How The Flash Could Use Iris' Superpowers To Explain Season 4's Mystery Woman

[thunderball]

For an upcoming episode of The Flash, the S.T.A.R. Labs team will take on a newly discovered metahuman with the very distinct ability to swap people's DNA. Said villain will be responsible for putting Barry and Iris through the old switcheroo, giving the latter superpowers for the first time. Such a plot will give Iris fans a thrill to see her dashing around in her new hero suit, but it might also offer a DNA-based explanation for this season's Mystery Woman portrayed by Jessica Parker Kennedy. What if Iris gets impregnated while she's a speedster?

The Flash may have dropped its masked villain approach for Season 4, but the creative team introduced an intriguing new kind of mystery with this unknown woman, whose two sole appearances have given us a handful of notable qualities to speculate on. We know she's heavily invested in Barry and Iris' nuptials, though she doesn't actually meet Iris, and it spawned the theory that she's actually the comics' Dawn Allen, Barry and Iris daughter, or their granddaughter Jenni Ognats. After all, she shared Barry's awkwardness, his goofy demeanor, and his eagerness to be helpful, and she shares some of Iris' physical features. It could all be coincidental, of course, but that's not how things usually work on The Flash. And we did just have Cecile's pregnancy take an interesting turn, possibly as foreshadowing?

 

Working with the assumption that the Mystery Woman is indeed a WestAllen descendant, the questions then center on how and when it could happen, since both Dawn and Jenni were conceived in the 30th century. We'd never suggest that The Flash couldn't introduce a 31st century jaunt for Barry and Iris, but it's not that likely. So what about in the here and now? Barry and Iris did just get married, so extending the immediate family would potentially be the next item on the life goal docket, and with Barry's DNA coursing through Iris' body, it's possibly Iris' maternal instincts will go into overdrive. Which could lead to a situation where Iris can straight-up ask Barry if he wants to have kids.

And it's at this point where the Mystery Woman's wedding advice could legitimately come into play. Whenever she first appeared in the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover, she told the tuxedo-wearing Barry to be sure to say "I do" when the time came, but neither his Nazi-interrupted wedding nor his Olicity-interrupted wedding allowed him the chance to do so. But having him say "I do" to the concept of having children would justify why Mystery Woman was so serious about that request.

Of course, Iris getting pregnant while she's a speedster would be an interesting way to explain how her offspring exists in the first place -- we're actually hoping for twins here, to tie into Barry's diapers line from the premiere -- but it wouldn't really explain why Mystery Woman is a fully grown adult now. We know that time travel could in play here, since Barry's terrible impulses would probably be passed down through DNA, but we're not yet certain why Mystery Woman would have gone back to that specific time.

The obvious guess would be that The Thinker is involved somehow, since we did see Mystery Woman jotting down some of those doodles that we saw on DeVoe's original face; Barry was also drawing them in his post-Speed Force return. But does Thinker know about her yet? He claims to know everything, so it can be lightly assumed that she has appeared in at least one of his many foreseen outcomes, but does he consider her a threat or just another cog in the machine? Also, how will DeVoe's increasingly perturbed wife factor into it all?

For one last bit of fire-building fuel, it's worth pointing out that Iris' new super-suit does not have much in common with Team Flash's other costumes by way of color scheme, with the normal reds and yellows replaced by a darker blue. It's not just different for difference's sake though, at least seemingly, since Iris' costume does resemble those worn by Dawn Allen and Jenni Ognats in the comics. It basically just shares the same darker color scheme as Dawn's, though not the actual look. Jenni's costume design rocks the same kind of collar, though, and also has a white central stripe surrounded on both sides by purplish-blue, so that's pretty convincing. Convincing of what? I'm not sure just yet.

As it usually goes with The Flash, each potential answer unlocks a series of new questions, and while we're still not sure when we're going to learn anything further about the Mystery Woman, The Flash is all new on The CW on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET. To see what other heroes and villains will be rocking the small screen in the near future, head to our midseason premiere schedule.