How 'The Flash' Gets Rocked By the Meta-Human Cure

When The Flash returned for its midseason premiere last week it wasn't just their failure to capture Cicada that the heroes dealt with. The episode also saw Cisco and Caitlin begin work on a metahuman cure, and while the intention behind the work is pure it, according to showrunner Todd Helbing, it's a development that may have real implications for The CW series.

In a recent interview with TV Line, Helbing explained that the pursuit of the cure itself will cause some tensions, especially for Caitlin and Killer Frost.

"One of the things we're starting to deal with with Cisco is that Barry and Iris are able to juggle this superhero life with a relationship, a marriage, but Cisco is a little less certain that he is able to do that -- and he doesn't know that he wants to," Helbing said. "So he is going to start realizing that is if there is a cure out there, 'maybe it's something I should think about.' For Caitlin, meanwhile, it creates this interesting thing, now that she and Killer Frost are more [simpatico]. If Caitlin were to take the cure, she'd lose this personality [inside her], so there's a tension that starts to arise between [her and Killer Frost]."

Tension between Killer Frost and Caitlin would be very much a step backward for the characters. When Killer Frost first emerged a few seasons back, there was a struggle for Caitlin and her chilly alter ego to find balance. For a while Caitlin even wanted a cure herself, though after losing Killer Frost for a time thanks to The Thinker she has come to a place of peace with her dual nature.

But it's not just issues on Team Flash that will arise when it comes to a metahuman cure. As with anything, should the cure fall into the wrong hands there would be huge issues for the world at large and Helbing said that is something that will be its own storyline.

"That's a huge part that comes up -- if we do this, how do you stop that from happening?" Helbing said. "You can't take the choice away from people. That becomes a whole storyline."

It's not just the metahuman cure that will bring challenges for the team, though. Nora's work with Eobard Thawne is also going to complicate things as well, coming to a head in an upcoming episode in which Barry and Iris West-Allen visit the Flash museum in the future.

"Nora is working with Thawne, and after her experiences with Barry and Thawne in Episode 8, she certainly knows Barry's reaction to Thawne." Helbing revealed. "Now that she has a full understanding of their history, it makes it a little more complicated for her and Thawne in the future, and how she thinks her parents and everybody else on Team Flash would react to that [partnership]. It gets a little dicey for her, a little tricky, and in that episode (airing Jan. 29), there's a situation that arises where Barry and Iris could learn [the truth], so Nora tries to keep that from happening. It's a [fake science] trip that sort of goes awry."

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.