The Flash Delivers a Major Status Quo Change for Barry and Iris in "Mask of the Red Death Part 2"
With The CW's The Flash in its final season, there is a lot of ground for the long-running Arrowverse series to cover. Not only does the series have its season plots to take on — and currently, that means Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) and Team Flash taking on Red Death (Javicia Leslie) — but there are some larger narrative threads to deal with as well. One of the biggest ones is Barry and Iris (Candice Patton) starting their family. The season premiere saw Barry tease that Iris would get pregnant in just a few months and now, this week's episode of The Flash has brought the series one step closer to making their future daughter Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) a reality.
Warning: Spoilers for this week's episode of The Flash, "Mask of the Red Death, Part 2", beyond this point.
In the episode, after defeating Red Death — thanks to an assist from the real Ryan Wilder/Batwoman (Javicia Leslie) — Team Flash comes together to mark a bittersweet occasion. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) has decided that he is going to take daughter Jenna and move to Keystone so he can focus on doing what he does best: being a good dad. At the going away part for Joe, Iris remarks that she feels a little dizzy and she isn't sure why, but Khione (Danielle Panabaker) is quick to chime in with the reason. It turns out that Iris is pregnant, something that Khione was able to sense though Iris was not yet aware of it.
Barry and Iris being pregnant is something that fans have been hoping they'd see before the end of the series and, last year, showrunner Eric Wallace said that it was something that he hoped he'd be able to bring to screen as well, though at that time he wasn't certain how much longer The Flash would be on air for. Of course, while Iris' pregnancy is obviously a major moment for the season, it's also not the only element of Iris' story in this final season. Wallace previously spoke with ComicBook.com about Iris' journey in the final season and talked about how we'd see Iris deal with balancing the professional and the personal.
"It's on purpose that Iris is quite frankly the smarter person in the season premiere. She is the font of wisdom. But because Barry learns that lesson, it doesn't mean that Iris doesn't have her own future demons. Now, notice I use the word future demons, not past demons," Wallace said. "Barry, in season nine, has past demons to deal with. What Iris is going to be dealing with are future demons, not literally, obviously, metaphorically, coming for her, because she knows, 'Oh wow, I'm going to win two Pulitzers. I'm about to get an extra 100 employees all of a sudden.' This is a big deal, and sometimes, I would almost call it getting what you want can sometimes be the scariest thing that can happen to you. And I think it's a very common thing that people go through in their lives as you navigate the waters of growing up, getting to the next markers in your lives, like, okay, marriage, children, getting that huge promotion you've worked for for 10 years, whatever it is."
He continued, "Sometimes getting those things can be as hard as working towards them, and that's, I think, a professional woman's career journey. I think that's something that they go through that we can use Iris as a character to reflect and say, 'It's going to be okay. You all got this.' Right? And men, catch up with it, all right? It's not all about just being the ego person in the room who knows everything. It's okay to have a little self-exploration and question yourself and grow a little bit. It's almost, I call it feminine wisdom, and that's something that a character like Iris has in spades, and thank goodness, because she's going to save everybody's behind with it a couple of times this season."
The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.