The FLASH Finally Explains Why Nora Hates Iris

Warning: SPOILERS for The Flash Season 5

From the moment Nora Allen came to The Flash fans have been asking one question: why does she seem to quietly hate her mother, Iris West-Allen? The TV show has finally revealed the truth, and shown Nora has a seriously good reason for liking her Dad better.

Since the start of this season, Nora’s disinterest in her mother has been growing more and more obvious, and far beyond simply wanting to ‘get to know’ Barry, the father she never knew. But Nora’s distrust for Iris goes back even farther to the previous season, when the West-Allen daughter’s trips back in time saw her stealthily spying on everyone in Team Flash. Of course, now that The Flash has revealed WHY Nora hates Iris, the show’s writers have teased an even bigger mystery for fans to debate.

We know what Iris did to her and Barry’s daughter… but what could drive her to do something so unthinkable?

• This Page: Iris Had Nora’s Super-Speed ‘Removed’
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Iris Takes Away Nora’s Speed in The Future

The episode spends most of its runtime emphasizing just how much hostility and passive aggression Nora has for Iris, and Iris alone. Only when the two finally get frustrated enough does the truth come out, as Nora pulls her shirt aside to show the scar she still wears to remind her of her own mother’s betrayal. Apparently at some point in the future, Iris has her daughter injected with an inhibitor device to ‘turn off’ her powers. Since Nora never suspected that her mother had effectively removed her genetic link to the Speed Force, fans can assume the microchip was embedded when Nora was young enough to forget the event.

RELATED: The Flash’s Batman Beyond Easter Egg Reveals Nora’s Secret?

Nora eventually elaborates on the timeline of her discovering this shocking family secret (and betrayal), claiming she only learned about the inhibitor chip six months ago. We can presume that means six months from her perspective, at which point the device blocking her powers was removed, and Nora embraced her powers to become guardian of her own, future Central City. The episode doesn’t reveal how this lifelong lie affected Nora and Iris’s future relationship, so fans hoping that mother and daughter were actually close-knit following Barry’s death/disappearance could still be right. But when the truth came out, changing her father’s past was obviously Nora’s top priority.

But as we stated above, the explanation of ‘what Iris did to make her daughter hate her’ is only the question that fans have believed would be the important one to answer. Yet in classic science fiction fashion, finding out what terrible thing a good person is driven to in the future only raises the larger, more important secret: why did they eventually choose to do something so awful? In this case, take away Nora’s gift of super-speed from her father, and lie to her about ever having them. And assuming Iris West-Allen doesn’t become malicious and hateful just a decade from now – making her friends, family, and loved ones presumably carry on the secret as well – she’s got to have a good reason.

We’ve got our suspicions about that very question, and how the speedsters of DC Comics may offer one answer. What if Iris only lied to her daughter about her link to the Speed Force… because it was going to kill her? Potential SPOILERS ahead.

Page 2 of 2: Did Iris Hide Nora’s Speed to Save Her Life?

About The Author

Andrew Dyce
(3247 Articles Published)

Screen Rant Editor Andrew Dyce was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Despite calling the vast nothingness of the Canadian prairies home (or perhaps because of it) film and television have been a passion since birth. As a graduate of the University of Manitoba with a degree in English Literature, Andrew has grown to appreciate the story and writing behind everything from blockbuster comic book movies to schlocky B-movie action.

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