Snow Pack

"I already left once before. I left both of you. Worst mistake I ever... ever made in my entire life. Wasn't gonna make that again. Family shouldn't leave family. I'll always love you"

—Thomas Snow

"Snow Pack"
Information
Season 5 » Episode 19
Episode number	111 of 184
Original airdate	April 23, 2019
Written by	Jonathan Butler Gabriel Garza
Directed by	Jeff Cassidy
Guest stars
Sarah Carter as older Grace Gibbons/Cicada Susan Walters as Carla Tannhauser Kyle Secor as Thomas Snow/Icicle
Chronology
Preceded by	"Godspeed"
Followed by	"Gone Rogue"
Blog post	Post 93 "#BreacherFail"

"Snow Pack" is the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-eleventh episode overall. It aired on April 23, 2019.

Synopsis

When Icicle returns to enact the next phase of his devious plan, Caitlin and her mother, Dr. Carla Tannhauser, must resolve their long-combative relationship to defeat the icy monster. After Barry makes a big decision about their family without consulting her, Iris decides to take matters into her own hands.

Trivia

• This episode title refers to the Snow family, whom Icicle planned to convert into ice personas permanently.
• When Iris and Ralph are preparing to use the time sphere to travel to the future, Iris asks Ralph if he's ready; Ralph then responds "All set to hit eighty-eight miles an hour". This is a reference to the Back to the Future franchise, and the fact that the DeLorean time machine used in the series needs to reach a speed of eighty-eight miles an hour to travel through time.
• This is the fourth episode of this season (and the series) not to feature Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon).
• The way Nora arrives in 2019 after exiting the Negative Speed Force is very similar to how the time remnant of Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash arrived in 2016 for the first time in "Potential Energy".
• The manner in which Thomas dies by sacrificing himself to save his daughter from Cicada is similar to how Quentin Lance died protecting Laurel, from Ricardo Diaz in Arrow's "Life Sentence".
• Near the end, the way Future Grace is watching over her unconscious younger self, is similar to the ending of "Failure is an Orphan", when she watches over her unconscious uncle Orlin.
• The way Cicada killed Thomas was similar to how she killed her uncle Orlin in "Time Bomb".
• Thawne talking about his Negative Speed Force to Nora echoes how he spoke of the Speed Force during "Fast Enough" but negatively.
• In the West house, a box of pizza is shown with the logo, "Milgrom and McFarlane", a reference to Todd McFarlane who created Spawn and also worked on a lot of Marvel and DC titles and popularized Venom, and Al Milgrom was one of the creators of Firestorm with Gerry Conway.
• In 2049, on the back of the prison guard's magazine is an advertisement for Ralph's favorite soda gingold.
• Ralph refers to Eobard as "He who must not be named", a reference to Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter.
• The Negative Speed Force is actually pulling from Geoff Johns 2009 Flash Rebirth when Professor Zoom created the Negative Speed Force.
• The prison guard refers to Eobard as, "Hannibal Speedster," a reference to the fictional serial killer and cannibal, Hannibal Lecter.
• In the Flash 'Force Quest' storyline, besides the Negative Speed Force, there was also, the Sage Force, the Strength Force and the Still Force.