'The Flash' Season 5 Spoilers: 6 Important Revelations to Know

The Thinker’s Enlightenment almost came to pass in the Season 4 finale of The Flash, but of course Team Flash was able to avert global disaster. Their world forever changed with several revelations in the finale, setting up a whole new conflict for Season 5.

Complete spoilers follow for The Flash Season 4 finale, Episode 23: “We Are The Flash.”

The Flash’s Season 4 finale aired on Tuesday, May 22 and it sent Barry on an Inception-esque adventure into Clifford DeVoe’s mind. The plan was to appeal to whatever goodness and humanity might remain inside The Thinker, but instead he somehow found Ralph’s consciousness. Though impractical and surprising, seeing them team up yet again proved a satisfying conclusion to their ongoing arc as mentor and protégé.

But, in typical Flash fashion, the main conflict wrapped up rather quickly so that they could quickly set up the new problems brewing on the horizon.

So based on what we saw in the Season 4 finale, here’s everything we know about The Flash Season 5:

6. Ralph Dibny Is Alive and Back on Team Flash

Barry finds Ralph’s consciousness while inside DeVoe’s mind, and together they’re able to fight an army of DeVoes and get out. Ralph takes over his old body and basically eliminates DeVoe altogether as a result. It doesn’t look like Ralph will keep all of those cool powers, but at least he’s alive again. All of the other bus metas, however, are “all toast,” according to an interview showrunner Todd Helbing did with Entertainment Weekly.

Helbing also told TV Guide that “there’s a tremendous amount of Ralph Dibney stories that we haven’t tapped into from the comics yet that we certainly want to do, so it’s going to be great to have him around.” We’re finally — probably — done with whiny Ralph, which could actually make Season 5 lots of fun.

But he’s not the only familiar face that will return …

5. Hell Yes, We’re Getting a New Harrison Wells

We’ve already seen countless alternate-reality versions of Harrison Wells, and it’s one of the best running gags on the show. In the Season 3 finale, H.R. Wells sacrificed himself to save Iris and died a hero, and in the Season 4 finale, we had to say goodbye to the Earth-2 Harry Wells, who managed to come out of the whole Thinking Cap fiasco with medium intelligence.

In speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Todd Helbing did confirm, “We landed on a pretty fun and interesting new Wells to join the team.” Could it be one of the many we’ve already seen, or a new one altogether?

4. The Big Bad Won’t Be Another Speedster

The finale did set up a driving conflict for Season 5 (more on that later), but there were no concrete details about who — or what — the real villain is. But showrunner Todd Helbing did also confirm with TV Guide that the big bad of Season 4 wouldn’t be another speedster: “with DeVoe, he was so different but the accumulation of powers on top of his capabilities mentally were fun, but I think yeah, next year we’re going to have a non-speedster villain.”

Helbing explained that they’re more interested in the “human qualities” of the villains, which is why Clifford and Marlize’s relationship played such a focus. He had previously teased that the finale would directly tease the Season 5 villain, but those scenes were cut. Right now, we know virtually nothing.

3. The Mystery Girl is Iris and Barry’s Daughter, Nora

Perhaps the most exciting thing to know about Season 5 is also the biggest reveal of Season 4. The Mystery Girl is Iris and Barry’s daughter from the future, named Nora West-Allen. (That explains exactly why her lightning was a combo of both their speedster lightning, and always why she’s a speedster to begin with.) Helbing confirmed with Entertainment Weekly that she’s from 30 years in the future.

The unfortunate news is that she came from the future and messed with the timeline …

2. Nora Came Back to Four Very Specific Moments for Specific Reasons

Todd Helbing told Entertainment Weekly “there’s four specific times that she came back, and you’re gonna learn about why she chose those four times and how they’re gonna play into not only the mistake that she made, but the consequences for somebody like her.” He also noted that in these scenes, “you can get a nice little sense of what her relationship is with everybody in the future.”

Given what we know about time travel and the importance of specific moments, then she probably visited the wedding, Jitters twice, and the baby shower for very specific reasons. Maybe without her to interrupt those moments in the specific ways that she did, then things would have gone horribly wrong for Team Flash? One thing’s for sure: The scene of her teaming up with Barry to save Central City feels right out of Bart Allen in Young Justice coming from the future to do something very similar.

As great as that sounds, we all know how messing with the timeline goes.

1. Season 5 Will Basically Be Flashpoint 2.0

If The Flash Season 3 taught us anything, it’s that messing with the timeline can have horrible, lasting repercussions. When speedsters mess with the timeline, it can cause a lot of problems. The Dominators invaded Earth because Barry messed with the timeline, and Savitar only existed after Flashpoint as well. (And don’t forget that Flashpoint essentially killed Cisco’s brother).

There’s no doubt that Nora’s actions prevented some truly terrible things from happening, but remember when Barry saved his mother from being murdered and it basically ruined the universe? Terrible things are coming in Season 5.

The Flash Season 5 should kick off sometime in October 2018.