Five seasons in and fans are pretty used to the formula of The Flash. Due to various dark matter explosions, a multitude of metahuman baddies have been unleashed on Central City that Barry Allen and his friends at STAR Labs have had to deal with. Season 5 has just introduced an intriguing twist on that idea, though: the new threat isn’t metahumans but rather, meta-technology.
It’s revealed in “News Flash” that The Enlightenment – Clifford DeVoe’s plan to diminish the intelligence of humanity from the season 4 finale – resulted in tech across the city being granted extra abilities. For instance, Spin’s phone had the power to hypnotize others into doing her bidding. This same incident created season 5’s big bad Cicada, as unveiled in yesterday’s episode.
Though the Flash thought he’d saved everyone from the Thinker’s satellites falling from the sky, Orlin Dwyer was hit by a piece of space junk, which imbued him with a psionic connection to his lightning bolt dagger that can dampen the powers of other metahumans. It’s this that Cicada’s using to exact his plans and not necessarily his own powers.
That said, the end of the episode opened up more questions by showing Cicada crushing a metal pole. Judging by Orlin’s reaction, this is a new experience for him and it looks like he’s developing his own meta powers alongside his connection to the meta-dagger. Then, of course, there’s the strange glowing scar he had, as seen in a previous episode.
Star Chris Klein has previously teased that Cicada might not actually be human at all, which would be an unexpected explanation for his various abilities. He’s also promised that the character would get an origins episode “a few weeks down the line” that should clear up the mystery of exactly who he is.
Be sure to watch The Flash season 5 every Tuesday on The CW to see how the Scarlet Speedster fares against his dangerous new foe.
