The Flash – Nora

By: Malasha Parker

Season 5 of “The Flash” opens with a mini rewind as Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy) introduces herself. After giving her own personal signature opening, we learn that she is a speedster just like her dad, nicknamed XS. We hop back right where we left off last season at the baby shower and everybody is staring at Nora in confusion and shock. Iris (Candice Patton) and Barry (Grant Gustin) try to clarify and Nora confirms that she’s their daughter, named after Barry’s mom. After a quick joke from Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Nora confirms that she does indeed know everyone in the house. She then mentions that her speedster name came from Iris because she always said that Nora did everything in excess. She tells them that her big mistake was helping Barry save the city by destroying the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite. Now, she’s stuck in the past and can’t go fast enough to open the speedforce. She needs their help to figure out how to get back to her time. When the baby starts crying, Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) realizes that she can understand what the baby is thinking and she may still have her powers.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and Iris watch as Nora zooms around the speed lab. While Iris is already on board with the idea that this is their daughter, Barry is a bit skeptical and eager to get Nora back to her own time. After warning her not to speak about future things so that they don’t mess up the timeline, Cisco and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) confirm Iris’ assumptions of her being their daughter. Barry tells Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) to take a blood sample to the legends so that they can get some help before he leaves to go get his position back at the police station as a CSI.

When he arrives in his old CSI office, Nora rushes in and offers to help him. We learn that she is also a CSI in her time and is extremely smart. Barry tells her maybe she shouldn’t help, but she’s eager to stay. The two share a moment when Nora tells about her favorite ice-cream flavor. After Nora gives Barry his old Flash suit, he rushes off to a metahuman crime already in action. While trying to figure out how to take him down, Nora pops up and distracts Barry, causing him to get thrown across the city into the water.

Once they’re back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Nora tells them about the Flash museum in the future and that’s how she didn’t think it was a big deal to interfere with Gridlock (Daniel Cudmore). Barry tells her that she needs to hurry and get home so that they can stop messing up the timeline. After listening to Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) tell them what everybody already knows, Barry goes to CCPD to help with the Gridlock situation while Nora and Iris have a chat at CC Jitters.

Unlike her husband, Iris tries to get answers about who Nora’s true identity. After suggesting that she’s a reporter, she finds out that Nora is more similar to her dad than she is to Iris. Iris tries to ask more about her and Nora’s relationship, but Nora isn’t so eager to spend more time with her mom. They head back to S.T.A.R. labs where they put the tachyon device on Nora so that she can get home. After a quick goodbye to everyone, Nora and Barry take off. Wally flashes in to tell them that Barry and Nora need to stop, but it’s too late because they’ve already taken off. The two then come into some issues and pass out inside.

It seems the legends have discovered negative tacions and no one knows how they really work, aside from slowing them down. Ralph and Caitlin head to the crime scene to help with the Gridlock situation. Ralph mentions Killer Frost and Caitlin tells him about how she saw Killer Frost in her when she was a kid. They table the subject to figure out more about Gridlock. They realize that the more he moves the stronger he gets.

Iris asks Barry how he’s holding up with the Nora situation. She doesn’t understand why he’s so eager to send Nora back. He says that he’s just worried about the timeline, but Iris isn’t buying it. Barry confesses that he’s imagined how his future would go with iris and having a baby. He feels like he’s missed all of Nora’s firsts and he doesn’t like that everything has been out of order. He just wanted everything to go in perfect order so that they could just have one thing to go right. Iris tells him not to worry because he’s still going to get all of those firsts. At that moment, Barry realizes that there may be more to her eagerness. He goes to Nora and reminds her that he realized how she got so spend the rest of her life with her mom but not Barry. Nora shows him the article of him vanishing and when he asks how long he shows her another article saying twenty-five years later The Flash is still missing.

Nora was only a few years old when Barry vanished and the wedding was the first time that she actually met him. It’s here that we find out Nora isn’t really stuck. She’s just trying to stay in the present to get to know her father. She knew that she would have been sent back immediately if they knew her real reason for staying. She thinks her motives were selfish and she isn’t as good a speedster as her dad. Barry asks about her mom and she tells him that she’s still around. Barry realizes that he does actually miss all of her firsts. Iris tracks down who the man behind Gridlock actually is and they find him on a plane. The man is about to crash it to the ground so that he can steal some jewels from a passenger on the plane.

The team sees that the plane is headed for downtown and Nora suggests that they phase the plane through the buildings. Barry decides that if they put the out the plane in g-force they can phase it at the right time. Barry, Nora, Wally and Cisco all run downtown to get to the plane. Once they’re breached on, Barry encourages Nora to phase the plane with a little pep talk he learned from Thawne. Barry, Nora and Wally all phase the plane through the building and successfully land the plane in water.

Cisco and Caitlin bring out an advanced tachyon device, but Barry decides to maybe Nora doesn’t have to leave right now. Nora says that she’ll stay in the S.T.A.R. labs lounge and they all head that way where they find Joe (Jesse L. Martin)– nobody’s known about it but him. Joe, Nora and Wally are all talking on the couch and Joe encourages Wally to go finish what he set out to do. Barry and Iris share a heartfelt moment about their daughter and Iris mentions that they do actually get their happy ending. Inside Ralph brings Caitlin her father’s death certificate that they realize is a fake. While getting Nora settled in, Barry offers to take her out for ice cream because she’s too excited to go to sleep. They zoom off into the night!

Wait, there’s more! Gridlock is broken out of his ride to jail by a mysterious character who’s carrying steal burning flash dagger.