Throughout Season 5, Team Flash's battles with Cicada followed the same boring pattern. It didn't help that Dwyer's chronic injuries and resulting vocal tics forced Klein to play him as a much campier villain than was really necessary. Orlin Dwyer's desire for vengeance is understandable, but the writers struggled to build on that foundation and add more layers to what ultimately proved to be a pretty straightforward villain. The problem was simply that there wasn't enough to the character to justify such a long-term presence on the show. Season 5's biggest mistake was in attempting to frame an entire year around D-List villain Cicada (Chris Klein), a single father-turned-metahuman hellbent on exterminating every last metahuman in Central City. They proved to be compelling villains let down by otherwise poor storytelling.

Season 4, for all its faults, at least found something worth exploring with Clifford and Marlize DeVoe. Savitar was a clear case of the writers returning to the same well one too many times. One of the main challenges facing the series post-Season 3 is how to construct a season-long narrative without resorting to yet another speedster villain. Season 5 may not quite rank as the show's worst to date, but at some point that's an almost meaningless distinction. Sadly, this is where The Flash finally changed gears and stopped following Arrow's example.

Were The Flash to continue following Arrow's example, Season 5 would see the series rebound and recapture some of its lost glory. Like Arrow, Season 3 marked a significant drop-off in quality, while Season 4 really dove off a cliff. The first two seasons set a high standard that the show has never really been able to match since. For most of its life, The Flash has followed a fairly similar pattern to that of Arrow.

The flash season 5 episodes