The Flash Season 5 Episode 2 Review: 'Blocked'

The Flash Season 5 continues with its second episode and things are getting very interesting. It may only be two weeks in, but I feel this new season is shaping up to be way more exciting than the lackluster fourth season.

Episode 2 Season 5 of The Flash is a pretty busy episode mainly because it tries to tackle so many stories at once.

It can be hard to follow at times, but the main bad guy for this season is Cicada played by Chris Klein and he shows up in awesome fashion.

I never felt Cliff DeVoe to be an intimidating main antagonist mainly because he was just an old man stuck inside of a chair for most of the time.

The Flash and the team never really did head-on battles with him which made the whole season boring.

Season 5 is looking way better because Cicada is a foe that is challenging The Flash team on a physical level.

Not to mention he's a villain that they don't know yet, so there is a mysterious vibe going on for the viewer too.

At the start of the episode, we see Cicada killing Gridlock by stealing his powers with the dagger he uses.

This dagger is dangerous and it comes to play later in the episode. My guess is that Cicada hates metahumans that's why he's going after super-powered beings.

Before The Flash encounters Cicada though, the team have a lot of problems of their own to take care of.

The most useless side story this week is Cecile who is somehow losing her ability to read people's minds. Nothing gets resolved so it's a storyline that will continue as the season goes by.

Another side story that didn't really mean much is Cisco still crying about his breakup with Gypsy.

I don't know why Cisco is sad since he's the one that broke up with her in the first place. Cisco somewhat feels a lot better once Caitlin and Ralph Dibny give him some advice.

The other last side story is the growing relationship between Barry and Nora Allen.

Barry is trying his best to give her advice, but Nora is too enthusiastic and eager to be patient. She really wants to become a powerful speedster, but she's getting too impatient.

I actually like the chemistry that Barry and Nora have in this episode as it feels real and authentic.

Barry really cares about his daughter and wants what's best for her even though she's energetic at times. Nora just needs to learn to take things slowly since she wants to do incredible things too quickly.

The main side bad person in this week's episode is a woman by the name of Vanessa Jansen who has a weird power where she can enclose people inside a special shell.

Vanessa Jansen isn't really a match for the team of The Flash and XS since they apprehend her easily in handcuffs. However, the team gets a rude awakening when they encounter Cicada who stabs Jansen from behind!

As XS/Nora goes to the hospital with Jansen, The Flash, Ralph Dibny and Cisco have to face Cicada on their own. The team gets beaten up very quickly thanks to his dagger negating all of their powers.

Cicada nearly kills The Flash, but stops once XS/Nora comes back to save him.

For some reason Cicada lets the team go and he walks away. This scene made me believe that Cicada could be from the future as it looked like he knew who XS was.

In either case, Cicada is a cool looking and badass character and I cannot wait to see more from him. Season 5 just has a better overall tone than the goofy humor that plagued Season 4.

For now, all we have to do is wait and see that Cicada's next move will be. In the meantime, Caitlin Snow is keen to find out if her father is still alive.

At the end of the episode, she gets a vibe with Cisco and sees her mother. This could lead to her knowing more about both her parents!

Anyway, episode 2 of Season 5 was another strong episode of The Flash. Sure the episode had lots of side-stories, but the main storyline with Cicada piqued my interest a lot. Let's hope Season 5 continues likes this.

Verdict: 8.0/10

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