TV REVIEW: The Flash “Going Rogue”

By Justin Carter

The Flash takes its first steps towards truly expanding its scope with a member out of the titular character’s actual rogues gallery rather than a random villain from the depths of the DC library. It also manages to take some time in fleshing out its characters and giving them more depth than their portrayal thus far has entirely given them.

Arrow’s Felicity Smoak shows up to Central City to pay Barry a visit, given that last time they talked was minutes before he got struck by lightning. Emily Bett Rickards and Grant Gustin play both their adorable nerds well together, and it’s hard not to want the two to be together. Their current romantic desires aren’t faring the way they want them to, and as Iris not so subtly points out, Felicity is very much interested in him. It makes it all the more bewildering that the show is trying to make Barry out as the lovesick puppy for Iris when there’s a girl who actually likes him, he could see literally whenever he wants, and has chemistry with that doesn’t feel awkwardly one-sided.

Also coming into the show is Leonard Snart, a thief with cryogenics based weapons. Referred to as Captain Cold by Cisco, his story is refreshingly simple: he wants a diamond. That’s literally his entire motivation during the episode. Thankfully, the cold jokes are kept to a minimum, and Wentworth Miller plays him well. He’s the first villain in the series to exit an episode alive, and the tease at the end indicates that he’ll return in the near future with a new friend to help bring the Flash down. It’s the first step towards building up Flash’s Rogues Gallery, and I can’t wait to see who else is included in the lineup.

As in the comics, Snart’s weapon is a cryo gun that freezes people to death. The gun was designed by none other than Cisco, who created it as a way to take out Barry if he ended up being like the other metahumans they’ve encountered. Barry’s anger is somewhat justified, but the fact that Snart used it to kill a bystander is what truly upsets him. Wells is also incredibly upset with him, but there’s no way he didn’t already know about the gun. Cisco has always been played up as comic relief with the haircut of a 13-year-old, but him creating a gun that has actually killed people adds some depth to him. It sounds harsh, but Cisco was doing what anyone else with a brain would reasonably do.

“Going Rogue” is a fun episode that elevates things for The Flash. The action and dialogue are fun, and there’s a nice balance between the adventurous tone of the pilot and the serious moments we’ve seen in early episodes of Arrow. Shelving the plot of finding Barry’s mother’s murderer proves to be a successful gambit, and hopefully the series continues to indulge in the fun of a man with super speed and his teammates.

Additional notes:

• “Can I see it? … Your speed, not that I would be asking to see anything else.”

• Caitlin is surprisingly bad at Operation. Wells is unsurprisingly good at chess, even managing to beat Barry when he’s multitasking between chess, ping pong, and Operation.

• There’s a fun scene where Barry grabs passengers out of a train as it’s literally rolling off track, and it’s visually impressive. The CG this week was really good, particularly when Barry is saving theatergoers from Snart’s ice blasts.

• No episode next week. New episodes return the 11th.