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The Flash: Was Barry's Reaction to Nora's Partnership with the Reverse Flash Too Harsh?

The results were explosive

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Lindsay MacDonald

Nora's time-traveling secrets have been many on The Flash, but none has been as foreboding as the fact that her partner in this mission to the past has been none other than the Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh). Now, that secret has finally come crashing down.

Each week, Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) has inched closer and closer to discovering what exactly Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedey) has been keeping from her parents by analyzing her Speed Force journal (and the two handwriting samples inside it), digging into her half-truths, and deciphering her coded messages to the future. After digging into Eobard Thawne and his time as Harrison Wells back in Season 1, Sherloque managed to discover some video files from Thawne's investigation into the "malleable" timeline, slotting the final piece of the puzzle into place for him.

Meanwhile, the meta storyline of the week forced Nora to deal with the harsh truth that keeping massive secrets from the people you love, even if it's only to protect them, can have volatile results. This forced her to wonder whether or not she should be honest with her parents. Just as she was about to give in to her better angels and fess up though, Sherloque beat her to the punch.

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Grant Gustin, The Flash

Grant Gustin, The Flash

Jeff Weddell, Jeff Weddell/The CW

In a monologue worthy of the actual Sherlock, Sherloque detailed how he'd investigated all of her methodically planned trips to the past, picking out the one instance that felt off from all the others: the moment she chose to help Barry (Grant Gustin) destroy the satellite in the Season 4 finale, irreversibly altering the timeline. That decision, he theorized, was not part of her own plan, but rather an order from the timeline-manipulating Eobard Thawne, who was her teacher, her partner, her secret.

Poor Nora tried to explain herself, but the betrayal in Barry's eyes said it all. Before she could give any excuses, Barry sped her into a pipeline cell, imprisoning her like the villain she may very well be in his eyes now.

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But was his reaction actually too harsh? Despite the fact Nora obviously has good intentions and feels some pretty genuine anguish over betraying her family's trust, it doesn't change the fact that she's been lying about her mission from the get go. That's months of team building and crime fighting and family bonding where she was actively holding back a huge secret from them. And not just any secret, as we all well know. After she discovered the truth about Thawne's past with her father and his murder of Barry's mother, she had all the information she needed to know how devastated Barry would be to know she was working with Thawne. Choosing not to tell him the truth from that point on was inviting heartbreak, even if it's crushing to watch them both go through it.

It looks like next week's episode will finally fill in all the blanks where Thawne and Nora are concerned, flashing back to the beginning of their partnership and hopefully what their eventual endgame is. Here's hoping she can finally come clean with enough details -- and some damn good excuses -- to satisfy Barry, Iris (Candice Patton), and the rest of the team. Otherwise, she may be in a permanent time-out in the past.

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

(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation.)

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Bettina Strauss, Bettina Strauss/The CW