ramsey's rampage, nobody is amused.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Inverted. While Barry feels he doesn't deserve anything, Joe feels like that Barry's fate is unfair after everything he's done.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: It's bad enough that Ramsey turns his victims into zombies; that they liquefy into a mass of goo afterwards just made it worse.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Team Flash's lament in the episode's Dénouement is about how they went out of their way to attempt to save Ramsey's life and attempt to be The Paragon to him, only for it to turn out to be a pointless endeavour when he starts leaving trails of bodies in his wake.
- Flashback: There a few showing Ramsey and his mother.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Iris says that Sue Dearbon is lucky to have a detective like Ralph to be looking for her, he dryly retorts that it is just a missing person's case, he isn't going to get married.
- When the hospital's supply of blood is stolen, Joe confesses he's afraid they're dealing with some kind of "meta vampire". By the end of the episode, this is more or less what Ramsey has turned into.
- Nash Wells states that the cure for Ramsey's HLH is only guaranteed to work up to a certain point. When Ramsey actually takes the cure, he's gone too far, and the cure does nothing.
- Forgot About His Powers: Barry is somehow too slow to save Dr. Rodrigo from a monologuing Ramsey in time.
- Funny Background Event: After Nash admitted to planting a listening bug on Cisco, the latter tries searching around his body for it. For several minutes, and couldn't find anything.
- Gorn: Unlike in the last episode where we don't directly see the zombified Mitch Romero explode, we're not spared the sight of Ramsey's thralls liquifying into bloody goo.
- Halloween Episode: There are Halloween decorations, while the spooky theme is kept through Ramsey's zombies.
- Not to mention the fact that Ramsey is becoming a kind of vampire. Not that anyone uses that word.
- Hates Being Touched: Nash tells Cisco to never touch him when he grabs him out of frustration.
- Heroic BSoD: Ralph briefly stops caring about his investigation into Sue Dearborn's disappearance due to despairing over Barry's impending death.
- Hope Spot: Ramsey was genuinely touched that STAR Labs went out of its way to produce an HLH cure for him. The fact that it doesn't work only drove him further over the Despair Event Horizon.
- Internal Reveal:
- Barry realizes that Cisco hid the element that could cure Ramsey's HLH all along.
- Barry and Frost learn that Ramsey was behind the hospital attack and that he's become a vampire meta.
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The bio-regenerative serum that McCulloch Technologies has on hand was stolen from the Dominators during their invasion three years prior.
- It's All About Me: Despite all of his ranting, it becomes clear that his own life is the thing most precious to Ramsey.
- Jerkass Ball: During his Heroic BSoD, Ralph also becomes pretty blunt, telling Iris that she should spend the remaining time with her husband instead of seeing him.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: While Ramsey's activities on the show thus far have reached into morally grey mad science territory, his actions at the hospital completely throw out any possible good intentions he may have had in the past.
- Lampshade Hanging: Barry remarking that the presence of a Wells usually triggers an important event.
- Mythology Gag:
- Ralph, after picking himself back up, dismisses the Sue Dearbon case as just looking for a missing person with "it's not like [he's] gonna get married." Viewers familiar with the Sue of the comics know better.
- Frost uses the term "Post-Crisis", which is a common fandom term for the time after the comics Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Bloodwork drains the blood of people, temporarily curing his HLH and turning them into his zombified thralls.
- Passing the Torch: Barry wants Cisco to take over as team leader when he's gone.
- Power Nullifier: McCulloch Technologies has power dampeners installed in their security system.
- Red Herring: The serum Barry goes great lengths to to cure Ramsey? Doesn't even work.
- Revenge: Aside from taking his life force, Ramsey also kills Dr. Rodrigo for failing to save his mom.
- Smoke Out: Nash's bombs teleport the user to their desired destination. The smoke is a side-effect.
- Stealth Hi/Bye:
- Ramsey appears in front of his colleague Dr. Rodrigo.
- Nash pulls this on Barry, Cisco and a couple of guards, before ambushing the latter just as quickly.
- The Stinger: Nash uncovers a chamber underneath Central City used by the Monitor, whom he's apparently hunting. Or perhaps the Anti-Monitor since his face is obscured.
- Villain Episode: Downplayed, but there's a pair of flashbacks dedicated to Ramsey and his departed mother.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Barry gives one to Cisco for hiding the HLH cure.
- Withholding the Cure: Cisco attempts to withhold the supposed element to cure HLH to seek a way to avert Barry's death in the Crisis.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Joe gives Ralph a pep talk to get him to continue his case.
