Catching Up: The Flash Episode 512, "Memorabilia"

With this episode, we finally delve deeper into the mystery of why Nora Allen (JESSICA PARKER KENNEDY) is visiting from the future -- and it's not just because she wants to capture Cicada (CHRIS KLEIN). She's taking direction from none other than Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash (TOM CAVANAGH), to change history.

Of course, stopping Cicada is part of that, and the hope is that they can appeal to him to stop his meta-killing crusade if they can resolve the core of his motivations: his comatose niece, Grace (ISLIE HIRVONEN). To awaken her, the team utilizes a memory machine from another Earth, brought over by Sherloque Wells (also CAVANAGH), that will allow them to enter Grace's memories. But when Nora learns that it will also allow her father to potentially see her own memories, she decides to go in early, and alone, becoming trapped in Grace's mind.

Rushing to rescue Nora, Barry (GRANT GUSTIN) and Iris (CANDICE PATTON) go into the device together -- arriving not in Grace's memories, but Nora's! And though they're memories of her past, they are memories of their future, which allows Barry and Iris to see the Flash Museum and the Hall of Villains, where we get teased with the Red Death future appearances. We also see a memory that explains Nora's bitter feelings toward Iris -- as well as why those feelings are unfounded.

In Grace's memories, Grace learns that Nora is the speedster that beat up her uncle Orlin (Cicada). Yes, she's comatose, but she's been listening to her uncle talk to Dr. Ambres (LOSSEN CHAMBERS), and she is on her uncle's side! And the Cicada that attacks Nora in Grace's memories has long blonde hair, just like Grace. Is Grace the future Cicada?

For that matter, is Grace the present Cicada? She has a fragment of dark matter metal embedded in her brain. Might it be connected to Orlin's meta-tech shard? For that matter, with Dr. Ambres manipulating Cicada to kill all metahumans, is she keeping Grace comatose to keep her thumb on Orlin?

This episode also introduces Kamilla Huang (VICTORIA PARK) as a potential love interest for Cisco (CARLOS VALDES), after Ralph (HARTLEY SAWYER) tricks him into going out on the town with him instead of slaving over his cure for metahumans. But that cure comes close to a reality because of this, and Barry announces his intentions to use it in violation of the agreement Cisco struck with Caitlin (DANIELLE PANABAKER) -- a very UN-Flash-like move, to be honest.