"You had a gift. An unbreakable weapon that fell from the sky for you to use. For you to control."

—Grace Gibbons to Orlin Dwyer^[src]

The lightning dagger was a piece of meta-tech and the primary weapon used by Orlin Dwyer (David Hersch in an alternate future) in his rampage as Cicada. It was owned by a future version of Grace Gibbons, after she took on her uncle's mantle as Cicada. The lightning dagger was later sent to the Mirrorverse by Barry Allen.

History

Cicada's weapon

When the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite was knocked out of orbit by Clifford DeVoe following the failed Enlightenment, pieces of the satellite (which DeVoe had loaded with dark matter) impacted in 46 different locations.^[1] Cicada's dagger was a piece of shrapnel from the core of the satellite, where the dark matter concentration was the highest.^[2]

Original timeline

The shrapnel hit David Hersch, damaging his lung and giving him a breathing problem. The bit that broke off became his go-to serial killer weapon as he went on a rampage before finally disappearing from the public eye. See #Erased timelines for what happened to the dagger.

New timeline

The dagger is the same piece of shrapnel that gave Orlin Dwyer the wound in his chest.^[3] (Though, in an erased timeline, it's implied to have struck David Hersch instead, leading to Hersch becoming Cicada in place of Dwyer.) As a result, he became connected to the weapon; allowing him to call it to him across any distance due to the fact that he obtained his powers alongside it. The dagger then became Orlin's signature weapon to kill meta-humans in his mission as Cicada.

After Team Flash used their meta-human cure on Orlin, his bond with the dagger was severed. However, at some point after she awoke from her coma, Grace took on the mantle of Cicada to continue her uncle's legacy after he was cured. Eventually, Grace traveled back in time on March 2019 in S.T.A.R. Labs (the time and place Orlin was given the cure) to rescue her uncle after he took the cure, though she was too late. A battle between her and Team Flash ensued, taking them all out, she killed Dr. Ambres with Orlin's dagger (which Grace herself seemed to have bonded with) and took an unconscious Orlin to a cabin in the woods to be healed.^[4]

Ralph couldn't figure out why Eobard Thawne was so keen to help Nora stop Cicada, insisting that they'd have to destroy the dagger in order to defeat the serial killer, since Cicada II didn't have the dagger in the future (in which Team Flash never managed to defeat her). Ralph then realized that the dagger is Eobard's plan.^[5] He subsequently kept Barry from destroying the dagger when they first had the chance to do so, fearing what would happen if they did destroy it.^[6]

Sent to the Mirrorverse

As Grace was about to kill Nora, Barry used the mirror gun to eliminate the dagger to ensure his daughter wouldn't be murdered. Future Grace watched as the dagger disintegrated to nothing before she herself was erased from existence, as her younger self decided never to be the serial killer she had seen herself become.^[6] The dagger, in fact, was transported to the Mirrorverse, where it was later found by Kamilla Hwang, who began running tests on it.^[7]

Erased timelines

In the original timeline, the piece of shrapnel that became the dagger gave David Hersch his powers, and he became Cicada at some point after 2018. Sometime after Hersch's disappearance (or, in another alternate timeline, the disappearance of Orlin Dwyer), the dagger somehow ended up in Iron Heights Prison and was strapped to Eobard's chest, dampening his powers while he sits on death row.^[5] However, due to the dagger being supposedly erased from existence, this never happened; Eobard subsequently escaped without the dagger to limit his powers.^[6]

Capabilities

Functions

• Ergokinesis: The dagger can generate red electricity, resembling the Negative Speed Force. Other uses of the dagger's energy have been seen in generating force fields, blast waves, enveloping the dagger itself in energy to prevent it from killing Caitlin and Sherloque, causing a truck to turn off in order to murder Gridlock, and absorbing any remaining energy in William Lang's body when stabbing him. The dagger most likely has the ability to manipulate dark matter to use it as energy.
• Meta-human detection: The dagger glows red if a meta-human who gained powers due to exposure to dark matter is near.^[2]
• Psionic bond: The dagger shares a psychic connection to Orlin Dwyer (and later Grace Gibbons^[8]), as it originated from the same satellite which gave him his powers. Orlin can mentally summon the dagger to him from any distance; even if it's been sent as far away as outer space;^[9] and is the only individual who can use it. In the future that an older version of Grace comes from, she too gains a connection to this dagger, being able to summon it back to her from great distances.^[8]
• Power negation: The dagger has the ability to negate meta-human powers within its presence. The dagger has the ability to generate a field that negates all other meta-human powers. Even if a meta-human regains usage of their powers afterward, there will be a period of time where the powers remain severely weakened and long enough exposure to the dagger can potentially remove the powers permanently.
• Extreme Durability / Near-Indestructibility: The dagger, originating from the core of the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite, exhibits exceptional resistance to force and heat due to its advanced beryllium-aluminum micro-alloy composition, as confirmed through analysis by Cisco and the shards in his hands.^[10][11] Furthermore, likely as a result of its intense Dark Matter infusion and the substantial concentration contained within, the dagger is regarded as a near-indestructible weapon—one that fell from the sky and can only be destroyed by a device capable of manipulating matter at the atomic level.^[12][13]

Weaknesses

• Larger quantities of dark matter: Team Flash were able to temporarily negate the influence of the dagger by imbuing a piece of metal with a higher concentration of dark matter energy.^[9]
• Mirror gun: After being tested by Cisco on the satellite core from which the dagger originated, successfully obliterating said core, Team Flash concluded that this weapon can in fact destroy the dagger, to which it actually transported it to the Mirrorverse.^[5] They later sent the dagger into the mirrorverse using the mirror gun.^[6]
• Non-dark matter-based powers: The dagger is only able to negate the powers of meta-humans specifically created by exposure to dark matter. Caitlin Snow's Killer Frost powers can still manifest in the dagger's presence, since she gained her powers through other means.^[9][14]

Appearances

The Flash

Season 4 "We Are The Flash" (deleted scene) Season 5 "Nora" "Blocked" "The Death of Vibe" "News Flash" (mentioned) "All Doll'd Up" (mentioned) "The Icicle Cometh" "O Come, All Ye Thankful" "What's Past is Prologue" "The Flash & The Furious" (mentioned) "Seeing Red" "Memorabilia" (in Grace Gibbons' mind) "Goldfaced" "Cause and XS" "Failure is an Orphan" "Time Bomb" "Godspeed" (pictured) "Snow Pack" "Gone Rogue" "The Girl With The Red Lightning" "Legacy" Season 6 "The Exorcism of Nash Wells" (mentioned) "Pay the Piper" Season 8 "Into the Still Force" (mentioned)

Trivia

• The dagger glows when a dark matter-empowered meta-human is nearby, similar to the way that Elvish blades, such as Glamdring, Orcrist, and Sting glow when orcs or goblins are near in The Lord of the Rings.
• The dagger being able to be summoned back to Cicada's hand is very similar to Mjolnir, the mystical hammer owned by Thor from Marvel comics.
• For unknown reasons, the existence of the dagger on Earth-1 held off the Anti-Monitor Crisis for five years; Nora West-Allen's existence was also kept intact in that timeline as well.^[6] Only when the dagger 'disappeared', and Eobard escaped, did the timeline begin to change, then for worse.

Behind the scenes

• In the DC comics, the Cicada's Daggers are two blades capable of absorbing the life force of his victims to be transferred to resurrect the dead.
• As of 2022, the writers haven't explained what the connection between the dagger and the Crisis is; why it's removal from the equation speed up when the Nexus was opened and released Mobius.
  • Though seeing as the dagger was effective on Thawne in 2041 to dampen his powers, it's likely Team Flash used it on Bloodwork to dampen his powers until creating the M.A.C. to hold him, or Bloodwork was one of Cicada's victims in the Original Timeline (as Nash only goofed up due to the Blood Brothers attacking him).

References