'The Flash's Sarah Carter on the Dark Feminine Energy of Cicada

The Flash made a surprising move with its big bad in Season 5. Early in the season, audiences were [...]

By Nicole Drum

The Flash made a surprising move with its big bad in Season 5. Early in the season, audiences were introduced to Cicada, a man named Orlin Dwyer (Chris Klein) who was on a self-appointed mission to kill metahumans after his niece, Gracie, had been hurt. However, after Orlin gave up his powers, a new Cicada arrived -- a future version of his niece, herself a metahuman and one bent on continuing the mission to kill all metahumans. Turns out, that frightening, female Cicada is the true big bad on The Flash and for actress Sarah Carter, it's a turn she's enjoying.

In a recent interview with TV Guide, Carter said that portraying Cicada -- the show's first-ever female big bad -- is interesting as it allows her to step into "dark feminine energy" and explore the differences in masculine and feminine rage.

"It's great to step into that dark feminine energy," Carter said. "I do feel like women have a particular kind of power, a kind of rage that they can tap into that has a different impact than the masculine rage that we're maybe more familiar with. There's a lioness part, there's a different kind of ferocity to it, a way in which [Grace] is vicious. I think it can be more interesting to watch a woman focused on killing and killing to protect."

There's something to that. On The Flash, Grace is unique from previous big bads in that there is no emotional connection or appeal that can be made to her. In recent seasons, there's always been some way that Barry has been able to get through to his villains. With The Thinker from last season, Team Flash was able to appeal to his wife, Marlize, and thus used that to defeat him. With Savitar, the emotional appeal may not have been what ultimately stopped him, but it helped the team deal with him in a creative way. With the first Cicada even, it was an appeal to Orlin's paternal side that got him to lay down his weapon and be cured.

But Grace is far more radical and far more dangerous. The only emotional connection that could possibly be explored -- her uncle -- is one that she destroyed herself, killing him in cold blood when he tried to reason with her. It was a brutal act, one rarely seen in female characters. It's that unique quality that Carter told ComicBook.com is one that she feels privileged to portray as the show's first female major villain.

"I feel privileged to be the first woman villain bad ass. It's definitely important to have the most 'power' on the show, to be the one that is the biggest threat to The Flash and have the face-off be a woman versus man," Carter said. "I think it does say something. I love it, and I love Danielle. We worked together on Shark and I would say that she is one of the stronger female characters that's fully-rounded on the show because she does have the dark side that she taps into and because she was untouchable by Orlin. That makes her a focus for my character, as well. I see her as the biggest threat. That also makes it interesting to have these two powerful women as equals. I think we're gonna see some play on that in the future."

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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