The Flash‘s fourth season officially came to an end tonight — and it opened a whole new can of worms in the process.
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Major spoilers for tonight’s season four finale of The Flash, “We Are The Flash”, below!
The episode saw Team Flash go to pretty great lengths to stop Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (Neil Sandilands) from brainwashing the population with his Enlightenment satellites. This involved Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) literally inhabiting DeVoe’s mind, as a way to potentially unlock the goodness within him.
There was action, heartfelt moments, and one hell of a cliffhanger. And while there are a good few months until season five is expected to premiere, it’s certainly not too early to speculate about what comes next. So, without further ado, here are some of the burning questions we have surrounding The Flash‘s season four finale.
What happened with Nora?
Perhaps one of the biggest bombshells surrounded the show’s Mystery Girl (Jessica Parker Kennedy), whose identity was finally revealed.
As it turns out, Mystery Girl is none other than Nora Allen, Barry and Iris West’s (Candice Patton) daughter from the future. While we only got to see only a few scenes of Nora – using her speedster powers to help Barry save the day, and then dropping that bombshell on Team Flash – it’s clear that she has a lot more secrets lurking underneath.
So, what could happen next for Nora? And what mistake did she make in the first place? Thankfully, showrunner Todd Helbing has already given ComicBook.com some hints.
Who could be the next Big Bad?
One other question that fans had going into the finale – and one that wasn’t particularly answered – is who the show’s next villain is going to be.
As was teased earlier this month, the cliffhanger would supposedly tease which Big Bad season five would have, and that comic book fans would be able to figure it out. But considering the fact that things essentially ended on Nora talking about the mistake she made, it honestly isn’t easy to tell.
According to Helbing, the season is expected to continue the trend of non-speedster Big Bads, which seems to rule out easy options like Eobard Thawne (who messed with Barry and Iris’ children in the future) and Colbalt Blue (who fans have been wanting to see almost from the second that Eddie Thawne died).
So…who could the Big Bad be? Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.
What’s next for Ralph?
To the delight of plenty of fans, the finale brought back Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (Hartley Sawyer), after several episodes of him being absorbed by DeVoe.
Barry essentially ran into Ralph while being stuck inside DeVoe’s consciousness, allowing the pair to team up and make their escape. Once Barry returned to the real world, Ralph followed soon after, essentially pushing DeVoe and the other meta powers out of his body.
So, with Ralph set to return as a series regular next season…what’s next for the plucky Private Investigator? Considering how much of this season revolved around Barry trying to teach Ralph the significance of being a superhero, it doesn’t seem out of the question that he could be slightly more evolved as a hero next season.
Could Joe and Cecile’s baby be important?
Okay, so Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet)’s baby definitely wasn’t the Mystery Girl, despite various fan theories suggesting otherwise.
But still…could the baby still grow up to be a significant character? As we theorized earlier this season, the baby, Jenna West, could grow up to be a genderbent version of Daniel West, the New 52 incarnation of Reverse Flash.
In the comics, Daniel uses his newfound speedster powers for pretty nefarious purposes. He turns back time, kills his father, starts murdering people with Speed Force abilities and draining them of it. He is, eventually, convinced by The Flash to give up his powers and ends up in Iron Heights before dying when he joined the Suicide Squad.
While it’s safe to assume that Baby West won’t be evil anytime soon, could we see a version of this Black Flash storyline play out at some point?
Could Marlize return?
This episode, Team Flash got a somewhat-unexpected ally, as Marlize DeVoe/The Mechanic (Kim Engelbrecht) helped the team in the fight against Clifford.
In the process, Marlize had some pretty badass moments, culminating in her essentially pulling the plug on a holographic version of her husband. But by the episode’s end, Marlize decided that she would return her efforts to being a humanitarian, the way she did before she joined Clifford’s crusade.
But even then…is there a chance that Marlize could return in a later episode? After all, Team Flash essentially extended an invitation for her to join their team, and it’d be fun to see her to do in at least a somewhat-regular context.
What Earth could next season’s Wells be from?
Perhaps one of the finale’s saddest moments was the departure of Harry Wells (Tom Cavanagh), who decided to return to Earth-2 soon after Team Flash restored his brain back to normal.
But even then, it sounds like there will definitely be some sort of new version of Wells in season five – it’s just unclear exactly who that could be. Or really, what Earth that Wells could be from.
Realistically, it probably won’t be one of the Wellses we’ve already met in the various “Councils”, but it could very well be another doppelganger from another Earth. Or hey, considering the fact that Nora is now in the mix, who knows? Maybe next season’s Wells is from the future.
What’s up with the mystery symbols?
And finally…What’s up with the mystery symbols that have been popping up all season?
Barry first wrote the symbols when he came out of the Speed Force in the season premiere, only for them to pop up on various Thinker-related elements as the season went on. But theories about it took a turn when it appeared that Nora was writing the same symbols in her notebook at Jitters. And midway through this episode, just as the Enlightenment was starting to take effect, Harry began writing the same symbols on the Star Labs white board.
So…what’s going on? Do the symbols have something to do with the Speed Force, or DeVoe, or both? Or could the symbols be a form of Interlac? We wish we had a dictionary to break out during the summer hiatus.
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The Flash will return with new episodes Tuesdays this fall at 8/7c on The CW.
