- Cisco Ramon: I think we're done here.
- Ralph Dibny: One drink. I'm paying.
- Cisco Ramon: One drink, but only because you never pay for anything ever and I'm really curious to see what hell looks like frozen over.
- Ralph Dibny: You know, my mom's friend, Doug, he had a saying. "If you're always waiting to live your life, you're gonna die before it starts." And Doug, he would know. He operated a Zamboni. May he rest in peace.
- Sherloque Wells: Which pair would like to volunteer for this mission? I suggest the speedsters for this to be accomplished so quick.
- Barry Allen: Yeah.
- Sherloque Wells: Elected.
- Barry Allen: [aside, to Nora] Hey, if you see a memory of me stealing a blank Scrabble tile, it's not what it looks like, all right?
- Sherloque Wells: Madames et monsieurs, may I present to you La machine à Mémoire, or as they say in Amérique, you know...
- Iris West-Allen: The Memory Machine.
- Sherloque Wells: Oui, Iris. Memory Machine. Many times I have enterted into people's minds using this very technology. From the unfortunate comatose victims of the Summerholt Institute to, yes, Jervis Tetch himself, the Terrible Mad Hatter Killer from Earth-221.
- Cisco Ramon: I come back from Tannhauser for one second, just borrowing a splicer for the meta cure and what do I find? This, this...
- Sherloque Wells: Machine à Mémoire.
- Cisco Ramon: Whatever. How did you even get this here from Earth-221?
- Sherloque Wells: Well, I used the Forerunner Multiversal Delivery Service. You don't use it? You don't have a gold card like me? Maybe I'll get you a discount.
- [last lines]
- Barry Allen: Hey, did you guys make a breakthrough with the meta-human cure?
- Cisco Ramon: We did. I managed to locate a pair of meta-/non-meta siblings, so this cure, it's as good as done.
- Barry Allen: All right, good. Because I've been thinking. I wanna use the cure on Cicada.
- Iris West-Allen: I'm sorry, why are you wearing a helmet? I thought you were made out of rubber.
- Ralph Dibny: Somebody's gotta set a good example for these kids.
- Caitlin Snow: Well - I thought you grew up on the ice.
- Ralph Dibny: Well, I did, basically, my mom dated a zamboni operator, so...
- Sherloque Wells: And I tell you where I'm from we don't date zamboni operators. Why is that? Because there is no zambonis.
- Nora West-Allen: So, um, I just have to tell you one little thing.
- [shows the year 2021 on the newspaper]
- Nora West-Allen: See that ledger down there? That's the year the paper was founded in my time.
- Barry Allen: 2021. That's two years from now.
- [the year changes to 2019]
- Nora West-Allen: You're changing the future already.
- Sherloque Wells: Monsieur Allen, just for my record for today's events, what was the defense mechanism Nora was using?
- Barry Allen: It was one of the costumes from the museum.
- Sherloque Wells: What costume?
- Barry Allen: The Reverse-Flash.
- Nora West-Allen: I looked all over CCPD. There's no sign of the portal.
- Grace Gibbons: How could you have looked everywhere? You were gone for about two seconds.
- Nora West-Allen: Well, I'm really fast. I-I used to run track in high school. Go CC Squirrels.
- Cisco Ramon: Let me run through this again. So, Mr. Truck, you said? You've seen Cicada here?
- Truck: Dude's been up in here like a mean fungus.
- Ralph Dibny: I see, and how is the White Russian Hacker?
- Cisco Ramon: You wanna focus up here?
- [turning back to Truck]
- Cisco Ramon: So, can you tell me was he violent?
- Truck: Hell, yeah. Every Thursday, comes in and assaults anyone in here.
- [he finishes his drink and smashes the glass]
- Cisco Ramon: Unnecessary. But okay.
- Sherloque Wells: Every time I enter into someone's memories when I use this I went with my partner for sure.
- Cisco Ramon: Your partner's name didn't happen to be Watson, did it?
- Sherloque Wells: No, his name was not Watson. His name was Watsune.
- Caitlin Snow: So, in most coma patients, high-traffic areas of brain activity go dormant, and the low-traffic areas spring to life. But unfortunately, Grace isn't normal. Not only has her coma lasted longer than the average, but her consciousness has isolated itself into one specific region: her long-term memory.
- Sherloque Wells: It will be so facile, easy peasy for you. All you do is you transmit your brainwaves into Grace's memories, right? And then you'll lead her consciousness out of a neural nexus portal. And Grace awakens.
- Ralph Dibny: It's sort of like when Barry woke me up when the Thinker trapped me.
- Iris West-Allen: Surpisingly, that sounds kind of easy-peasy.
- Caitlin Snow: As long as Grace's unusual brain damage doesn't cause any unforeseen risks.
- Sherloque Wells: This is why I suggest you travel in pairs when you're using this technology.
- Ralph Dibny: Any big plans for the night off?
- Caitlin Snow: Oh, I'm gonna crash. Killer Frost was up all night watching movies from her two favorite Johns, Woo and Hughes.
- Cisco Ramon: Huh. I'm more of a Ford and Waters man myself, but I will be up all night yet again working with the radiated meta-human sample you guys got me. There's something missing with this cure.
- Ralph Dibny: You know, there's something that I'm missing, too. Your freshly healed hands.
- Cisco Ramon: Odd choice of words.
- Ralph Dibny: Well, I-I'm meeting with an informant tonight, and he might have a lead on Dwyer's location, but I'm not sure if I should trust him.
- Cisco Ramon: So you need me to vibe him. Look, man. I should really be working on this cure.
- [seeing Ralph's look, he reconsiders]
- Cisco Ramon: But... my splicer algorithm won't technically be done until 3:00 a.m.
- Ralph Dibny: Thanks, man. This is, uh... this is really important work.
- Nora West-Allen: All right, Gracie, let's get you through this portal and out of your coma before anyone notices I snuck in here.
- [noticing the portal is about to close]
- Nora West-Allen: Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- [the portal closes]
- Nora West-Allen: Oh, no. I'm trapped.
- Nora West-Allen: We're gonna find a way out of here, I promise.
- Grace Gibbons: I feel like I've been in this police station for a long time, and now I'm gonna be here forever, aren't I? Just... leave me alone.
- Nora West-Allen: You know, when I was your age, I had to come to this very same police station all by myself, too. It's kind of scary in here.
- Grace Gibbons: I'm not scared.
- Nora West-Allen: Well, I was. I'm scared all the time. In fact, once, there was this really bad guy and he wanted to hurt a whole lot of people on a plane.
- Grace Gibbons: A meta?
- Nora West-Allen: Mm-hmm. But I helped stop him.
- Grace Gibbons: Whoa, really?
- Nora West-Allen: I was terrified, though. But you know what my secret is? I just imagine what will happen after I do the thing. Do you want to try it? Okay, close your eyes.
- [Grace does so]
- Nora West-Allen: And think about what will happen once you're out of here.
- Grace Gibbons: I'll see Uncle Orlin.
- Nora West-Allen: Let's find our way out of here, okay?
- Iris West-Allen: So I-I can't use "Gazette"? "Chronicle"? So the only name that's cleared is "Central City Citizen". Uh, yeah. Yeah, thanks.
- Barry Allen: [entering] Hey, who was that on the phone?
- Iris West-Allen: Um, a lawyer. She was helping answer some questions about me starting a newspaper.
- Barry Allen: That's cool. What'd she say?
- Iris West-Allen: You know, it doesn't matter. I-I'm actually not sure that the timing is right, and I really just want to focus on Team Flash and stopping Cicada.
- Barry Allen: Yeah, but...
- [his phone buzzes]
- Barry Allen: Oh, hold on.
- [answering the call]
- Barry Allen: Hey. Hey, slow down, slow down.
- [to Iris]
- Barry Allen: It's Sherloque.
- [into the phone]
- Barry Allen: Nora did what?
- Iris West-Allen: Why would Nora go in alone?
- Barry Allen: And why isn't she out yet?
- Caitlin Snow: My working theory is that Grace's unique brain damage has caused her brain to act defensively, so when it sensed an outside presence, it moved all of its neural nexus pathways to seal the exits like a-a quarantine procedure.
- Barry Allen: Grace's brain thinks Nora's a pathogen.
- Caitlin Snow: Yes, and we can expect its synaptic defense mechanisms to try and eliminate her.
- Sherloque Wells: Remember I told you about the Mad Hatter? He was also brain damaged, so after my dispute with Watsune and my fourth wife, Watsune pursued the case on his own until the day I found him hooked up to the Machine Mémoire, brain-dead.
- Iris West-Allen: You knew this was a possibility? What happened to "easy peasy"?
- Sherloque Wells: That's why I say go in in pairs.
- Iris West-Allen: Barry, we have to go in after her.
- Nora West-Allen: Look, Grace, is there anywhere else you can take me? Another memory?
- [a bright light leads her and Grace into another memory]
- Nora West-Allen: Where are we?
- Grace Gibbons: My house.
- Cisco Ramon: [after a vibe] You're talking about a band named Sickada?
- Truck: Yeah, bro.
- Cisco Ramon: You said "that dude" assaulted people.
- Truck: He assaults everyone in here with that terrible music.
- Cisco Ramon: Dibs?
- Ralph Dibny: Well, that didn't pan out the way that I hoped.
- Iris West-Allen: We can't warn her we're coming?
- Sherloque Wells: Well, we wanted to install an emergency beacon, but it didn't work.
- Caitlin Snow: So, once you enter, it'll create a new portal. You'll only have a few moments to find Grace and Nora before Grace's brain tries to seal it off. And remember, if you die in there...
- Barry Allen: We die out here. I remember from DeVoe.
- [he and Iris lie down]
- Barry Allen: We're gonna save her. I promise.
- Caitlin Snow: There's been no changes in Grace's brain activity.
- Sherloque Wells: But look. Nora's brain activity has tripled. That means...
- Caitlin Snow: Barry and Iris are in Nora's memories.
- Iris West-Allen: How did we end up in Nora's childhood memories?
- Barry Allen: I have no idea. I also have no clue how we're gonna rescue Nora from here.
- Iris West-Allen: Okay. Okay, we're in a memory within a memory, right?
- Barry Allen: Yeah.
- Iris West-Allen: So if we went through a portal, then...
- Barry Allen: It should take us into Grace. Okay, yeah, we just have to wander through Nora's memories until we find where the portal went.
- Barry Allen: [entering the Hall of Villains in the Flash Museum] Wait. These guys get their own wing?
- Barry Allen: [seeing a memory of Nora's] Iris, that wasn't you.
- Iris West-Allen: Yeah, but it will be, Barry. Nora's gonna grow up hating her mother.
- Barry Allen: No, she won't. You're gonna make different choices. If you don't wanna be that person that we just saw, don't be that person.
- Iris West-Allen: I know. I know you keep saying that, Barry, and that's what I'm trying to do. I had a moment today and I thought that maybe if I could change the timeline now, that even in the smallest way that... I don't know. That everything in the future would be somehow different.
- Barry Allen: This is why you changed your mind about the newspaper.
- Orlin Dwyer: Come on, Gracie, no cussing.
- Grace Gibbons: Please, can we, please?
- Orlin Dwyer: Okay, fine. A rare, old bird is a pelican whose beak can hold more than his belly can.
- Orlin Dwyer, Grace Gibbons: He can hold in his beak enough food for a week.
- Grace Gibbons: But I'm darned if I know how the hell he can.
- Nora West-Allen: [entering Grace's memory] CCPD?
- Captain David Singh: Okay, Jones, here's the kid.
- Officer Jones: We found her in the car hiding under the seat. Her parents were at the ATM when the meta attacked.
- Captain David Singh: Damn. We located her next of kin?
- Female Social Worker: Mm, maybe an uncle. Still tracking down his last known address.
- Captain David Singh: Well, she can't sleep on this bench. We've gotta get her out of here.
- Iris West-Allen: [seeing Nora as a child] Hey, I found her. You think we can talk to her?
- Barry Allen: No. I wish. This might be the only time I get to see her at this age. Nora's consciousness isn't here, though. It's in Grace. This is a fixed memory. We can't interfere.
- Iris West-Allen: When I was ten, I wasn't running away from home.
- Barry Allen: That's 'cause you were a good kid. I ran away all the time.
- Iris West-Allen: Yeah, only 'cause you were trying to see your dad. Not 'cause you were running from someone.
- Cisco Ramon: Is it just me, or are there a lot of ladies in leather in here?
- Kamilla Huang: Yep, singles night.
- Ralph Dibny: It's, uh, quite a coincidence.
- Cisco Ramon: Is it? What is it you're always saying? "I smell a mystery"?
- Ralph Dibny: That is trademarked.
- Cisco Ramon: I can vibe the anxiety coming off of you right now. This whole thing was a setup. Of-of course your informant didn't know Cicada.
- Ralph Dibny: I mean, he knew of Cicada.
- Cisco Ramon: You lied to me, you wasted my time so I could be your wingman tonight?
- Ralph Dibny: No, no, no, dude, it's not like that.
- Cisco Ramon: You know, just when I think you're growing up, you go ahead and do something that shows me you're just as selfish as the day we met.
- Dexter Myles: Who is Cicada? Officials believe...
- Iris West-Allen: Barry, maybe we should keep looking for the portal.
- Barry Allen: Yeah.
- Dexter Myles: But when Cicada resurfaced in 2024 after the Flash vanished, some were left to speculate that Cicada is not a man at all, but an immortal monster. All we know for sure is his body count, 152 victims and rising.
- Barry Allen: Wait, what? I knew we never caught Cicada, but he never stops killing?
- Captain David Singh: Flash did everything he could, but Cicada killed more people than Zoom or even the Red Death. And the way the city saw the Flash, his legacy... it was never the same.
- Orlin Dwyer: I'm gonna make this right, Gracie. Every meta will die.
- Nora West-Allen: Grace, how did you hear Orlin that night? You were in a coma.
- Grace Gibbons: I know.
- [in a conspiratorial whisper]
- Grace Gibbons: But I've been listening.
- Iris West-Allen: Did you think that you could run away and I wouldn't figure out where you went? It's my job to find out the truth. I'm a reporter.
- Young Nora: You're always a reporter. Why not be my mom for once?
- Iris West-Allen: Oh, yeah? How's this for being your mom? You are never coming back to this place again. Let's go.
- [feeling something as she grabs Nora's arm]
- Iris West-Allen: Excuse me, what is in your pocket?
- [Nora takes out a Flash action figure]
- Iris West-Allen: Hand that over right now.
- Young Nora: It's not yours.
- Iris West-Allen: Well, it is now. There are consequences to your actions.
- [as they struggle, it falls and breaks]
- Iris West-Allen: Hand it over.
- Young Nora: I hate you!
- Iris West-Allen: Leave it. Let's go.
- Iris West-Allen: When I talked to the lawyer, I asked her to check a dozen potential names, and guess which one was the only one that cleared. The Central City Citizen.
- Barry Allen: I know it's got baggage, but it's just a name.
- Iris West-Allen: Is it? I mean, we've been looking at that front page for four years. "Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis." And I'm the one that writes that article, Barry. I just thought that, I don't know, maybe if I don't start the paper, that...
- Barry Allen: Iris, this is your dream, and the city needs somebody like you.
- Iris West-Allen: Yeah, but, Barry, look where it gets us. These are Nora's memories right now in this timeline after she interfered. Let's keep looking for the portal, okay? Nora needs our help.
- Ralph Dibny: Before I was the Elongated Man, when I was just nobody Ralph Dibny, I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, but I didn't have any friends to do those things with. So I just thought if, uh, we're getting a night off from stopping Cicada, we could just go out and... have some fun, you know?
- Cisco Ramon: And I want that, too. But after we figure out this cure.
- Kamilla Huang: Dark and Stormy, on the house.
- Cisco Ramon: Do I look that pathetic?
- Kamilla Huang: You look like you belong here about as much as I do.
- Cisco Ramon: Thought I was coming here for a business meeting.
- Kamilla Huang: What do you do, sell leather?
- Cisco Ramon: Nope.
- Kamilla Huang: Tattoo artist.
- Cisco Ramon: Mm-mm.
- Kamilla Huang: Gun for hire.
- Cisco Ramon: Trust me. You wouldn't believe me if I told you.
- Kamilla Huang: Well, I'm a photographer, so it looks like we're both a little lost.
- Cisco Ramon: If I looked at the DNA of two siblings, one who became a meta and one who didn't, I would have a close enough genetic match to isolate the part of the genome that controls meta-genes. I'm sorry, did I just say that out loud?
- Barry Allen: I can't find the portal anywhere. I can't even get out of Nora's memories of this one day.
- Iris West-Allen: [seeing someone approach] Barry, get down!
- [they disappear from sight right as the Reverse-Flash suit appears]
- Caitlin Snow: Nora's in trouble. Grace's defense mechanisms must be attacking her.
- Sherloque Wells: [looking at Barry and Iris' scans] She's not the only one who's in trouble.
- Caitlin Snow: We need to get them out of there now.
- Barry Allen: [seeing the Reverse-Flash suit] It's Nora's defense mechanism.
- Nora West-Allen: Hello?
- Caitlin Snow: Nora, is that you?
- Nora West-Allen: Caitlin!
- Caitlin Snow: [high-fiving Sherloque] Yes! I told you the M.A.D. 2.0 could complete your emergency beacon. Uh, Nora, your parents went into your memories. Uh, let me conference them in.
- Nora West-Allen: Sorry, my parents went where?
- Sherloque Wells: We made an important discovery.
- Caitlin Snow: To get you out of there.
- Sherloque Wells: The portals are hidden in perception gaps.
- Caitlin Snow: Things that you remember the way you want them to be, not the way they actually were.
- Sherloque Wells: 'Cause you're in denial or your perception was colored by anger or what have you.
- Caitlin Snow: So these defense mechanisms, they're composed of synapses. If you can break down the synapses in the false memory, that will reveal the real memory, and the synaptic jolt will expose the portal.
- Iris West-Allen: Okay, so... okay, well, how do we do that?
- Sherloque Wells: Well, uh... we'll have to call you back.
- Iris West-Allen: How do we know which memories weren't real?
- Barry Allen: [thinking] Of course. Iris, it's the Hall of Villains. You and Nora.
- Iris West-Allen: Barry, I still dampen Nora's power. She still grows up hating me. This is my future.
- Barry Allen: No, no, it's not. It's just a memory, one warped from the perspective of a sad, angry, little kid that ran away from home. Don't you get it? That person that we saw in there, the bad mom that Nora told us about, she doesn't even exist in any timeline. I told you you had to be different in the future, but I was wrong. You... you don't have to change who you are. You don't even have to change the name of your newspaper. I know any future with you in it is gonna be a good one. You just gotta believe that, too.
- Iris West-Allen: I don't see the portal anywhere.
- [with his speed, Barry engages the Reverse-Flash suit in a fight, which slowly wears away the false memory]
- Iris West-Allen: Barry, it's working!
- Iris West-Allen: Oh, no. You dropped your toy.
- Young Nora: I just wanted to see the museum.
- Iris West-Allen: I know, honey, but you ran away. I didn't know where you went. I was afraid you could have gotten hurt.
- Young Nora: You said that the museum reminded you of dad, 'cause dad was the Flash's number one fan. So I wanted to see it, 'cause I love the Flash, too.
- [wiping tears from her eyes]
- Young Nora: It's not fair.
- Iris West-Allen: I know, honey. I know it's not fair. I love you, Nora. Your dad loved you, too. So, so much.
- [hugging her]
- Iris West-Allen: Come here, girl.
- Barry Allen: [leading his Iris away] Come on, we gotta go. Let's go get Nora.
- Caitlin Snow: Neural oscilations are normal. You three are perfectly healthy. Oh, and we think we've figured out how you two ended up in Nora's brain.
- Cisco Ramon: That is a satellite shard full of dark matter in Grace's head.
- Sherloque Wells: Mon dieu.
- Caitlin Snow: Sometimes surgeons leave a piece of shrapnel in a patient's brain if it's too dangerous to remove, and we think that the dark matter was seeping out to create a barrier around her brain. We can't go back in as long as it's there. It's too dangerous.
- Barry Allen: Why did you go in without us? We had a plan.
- Nora West-Allen: No, I know, um... you know, just with the machine being ready, uh, and knowing that Cicada was still out there, I guess I just, um, I got a little excessive.
- Sherloque Wells: It's not the only reason, though, right? It was protecting her secret.
- Barry Allen: What secret is that?
- [tense moment, as Nora looks around nervously]
- Sherloque Wells: Well, her feelings for her mother when she was a child. Must be painful memories. Is that correct, Nora?
- Nora West-Allen: [covering] Yeah, exactly.
- Barry Allen: Happy first day in your new office.
- Iris West-Allen: You're so sweet.
- Nora West-Allen: So, have you decided what you're gonna name the paper?
- Iris West-Allen: I don't know. "Central City Citizen" has a certain ring to it.
- Barry Allen: You sure?
- Iris West-Allen: Yeah, you were right. Future isn't always what it seems. We decide what it gets to be.
- Nora West-Allen: Dad told me about the memory that you saw.
- Iris West-Allen: I know it wasn't real, Nora, but it must have come from a very real place. You must have been so angry with me to see me that way.
- Nora West-Allen: I... I was angry all the time. Angry for not getting to have a dad, angry 'cause nobody seemed to understand what I was feeling. And it didn't matter what you did or said, mom. I was always gonna be angry at you, because you were there.
- Iris West-Allen: You're going through a lot, Nora.
- Nora West-Allen: But so were you. I mean, I thought you were trying to stop me from being me, but you were trying to stop me from being dad. I-I mean, ending up like him. You guys had a whole life together and a child, and he vanished. I-I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you. And from that day, you... you were protecting me. I-I get that now. So sorry for the way that I treated you, both back then and now, when I first got here. I... you didn't deserve that.
- Iris West-Allen: Thank you. You're an amazing woman, Nora West-Allen. I will always love you, past, present, and future.
- Nora West-Allen: I love you, too, mom.