‘The Flash’ 5×02 recap: Team Flash finally meets Cicada

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers from The Flash Season 5 Episode 2, titled “Blocked”. Do not read if you have not seen the episode or read at your own risk.

Tuesday’s episode of The Flash brought a confession, a revelation, and the first showdown of Team Flash vs. Cicada.

The episode begins with Barry (Grant Gustin) and Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) coming clean to the rest of the group about Nora’s lies. The group learns that Nora actually can go home but doesn’t want to so she can spend time with her father, who disappears in the future and never returns. Smart move on coming clean, Barry. You’re finally learning from your past mistakes! I expected the team to go into a depression over the lies, but Iris (Candice Patton) tells them all to not worry, as they will address the future when it gets here.

There were hints last week that Iris might be bothered by Nora and Barry’s budding relationship when Nora only asked questions about Barry. Then, in this Tuesday’s episode, Barry and Nora are working together on a case that involves metahuman Vanessa Jansen after Nora lied about being his CSI intern. Iris sees them together and confirms that she is indeed bothered by it.

She finally discloses this fact in a conversation with Joe. He tells her to just keep herself busy and Nora will open up to her at the right time. Solid advice from Joe, but this is Iris we’re talking about.

It’s only episode 2, but Patton really nailed the emotion and delivered one of her best performances. This easily has already been one of the most interesting and compelling storylines for Iris in the five seasons of the show.

Another character who really shined this week is Joe, but he did it in a quiet way. After a training session with Nora doesn’t go well, Joe tells Barry that Nora is just trying to impress him after knowing everything he does in the future. Joe tells him to let Nora know everything will be okay, even if she messes up from time to time. With a solid storyline for Joe, this episode shows just how important he is to the entire group and how lost they all would be without him.

Barry takes Joe’s advice and uses a different approach to training Nora. Iris enters and tells them she found a different way to track Vanessa, which is a major win for Mrs. West-Allen. However, Nora’s side-eye reaction to this has me thinking there’s another reason for her being weird around Iris that we don’t know.

Team Flash go to fight Vanessa but she traps Barry in her cube of death. Nora uses the tricks Barry taught her earlier and finally slaps the cuffs on Vanessa. Cicada shows up and throws his lightning bolt dagger at Vanessa and even gets close to killing Barry (but he wouldn’t kill him in the second episode… would he?). However, it is when Nora calls out to her father that Cicada reconsiders… for now.

In the end, Iris reveals to the team that she recognized the sound from the attacker’s mask and Nora confirmed it by remembering his name. One thing is clear: Cicada is going to be a big threat, if not the biggest in five seasons of this show.

Episode Highlights:

• Caitlin refuses to look into her father’s fraudulent birth certificate. She tells Cisco that if he is alive, it meant he never truly wanted to find her. Cisco says she needs to confront this fear sooner rather than later.
• In the comedic moment of the episode, Cisco is having trouble getting over Gypsy. So Ralph decides to take it upon himself to get Cisco out of his funk. It’s safe to say that didn’t work.

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