With Nora in prison, the team read her diary to discover her secret origin.

Danielle Panabaker is a hell of a director. Not only do we get Nora’s future dynamic set up here, but we also get some major action set pieces and some beautifully put together moments. Thawne’s sell and his pseudo-martyrdom, the Godspeed fights, the ‘origin’ of Nora. It’s all shot with elegance and speed and a level of precision that subtly tells us this is the future. It’s all a little too clean and precise to be the present day and Panabaker has a ton of fun with her setting.

The script by Judalina Neira & Kelly Wheeler is just as good. So good in fact that when Nora has her ‘origin’ moment you buy into it even though you know that’s not how she got her powers. The way the episode unpacks that, and how speedsters are viewed in Nora’s time is really smart and this stands as both one of the most information dense and character focused episodes the show has ever done. Jessica Parker Kennedy and Candace Patton are especially great here, their dynamic totally different to the present day and far more on Nora’s side. There were real mistakes made by Iris, for good reasons but with bad consequences and that’s what this episode is built on. That and Tom Cavanagh’s wonderful, precise, calm Thawne. I especially loved the reprise of the ‘Run…Barry, RUN’ speech and the closing scenes.

Verdict: Smart, nasty, weird and confident, this is the show at its best even if neither West-Allen is winning parenting awards this week. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart