The Flash's Candice Patton on the importance of showing Iris as a reporter

Warning: This article contains spoilers from last night’s episode of The Flash. Read at your own risk!

Iris (Candice Patton) got back to her journalistic roots on The Flash!

Although Iris revived her blog last season to stop the Thinker, last night’s episode of The Flash was the first time in quite a while we’d gotten a chance to see Iris do some actual reporting. While Barry (Grant Gustin) tried to train Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy), Team Flash’s leader put on her reporter hat and investigated what happened to last week’s metahuman Gridlock (Chris Klein’s Cicada happened, in case you forgot). As the episode unfolded, we got to see her interview one of the officers who part of Gridlock’s transport and track down body-cam footage. It was truly satisfying to see Iris return to her passion, especially given the fact that the character was historically a journalist in the comics, too.

If Patton has her way, we’ll see more of Iris as a reporter this season. “It’s never enough for me, personally as an actress,” she told EW at the CW’s Fall Launch event Sunday on the WB lot. “I don’t think we’ve really explored that enough on our show.”

Patton went on to explain why she thinks it’s important to focus on this part of Iris’ life. “I’m always pushing to see Iris at her true calling and her true passion, because I think it’s really important for us to see women doing their jobs — not just being a love interest, but seeing how they contribute,” she said. “I think Iris’ contribution, not only as a team leader, is her passion, which is writing and being a journalist.” And we saw that in the final scene of the episode.

The body-cam footage Iris found helped her realize Team Flash was facing the same person who killed Gridlock. When the team returned to S.T.A.R. Labs, they listened to the recording and decided that the breathing sound the season 5 big bad’s heavy breathing sounded like, well, cicadas, which strikes a record with Nora. Clearly, Barry and Iris’ daughter recognizes the name and we’ll find out why next week.

Speaking of Nora: Patton assured EW that the chilliness between Iris and her future daughter wouldn’t last all season. “In the next few episodes, it’s still definitely a little chilly and frosty, but we won’t spend the entire season watching their relationship be tumultuous. We do see them bond and have things in common sooner rather than later, which I think fans can be relieved about because I don’t think anyone wants to watch Nora and Iris be at odds for 22 episodes,” she said. “Their reconciliation is coming.”

In fact, we’ll see that Iris is happy to have Nora, a.k.a. XS, part of the team. “At first she’s very hesitant about Nora putting herself in danger, but I think she is happy to have her daughter around and have this experience,” she said. “For her, it’s an indication that Barry and Iris get their happy ending in the future, and she’s really proud of Nora in that she’s almost exactly like her father. So, she’s eventually encouraging of Nora to be a part of the team and help.”

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

Related content:

• EW’s Fall TV comics reading guide for viewers interested in going beyond the screen
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• Superhero Insider: Breaking down the returns of The Flash, Black Lightning