The Flash Season 3: 7 Easter Eggs & References You Might've Missed In 'Paradox'

When running back in time to change the timeline yet again, Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force by Jay Garrick AKA Earth-3’s The Flash. He decides they need to have a little talk and so drops them off in 1998 - a year that allows for an easily-missed multi-layered in-joke.

Playing on the TV at the diner the pair visit is Dawson’s Creek, the teen drama series that began that very year and lasted until 2003. A show that just so happened to feature Jay Garrick actor John Wesley Shipp himself. He played the titular Dawson’s dad Mitch Leery for five out of the series’ six seasons. It was also the earliest TV credit of Greg Berlanti, most known nowadays as the exec producer of The Flash – as well as Arrow, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. He wrote eight episodes and produced 17 more. Finally, Dawson’s Creek was a major hit for The WB network, which was later rebranded to become The CW – the home of all four Arrowverse shows.

Jay taking Barry back to the 1990s might also be a reference to The Flash TV show from that decade, which also starred Shipp.