This episode stepped up a lot from last week's premiere with a lot of engaging plots going on, I was surprised by that.

The opening with Cicada walking back to his job was totally unexpected. I thought he'd have some kind of deformed scar underneath his mask but he was fine, he's literally how they described him: your average blue-collar Joe that leads a double-life by being some kind of factory worker by day and a serial killer by night before going back to his "normal" life. The whole scene where he was undressing his clothes, still feeling his wounds while remembering how he killed Gridlock was very personal unlike anything we've had with the previous villains. Really taken back by the proximity we had with the main villain, but it was welcome.

Iris took very well the news of the 2049's newspaper. Can't blame her, after they changed hers she is now a believer of anything. But I bet that she was blocking the whole thing from her mind and focusing on the death of Gridlock to not dwell too much on it. But it led to scenes of her reporting so it was cool.

What I enjoyed about the episode was that most of the different plots had were related to not just the name of the meta, Block, but also to how each character was dealing with a sense of handicap or of rejection. Cecile felt useless because her powers were no more manifesting and decided to compensate it with Harry's tech, Caitlin kept a good disguise in helping Ralph with Cisco's emotional state to avoid facing the shock that her father was alive and probably avoiding her, Cisco's case as I explained messing with his powers due to the break-up with Gypsy and Barry being unable to find the way to teach Nora.

Got to say I liked how Cisco came around in the end using Ralph's tips to help himself and also give Caitlin the push she sneeded. With tha said the subplot of helping him to move on was hilarious, Ralph and Caitlin looked like proud parents.

Ralph hasn't been using much his powers yet but he's been very supporting and helpful compared to S4, that has to continue even if he is just going to be digging back into his detective days.

And Joe killed two birds with one stone in helping Barry and Cecile. That's why he's the best dad around in the show.

Interesting how the Flash Museum didn't have records of the time Barry spent in jail, they've must have wanted to keep his image clean for the city and everything. Besides it was Barry Allen the one that served prison time, no Flash.

Both Barry and Nora did well against Block in their own ways by tiring her, Nora parkouring with the Speed Force was cool.

Cicada vs Team Flash was brutal and could've gotten uglier if Nora hadn't arrived to, likely, trigger an emotional reaction from Cicada. He's got some demons and skeletons in his closet. And as long as he has that "Mjolnir" (another Marvel reference just like in S4 lol) lightning dagger dampening their powers he's invincible. Even normal punches do not work on him, he's like a wall.

Cisco's hands are scarred by the weird dark matter surrounding the dagger.

So Cicada is indeed named after that kind of insect and he's apparently The Charles Manson of metas in the history books all the way to 2049, judging by the preview and Nora's realization. I wonder if they are going to reveal how many he's killed.

Next week looks better.