The Flash Season 5 Episode 1: Nora Review

If you would like to read my review of last season, click here.

Synopsis: After an unexpected guest from the future appears at their home, Barry and Iris must figure out how to get her back to the future without disrupting the timeline. (TVGuide) 

Writers: Todd Helbing & Sam Chalsen

Director: David McWhirter

Rating: TV-PG

Running Time: 43mins

Airs: Tuesdays at 8pm on Space (Canada)/The CW (United States)

The Flash is back and with it, a character fans have long been waiting for–Nora Allen West. She was absolutely wonderful in the season 5 premiere. As annoyed as we were about Ralph joining the team, getting Nora as a new addition makes up for it ten-fold.

In the season 4 finale, Nora showed up to inform the family that she is Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future and she did something really bad. The season 5 premiere picks up right where we left off with Nora explaining exactly what she’s doing there.

She’s come from 30 years in the future and goes by the name XS, a name given to her by Iris herself. She is known as the guardian of Central City in her time and spends every day hoping to live up to her father’s name.

So what exactly is the bad thing she did? If you recall in the season 4 finale, The Flash was joined by another speedster none other than Nora who helped him destroy The Thinker’s satellite. But this somehow rendered her unable to run fast enough to return to her time.

Wally heads off to pay the Legends a visit hoping that they can return Nora to her time while Barry starts to panic over Nora disrupting their timeline. But in good news, Barry is reinstated as a CSI and has plenty of work to keep him busy.

There are some epic Flash suit moments in this episode with the first being Nora giving him his first-edition suit which she refers to as a “fan favorite”. It’s like she took the words right out of our mouths. But when he tries to take down this episode’s villain, Gridlock, Barry is interrupted by Nora showing up as XS and kicked out of sight.

Ralph seems to be struggling with things that the group already knows including the concept of the multiverse. Seriously, where has he been all this time? There is quite the awkwardness between Iris and Nora at Jitters when Iris starts to ask Nora about herself.

There is definitely some reluctance on Nora’s part towards Iris which we learn is due to the fact that in her time, Barry is missing and has been for quite some time. Surely this has affected her relationship with Iris in the future, and it makes sense why she is so distant from her in this time.

When Wally returns from meeting with the Legends, he reveals that they looked into Nora and saw that she has negative tachyons in her system which means they can’t bring her aboard the Waverider.

Barry confesses to Iris that he wants to send Nora back because he feels down about missing her “firsts”. This prompts him to ask Nora about what happens to him in the future at which point he learns that he disappears leaving his wife and daughter behind.

This saddens Barry because he truly does miss her “firsts” even in the future but he also learns this is why Nora was so eager to see him. But all that is put aside, when Nora, Barry, and Cisco take down Gridlock and help save a plane of civilians together.

As a result of this, Barry decides to wait on sending Nora back because he wants to make sure her powers are functioning properly before doing so. Uh huh, sure Barry. Alls well that ends well as Barry and Iris share their joy over having a child, and while Iris feels they truly will have a happy ending, she has no idea what the future actually holds.

Will Nora be able to save Barry from disappearing in the future? We sure hope so.

Score: 7.5/10

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