The Flash: Season 5 Episode 2: “Blocked”

The Flash | Season 5 | Episode 2: “Blocked”
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Brief Synopsis

Barry and Team Flash track down a meta that is stealing high-tech weapons, only to cross paths with a new foe named Cicada, who is hunting the very same meta, with nefarious intent.

Running Commentary During the Show

• The episode opens with a guy having flashbacks– scarred body; fight scenes; over-attachment to a mini-sword… What’s up?
• Annoying Nora shows an image of a news headline from the future that says Barry’s been missing for 25 years!
• Iris isn’t having it. Declares the headline can be changed. They’ve done it before. Everybody on the team agrees. But Barry and annoying Nora look skeptical.
• Iris now knows why Nora always wants to be by Barry’s side, and not spend any time with her. He’s been missing.
• Cecile can’t hear what the baby is thinking. She concludes she’s losing her powers. I bet Joe is glad!
• Cisco is pining over Gypsy. He can’t vibe right now. He’s so totally linked that he can’t break from her. He can even smell her.
• Ralph thinks he can help Cisco get over Gypsy and get his vide back.
• Bobby (villain) sees Vanessa (meta villain) in a warehouse. Vanessa puts Bobby in a cube and shrinks him.
• Barry, as the forensics guy, examines the warehouse where Bobby and Vanessa had their encounter.
• Annoying ass Nora shows up and tells Barry’s boss (Captain of CCPD) that Central City’s finest is on the case. She introduces herself as a CSI intern. How *not* clever.
• Nora actually is helpful when she notices Vanessa’s shrunken ‘Bobby cube’. And because she’s from the future she has advanced technological knowledge of forensic science, which makes her a little more helpful.
• Iris shows up as a reporter and asks the Captain questions about the scene. He tells Iris a meta might be responsible for the crime scene. After talking with the Captain, she glances at Nora and Barry with a resentful, frustrated look as they work intensely at the crime scene.
• Ralph presents the ‘Book of Ralph’ to help Cisco get over Gypsy. The book contains ‘tips’ on how to get over someone. Cisco is skeptical. Can you blame him?
• Iris interviews a police officer who encountered the villain, Gridlock. The police officer is familiar with Iris’ work about Gridlock. He tells about about his gruesome experience. Then suddenly Iris cuts the interview short and rushes off.
• Cecile arrives home and confirms she’s losing her power that allows her to hear the thoughts of others. She shows him a device that Harry invented to listen to the thoughts of others. She wants to use it on their baby. She thinks hearing the thoughts of the baby gives them a chance to be perfect parents. Joe says the device is not the solution and that whatever happens they’ll figure it out. Cecile looks bummed. I know she’s about to do some dumbass shit.
• Annoying Nora complains about how slow computers are in the present. The slow computer eventually brings up a suspect, Vanessa Jansen. She’s the one that shrunk Bobby earlier. Father and daughter leave to pursue Vanessa.
• A dude named Bruno (apparently Bobby’s brother) shows up while Vanessa is on the phone. He’s kinda pissed about Bobby and scolds her about having his weapons. He attempts to shoot her, but she shields herself in a cube to protect herself.
• While all this is going on with Vanessa and Bruno, Flash and Nora show up. Nora leaps ill-advisedly to action and Vanessa puts her in the same type of cube she put Bobby in. When Vanessa sees Flash, he tosses Nora (yay!) away in the cube. Flash has to run after the tube as it travels in the air and stops it.  Flash gives her that disapproving fatherly look, and I assume Vanessa got away. Way to go Nora!
• Caitlyn examines Nora and says she’s fine. Miss ‘can do’ Nora says she’s ready to get back to it. Barry and Iris ask help from Cisco, but he’s out of it. But he pulls it together to provide information about Vanessa. Apparently, she can compress solid molecules to blocks, which makes it difficult for a speedster to vibrate through them. Cisco unimaginatively gives Vanessa the villain name of ‘Block’. Not his most inspired villain name choice.
• Barry starts to train Nora– starting with math. She’s not crazy about the idea. She’s too advanced in future math for his math lessons. Nora shows her speedster skill and inadvertently knocks Barry down. She realizes she’s not ALL that!
• Ralph takes Cisco to see a stylist. Caitlyn and Ralph like his new look. Cisco HATES it. And I don’t blame him. Caitlyn leaves abruptly. Later we find out she’s bummed about her Dad. Cisco advises she find out about her Dad, one way or the other, whether he loves her or not.
• Iris continues her investigation and discovers ‘something’ before the commercial break.
• Barry goes to Joe to talk to him about his annoying adult daughter. He recognizes that Nora spends all her time with him, and none with Iris. He’s concerned about her attitude of ‘going big’ all the time. Joe reminds Barry when he was young how he used to act the same way. Joe lets him know he should be patient to handle it. Cecile overhears the conversation and I assume she’s going to use it to help her make a decision about using the ‘thought hearing’ device with their baby. Don’t do something dumb, Cecile!
• Barry shows Nora how he struggled to be the speedster he is. He tells her everyone has to start small before they do big things. He assures her that she’s great. She should give herself time to learn.
• Bruno returns to confront Vanessa with a big ass gun. As she approaches to destroy him, she notices many more people with him with big ass guns too!  Oops!!
• The gang is at Star Labs trying to track Vanessa with no luck. Iris suggests they use the local weather channel tracker to detect Vanessa in the atmosphere. Iris is happy she came up with a solution and says: “Yay, Team West-Allen”. Nora rolls her eyes at Iris.
• Bruno asks Vanessa for the keys to the weapons, but she’s not backing down. All the villains start shooting at Vanessa. She envelopes herself in her protective cube as the bullets fly. As this is happening, Nora and Flash get rid of the goons, and now it’s a confrontation among the three of them.
• Flash immediately vibrates Vanessa without her protective cube and puts her down. But Vanessa quickly gets up and ‘cubes’ Flash.
• Nora is useful again and starts running around to distract Vanessa from continuing to shrink Barry in the cube. Nora cuffs her as Ralph and Cisco show up.
• Suddenly Vanessa collapses. The camera reveals the guy from the beginning of the episode with his mini-sword.
• The guy throws the mini-sword in the ground. Flash loses his speed. Ralph and Cisco report they’ve lost their powers too.
• The guy proceeds to beat the crap out of the trio. Cisco tries to retrieve the mini-sword, but it flies into the hands of the guy.
• The guy goes to stand over Barry to kill him, but Nora comes to assist him and scares the guy away. Okay, I’ll give you that, Nora.
• Ralph and Cisco are getting checked out by Caitlyn. After she clears them, they tell her they will support her if she decides to pursue her Dad. Cisco touches Caitlyn to help her vibe. She sees some vague images of her mother, but Cisco can’t sustain the vibe. But hey, at least he can vibe again.
• Iris tells the gang that Gridlock was killed during his transport. They review a recording of the incident and discover that the voice or sounds from Gridlock are the same as the guy they encountered with the mini-sword. It sounds like a cicada. Nora recognized the villain as “Cicada” from the future.

A few personal thoughts:

• I’m anxious to learn why Nora doesn’t like Iris. Maybe I’ll have more sympathy for her. Probably not, but I’m open.
• Will Cecile chill with the ‘thought’ device to hear her baby’s thoughts? Joe should leave her if she does. But maybe he’s trapped if she can use the device to hear his thoughts too!
• The stage is set for Caitlyn to return as Killer Frost in pursuit of her father.
• We’ve now gotten our first glimpse of this year’s top villain: Cicada. Hope he isn’t as draining as last year’s villain in the wheelchair absorbing all the powers of other metas. What a prick!

What Others Had To Say

https://twitter.com/HARRYSRAMON/status/1052361713230798853

THE TITLE “BLOCKED” THE VILLIAN “BLOCK” JDJSHSKSH #TheFlash pic.twitter.com/gXlTVKoRqy

— helena ? (@allensckp) October 17, 2018

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