The Flash S5 Ep. 8 Thoughts & Easter Eggs

What's Past Is Prologue

This week's episode of The Flash was by far the best installment of the new season boasting an incredible assortment of naturally integrated fan service (easter eggs galore), nostalgia driven sequences, and arguably one of the best episode concepts ever presented thus far. The narrative of Barry and Nora traveling back in time to earlier season villain plot points in order to piece together a solution for the present was both brilliantly conceived and well executed. With this being the 100th episode, considering what Arrow did with theirs, one would assume a few familiar faces popping up, but what transpired here took me completely by surprise.

How did the Time wraiths handle Zoom without affecting the timeline?

Not only do we get to see flashbacks of Devoe, Savitar, Thawne, and Zoom, but we're actually gifted with new angles and twists to said scenes due to our heroes attempting to steal era-specific items. This episode sort of plays out like a time jumping heist with geek out worthy surprises along the way. For example, having Zoom actually chase after both Barry and Nora just after stealing Barry's speed during Season 2, while a time wraith pursues them, was a jaw dropping surprise to say the least. It's such a delight seeing Teddy Sears briefly return in the sinister role and the idea of having him accidentally encounter our present day heroes makes that Season 2 scene pretty intriguing upon revisiting.

Barry ensures that Harry doesn't see his Flash suit ring during this encounter

Keep in mind that Barry also interacts with Season 2 Harry desperately giving him the idea to track down Jesse's frequency which, again, would make Season 2 interesting upon re-watching. What this episode does brilliantly is take what could've easily been mere surface level fan service and actually utilize it to impact the narrative of older seasons. It's without a doubt the best use of time travel on the show if I may be so bold.

Speaking of brilliant, the same can be said for Barry and Nora's interactions with Thawne later on in the episode which honestly stole the entire season for me. Upon ending up in the Season 2 scene to where Barry went back in time (to Season 1) to get help from Thawne, we see Barry literally having to repeat the same risky maneuver here yet again with different stakes now. If there was ever an appropriate time for an Inception joke, now would be it. Aside from Tom Cavanagh's unparalleled onscreen presence, Thawne has quite a few eye opening dialogue exchanges here. His enraged reaction to failing his Season 1 mission after seeing two future Barrys, his peculiar reactions to Nora (which plays in later on), his knowledge about Cicada being the "one that got away" along with his dagger, and his amused thoughts on Savatar's character makes this arguably the most profoundly gripping scene from Eobard yet.

However, with this high level of praise comes one major issue that this episode unintentionally presents. Watching Thawne's incredibly engaging scenes with Barry and Nora made me realize just how much the show has never quite lived up to that character's bar setting legacy. The Reverse Flash remains to be the greatest season villain on the show for about 3-4 seasons after his debut (in my opinion of course). It made me actually stop and think to myself "You know what? I actually wouldn't mind if they finished Cicada's arc soon giving the season villain mantle to Thawne completely". With the ending scene revealing that Nora...whoops...I'm getting ahead of myself here. The point is, I find it interesting that we haven't had any season villains remotely on par with the show's first attempt at delivering one.

Barry then revisits the beginning of Season 1 during the particle accelerator explosion to acquire dark matter energy which stirs up some pretty awesome nods to different elements from past seasons. First, we see Cisco and Caitlin, who at the time were assistants to Wells being completely blind to his hidden agenda. We also get old school Gideon who recognizes Barry (Flash ring insert?) and Nora calling her a "member of the rebooted Legion of...". Well, it's a good thing Barry cut her off or my neighbors would've hated me for yelling out in excitement. It is during this time that we get one of the more emotional scenes between the two. Nora shows fascination towards the S1 Reverse Flash suit to which Barry has to stop her to explain Eobard's connection to his mother's death. This leads to Nora embracing him stating that she wants to know everything about her father leaving no secrets behind.

It's a touching moment for sure, but what caught my attention is the fact that the Flash Museum doesn't state arguably the biggest fact about Eobard Thawne's twisted connection to the Flash. The fact that Nora seems genuinely surprised does bring up the question how much of the Flash's history gets muddied or sugar coated in the future. Savitar's identity seems to be potentially secretive in the museum as well as the Nora Allen incident. It makes me curious as to who actually fills in each villain's and hero's public data in said museum. Is it Iris for privacy sake in regards to her husband and family? It's an interesting thought.

Continuing on in this pre-Flash era, we witness the particle explosion leading to a great montage of welcomed fan service showing Ronnie's presumed "death", Prof. Stein holding the Firestorm matrix, Barry being struck by lightning, Weather Wizard's origin, and as an unexpected surprise, Devoe's Thinker origin. It's a nice callback to Season 4 reminding fans of the impact that this one event had on the entire series. What I also liked about this scene was the aftermath moment where Wells (Thawne) is being taken out on a stroller speculated to being handicapped as he glances over to see Barry's body being taken as a lightning struck victim. Honestly, the way in which this episode reflects upon the series as a whole is some of the best writing that I've seen on The Flash.

Alright, now for the Cicada segment of the episode which I sadly forgot about due to everything else being much more exciting in scope. It is interesting that Cicada has such a deeply intriguing mythology surrounding him via his future reputation. Yet, due to last week's episode giving him a not so satisfying and speedy motivation transition, I'm starting to lose faith in the character's appeal. Yes, it was "cool" seeing him essentially pull a Thor move calling back his dagger from space after Cisco breached it. But ask yourself, what did this particular fight scene lead to exactly? He never actually damages anyone and Killer Frost basically startles him with her immunity to his dagger resulting in him flying away. It felt like an awesome set up for a climactic villain scene that led to the exact opposite with Cicada flocking away after a few throws of his dagger and an ice shower.

I'm starting to feel tiny hints of the "Reign dilemma" kickstarting here in tiny but noticeable increments. What is the "Reign dilemma" you ask? Reign was the Season 3 villain of Supergirl that had an incredible mythology building her up as some apocalyptic figure until she finally made her debut utterly failing to live up to the anticipation. Let's hope that The Flash's creative team is hiding something special for us that goes beyond Cicada showing up just to run away at the sight of Caitlin's magical shift in hair color. Don't get me wrong now. I do love quite a bit of the writing that revolves around his meta-murdering Jack the Ripper approach. However, there's something about the cliched modulated deep voice, Chris Klein's sometimes cartoony "bad guy" demeanor, and his immediate transition from watching a news story about metas to throwing a piece of satellite around like Thor's hammer with a thirst for meta-human blood that doesn't sit right with me.

Nice to see this finally being paid off. I actually labeled this as a plot hole when S4 ended

As for the ending scene, fans are given quite a bit to speculate over. We finally get an explanation for Nora's book which is revealed to be a journal containing personal historical records despite timeline changes in order to keep her father's image authentic and close. Along with this comes an explanation for the crazy symbols shown during Season 4 which she claims to be the creator of herself making Sherlock immediately suspicious. This is then put into question later on once his tampering with Cisco's algorithm reveals the phrase "Timeline is malleable". Hmmm. Now, I wonder who would that be a message to?

With Nora then flipping through family photos and deciding to revisit Henry and Nora Allen, Barry follows her leading to a nice touching moment where the two look up to see his parents being happy. Next comes the thought provoking and dangerous question, "Do you ever think on stopping what's about to happen?", which is a great nod to Season 3's flashpoint arc. What's important to note here is the incredible show of progression in Barry's character via his calm reply "everyday". We've complained about Barry's drastic decision making in the past so much that we haven't taken the time to soak in just how much the character has grown over the past 2 seasons. This Barry truly comes across as a man who has been through hell and back with a new appreciation for life, a seasoned mind for time traveling and meta handling, and someone who was fortunate to have two incredible fathers by his side as shining examples.

More Tom Cavanagh? Yes, please!

Nora is then later being shown to have secretely been using her journal to, in connection with Gideon, contact Eobard this entire time. Predictable? Sure, several fans including myself have theorized this, but it doesn't make this scene less exciting at the slightest. Seeing Nora run to the year 2049 to confront an imprisoned Thawne (still wearing Harrison's face?) demanding that they talk ended things off on quite the jaw dropping note. So, what does this mean moving forward with the season? Will we possibly be seeing the grand return of the Flash's biggest arch enemy? What happened to the Earth-X version of the character that Barry let go? Why would Nora desperately align herself with Thawne? There are so many exciting questions left off after this episode.

Overall, I can happily state that both the writing and directing in The Flash's 100th episode was some of the strongest of the season especially during Thawne's segments and the various intriguing nods to previous story points. Where one character started to slightly disappoint recently (Cicada), another made a positively shocking and impactful appearance with Thawne's return. My excitement levels are now through the roof with the implications laid out surrounding Nora and Eobard's partnership. Consider me hyped for what's to come, and yes, that also includes the epic, geek out worthy end tag teasing the upcoming Elseworlds crossover.

Bonus Thoughts/Easter Eggs

1. Cicada's Power Progression

Cicada's powers have been a bit of a giant question mark ever since the villain made his Season 5 debut. One second he's taking meta human abilities away from them temporarily with his dagger, next he's creating force fields, follow that with his ability to fly, sprinkle in some super strength, and now add a dash of "I can summon my dagger no matter how outrageously far it is away from me" and you have what we think is the scope of his power set. I'm getting a strong Season 4 Thinker vibes here where our villain is essentially a swiss army knife of meta powers. I'd prefer it we keep our season villains as simple as possible with their threat type. We'll just have to wait and see when we eventually get an explanation. 

2. Flash Suit Ring (Upgrade?)

Cisco tells Barry that he made some modifications to his future suit ring, yet the episode never really shows it off...or did it? I'm gonna have to leave this one with the readers as I simply don't remember seeing Barry doing anything out of the ordinary with his suit.

3. Savitar's End From A Different Perspective

During Barry and Nora's first time travel venture, the two revisit the pivotal moment during the Season 3 finale to which Savitar fights Team Flash eventually meeting his end. What's interesting here, other than Savitar's theme being a nice nod to the fans, is the fact that we get to see this moment play out from their sidelined perspective. Barry's witnessing an evil version of himself trying to kill everyone and Nora is witnessing a version of her father who looks facially burnt and is attempting to destroy everyone's lives. I was hoping for the writers to maybe finally explain all of Savitar's plot hiccups here, but I was satisfied with what we were given instead. Note that Nora, throughout this episode, witnesses how impactful Iris has been at Barry's side throughout the years including when she shoots Savitar during this moment.

4. Speedster Namedrops/Nora's History

During the encounter with Season 1 (Season 2?) Thawne, Eobard tries to guess who Nora might be calling her Dawn (which is Barry and Iris's daughter's name in the comics), Danica Williams (a speedster who took over Wally's mantle as the Flash stemming from the 2040's who also worked at the Flash museum), and Jesse Chambers (Jesse Quick in the comics being the daughter of a speedster named Johnny Chambers AKA Johnny Quick). It's also interesting to note that Thawne smiles when she reveales her name to be Nora telling Barry that at least he has one also stating that "time travel is so funny". Is this a nod to Barry actually having twins in the future (the tornado twins: Dawn and Don Allen), but something changed in the timeline? Or is this a twisted nod to Thawne killing Barry's mother and laughing at the thought of his daughter being the one "Nora" that's alive?

5. Grodd Easter Egg

On their way to sneaking into Thawne's secret room within Star Labs, Barry immediately stops Nora from attempting to pet what appears to be a caged Gorilla Grodd before his meta-transformation. One of the more fun and unexpected character easter eggs of this episode.

6. My Speedster Sense Is Tingle...Whoops...Wrong Universe 

In both speedster villain encounters, Zoom and Thawne are able to sense the presence of Barry and Nora. Thawne, when looking at Nora having no knowledge of her, immediately starts namedropping female speedsters. Before that, Zoom looks at her eagerly calling her out as "another speedster" for him to most likely steal her powers. This is something that I might've missed in earlier seasons, but I don't recall speedsters ever having the ability to sense others of their kind. Was that ever a thing? It makes total sense as everyone's linked to the speed force sort of like Cisco and Gypsy's connection, but I don't recall them ever mentioning this in the past. Interesting.

7. "I Have A Vibe About You"

Some callbacks are intriguing, some are fun and geek out worthy, and some are simply...eerie. After Thawne sense the presence of another speedster who approaches his secret room only to be distracted by Cisco and Caitlin. This leads to a pretty creepy exchange between the two as Thawne (Wells to Cisco at this time of course) extends his hand out to shake Cisco's hand showing his fatherly/mentor relationship with him which visual nods to Season 1's heart wrenching scene where he basically murders Cisco with a similiar body gesture. It's also interesting that he foreshadows Cisco's future as Vibe with some telling wordplay as well.

8. Crisis on Earth-X Wedding Easter Egg

As Nora flips through her journal, we're shown several pictures of the people close to Barry's life with one interesting picture being his wedding photo with Iris. This is a nice callback to Nora first making her debut during their wedding as one of the waitresses. Perhaps she took this photo on her own and the couple didn't know that they were being photographed by their very own daughter.

9. Familiar Face?

The nurse that watches over Cicada's daughter, Gracie, is shown during the flashback sequence as the same nurse on active duty during the particle accelerator fallout. Interesting to note that she's the nurse to come to Thawne's (disguised as Wells of course) aid as well as being present during Barry's lightning struck comatose state. It's no coincidence that they're planting her into the event that kickstarted the creation of meta-humans.

10. Subtle Nod To Julian?

This may be me completely looking into something too deeply, but I did find it ironic that the truck that Killer Frost blasts Cicada in is labeled "Julian's". Again, it can just be a simple coincidence, but considering that this is Caitlin's first time in the episode getting to unleash Killer Frost, how fitting is it that Julian (a previous love interest of Caitlin's who made it his life's work to help her solve her meta dilemma) would be labeled on the truck that she slams Cicada in?

11. Speed Force Visions

Tried to catch as much as I could. Here are the ones that I did manage to screen cap (some are captioned already as this is taken and cropped from my Facebook post):

1. Barry entering the speed force (Season 3)

2. King Shark swimming after Barry (Season 2)

3. Grodd in Gorilla City (Season 3)

4. The Dominators (Season 3 Crossover Event)

5. Zoom killing Henry Allen (Season 2)

6. The Reverse Flash (Season 1)

7. Savitar killing Iris or HR (Season 3)

8. Cisco fighting Killer Frost (Season 3)

9. Hartley Rathaway as Pied Piper (Season 1)

10. Gorilla Grodd possibly (Season 1)

11. Ralph getting absorbed by Devoe (Season 4)

12. Barry in prison during Season 4 or earlier vision when Henry or Jay visits him. This particular vision hasn't taken place yet.

13. Iris as a speedster ( Season 4)

14. Barry using the thinking cap (Season 4)

15. Barry's scribblings of Nora's so called "time language" (Season 4)

16. Devoe and his wife (Season 4)

Episode Rating: 10/10