The Flash S05E01 Review: Fucking Up The Timeline Is Genetic

The Flash, Season 5, Episode 1: Nora

The fifth season premiere will probably check a lot of boxes for the viewers out there who really like "d'awww"-inducing daddy-daughter and mommy-daughter and husband-wife moments. And I will be upfront with you -- the actors involved are great enough that the moments felt genuine. Nora's unease and disappointment at herself for not being able to measure up to Barry as a superhero and fucking things up, and her later pride when Barry starts respecting her as an equal... Barry's confusion, and later on, joy, at meeting this woman who is also his grown-up daughter from the future (and the theme of a parent witnessing their child's "firsts" is definitely a well-done theme). And best of all, Iris's moment to bond with Nora, and Nora's "sure, whatever" attitude to her, and Iris's dawning realization that she's probably not that good of a mother to Nora...

All the happy Flash family bits are well done, even the smaller moments like Nora interacting with Wally or Joe. And as the backbone of this episode -- the introduction of Nora as a character and a permanent main member of the cast (and justifying why she can't return with some negative tachyon hand-wave) is done superbly well. Also, kudos for CW for not actually going through the whole motion of "is she, or isn't she?" bit -- that'd be a very, very tiring subplot to go through. 

We also get a neat little justification as to why they don't just ring up Sara on the speed dial and get the Legends of Tomorrow to zip her back -- the negative tachyon goobledeygonk on Nora's body is just too unstable and will blow up the time machines. And we do at least see Team Flash attempt to follow the "no future secrets" rule before, of course, Nora and Barry blab their mouth and Nora tells Barry that some time in the future, he disappears during a red-skies crisis. And... and, what the fuck, did Barry not realize what that future newspaper means since discovering it in... in season two or whatever the hell? That's dumb. But at least we're acknowledging that particular bombshell. 

But... but god damn, after flashpoint, Evil Barry and like three different "time travel is dangerous" thoroughlines throughout the entire series, you'd think that they would give it a rest. At least it's consistent that Barry Allen and anyone related to him wouldn't be able to resist fucking with the timeline in a "follow your heart" mentality. I dunno. There's definitely some potentially good stuff going in here, but I definitely paid more attention to the scenes of characters interacting moreso than the huge time travel mumbo-jumbo crap. Nora stays behind, seemingly because Barry might want to prevent his own disappearance (or to get to know his daughter better, anyway, if we're framing it in a less selfish way), so she's here to stay.

Also, Nora is like, the biggest dropper of DC comics Easter Eggs, which we'll cover below. 

The rest of the episode is okay. Villain of the week Gridlock has, like, a single line of dialogue and a pretty bland excuse of a superpower that's just a vehicle to allow Barry, Wally and Nora to simultaneously vibrate and phase an airplane through a building, which is pretty cool. Gridlock himself proves to be utterly disposable after that fight, being killed by presumably-the-new-big-bad-of-the-season, who, this time around, goes around killing metahumans instead of recruiting them.

Also, I guess we say goodbbye to Wally West, who gets written out of the show in the most half-assed way ever? Wally's actor has had a pretty on-and-off working relationship with CW, and this time he's not going to be a regular on either Flash or Legends, but there really should've been a better way than having Joe insist that Wally finish what he did and finish his zen sabbatical thing. Really, just have him move to another city and be a superhero there, fighting off-screen! Jeez.  

The B-plots of this episode is high-class, though. Joe and Cecile don't get to do much, but are perfect deliveries of jokes. Cisco just looks like he's working with a big, big headache throughout the entire episode, and is the source of the funniest background comedy with facepalms and the like. Caitlin has her whole "I had Killer Frost powers since I was a child" crisis going on, which we get a brief little nod to from Ralph, who does a little digging around... and best of all is the running joke that Ralph never actually realized anything about time-travel and multiverses, and he tries to act as it's some sort of huge, huge revelation. That's what you get for skipping out on the crossover, Ralph! My best part has to be him thinking that Harrison Wells came from "Earth, too" instead of Earth-2. God, Ralph's hilarious. Also, having Ralph go through one of my favourite sorta-plot-hole from season one -- why Eddie Thawne didn't get a vasectomy instead of shooting himself in the head -- is hilarious.

Overall, definitely a strong episode, as far as the protagonists go. I'll keep mum on making any sort of predictions for the future of the show, though -- I've been burned three times before, and I don't want to get burned again. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• You think that "schway" is just some boring, eye-rolling nonsense that CW cooked up, but no, that's actually the future-slang for cool that came from the Batman Beyond cartoon, which I thought was an awesome easter egg. 
• A more subtle Easter Egg is Nora noting that Barry has disappeared for 25 years in her future -- 25 years is, give or take a few months, the amount of time in real life that Barry Allen stayed 'dead' in the comics. 
• The costume hidden within a golden ring is something that the Flash used from his very first appearance in the comics, and is basically synonymous with Barry in the comics. 
• CW justifies the campiness of a costume ring by having Nora offhandedly noting that Ryan Choi built it. Ryan Choi is the successor of Ray Palmer as the third Atom in the comics, and is himself a scientist specializing in shrinking objects.
• Nora compares Flash's lightning symbol to Lightning Lad. Lightning Lad is one of the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team of superheroes in the 31st century that would protect the Earth. Interestingly, in the CW canon, the Legion is established to exist in the Supergirl Earth, so... hmm. (Also, definitely agree that Flash's lightning symbol is a lot cooler than Lightning Lad's) 
• While it's not outright stated here, Nora knowing Lightning Lad is a nod to how Nora's comic-book counterpart (Barry's granddaughter as opposed to being his daughter) is introduced as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. I also never got that 'XS' is meant to be a pun on 'Excess'.
• Happy Harbor, in the DC comics, isn't a place known for its ice creams, but rather for being the setting of many early Justice League stories due to the League being based in Mt. Justice, located near that city. 
• Gridlock is a minor Impulse enemy (Abner Girdler instead of William Lang in the comics) that built some supervillain technology to steal kinetic energy from people -- unlike the far flashier powers shown here, comics!Gridlock just basically froze people in place.
• The scene of the speedsters phasing a plane through a building is taken from the New 52 imprint of the Flash comics. Nora even mentions Mob Rule, the self-duplicating villain of that particular issue. 
• Ralph noted how there could be a timeline where he died in the particle accelerator explosion. Said timeline is actually the pre-Flashpoint universe, where Ralph Dibny, as an easter egg, was listed by Harrison Wells as one of the many casualties of the particle accelerator explosion. 
• SERIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD! That main villain looking dude is Cicada, a.k.a. David Hersch, enemy of the third Flash, Wally West. I'm not quite sure just how similar the two Cicadas are, although comics!Cicada does draw his powers from a freak lightning accident as well. He's more of a cult leader instead of a serial killer, though.n 
• The identity of the coroner that signed Caitlin's father's death certificate is Cameron Mahkent, also known as the second incarnation of the Icicle -- an ice-themed villain commonly associated with Green Lantern.