Orlin Dwyer

"All these years that Central City spent defending metas instead of ending them. Those days end now, starting with you."

- Cicada to The Flash

Orlin Dwyer, also known as Cicada, is a mysterious individual whose goal is to kill all meta-humans.

Becoming Cicada
On the night of the Enlightenment, when Barry and Nora destroyed the satellite the resulting force of the double speedster punch shifted the falling debris. This caused people like Oriln, as well as certain pieces of technology like Spencer Young's phone, to become infected with dark matter. It is implied that the debris that hit Orlin was meant for David Hersch.

Killing Gridlock
As William Lang/Gridlock was being transported to Iron Heights Prison, Cicada ambushed the convoy. Throwing a lightning bolt-shaped dagger into the path of the truck, a burst of electric energy radiated from the blade, bringing the truck to a halt. After a brief altercation with the police, in which a few suffered severe injuries, Cicada went to the back of the transport vehicle to gain access to Lang. When questioned by Lang about who he was, or what he wanted, Cicada simply replied, "For all of you to die". He then approached Lang with the same lightning bolt-shaped dagger, flowing with the same unknown electrical energy.

Upon attempting to kill him, Lang freed himself and fought back. Although the fight looked to be in Gridlock's favor, Cicada's discarded dagger seemingly absorbed his powers, leaving him defenseless. Cicada easily overpowered the now-powerless Gridlock, beating him to the ground before fatally stabbing him in the chest, absorbing whatever energy he had left. Afterward, Cicada retreated to an unknown factory, still reeling from his injuries as he reflected on the fight. A coworker sees Cicada and inquires on whether he's been in "another fight", to which he confirms. As the co-worker leaves, Cicada gets up to place both his dagger and mask in his work locker, seemingly hiding in plain sight.

When the Flash and XS defeated Vanessa Jansen, Cicada revealed himself to the group after throwing a dagger through Jansen's back, before confronting the speedsters as well as Vibe and Elongated Man. As XS left to get Jansen to a hospital, Cicada threw his dagger into the ground, absorbing the remaining trio's powers, as he had done to Gridlock. Although the group attempted to subdue Cicada with hand-to-hand combat alone, he proved to be the superior fighter as he defeated all three. Seeing the Flash incapacitated, he went to deal the final blow with his dagger but XS returned just in time, shouting "Dad!" Cicada, seemingly affected by the parent-child bond shown between the two, paused before calmly getting up and walking away as the police arrived.

While most of the members of Team Flash were investigating about Cicada, the latter held Joe West captive in Joe's own home in order to get Vibe. With her telepathic powers, Cecille discovered that Joe was in trouble. Joe told Cecille via his thoughts that she should't use his panic button to call for help. When Joe and Cecille's baby cried, Cecille ended up using the distress call. Vibe came, Cicada tackled him, forcing him through the breach Cisco created to arrive on the scene, bringing both of them to a forest. Cicada hurt Vibe on his right shoulder with his dagger and brought him. When Vibe's teammates discovered what forest he was in and arrived on the scene, he nullified Flash's speed, but XS could throw him off for a while. Vibe threw a reactor on Cicada, but it was reflected back to Vibe, and the big explosion made Cicada think Vibe died, which seemed corroborated by an article. He doesn't know that Cisco faked his death.

Personality
Not much is known about Cicada apart from him being a cold, ruthless, stoic individual who aims to kill all meta-humans. However, his hesitation to kill Barry after Nora calls out to him may indicate some traumatic past that leaves him with empathy for families. While he didn't mind seriously injuring them, Cicada avoided killing civilians in his vendetta, as shown with the police offers to transport William Lang. We found out he is a bigot who is prejudice against meta-humans.

When kidnapping Joe, he spoke a lot of "family". This led Joe to deduce Cicada is a father. Cicada has a daughter and the main reason why he holds a grudge against meta-humans, i think a meta-human did something to her daughter.

Powers

 * Flight: After having a shard of Devoe's satellite embedded in his chest, he is capable of flight.
 * Force Field Generation: Through the power of the irradiated satellite shard, he can make force fields big enough to repel large explosives.
 * Superhuman Strength: Through the power of the irradiated satellilte shard, he possesses strength sufficient to crush a metal pole with his bare hand.

Abilities

 * Expert combatant: Cicada has incredible fighting skills, allowing him to defeat a de-powered Gridlock. He also defeated the de-powered Flash, Vibe and Elongated Man at the same time with relative ease.
 * Expert knife wielder/thrower: Cicada has shown expert knife-wielding skills as seen during his fight against the Flash, Vibe and Elongated Man. He has also been shown to be an expert knife thrower as seen when he threw his knife at Block from a couple of feet away and when he threw his dagger in front of the convoy truck during his attack on Gridlock.
 * Peak of human physical condition: Cicada was able to take on and overpower Gridlock despite the latter initially attacking him with his meta-human powers. He was also able to defeat and overpower the Flash, Vibe and Elongated Man despite being outnumbered.
 * Stealth: Cicada is shown to be able to successfully sneak up on Joe West.

Equipment

 * Lightning dagger: Cicada wields a lightning appearing dagger that resembles the Flash's emblem logo. It has the ability to generate red electricity and create explosions while remaining intact. The dagger also has the ability to negate meta-human powers and cause for any individual to be unable to lift it except for Cicada himself, also allowing him to be able to attract it back to him.
 * Mask: Cicada wears a mask that protects his identity and modifies his voice while sounding like a cicada when he exhales.

Season 4

 * (deleted scene)

Behind the scenes

 * In the comics, David Hersch/Cicada  was an enemy of Wally West who also killed people with a lightning-shaped dagger, but his goal was to collect energy to resurrect his wife. He had been struck by lightning and given immortality as well as the power to drain energy from others. Instead of a mask, he had a long white beard, and his name came from the sound emitted by him when he used his powers.
 * There was a cult that Cicada led in the comics but due to his adaptation having a close visual similarity to Alchemy, though the cult was likely excluded from the show to avoid too many similarities with Alchemy.
 * Cicada was originally supposed to appear as the second cliffhanger scene of the season 4 finale, but he was cut due to time constraints and the scene was used in the trailer for Season 5.
 * His mask resembles the mouth of a cicada insect.
 * His breathing sounds like a cicada insect as well, which was how he got his moniker.
 * Cicada's breathing is also similar to the sound of Darth Vader's from the Star Wars franchise.
 * Cicada is the first Flash main antagonist to be a parent.