Time Bomb

"I used to think that keeping secrets from people for their own good was a noble decision, that it would protect them. But when you do that, you just rob those people from making their own decisions."

—Barry Allen to Nora West-Allen^[src]

"Time Bomb"
Information
Season 5 » Episode 17
Episode number	109 of 184
Original airdate	March 19, 2019
Written by	Kristen Kim Sterling Gates
Directed by	Rob Greenlea
Guest stars
Sarah Carter as older Grace Gibbons/Cicada Victoria Park as Kamilla Hwang Catherine Lough Haggquist as Vickie Bolen
Chronology
Preceded by	"Failure is an Orphan"
Followed by	"Godspeed"

"Time Bomb" is the seventeenth episode of the fifth season of The Flash, and the one-hundred-ninth episode overall. It aired on March 19, 2019.

Synopsis

Team Flash finds out that a suburban mom named Vickie Bolen is in danger and they race to save her. Upon meeting her, they discover she’s a meta-human who is hiding her abilities from her family. Barry encourages Vickie to share her secret with her family, which makes Nora realize she needs to come clean with her parents about Thawne.

Trivia

• When Ralph keeps getting the waiter's name wrong at Jitters he says "Larry" to which the waiter corrects him saying that it's "Jason", a reference to Cause and XS, when Nora kept changing things over and over again by going back in time.
• Many Items from previous seasons appear in the "STARCHIVES":
  • The helmet Barry wore when Team Flash was testing his speed for the first time on the Ferris Air runway in "Pilot".
  • The vaccum cleaner that Cisco, Caitlin and Felicity used to fool Captain Cold in "Going Rogue".
  • The Time Sphere that Team Flash built in order to bring Eobard Thawne back to his time in "Fast Enough".
  • Savitar's timespace gun from "Finish Line".
  • The Flash suit from Season 4.
  • The B.O.O.T. which Team Flash used.
• When Sherloque is watching Eobard Thawne's video diary video log 247, a reference to Season 1 when Eobard created the Time Language code, used to record all the timeline changes, which he calls the Source code of the multiverse a reference to writer Jack Kirby, The Source Wall, and Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• This episode marks the first time since "Nora" where Barry uses the Flash ring onscreen. Although Oliver used it in "Elseworlds, Part 1".
• Cisco says, "Cue up Operation: Shazam", a reference to the hero of the same name, implying that he exists in the same universe.
• Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow) is absent for the majority of the episode and only appears at the end, as she was busy directing episode 18.
• This is the first episode since "The Death of Vibe" to feature all 10 of this season's series regulars.
• While talking with Kamilla Cisco remarks that what they are doing is as important as “not Penny’s boat”, this is a reference to a famous scene in the finale of Season 3 Lost.
• When Ralph says he Peter Parker'd Kamilla, he does the famous Spider-Man "thwip" motion.
• Cisco reacts to Kamilla's photo-op for the Central City Citizen by saying, "Shut the front door", quoting Nate Heywood from "Outlaw Country".
• When Sherloque takes out the Time Sphere plans, there's writing on it that says, "Neutron Flows cannot be reversed", a reference to Doctor Who.
• When Sherloque is analysing Nora’s diary a line about Game of Thrones in her writing can be seen, suggesting that the series does not in fact end at season eight.
• The way Sherloque Wells expose Nora and her secret is very similar about how Sherlock Holmes would expose a criminal at the end of a story.