THE FLASH “Fury Rogue” Review

The Flash — “Fury Rogue” — Pictured (L-R): Wentworth Miller as Leo — X/Citizen Cold and Grant Gustin as The Flash — Photo: Shane Harvey/The CW

THE FLASH REVIEW: “FURY ROGUE”

BY JUSTIN CARTER

Despite the rather puntastic title, last night’s “Fury Rogue” didn’t do much to riff on the hit Mad Max title. That may have been for the best, however, as the episode instead devoted its time to dealing with the losses everyone suffered last week.

There’s only one person truly capable of handling the grief that superheroes go through, and that’s Leo Snart. Having helped the Legends deal with losing Stein after Crisis on Earth-X, he shows up again to help Team Flash. His actual purpose in the show is to help the team cool Fallout down, so he can’t go nuclear while they transport him away from Devoe’s clutches, but he’s much more effective (and fun) as team therapist. Leo’s inclusion keeps things sprightly; the fact that this is Wentworth Miller’s final episode as the character can’t help but loom over the proceedings.

Perhaps as a result, Miller seems to be playing campier and, for lack of a better term, much more explicitly queer — at one point, he acknowledges the messy “bury your gays” trope by telling Barry that he doesn’t want to die before his wedding due to the speedster’s hesitance. Having Leo be the one to get Barry to open up about his emotions is a good twist on their relationship, as both versions of Snart have always been the more emotionally stable men in the Arrowverse. It can get a bit much at times, but this is the point: Barry thinks he’s had so much death in his life that he’s become numb to it, but that’s not the reality in the slightest, and emotions are going to be what bests the Thinker.

The Thinker features somewhat heavily this episode, though it would perhaps be best if he didn’t. It’s not so much that his intelligence has turned him incredibly sexist and cold toward Marlize, moreso that the gravity of his actions last week still need some more time to really settle. He did just go through five people like it was nothing, and his appearance here doesn’t amount to a whole lot beyond the aforementioned sexism and using Ralph’s voice to get under Barry’s skin.

As stated before, loss is the main theme of the episode, as is learning how to cope with it. Caitlin has come to accept that Killer Frost is no longer a part of her, though that looks like that might change soon. An inevitability to be sure, but the show breezes through this as fast as Barry. There also isn’t really a lot of time given into how she’s feeling about having lost a part of herself, so when she does learn her persona could come back, it doesn’t entirely feel earned.

And then there’s Harry, slowly losing all of his knowledge after combining his Thinking Cap with dark matter. Cisco offers to help him find a solution, but the bigger issue for Harry is that without his brainpower, he feels useless as a member of Team Flash. He’s always felt isolated from everyone else because of his intelligence, and its continuing deterioration isolating him from the others is a neat inversion. Just like with previous Wells, Cisco’s able to connect with Harry and get him to tell the team about his condition. Eventually, which is all the progress you can hope for when it comes to him.

Still, Harry is handling his impending loss better than Siren-X, the Laurel of Earth-X. With all the Nazis taken down by the Resistance and her crush, Dark Archer, dead, she’s decided the best course of action is to steal Fallout and have him detonate in Central City. There’s honestly not much of a difference between Black Siren and Siren-X, save for the obvious Nazi ties and the power to use her Siren Scream to hear from long distances, but Katie Cassidy still manages to work with what she’s got by giving Siren-X more cutting lines than usual. It would just probably help if we had seen her during Crisis so it felt like she had a legitimate grievance.

Overall, “Fury Rogue” is a fine cooldown episode that gives everyone a chance to catch their breath before the final episodes really kick into gear. Not one of the best uses of Leo, admittedly, but still a not bad episode in its own right.

Additional Notes

• Leo has several great lines tonight. He is at Peak Queer when he says “touche!,” and I felt utterly delighted when he told Cisco that he liked his hair. (Cisco’s blush was even better.)
• Runner up for Best Leo Line: Calling Cisco and Barry a happy couple in front of Iris.
• How much does Dr. Finkle know about Barry and Iris’ work life? She knows the various people that have died in their orbit over the years, so they clearly trust her.
• “It would take Jack Ryan two Tom Clancy novels to find him [Fallout].”
• I feel incredibly cheated out of an Earth-X wedding, because I am dying to know how they party after overthrowing a Nazi regime.