Brush Up on The Flash's Major Storylines Before the Season 5 Premiere
Alright Team Flash, it's time to gear up for another season of time traveling, alternate universes, and metahuman showdowns. The season four finale of The Flash ties up a few loose ends, but unsurprisingly, it also leaves us with a whole lot of questions for season five. Before we speed back into action on Oct. 9, let's refresh our memories about some of the major cliffhangers from the last season and see how they might develop in the upcoming new episodes.
1. Barry and Iris's Daughter Travels Back in Time 
This is probably the biggest indicator of what's to come in season five. Throughout season four, we see Barry and Iris's daughter pop in and out of scenes — Barry and Iris's wedding, the coffee shop, etc. — but as the season progresses, her run-ins are much more deliberate, and we find out that she's also a speedster. It isn't until the last episode that her identity as Nora West-Allen is revealed, after she zooms in to help Barry punch a falling satellite heading for Central City. Later, when she shows up to Joe's house when they're all celebrating the victory, she leaves us with the chilling last line, "I'm your daughter, Nora, from the future, and I think I made a big, big mistake." For those who know how trippy The Flash can get, it's safe to say that Nora more than likely messed something up in the space-time continuum when she traveled back to help Barry. We'll have to see what the adverse affects will be — there are bound to be a ton.
2. Harrison Wells Goes Back to Earth-2 
Harry's exposure to dark matter from the Thinking Cap really takes a toll on his mental capabilities in season four. It's pretty hard to watch his mind slowly regress, especially because he's usually the guy with all the answers. But the silver lining is that he starts listening more to his heart than his head. At the conclusion of season four, he decides to go back to Earth-2 in order to spend more time with his daughter, Jessie. The thought of Harry not being in season five as much is a little sad because a lot of fans really enjoy Tom Cavanagh on the show. But if the writers plan on doing what they did in every other season, Harry will still play a big part in the plot, whether it's Earth-2 Harry or Earth-whatever Harry. Not to mention, we never really got any answers about those strange symbols and scribbles that he was writing on the white board at S.T.A.R. Labs. They match the same symbols that Barry kept writing when he first came out of the speed force and the ones that Nora is seen sketching in her notebook. Surely, these will be explained in season five, which is another sign that Harry's departure isn't permanent.
3. Joe and Cecile Have Their Baby 
The season four finale also brings a new life into the world: Jenna West! There are a few things that will probably come out of this. First, it'll be adorable seeing how everyone interacts with the baby — Joe, Cecile, Iris, Barry, Wally, Cisco, Caitlin, everyone. Team Flash is a family, so there will probably be some babysitting scenes. It'll also be interesting to see if Cecile's telepathic powers were passed down to her daughter. A baby who can read their parents' minds would make for a few funny moments. However, the idea of a superpower being genetically passed down to someone's offspring is something that might come up a lot, especially considering the cliffhanger next on our list.
4. Caitlin Snow Has Been Killer Frost Since Childhood 
Barry and Iris's daughter traveling back in time is a huge deal, but Caitlin's Killer Frost storyline is something that I'm personally really excited to see unfold. In season four, we find out that Killer Frost has always been inside of Caitlin. Cisco vibes her to a past event in which a young Caitlin falls off her bike and almost gets hit by a car, which causes her to turn into Killer Frost. When the young Caitlin is lying in the street and is about to look at her reflection in her bike's mirror, her dad yells, "Caity, honey, don't!" Many pointed out how her father didn't seem surprised or stunned at his own daughter turning into a completely different being. Instead, he tries to keep her from seeing herself.
There are multiple reasons he might have had that reaction. Maybe he's just good under pressure and he didn't want Caitlin to be scared. A more intriguing explanation is that Caitlin's father was a metahuman and knew that he passed the superhuman gene down to her. Caitlin has previously said that when her father was diagnosed with ALS, he hid a lot of his symptoms from the family. Perhaps it's because they were affecting his powers. Maybe Caitlin has always been Killer Frost, but the particle accelerator reawakened the icy alter ego. That also brings up another theory that's been floating around: it's possible that metahumans existed before the particle accelerator explosion and the event simply triggered and strengthened the powers they already had. That would totally flip the script on our heroes.
Evidently, there is so much that awaits us in the new season, and we're hoping that the show gets right into the action because WE NEED ANSWERS.