'The Flash': Did Season Three Foreshadow "This House Is Bitchin'"?

One of the more humorous and memorable moments of The Flash this season came during the premiere. When Barry returned from the Speed Force, he was speaking complete gibberish and writing a strange cypher pretty much anywhere he could. Cisco attempted to decode the cypher and what he came up with -- "This House is Bitchin'" -- became something of an inside joke for Team Flash, but is it possible we've seen it before?

While we've speculated that the phrase could be more than simple nonsense and potentially even have been mistranslated by Cisco -- something especially possible if Barry's cypher turns out to be poorly written Interlac, the intergalactic universal language of the future -- a fan theory is not looking ahead to the upcoming "Trial of the Flash" for answers about the mysterious phrase, but the past.

The theory posits that the second episode of The Flash's third season, "Paradox," actually foreshadowed the phrase. As fans may recall, the episode deals with Barry (Grant Gustin) discovering that, despite going back to reset the timeline he messed up in the first place by going back and preventing his mother's murder, Iris and Joe don't speak anymore. Cisco is angry that Barry didn't save his brother Dante, and Barry has a new CSI partner, Julian, who hates him. This all leads Barry to confess to the team. He tells them about the timeline he broke, the "Flashpoint" timeline, as well as how things have changed since he went back to fix that mess.

It doesn't fix things between Barry and Cisco (Carlos Valdes), but Cisco helps Barry take stop the episode's villain. After the day is saved, Barry tells Cisco it would be nice to have help out in the field more often. Cisco declines, claiming to be busy, but also mentions that maybe he could do it someday, following that up by saying "it'd be pretty bitchin'."

While it could easily be argued that Cisco's sentiment, like "this house is bitchin'," might just be a throwaway phrase with no significant meaning. However, given The Flash's history of connecting things across seasons, the use of the word "bitchin'" seems a lot less coincidental. It could hint that part of what Barry's cypher is detailing is a future where Cisco is more of a primary hero than he has been or, perhaps, even refer to a different reality where maybe Cisco is a bigger hero than The Flash ever was. After all, the Speed Force is kind of a unique place, so the possibilities of what and where Barry really was are nearly endless.

We'll find out more about what it all means and how it's all connected -- or not -- when The Flash returns mid-January.

The Flash will return on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 8/7c on The CW.