The Flash Season 5: 3 Ups & 3 Downs From ‘Cause And XS’
1. The Escape Artist Strikes Again
After receiving help from her friends and family, Nora was able to outsmart Cicada and save the day. Her knowledge of her previous 52 attempts to defeat him allowed her to slow down time itself and manipulate his own dagger into working against him. In short, Nora did her homework here. Unfortunately, it's beginning to feel like Team Flash are not doing theirs.
Nora's successful strategy briefly rendered Cicada helpless. However, instead of actually doing something about it (like getting Killer Frost to freeze his arms), she and the other Team Flash members were so relieved that their plan worked that they allowed him to get away again - and we can't help but notice that this is all starting to feel quite familiar.
Each episode follows the exact same format: Cicada shows up, "grrrrrs" a little, dampens Team Flash's powers before suffering a defeat, growling some more and finally venturing off into the sky. While most of that sounds like a pretty normal confrontation, it's the repetitive "defeat" part that continues to let the showdown.
Team Flash needn't worry about how to defeat Cicada because they've done it countless times: Killer Frost defeated Cicada in the show's 100th episode. Barry defeated Cicada when he battered him in a state of rage. Iris defeated Cicada when she jammed a pen into his wounded chest. Now Nora has defeated Cicada too. However, every single time they clearly have him beat, the characters do absolutely nothing and, instead, stand idly and allow him to escape.
Once or twice was forgivable, but this has happened far too many times now and its starting to verge on ridiculousness (even for The Flash). This man has killed countless metahumans and is threatening to kill all the members of Team Flash. Thus, with their constant failures and inability to follow up on their own successes, it's beginning to feel like the protagonists aren't even trying to stop Cicada.
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