Almost four full episodes into The Flash Season 5, we finally know exactly why Nora avoided her mother in the present day and why she’s been consistently cold towards Iris. It may have come off as petulant on Nora’s part in previous episodes, but now that we know the truth, Nora West-Allen had every right to be angry.
Spoilers follow for The Flash Season 5, Episode 4, “News Flash.”
“News Flash” aired on The CW Tuesday night, and in it, a competing journalist to Iris named Spencer Young emerges with her Central City news app called Spyn Zone to bring new severity to the term “social media influencer.” Her headlines are able to influence anyone of her choosing, inducing hypnosis and amnesia.
As it turns out, when the satellite fell towards the city during the Enlightenment at the end of Season 4, it was flooded with dark matter energy and created all sorts of meta-tech, including Spencer’s cell phone and Cicada’s dagger.
This leads to the typical mind control shenanigans we’ve seen time and time again in the greater Arrowverse, but when Iris’ suspicions of Spencer come up against Nora’s budding crush on her, we finally get an explosive scene when Nora reveals what Future-Iris did to her:
After Future-Barry disappeared in 2024, Iris put a meta-power-dampening chip in Nora’s shoulder. Nora spent her entire life idolizing her father without realizing that she herself was a speedster until only six months earlier in her timeline.
Nora, Iris, and Barry in 'The Flash' Season 5 premiere.
Candice Patton, who plays Iris, previously hinted to Entertainment Weekly in July that there was a very good explanation for the tension between Iris and Nora. “I think that, as we hinted in the finale last season, that she’s kind of met with some coldness from Nora,” Patton said. “Which we’ll get into later in the season, why there’s some distance in between the two of them.” That “coldness” grew much hotter during “News Flash” and threatened to get explosive.
“You did it to control me,” Nora said to Iris, crying. “You took a choice away from me that I didn’t even know that I had — the choice to be a hero like my dad.” It’s easy to imagine a lonely child growing up in the future, wandering through the Flash Museum and learning all about what a great hero her father was, dreaming that she could be more like him. Then to one day find out that she was just like him, the kind of anger that would come with such a realization.
Iris assumes that her future self had a very good reason for doing something so cruel, and Barry, to his credit, is a damn good husband backing up his wife 100 percent. They’re a united front against Nora’s frustrations.
All things considered, we’re very glad The Flash finally explained this, as it’s been more than a little awkward in the first few episodes watching Nora dote on Barry and try to ignore Iris. At least now, they can all grow past it and focus on trying to take down Cicada instead.
The Flash airs Tuesday nights on The CW at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Speaking of Cicada, this episode’s b-plot had two detectives team up to uncover more info about Cicada.
