The Flash: “Blocked” Recap – Season 5, Episode 2

Crystal
10 Min Read
Cicada in ‘Blocked’ courtesy of the CW

This week’s episode starts off with a bang! We get to see a little more of Cicada and what happened between him and Gridlock. It appears that Cicada’s lightning blade is somehow able to drain a meta’s powers. Without any powers, Cicada easily defeated Gridlock and, as suspected, killed him. 

Nora and Barry admit to the rest of the team that she’s not stuck there and that the reason she came back is due to Barry disappearing in the future. Thankfully, Iris has a clear head and points out that they have changed the future before and can do it again.

In the random side-story, Cecile’s powers are fading and that fact is really bumming her out.

Speaking of being bummed out, Cisco is in complete despair over his breakup with Gypsy. His connection with her was so strong that everything he vibes still has that link to her and it’s driving him mad. While Ralph thinks Cisco should vibe the death certificate to see who wrote it, Caitlyn convinces them all that it’s time to save Cisco from his misery.

Our new meta-villain of the week made an explosive entrance into a former crime associate’s warehouse of weapons. Vanessa Jansen puts the man into a box of some sort and compresses him down into a neat, highly dense meat cube. Yuck.

While Barry is working the crime scene, Nora shows up pretending to be a CSI, forcing Barry to cover for her by saying she’s an intern. In her perusal of the crime scene, she manages to simultaneously contaminate evidence and reveal more about the future technology of forensics. Seriously, a sieve holds water better than Nora contains future information. It’s ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Captain Singh tells Iris that Gridlock was killed in transport, leading her to investigate. She speaks to the convoy guards who are less than helpful, but then she digs up footage from the attack. There’s not much to see, but she does hear a very distinct noise.

Cecile decides that she is going to use the mental activity dampener 2.0, which Harry modified to hear the thoughts of whoever is wearing it, on Jenna. Joe is thoroughly against it. He has to explain to her that it is possible to parent without knowing the thoughts of the baby. He has a fair point. People have been doing it that way since, well, forever.

The brother of the man Vanessa killed has decided to get his revenge and take back their guns, but Vanessa isn’t having it. That’s when Nora and Barry show up. Barry gives instructions to Nora, which she promptly ignores. Then she gets herself stuck in one of Vanessa’s cubes and hurled across the city for Barry to save while Vanessa gets away.

The team learns that the cubes Vanessa creates are actually incredibly dense air molecules that she has pushed into cube form with her powers. It’s so dense that speedsters can’t even move enough to vibrate through them. We’ll just ignore the fact that Nora and the gangster from the beginning were both able to move and speak inside the cube. This new information combined with Cisco’s depression leads to Vanessa’s less than stellar meta nickname – Block.

In an effort to help Cisco, Ralph hooks him up with his personal stylist. The results are not great and Cisco is not enthused, despite the positive reactions of Caitlyn and Ralph. Done with the whole thing, he wants to move on to dealing with the death certificate. Caitlyn flips out and it becomes obvious that she is putting off dealing with the certificate for reasons of her own.

Barry decides that it’s time for Nora to learn the basics of basics. Unfortunately, as with everything else, Nora decides that she doesn’t need to listen to her dad. In an effort to show him that she’s awesome, she decides to throw a lightning bolt, but trips and ends up hitting Barry instead. The “look what I can do” attitude of Nora is extremely grating and I hope this particular story line does not go on forever. I really want to like Nora, but she’s coming off as annoying with her naivety being a danger to the team and Barry in particular.

Giving up, Barry takes his frustration and concern to Joe to ask for parental advice. After sharing an anecdote from Barry’s younger years, Joe points out how badly Nora must want to impress Barry because he’s not just her dad, but her hero.

Cisco talks to Caitlyn about her putting off the death certificate investigation. She admits that if he’s pretended to be dead this whole time, then he must not want to see her. He shares with her something Ralph wrote – “Accept that she’s not the love of your life because, if she was, she’d still be in it.” It really helped him see that Gypsy was not the one for him and there’s nothing he can do about it. He points out that she can still take a chance with her dad and find out for sure what her dad’s issue is, rather than wondering forever.

Barry is also handing out advice. He shows Nora his beginner training videos where he was not doing well. He tells her that she can’t skip the basics and go right to the top. When she tells him she only wanted to make him proud, he says, “Sometimes, for people with our abilities, the most impressive feat is restraint.”

The remaining arms-dealing brother decides to try again with Vanessa and this time, he brought back up. Luckily for her, Iris, Nora, and Barry realize they can find her by looking for an isolated atmospheric disturbance using the weather station’s Doppler radar. Nora and Barry show up and take out the gangsters. Making the rookie mistake of thinking he has the upper hand, Barry finds himself in one of the cubes and Vanessa proceeds to crush him. Nora distracts her, making Vanessa throw blocks until she’s too tired and Nora can put the meta cuffs on her, saving Barry.

Cisco and Ralph show up late to the party, but they aren’t the only ones. Cicada arrives, as well, throwing his lightning bolt dagger through Vanessa. Barry sends her with Nora to the hospital as the three guys stand-off against this new bad guy.

Just like with Gridlock, Cicada throws his dagger to the ground and it drains their powers and they quickly get their asses handed to them. While Barry is getting beat up, Cisco attempts to pull the dagger from the ground. This leaves him with bloody hands when Cicada recalls the dagger. Set to stab Barry, Cicada stops when he hears Nora yell, “Dad!”  Then, he just gets up and walks away, disappearing into the night.

Back at the lab, their powers have returned and Caitlyn and Cisco decide to see what he can vibe from the death certificate. It appears her mother is watching the certificate be filled out, but Cisco wasn’t able to hold on for long, but he doesn’t know why.

Gathering the team, Iris tells them about Gridlock’s death and the video with the noise, the same noise she heard over Barry’s com when he was fighting the new meta. It turns out that Nora knows of Cicada. Did he know her? Is that why he stopped? Did he not kill Barry in an effort to not disrupt the timeline?

Whatever it is, we won’t know what she knows until next episode. As a bonus, Tom Cavanagh is back next week as Sherlock Wells, so that should be fun. However, I’m nervous as the episode is titled “The Death of Vibe” and it doesn’t look promising for Cisco. Check out next week’s promo and let us know what you think. Should we be worried about Cisco?

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By Crystal
Crystal joined the Nerds and Beyond team in 2018. Three years earlier, she tripped into the Supernatural fandom and decided to stay. It's where her passion for writing was reborn. Her free time is largely centered around creative writing (okay, it's fanfic), providing editing for others, and binging makeover shows. The DC Universe is her other fandom of choice and she lives for the crossover extravaganzas. The main joy in her life is her young son whom she homeschools and takes to Disney World as often as possible.
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