Nora’s been keeping secrets from her parents Barry Allen and Iris West ever since she arrived in the present. The truth about the time-traveling speedster is slowly coming out, though, and this week’s episode of The Flash season 5 revealed the reason why Nora’s been so cold towards her mother ever since the new run began.
It’s made known in “News Flash” that Nora can’t forgive Iris for a secret of her own that her mother kept from her for her whole life. It turns out that Nora only found out she was a metahuman not too long before her arrival in the present, as Iris had implanted a power-dampening chip into her daughter. In fact, the scar’s still fresh when we see it. The older Iris’ side of things was obviously not explained, so we don’t know right now why she took this drastic measure, but we’ll surely find out soon.
Interestingly, though, the current Iris ultimately agreed with what she decided to do to Nora in the future, with Barry playing the dutiful husband and also backing her decision. This will no doubt cause problems for Nora with both her parents in an episode down the line, but the big question is: why did Iris feel the need to hide her daughter’s abilities?
Well, in the comics, Dawn and Don Allen – Barry and Iris’ kids in the source material – grow up in a metahuman-hating world, so it’s possible The Flash will adapt this. In fact, Legends of Tomorrow already visited a similar version of the future in season 3, so the seeds are there if they wish to go down this route.
“News Flash” also hinted at Nora’s sexuality through her thinking Spencer Young was cute (before she knew she was a villain). We were told over the summer that season 5 would introduce another LGBT character into the cast, so it looks like the producers were referring to Nora.
In any case, more on Nora’s past – or is that future? – will be revealed as The Flash season 5 continues every Tuesday on The CW, so be sure to stay tuned.