The Flash kicked off its fifth season with an episode that saw Barry and Iris getting to know their daughter from the future. Nora had a bad habit of dropping spoilers about events that haven't happened yet and already mucked up the timeline by interfering, but Barry held off from sending her back to the future once he learned her big secret: he disappeared for more than a quarter century when she was only a little girl, and she has no memory of him.
Candice Patton, who plays Iris on The Flash, weighed in on how long Barry and Nora will keep that secret from everybody else:
We'll get into that sooner than later. I think fans will be relieved to know that Barry doesn't hold onto that information for too much longer. No more secrets on The Flash!
Viewers of The Flash are used to mysteries being strung out for multiple episodes by this point, and some instances work better than others. The show arguably waited far too long with the Savitar identity reveal back in Season 3, and fans' patience with the Mystery Girl might not have lasted through the entire hiatus if the Season 4 finale hadn't dropped the Nora bombshell. Candice Patton's comments that the big secret will be revealed sooner rather than later should come as a relief to many.
Of course, Candice Patton couldn't reveal exactly how many episodes would pass before The Flash drops the bombshell that Barry is going to disappear and possibly never come back. At the very least, unless the timeline changes, Iris will spend more than 25 years without Barry by her side, and her relationship with Nora clearly isn't the best. Her relationships with both Barry and Nora could potentially suffer the longer they keep this secret from her.
While Barry might not want to break the terrible news to spare Iris the sadness, she's bound to find out, and she's too smart not to realize that something is up with Barry and Nora. All things considered, Barry and Nora would be wise to bring Iris in on the secret, even if it does emotionally devastate her at first. Iris became the leader of Team Flash for a reason; she'd be a huge asset in figuring out a way to change the timeline and stop Barry from going missing.
Will the family team-up result in a "Crisis On Infinite Earths" situation? We'll have to wait and see. Fortunately, Candice Patton went on in her chat with TVLine to say this about the awkwardness between Iris and Nora:
I always worried, 'I hope this doesn't continue over the course of the entire season,' because I don't think fans want to see Nora and Iris at odds for too long. Thankfully, it won't be that way for very long. We've got a couple of episodes where Iris and Nora are finding their way, and then we see them kind of reconcile and get on a really great path.
Just as we don't have to wait until the end of the season for Barry's big secret to break, we won't have to wait until the end to see Nora and Iris come together. As endearing as it was to see Iris try to be the "cool mom" to Nora and adopt her future daughter's slang in the season premiere, it might get uncomfortable to watch Nora rebuff Iris' attempts to bond for 20+ episodes. Score for mother/daughter bonding!
See what's in store for Iris, Barry, and Nora with new episodes of The Flash on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. A lot is going to happen in the first half of Season 5, what with the upcoming 100th episode and the beginning of the huge "Elseworlds" crossover. For other viewing options, check out our fall TV premiere schedule.
