'The Flash': Easter Eggs and Pop Culture References in "Subject 9"

'Fringe'

From the get-go, this episode delivered quite a bit in the realm of Easter eggs, with its very title being an homage to Fringe.

"Subject 9" is the name of the fourth episode of Fringe's fourth season, airing in October of 2011. The episode saw Olivia (Anna Torv) wanting to track down one of the other test subjects from Walter's (John Noble) Cortexiphan experiments. While Walter only knew of the child as "Subject 9", Olivia quickly uncovered more about the subject - his real name was Cameron James, and he possessed astral projection abilities. (And weirdly enough, James was played by Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman.)

At it's root, Flash's "Subject 9" had quite a few similarities with that Fringe episode, but definitely not a whole lot. (Although we have to admit, Chadwick Boseman playing the violin would have been interesting to see.)

Sunday Night Football

Speaking of, something about Izzy's introduction into the world of The Flash sounded...familiar.

When Barry and Ralph arrive at Izzy's concert, they find her singing a song off of her demo tape - one that has a weirdly familiar tune, for the intersect of fans who keep up with both The Flash and American football.

While it's not exactly the same, Izzy's song had a similar sort of foot-stomping beat as the most recent Sunday Night Football theme song, which is performed by country artist Carrie Underwood.

Soundwave

When Team Flash figures out exactly what Izzy's powers are, Ralph suggests coming up with a nickname for her, and decides on the moniker "Soundwave". Cisco quicky remarks that that would work -- if the name wasn't already taken by a Transformer.

Indeed, Soundwave has appeared in the Transformers world for quite some time now, as a loyal member of Megatron's troops.

'Justice League'

While this isn't an overt Easter egg, one scene in tonight's episode definitely had echoes to a familiar Justice League scene.

Cisco attempts to vibe Izzy's location, and realizes that she's in the middle of a conflict with DeVoe. Just then, the villain turns around to face Cisco, remarking that it's rude for him to spy on them.

You know what that felt a lot like? The scene where the DCEU's Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) enters the Speed Force to save the team, only for an angry Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavill) to slowly turn around within the alternate dimension and confront him.

'Star Trek'

Towards the episode's end, Team Flash tried to determine how to defeat DeVoe next, after he had taken over Izzy's body and ran away.

When Cisco tries to illustrate where DeVoe has been hiding, he does so by showing a hologram of the earth, and then remarking "Space, the final frontier."

As those in the nerd world will know, this the Arrowverse's latest reference to Star Trek, and arguably one of the least subtle ones.

But within the context of what Cisco is saying, the reference makes sense, because...

Pocket Dimensions

As Cisco explained, DeVoe's secret lab - which fans have been treated to all season long - actually exists inside a pocket dimension, a separate fold in reality which DeVoe can come and go from as he pleases.

For DC fans, this concept is pretty familiar, as it largely ties to the early comic appearances on the Legion of Super-Heroes. The "Pocket Universe" was created by the Time Trapper (a character who, coincidentally, has arguably had a role in Legends' current season), as a way to control the Legion in a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths world. While the events of Crisis would have technically wiped the Legion from existence, this dimension - dubbed Earth Twenty-Three, allowed them to carry on, and for the Time Trapper to essentially recreate Earth-One's version of Superboy.

So, what could that revelation possibly mean for the Arrowverse? We break that down here.

"You Like Me! You Really Like Me!"

In the episode's closing scene, Barry comes to console Ralph, who was clearly shaken by Izzy's somewhat-death.

At the end of the conversation, Ralph offered Barry a job as a private investigator, now that he's been placed on indefinite leave from the CCPD. When Barry hears this, he laughs and remarks "You like me! You really like me!"

This quote has become a sort of pop culture staple over the past twenty-or-so years, after Sally Field expressed it during her 1985 acceptance speech at the Academy Awards.

Except the weird thing is...Field didn't say it. As it turns out, the real quote was really "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me." Scientists have studied the phenomenon around her quote for years, and have largely chalked it up to an example of the Mandela effect, or a collective misremembering of specific facts or events.

Or who knows, maybe Barry has meddled with the Arrowverse timeline so much that Sally Field actually did say it after her acceptance speech. Damn it, Barry.

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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.