The Flash Season 5: What Does The Ending To 'Failure Is An Orphan' Really Mean?

by Michael Patterson

1. Grace Is The Cicada From The Future

The Flash Cicada Grace
The CW

The reveal that Dwyer's niece, Grace, is actually a metahuman may have been shocking to Cicada himself, but it wasn't all that shocking to viewers. We were already privy to this secret thanks to earlier episode 'Memorabilia' which allowed us to see Grace's forehead glowing in a similar fashion to her uncle's dagger. So when another Cicada turned up to rescue the original, Grace was already at the top of our 'most likely suspects' list.

The real shock came when it was revealed that this isn't the same Grace that has been in a coma for months and was, instead, an adult version (played by Smallville alum Sarah Carter). This could mean only one thing: she's from the future. While you might initially wonder how a non-speedster with a violent hatred for metahumans could know anything about time travel, her arrival has actually been foreshadowed all season - we just didn't see it until now.

This week's episode opened with Reverse-Flash informing Nora that the timeline had changed somewhat because "something... or someone" was trying to break through. This was undoubtedly a precursor of the episode's closing moments as Cicada 2.0. quite literally burst through the windows of S.T.A.R. Labs following a power outage (similar to how when '90s Flash was trying to break through into Earth-1, he caused a lot of electromagnetic disruption). So, once again, Eobard Thawne was 100% correct.

But wait, there's more. Remember how 'Memorabilia' also revealed that Cicada would soon disappear altogether before resurfacing after The Flash vanished in the 2024 Crisis? Well, it's looking very likely that the reason he disappeared was because Orlin Dwyer either gave up the mantle or was killed, leaving a vengeful Grace to pick up where he left off after The Flash's vanishing - meaning that this new arrival in the present is the deadlier Cicada from the future that was never caught, the one responsible for bringing the metahuman death toll to 152 victims. The only question is: Why has she travelled to the past?

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What did you think of The Flash's shocking ending? Tell us in the comment section below!

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Michael Patterson is an experienced writer with an affinity for all things film and TV. He may or may not have spent his childhood obsessing over WWE.