‘The Flash’ Season 5 Episode 8 Recap: The 100th Episode Explores Nora’s Motivations

By
Kevin Finnerty
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The Flash Season 5 Episode 8 Recap
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen and Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West-Allen in ‘The Flash’ season 5 episode (Photo: Jeff Weddell © 2018 The CW Network)

“Well things just got a lot more complicated, didn’t they?” notes Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) as Barry (Grant Gustin) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) travel back in time and needs his help in the 100th episode of The CW’s The Flash.

Season five episode eight begins with Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) and Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) spying on Cicada (Chris Klein) now that they know his real name, Orlin Dwyer. They’re determined to gather as much intel on him as possible.

Over at S.T.A.R. Labs, Team Flash goes over all the intelligence they’ve gathered on Cicada. Barry’s determined they should grab Cicada when he’s at the hospital. Sherloque points out that Cicada will know they’re coming because of his meta tech dagger. He suggests they create a weapon to dampen the dagger’s powers. Nora speaks up and says they can get the materials they need to make the device. Team Flash needs one, a strong alloy, which would be a piece of Savitar’s suit. Two, something to remove Dark Matter – that’s the Speed Force transmitter Harry made for Zoom. And three, a massive event that can infuse the shard with dark matter, which would be when the particle accelerator exploded.

They also need to do a “Time Hack” and plant the device near the hospital while still in the past so Cicada won’t sense its presence. Everyone agrees it’s a good idea. (Seriously, when is Team Flash going to learn about messing with time?!)

Barry wants to go alone but Nora thinks she should go too and back him up. After her dad says no, firmly, Nora goes off to pout. Iris (Candice Patton) takes Nora’s side because it’s Nora’s idea. She believes Nora should go with him, but Barry stands his ground. Barry’s heading back to some crazy times and doesn’t want Nora anywhere near it.


Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), and Ralph pour over the best moments in the past where Barry should go to obtain the materials he needs. With the knowledge of the exact dates and times set, Barry prepares to leave and sees Nora sitting quietly, looking sad. He looks at Iris who gives him a “go ahead and take her with you look” so Barry tells Nora she can come along. However, she has to do everything he tells her to do. Beaming, Nora agrees. Father and daughter speed off into the Speed Force to travel back in time on a scavenger hunt.

First stop in time is the final battle with Savitar. Barry and Nora watch from a distance as The Flash fights Savitar from season three. Barry notices a Time Wraith has followed them out of the Speed Force so he tells Nora he’ll lead it away while she grabs a piece of Savitar’s suit after The Flash from the past destroys it. Nora does but stops and watches Iris shoot Savitar, killing him. Nora reunites with Barry and they re-enter the Speed Force with the Time Wraith following them.

Second stop in time is when Zoom (Teddy Sears) steals Barry’s speed using the Speed Force transmitter. Barry and Nora watch from the other room as Caitlin pleads for Hunter who’s choking Barry to let him go. Nora’s surprised by this; she didn’t know that Caitlin saved her dad from Zoom.

Zoom releases Barry and speeds off, kidnapping Caitlin. Barry and Nora from the future wait until everyone has left and Barry enters the medical bay to grab the Speed Force transmitter. Unfortunately, it’s not on the table where Zoom left it. As he’s looking, Harry (Cavanagh) arrives, upset. He notices Barry changed fast but doesn’t realize it’s Barry from the future.

Harry yells at Barry for giving up his speed and is about to break the Speed Force transmitter, which he had in his pocket, out of frustration. Barry tells Harry he should try using the different ways people vibrate from Earth-2 to find his daughter and gets the Speed Force transmitter away from him. Just as he and Nora are about to go, Zoom speeds in and chases after them. All three enter the Speed Force and the Time Wraith catches up and grabs Zoom while Barry and Nora dive out of the Speed Force.

Upon landing, Barry falls and breaks the Speed Force transmitter. Nora suggests they go see Harry to fix it, but Barry tells her he’s not as brilliant as he used to be. Nora then suggests seeing Dr. Wells (aka Eobard Thawne), but Barry says he’s much too dangerous. Barry looks around and realizes they’ve come out of the Speed Force back when Barry from season two went back in time to get Thawne’s help. Seeing no other choice, Barry and Nora phase into the Time Vault of S.T.A.R. Labs where Thawne, disguised as Wells, has season two Barry cuffed to a chair.

Thawne asks which Barry Allen he’s talking to now and Barry says a much later one from the one he has cuffed there. Thawne asks who his new friend is and realizes by his behavior she’s Barry’s daughter. He calls her Dawn but she corrects him and says her name is Nora. Thawne realizes with his appearance from the future he may not get home. Barry assures Thawne he won’t get home unless he helps him fix the Speed Force transmitter. Having no other option, Thawne agrees.

While fixing the device, Thawne asks Nora if she saw Savitar with his pizza face and how he was a much bigger jerk than Thawne is. He fixes it and Barry and Nora speed off to the next important stop on their time traveling quest – the night the particle accelerator explodes.

Barry and Nora sneak into S.T.A.R. Labs and phase into the Time Vault, avoiding Thawne/Wells who seemed to sense their presence. Cisco and Caitlin ask Wells if anything’s wrong and he claims everything is fine. Wells tells Caitlin to get the champagne they’ve been saving. Wells reveals to Cisco he’s eager to be along for the adventure of who Cisco will become and that he couldn’t have built the particle accelerator without him. They awkwardly shake hands and go to turn it on.

Inside the Time Vault, Nora wanders over to look at the Reverse Flash’s suit and Barry immediately reacts by pulling her back, demanding she stop. She asks why he hates him so much and he realizes she doesn’t know. Barry tells Nora that Eobard Thawne killed his mother to try to prevent him from becoming The Flash. Nora’s obviously very surprised by the news.

The particle accelerator is turned on and explodes. Barry talks to Gideon about diverting some of the Dark Matter into the shard and it works. Barry and Nora then phase the weapon into its hiding place at the Central City hospital and speed off to return home.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and Nora return a few seconds after they left which prompts Ralph to declare, “Time travel is weird.” With the new weapon placed and Cicada at the hospital, Barry confirms to Team Flash it’s time to take Cicada down.

The Flash lures Cicada outside and when throws his dagger at Barry, the dagger gets drawn to where the powered shard is and is stuck in the wall. Vibe opens up a portal and sends the dagger into space. Unfortunately for Team Flash, Cicada’s able to draw the dagger back to him – even from space. He uses it to knock The Flash, Vibe, XS, and Elongated Man off their feet. Cicada advances toward The Flash and is about to stab him with the dagger when Killer Frost shows up and blasts him with her icy powers. Shocked that his dagger has no powers over Killer Frost, Cicada stares in disbelief. “Let’s dance,” says Killer Frost but Cicada ignores the challenge and flies off to escape.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco and Sherloque want to run a few tests on Caitlin to see if maybe Killer Frost is the key to stopping Cicada. Later, Nora’s looking for her journal and discovers Sherloque has it. He asks her about the strange symbols in it and she claims it’s a time language she created. He hands it back to her and runs a sentence through the decipher program in the computer. It turns out the English translation is “Timeline is Malleable.”

Nora travels back to the past and watches Barry’s parents from across the street. They’re alive and happy. Barry shows up and doesn’t scold his daughter for time-traveling again. Instead, he confesses he understands and tells her his parents were the greatest.After a few minutes, father and daughter speed off together back to present day.

The final scene of the 100th episode is Nora talking to Gideon about sending data to someone. She also explains she’ll deliver a message to him in person. Nora travels to 2049 and visits Eobard Thawne who’s locked up in Iron Heights. She says, “We need to talk,” and he replies, “Yes, we do”.

The Flash Season 5 Episode 8
Behind the scenes with Jessica Parker Kennedy, Chris Klein, director Tom Cavanagh and Grant Gustin (Photo: Jack Rowand © 2018 The CW Network)

The Flash Season 5 Episode 8 Review:

Action-packed, suspenseful, and touching, the 100th episode titled “What’s Past is Prologue” is a masterfully directed, written, paced, and acted episode. It takes the hero, as well as the audience, back through some of the most harrowing and suspenseful moments of the first three seasons.

The stand-out performance goes to Tom Cavanagh who not only portrayed Sherloque and Harry Wells but also Eobard Thawne as Dr. Wells in some of the best scenes in the episode. He helped bring back the tension, drama, and feel of the first season. Cavanagh also directed the episode which is, to put it succinctly, brilliant. Honestly, the last three episodes have been just as great as most of the episodes in the first season.

With the reveal that Nora has been conspiring with Thawne from the future, does this mean she’s a threat to Team Flash? Is she really their daughter? Remember, Thawne called Barry’s daughter Dawn not Nora, and fans of the comics will understand the Dawn reference. Who is Nora really and what is her true reason for going back in time to become a part of Team Flash? Hopefully, the answers will be revealed before the end of season five.

GRADE: A-

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