‘The Flash’: Danielle Nicolet Teases What’s Next for Cecile in Season 5

There are big changes ahead for everyone on The Flash when it returns for its fourth season next month. The arrival of Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future, Nora, last season marks a huge shift for them, but they aren’t the only ones who will have to deal with changes.

Cecile Horton, Joe West’s girlfriend, experienced quite a few changes herself last season and according to actress Danielle Nicolet those changes will be a big part of the character’s story arc in season five. Nicolet told ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic-Con back in July that while family is a central focus of the season, there are personal shifts for Cecile as well.

“I think the overarching theme for the whole season is family, legacy, and truly what you’re leaving behind and how what you do affects the future,” Nicolet said. “So, for me I’m looking forward to Cecile getting back to work which I don’t think I’m giving anything away to say we’re going to see some of that and also like finding out what happens when I had powers and maybe I’m losing them and how does one adapt to that because it’s no fun to be an ex-metahuman. No. I imagine Cecile might get a little jealous of that.”

As fans will recall, Cecile developed temporary telepathic powers while pregnant last season. Those powers were instrumental in helping to ultimately defeat Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker, but she’s presumably lost them now that she’s given birth to baby Jenna West. The shift away from her powers sounds like it will be a little challenging for Cecile, especially since so much of her life has evolved to be part of what she called a “big metahuman family.”

“Well, you know Cecile used to be a super normal person and then she started dating this guy and now she has super powers and a baby and a grandchild that’s older than her grown kid,” Nicolet said. “It’s complicated. You know when you date a guy and it’s like ‘alright, big Italian family’ with Joe West it’s like ‘okay, big metahuman family’”.

Transitions and family will factor in for other members of the ever-expanding West-Allen clan, too. Nora’s arrival makes things a bit more complicated for Iris West (Candice Patton), especially as her own experience with motherhood initially aren’t going to be so warm.

“Iris is very, very excited and eager to get to know her daughter who’s back from the future.” Patton explained in an interview last month. “And I think that, as we hinted in the finale last season, that’s kind of met with some coldness from Nora. Which we’ll get into later in the season, why there’s some distance in between the two of them. But it’s been really interesting to play this dynamic of Iris really wanting to enjoy this time with her daughter and figuring out why Nora’s kind of not into that.”

Unfortunately, family dynamics won’t be the only challenges Team Flash and family faces in season five. Not only is Nora potentially bringing quite a lot of problems with her from the future, but they will have to deal with David Hersh/Cicada (Chris Klein) as well.

Are you excited for The Flash‘s fifth season? Let us know in the comments below.

The fifth season of The Flash will debut on Tuesday, October 9th, at 8/7c on The CW.