- NOTE: This article is about the second incarnation of Cicada from the Arrowverse. The mainstream version can be found here: Cicada (DC).
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| “ | Liar, liar, liar, liar. Nora lied to me. She'll pay. They'll all pay. | „ |
| ~ Grace losing her sanity in her mind whilst declaring to destroy Nora West-Allen and her team. |
| “ | There's only one cure for this, Flash: death. | „ |
| ~ Grace to the Flash. |
Grace Gibbons is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Orlin Dwyer) of Season 5 in the TV series The Flash.
She is also the second bearer of the Cicada mantle and the niece of Orlin Dwyer, the first Cicada, who went into a coma during the events of the Enlightenment and gained numerous powers. After waking up, she decided to continue her uncle's mission to kill every meta-human in Central City and kill anybody who gets in her way.
She was portrayed by Sarah Carter, who previously played Alicia Baker in Smallville and Katherine in Skinwalkers as an adult, and by Islie Hirvonen as a child.
History[]
Backstory[]
When Grace was nine-years-old, she witnessed her parents being killed by an explosion caused by a meta-human which left her as an orphan. She was placed in the care of her uncle, Orlin Dwyer due to him being her next of kin. However, since Orlin resented being her guardian and she was still struggling from the loss of her parents, Grace became isolated and depressed.
Months later, Grace began having outbursts at school. When Orlin confronted her about it, she lashed out at him due to him having no room to talk when all he does is drink and rage at the world. Afterward, Orlin decided to start over with Grace and promised to be a better guardian to her. They moved into his cousin Robbie's old house and began fixing up a dollhouse for her. The two formed a close relationship, with Grace accepting Orlin as her family.
A year later, the two attended the city carnival to commemorate the past year, and Orlin bought her three ice creams and a new doll set she wanted for her dollhouse. Just then, the sky turned purple from Clifford DeVoe's Enlightenment which rendered them and everybody else unconscious. After waking up, Orlin and Grace tried to escape.
When the Flash and XS destroyed the crashing S.T.A.R. Labs satellite, Orlin and Grace were both hit by one of the debris. Grace's head was struck with shrapnel which rendered her comatose. At the hospital, she was placed under Dr. Vanessa Ambres' care while Orlin began his vindictive mission to kill every meta-human as "Cicada".
Comatose[]
Little did anybody know, Grace, while comatose, secretly developed psychic-based powers after being exposed to the dark matter from the shrapnel in her forehead. She started overhearing her uncle talking to Dr. Ambres, learning what he's been doing, and then began supporting him in secret. She also developed a mind palace of sorts and created an older incarnation of herself as Cicada as a mental defense system.
After Nora West-Allen entered her mind in an attempt to wake her up, she met Grace's subconsciousness and tried to bring her through the portal. However, the portal closed, trapping her. Grace then showed her around her mind, including a version of her uncle. Little did Nora know, Grace worked out that she was the speedster XS who injured Orlin. She then showed her to last memory: her hearing her uncle whilst in a coma.
Grace then revealed her true colors and unleashed her mental defense, her older self as Cicada, to kill Nora. Although Nora tried to reason with her, Grace was unable to let go of her anger and continued siding with her uncle. Just as her defense tried to kill her, Barry Allen and Iris West arrived and escaped with Nora just in time. Afterward, Grace swore vengeance on Nora, Team Flash and all of the meta-human race.
Waking Up[]
At some unknown point in the future in 2024, after the Flash disappeared, Grace woke up from her coma and took up her uncle's alias to continue his legacy after he was administrated with the meta-human cure. Her actions led people to believe that Cicada was an "immortal monster" since nobody knew who Cicada was or why he at first disappeared and also thought it was still the same person.
Her body count, thanks to her newfound powers of also manipulating dark matter, racked up to nearly 152 people and continually increasing, which was even more so than Zoom or the Red Death. However, seeing that the meta-human population was still increasing, Grace realized that the only way to wipe them out was to work with her uncle in destroying them after he was given the cure.
Arriving in 2019[]
To such ends, Grace stole a time sphere and traveled back in time to March 2019 and attacked S.T.A.R. Labs, much to Team Flash's shock. She easily overpowers the team, kills Dr. Ambres and takes her uncle just as they were curing him of his powers. She then brings a still unconscious Orlin to a cabin and says to him that she's missed him.
As Orlin woke up, Grace revealed herself to him and explained how she came to be. After promising to help him get his powers back, she then sets out to hunt down the meta-human who killed her parents. After some time, she found the killer Vickie Bolen where it was revealed that their deaths were an accident.
Grace, however, didn't care and opted to kill her anyway. She failed due to Flash and XS's interference. Upon returning to the cabin, Orlin voiced his second thoughts and tried to reason with Grace only to fail.
She arrived at the hospital to kill Vickie and held her husband hostage. She threw her dagger at Vickie only for it to chase her and Nora through Central City. Flash then confronted Grace and tried to reason with her, only to fail as well and she quickly overpowered him. Just as she was about to finish him off, Orlin arrived to stop her. As he tried to convince her to let go of her hatred, she instead summoned her dagger into his back, killing him. She then fled the scene.
Enacting Her Plans[]
A few days later, Grace resurfaced and kidnapped her comatose younger self from the hospital and took it to her hideout. Later, Grace followed Flash to Icicle's lair where she presumably witnessed him and Killer Frost save her mother Carla Tannhauser as well as her father's human side Thomas Snow. She then attacked and quickly overpowered Flash.
As her parents fled, Killer Frost fought Grace in combat with knives, only for the latter to easily defeat her. Just as she threw her blade at her to kill her, Thomas jumped in the way and was fatally stabbed through the back. Grace then took his cryo-atomizer and flew off.
She was then seen at her hideout and told her comatose younger self that something would "soon" happen. She later stole prototype versions of the meta-human cure from Thomas Snow's lab, which are likely poisonous to meta-humans. She is later seen working on the cryo-stabilizer while reciting her favorite book verse with a thought-up Orlin Dwyer.
Victims[]
- Floyd Belkin
- Vanessa Ambres
- Unnamed police guard
- Orlin Dwyer/Cicada
- Thomas Snow/Icicle
- 151 unnamed people+ (erased timeline)
Trivia[]
- Grace is the first female main antagonist of the series.
- Unlike her uncle, Grace is willing to kill humans who stand between her and her objective, as demonstrated when she killed Ambres without a second thought and even killed her own uncle when he turned over a new leaf and tried to talk her out of her vendetta.
- Grace is the third main antagonist on the series to be from the future. The first was the Reverse-Flash and the second was Savitar.
