'The Flash' Season 5: Nora's Origins Have a Surprising Season 1 Connection

Iris West and Barry Allen’s daughter from the future, Nora, does everything to excess, which is why they call her XS. She’s a bit extra and enthusiastic, but her personality is the perfect jolt of energy The Flash needs. Unfortunately, she brings some really bad news from the future.

Mild spoilers follow for The Flash Season 5 premiere, “Nora.”

The Flash Season 5 premiered Tuesday, October 9 and Nora’s the protagonist these days, narrating the intro about her being “the fastest woman alive.” The “big, big mistake” she’s made isn’t made totally clear, but everyone’s worried about her presence messing up the timeline. After Barry realizes that Nora mentioned spending time with her mother in the future but not him, he asks her the hard question. What happens to the Flash in the future?

Remember the Crisis of 2024 that’s been teased since the very beginning of The Flash via the newspaper headline in the time vault at S.T.A.R. Labs?

Nora takes Barry into the time vault to references that date in the future when Barry vanishes following a battle with the Reverse-Flash on April 25, 2024.

Nora shows another headline from her time period, confirming that the Flash had been gone for 25 years.

But we all know that this version of the Flash “vanished” when he followed Eobard Thawne back in time to 2000 to the night that Nora Allen (Barry’s mother) was murdered. Essentially, that older version of the Flash that we all saw in the very first episode ever of The Flash was Nora’s father, and for him, his daughter was only a few years old. Despite disappearing back into the Speed Force that night, this version of the Flash apparently never made it home.

So these days, all the way in Season 5, we’re left wondering: What happened to that version of the Flash?

The Flash airs Tuesday nights on The CW at 8 p.m. Eastern.