For many fans of The Flash, Season 4 was an enigma wrapped in a time-travel mystery wrapped in Ralph Dibny's shape-shifting body. From The Thinker's plans to Nora West-Allen's identity to Barry's Speed Force doodles, the superhero series had a ton of puzzle pieces that didn't easily connect with others. Another big conundrum centered on Cecile's pregnancy, which seemingly gave her various mind-reading powers in the months prior to the birth. Speaking with actress Danielle Nicolet at San Diego Comic-Con for a press roundtable, I asked when the show would start explaining Cecile's situation. Thankfully, we won't be waiting long.
Oh it definitely gets broached early on. I can't tell you which direction it goes, but yeah. You know, I think it's pretty clear last season, we were functioning on a hypothesis that, we don't really know where it came from, we don't really know why, but we do know that it's similar to gestational diabetes. So I think this season for sure, regardless of which way it ends up going, we're going to figure out why that happened, and what actually happened to cause it. . . . This show is really good at a slow burn. Like Jessica's character, they slow-burned her all season. Every little thing on this show matters.
Since Danielle Nicolet is now a series regular, we'll be seeing her more than ever on The Flash, and you can bet that the show is going to delve into how her temporary powers came to be, and possibly how her and Joe's new offspring is connected to those powers. I'm of the belief that The Flash may very well start down that narrative path as early as the Season 5 premiere. After all, the cast and crew were only working on the second or third episode when Comic-Con hit, and they don't get scripts sent far in advance of filming, so it's almost a certainty that they'd already filmed one scene or another where characters start questioning what Cecile's deal was, and where he abilities came from. It's obviously not confirmed, but the timing works.
Given how she specifically mentions how every little detail on The Flash matters, there's probably something insanely important to glean from the comparison to gestational diabetes. And while there are several factors that could come into play on that front, I would assume that this show would focus on the hereditary and genetic factors. Meaning we might be finding out about potential metahumans in both Cecile's lineage and Joe's own family tree. Is it possible that someone in either (or both) of these families has some kind of recessive meta gene that was passed on to the newborn?
If so, that might also play a part in explaining Nora West-Allen's own metahuman body chemistry, or maybe her various lightning colors. If she has two forms of altered DNA going into her biochemistry, it might have given her some unexpected powers that we have yet to witness in action. Or, at the very least, it might make her slightly less prone to botching everything like Barry does. Oh wait, the whole reason she's there is because she made a gigantic mistake that needs to be course-corrected. Barry's genes are definitely plentiful within this one.
Season 5 is going to bring all kinds of new fun and danger to fans, with much of it spearheaded by the new villain Cicada, as portrayed by Chris Klein. We'll get to find out more about Caitlin's past, and it's possible her own dormant Killer Frost powers may tie into whatever happened with Cecile. On a down note, fans will be saying goodbye to Keiynan Lonsdale's Wally West, though not for good. Perhaps best of all, though: we might get to see a very special return for King Shark.
So what's gonna happen with Cecile and her new kiddo? Find out when The Flash Season 5 makes it to The CW on Tuesday, October 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Be sure to bookmark our summer premiere guide and our fall premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows on the way.
