In the second episode of The Flash, “Blocked,” Barry’s friends and family are all impacted by their struggles with acceptance in terms of how the future will pan out.

This particular episode hit close to home for me as it showed the characters in perhaps one of their most vulnerable moments as a family rather than heroes.

“Blocked” starts off with Gridlock remembering his fight with the new villain, Cicada, who ripped away Gridlock’s powers, which can absorb kinetic energy from whoever touches him.

Seconds after the flashback, Nora is surrounded by her parents and their friends and family to explain why she truly is in 2018. The team discovers that Nora lied about being trapped, and she then shows them the newspaper about her father’s 25-year disappearance.

Everyone is shocked to see that the future is without The Flash, but Iris seems to be unfazed by the news. She reminds the team that they have seen headlines from the future that seemed unchangeable, but they changed.

There is no doubt in the viewers’ eyes that Iris hopes, in helping change the future, that Nora will warm up to her the same way she did with her father.

At this point, the audience is yet again given a glimpse of hope that Nora’s future will be different once it is time for her to leave 2018. However, it runs a risk of damaging another person’s future for the sake of theirs.

This is where we meet a mature Barry Allen, not on an ordinary mission to save the future, but more as a family-oriented hero.

The string of issues reaches Cecile as her psychic powers begin to diminish, mirroring what Cicada could do to Team Flash. Cecile, with the help of Joe, is slowly accepting her fate of being a normal human.

For the viewers at home, it can play as a life lesson, showing that losing something so great does not mean failure.

In the final scenes of the episode, Cicada is able to show not only how powerful he is to Team Flash, but also what The Flash lacks as a superhero.

In the previous seasons, The Flash based all his success on his powers, meaning that he rarely valued himself outside hand-to-hand combat, so having his powers removed was a blow to his confidence.

It is uncertain how long Barry will be without his powers, but for the time being, it is obvious that his daughter will step up and be Central City’s new speedster.

Surprisingly enough, Nora saves her father’s life with one simple word: dad.

Cicada is shocked to discover that the metahuman he wants to destroy is a father, bringing him to the decision to not kill him because he himself had a daughter.

Minutes before the episode closes, Cisco, Ralph, and Caitlin discover a new piece in the fake death certificate of Caitlin’s father: her mother.

Team Flash ends “Blocked” with their viewing of a video from the day Gridlock escaped and died. They listen to what seems like insects, with Nora pointing out that it sounds like Cicadas.

In the coming episodes, fans look forward to seeing the group of heroes continue to develop in their relationships and as individuals.

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