Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Arrowverse catchup, this times looking at Flash season 5 episode 16, Failure is an Orphan. After episodes of battling what seemed to be the slippiest villain of all time, Team Flash finally got their man! They had to convince him to turn himself in but they got him nonetheless. I was glad that the whole legacy speech didn’t work and that Joe actually called him out on it because why would Cicada care? What would have been fun would have been him for Cicada to steal and replicate cure, therefore no longer killing but instead taking powers away.

I liked the way that they did get him on board with Barry talking to him father to father. As monstrous as Cicada may seem (and his acting may be) at times, it is unquestionable that he truly loves his niece and in his own warped way, is doing this to help her. He was never to trusting and wanting doctor Ambres present meant that he didn’t do a complete character 180.

A new time line was teased in the 2019 opening scene and you were led to believe that it was Barry finally ending Cicada’s reign of terror. They then went in a completely different direction that I did not see coming in the form of a new Cicada. It was a mixture of shock and confusion as the new villain showed off immense power. The end reveal of it being an adult Grace is a very interesting choice as it plays into the shows established time travel elements. They also teased this with seeing Grace’s attitudes to Meta Humans when they went inside her mind earlier in the season. Did she know her uncle would lose his powers here and was just too late to save him? A lot of questions which will hopefully breathe a bit more life into this sagging storyline. I would rather see Reverse Flash take centre stage but this is better than nothing.

DD Rating: 6/10