While The Flash hinting at its next season’s big bad is a seldom occurrence in finales, it’s probably safe to say that many of us went into last night’s episode expecting to be left some sort of breadcrumb. After all, we were told to anticipate two cliffhangers (more on that later), but we were ultimately left in the dark in this regard.
Fortunately, a character breakdown that’s fallen into the hands of the folks over at That Hashtag Show may very well provide some insight into season 5’s chief antagonist. You see, the casting department is said to be on the hunt for a “Desmond Paull,” which’ll be “an open ethnicity role for a man in his 40s.”
Here’s what’s known about this particular fellow who’ll be a fractional series regular, earning a schedule similar to what Neil Sandilands had as Clifford DeVoe:
“Desmond” is a metahuman who, after a mysterious interaction with dark matter, was given not only immortality but also the gift to disable other meta-human powers. He blames metas for everything that has gone wrong in his life and because of that, his mission is to wipe Central City free of them in order to silence his own anguish.
Based on that, THS has concluded “Desmond” is likely David Hersch AKA Cicada. He may be a bit more obscure, sure, but what matters is the execution. As long as the writers and actor eventually cast can make him resonate with viewers, they should be golden.
As for the second cliffhanger mentioned earlier, executive producer Todd Helbing revealed to Entertainment Weekly that it was cut for time:
“What happens more often than not is, we shoot a lot of stuff in the finale that gets cut. So for time we had to cut it. It was gonna be the tag at the end of the episode. But we’ll get it out; the public will see it before the season starts. Maybe we’ll release it online or at Comic-Con. But yeah, it just it came down to a time thing.”
To say that I was left puzzled when no stinger followed the final title card was an understatement, but it’s reasonable to assume that the Mystery Girl being revealed as Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future, Nora Allen, was prioritized. And besides, at least we’ll get to see the deleted scene in a couple months or so.
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights on The CW, with season 5 expected to kickoff this October.