Review: The Team Attempts to Stop Cicada and Thawne on THE FLASH

This week, on The Flash, we pick up right where we left off with Ralph jumping in front of the mirror gun and Cicada II leaving with the dagger. Sherloque and the rest of Team Flash figure out that Cicada's dagger is being used to suppress Thawne's powers in 2049, so as Barry suspected, Thawne manipulated Nora to get them to destroy the dagger in the present and free Thawne. That leaves Team Flash with the biggest choice they've had to make all season: destroy Cicada's dagger and save all the metahumans or stopping Thawne.

Feeling incredibly guilty, Nora comes up with a plan that could stop both Cicada and Thawne. First up, stopping Cicada. Team Flash traps Cicada and young Grace in a cabin in the woods where Cicada is breached into S.T.A.R. Labs' speed trap and Nora goes inside young Grace's mind to convince her to take the cure and erase future Grace, Cicada, from existence. Young Grace agrees. However, Cicada II breaks out of the speed trap and returns to the woods where Nora narrowly escapes being stabbed when Cisco breaches the mirror gun to Barry and Barry blasts it to bits. The cure kicks in and Cicada II fades to dust.

Now that the dagger is destroyed and not subduing Thawne's powers, he is free. Barry and Nora immediately race to 2049, reversing time and saving the Iron Heights guards that Thawne just killed. Barry and Nora chase Thawne around Central City, and meet up with the rest of Team Flash where they surround him. And Thawne really thought he could take down THE FLASH and XS by himself when a whole team of heroes have their back, will he ever learn? Team Flash gives Thawne the smackdown of the century, which is completely delightful to watch. Unfortunately, defeating Thawne creates a new timeline and Nora fades from existence because "sometimes the only thing you can do is live with the consequences of your mistakes." I guess Barry did teach her a lot. While Barry and Iris deal with losing their daughter, Thawne, of course, gets away.

Now that the fight is over, for now, the members of Team Flash encounter some major life-altering events. Joe is made Captain of CCPD, Ralph starts working on a new case for someone named Deardon, and Caitlin/Killer Frost gets a new super suit. However, the most life-changing thing happens to Cisco-he takes the cure. At the beginning of the episode, he tells Kamilla he is Vibe and Kamilla is really cool and understanding about it but this has been a decision that Cisco has been grappling with for a while and it was great to see him reach the understanding that he doesn't need powers to be super because Cisco Ramon is pretty super on his own without powers.

Nora didn't want her legacy to be one of anger and hate. In Central City, Nora saved every metahuman and gave Grace Gibbons a new future. In a last message sent to her parents, she thanks them for teaching her how to be a hero and that she wouldn't change anything. Nora came back from the future to meet her dad before he vanishes in 2024 and she thought defeating Cicada was the way to do that. Cicada's gone but the newspaper headline, Flash Missing Vanishes in Crisis, still remains, but now the date has been changed to 2019.

Photo Credit: Jack Rowand/The CW