While the concept of "water cooler TV" may have gone extinct in a purely literal sense, The Flash has spent the past four seasons delivering last-minute shocks and twists that have kept fans talking beyond each episode's credits. Season 4 ended on one of the most memorable moments of all, with Jessica Parker Kennedy's Mystery Girl finally revealing herself to be Barry and Iris' future daughter Nora West-Allen. But because things wrapped on the reveal itself (which just about everyone had already guessed at anyway), there wasn't time to get into all the other big questions about the character's existence.
And so that's what we're doing here by lining up all the various elements we're still totally in the dark on when it comes to the time-traveling Nora West-Allen. Hopefully most, if not all, of our inquiries will get resolved when Season 5 zips onto The CW this fall. (We also have other big questions that aren't all about the show's newest speedster.)
Why Did Nora Go Back To Those Specific Times?
While Nora's first appearance during Barry and Iris' wedding definitely felt intentionally timed, most of her other arrivals seemed a lot more randomly scattered. Showrunner Todd Helbing confirmed that all four of those visits will get their circumstances explained in Season 5. But at this point, I've no clue what could connect everything together, and whether spilling coffee and delivering baby shower gifts is actually all part of the grand scheme or not. Maybe her speedster skills just weren't honed enough, and she wasn't able to reach the right points in time, or maybe she's been trapped in the past like Eobard Thawne.
When Was Nora Conceived?
When Barry Allen went back in time for his Flashpoint conundrum, he went back to the most tragic point of his life. But Nora skipped back to a time before she was even born, which hints at her actual conception being a mighty important event in the overall timeline. Is it possible that Iris was already pregnant with Nora by the end of Season 4, or will the pregnancy attempts be part of Season 5's narrative? As well, can we no longer believe that Barry and Iris were going to conceive Nora in the natural flow of time, since her presence has already clued them in on their future as parents? I mean, who logistically came up with the name Nora, anyway?
Was Nora From The Same Timeline In Each Appearance?
It would be easy to believe that we were looking at the same iterations of Nora West-Allen throughout her multiple appearances, but the finale itself seemed to throw that into question by giving Nora a different and shorter hairstyle than the one viewers had seen earlier in the season. She obviously could have just spruced herself up to meet younger Iris for the first time, but the noteworthy change seemed suspect. So what if we've been seeing more than one timeline's Nora skulking around CC Jitters and other Central City locations? Sure, she didn't seem shocked to hear the characters mention her other exploits, but that might just be part of her ruse. Or someone's ruse. Someone has a ruse here, I'm sure of it.
Does She Have A Brother?
After Nora made that first crossover appearance that spawned all the time-traveling offspring theories, many fans were wondering how The Flash would address the fact that in the comics, Barry and Iris actually had twins in Don and Dawn Allen. While we still don't know how closely Nora will follow Dawn's comic origins, Don himself is quite important to the super-mythos, and it would be discouraging if The Flash chose not to address his existence at all by sticking to Nora's solo exploits. Of course, perhaps Don will be part of the story (possibly going by another name), inspiring that "more diapers" line from the Season 4 premiere. His very absence could be what has Nora so stressed out.
Head to the next page to read the other questions we still have about The Flash's latest speedster.
What's Nora's Big Mistake?
Speaking of Nora's stress, what could she have been talking about when she told Barry & Co. about having made a big mistake? Earlier in the finale, it appeared she'd specifically turned back time in order to help Barry destroy that falling satellite, meaning he might not have survived his initial attempt. But was Nora's big mistake making her own Flashpoint universe in such a way, or is it in reference to one of her other time-jaunting trips? One has to assume the Time Wraiths and Black Flash are going to be seeking her out in the future (unless the Speed Force is just useless now), but what if she made some other huge mistake on top of all of the time-travel business?
How Is Nora Connected To Those Weird Symbols?
The first time The Flash brought out its gibberish-until-proven-otherwise symbols was after Barry was rescued from the Speed Force, and he was awash with enigmatic behavior. (They also appeared on The Thinker's chair-bound face, which never really got addressed.) And so it was a big shock when Nora was revealed to not only be familiar with the odd shapes, but also to be in possession of a notebook full of them, which she was jotting such things down in during one of her appearances. So what's the connection there? Are the symbols something from the Speed Force, or are they a form of coded language that Barry and Nora created themselves at some point in the future? I now think their story starts with her, as opposed to the other way around.
Is Nora The New Speedster Jay Garrick Was Referring To?
Jay Garrick's parting message to Team Flash about training a future replacement possibly wasn't meant to be so theory-friendly, but it's hard to believe the writers would drop in a line about a new speedster without having it come to fruition at some point. So was Jay possibly talking about having to train Nora West-Allen? Most signs would point to "no," but the sheer impracticality almost makes it more realistic to me. After all, it would be a total Flash move to have Barry's daughter from the future be trained by a speedster who is a different Earth's doppelgänger of his dead father. Even the way Jay said, "There will be," just made it sound like some wonky time travel would be involved.
While we will always have more Flash questions than the show can possibly have answers for, our thinking caps are starting to get overheated. For now, stay tuned to see what answers will come up before The Flash Season 5 arrives on The CW this fall. If you're in need of new shows to keep up with in the meantime, head to our summer premiere schedule.
