TV Review: "Nora"

It's been awhile since we reviewed an episode of The Flash TV series. Mainly because we've been on break. During the break it was confirmed that Hartley Sawyer—the actor playing Ralph on the show—would be a regular during Season 5 of the show, unlike his debut season in which he was a recurring guest star.

Hartley would join the cast for appearances at San Diego Comic Con/Comic Con International, during which he had several interviews, including a roundtable with other members of the cast and crew. He even appeared at fan conventions and gave featured interviews.

What's been teased for Ralph this season is that we will see his detective skills in action at last. A recent photo from filming locations shows a billboard advertising Ralph's detective agency. In addition, Ralph's storylines will have him assisting longtime members of Team Flash Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) and Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) in being a wingman for the newly single Cisco and helping Caitlin find her father. There will also be a new incarnation of Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) this season, who has been teased as "Sherloque Wells." His genius will be pitched as rivaling Ralph's detective skills. The primary villain this season is Cicada (Chris Klein).

Will we meet Sue Dearbon this season? No one's saying yes or no, but Hartley has said he thinks Ralph needs to grow a bit more before he meets her.

 "Nora" begins where Season 4 closes, with the reveal of Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy), Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris' (Candice Patton) daughter from the future, who was glimpsed throughout Season 4 before revealing herself in the finale and saying she'd made a huge mistake.

For some reason, Nora can't run fast enough to back to the future, a strange complication making her create negative tachyons. Barry is afraid of what changes Nora might cause by her trip to before she was born and is anxious to get her back home. In addition, she accidentally prevented a metahuman Cisco dubs "Gridlock" (Daniel Cudmore) from being captured when he was supposed to be.

The episode was a lot of fun, with Nora being a great method for the show to look back at its past and drop teases for its future, plus a great action sequence in which Barry, Nora and Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) have to save a plane load of people from crashing into Central City. Hopefully the rest of the season is this good.

Ralph didn't show off his powers this week, but he did have some really good scenes, one in which he finally puts a lampshade on that little namedrop from Season 1.

Viewers in the US may view "Nora" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire fifth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix in June, 2019. Digital versions of the episode may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2019.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.