Written by Matt Kelly
Plot: A familiar face visits Central City at the same time as a robber gets a superweapon and begins to use it to catch The Flash. The team is tested even further when it is revealed that the superweapon may have come form within.
This episode was half good and half not so good. Let’s take it apart starting with the best parts and end with the lame ones.
Captain Cold
He felt so right. We get introduced to Leonard Snart as a master thief orchestrating an armored car robbery, which is made even more awesome because he is attempting to steal a big stupid diamond for no good reason besides that it is big. Snart is a planner. He has timed every bit of the robbery down to the second. It’s a nice change of pace considering all of Barry’s plans are something along the lines of “I’ll just wing it until the end of the episode when Caitlin and the guys tell me how to beat the bad guy.”
Wentworth Miller also does a great job of selling Captain Cold as a true rival to the Flash. I am really excited for him to be around for a while.
The fact that Captain Cold doesn’t kill too many people is also great. Sure, he kills a couple of people in the episode but we are able to establish that he tries to keep casualties to a minimum during his operations. It makes a ton of sense. Why raise your wanted level to five stars if you don’t have to? You end up with a lot more diamonds that way.
Also his costume was excellent. Just having a parka would have been enough. Sure, it didn’t have to have all of the white accents comic book fans are familiar with but honestly, those probably would have been stupid. It was made a bunch more awesome with the inclusion of his goggles, which did look pretty comic accurate. The gun was a little weird considering he just found it. How is he going to repair it? He probably doesn’t know what a cyclotron is or how it works.
The Stinger
How great was that? It’s the anti-Nick Fury scene. At the end of the episode, Snart is in a room talking to someone about teaming up. Fans know Captain Cold is the leader of the Rogues, who are the Flash’s greatest enemies working together to rob banks and commit crimes. They are a real organization with rules and principals. Minimal killing. No drugs. And it is all started by Captain Cold. In the scene he gives the heat gun to the character who will become Heat Wave which opens the door up to more Rogues being introduced in the future. That’s more of what we need on this show.
Cisco’s Plan
The same way that The Mist episode was mostly about Caitlin, this episode was mostly about Cisco and that was about as fun as it sounds. ApparentlyCisco built a freeze ray to stop the Flash and then left it in a locker. And not like a vault. The freeze ray (and a heat gun) were in a gym locker. Got a hold of that somehow and started freezing people all around town. Once Barry found out that Cisco made the gun, he lost it and gave Cisco a very deserved piece of his mind. While I think it makes sense for Cisco and friends to make the Flash-Goes-Evil-Gun, it doesn’t make sense for him to leave in it a locker where janitors can steal it!
In the end, Cisco redeems himself by stopping Cold from executing Barry. Cisco pulls this off by tricking Snart into thinking he has a bigger cold gun, which is really just a glammed up vacuum. Cisco gets in another naming moment when he is the first character to call Snart Captain Cold, but at this point it is becoming more of an eye rolling moment than a clever wink at the books. Snart enjoyed it though, so maybe it’s not the cheesiest thing ever.
I am having a hard time understanding the guns in this episode. There is one point where Cold and a security guard are both in a standoff. Cold has his ice gun. The security guard has your standard bullet gun. For some reason Cold is able to scare the security guard because his gun is a freezing gun and the security guard lets him pass but why? They’re both guns. If you get shot with either gun, you die. For some reason everybody in the show agrees that Cold’s Ice Gun is automatically better than the security guards regular gun and then Cisco’s larger Ice Gun is automatically better than Cold;s Ice Gun. They’re all guns, people.
http://youtu.be/0BZi9HLgSwA
Felicity
Here is what kept this episode from being really good. She shouldn’t have been here. Flash needs time to make its own way. The appearance by Arrow in the first episode was fine. Oliver was passing the torch to Barry. That was actually pretty cool. Having Felicity show up this early just seems desperate. “Hey, you guys remember that Barry was on Arrow? Here’s the girl from Arrow! Do you love us yet?” And the Flash ratings aren’t bad. There is no need to pull out this stop. Wait a couple weeks until you really need an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. style viewer boost.
It was also a boring appearance since we know it was futile. Felicity can’t be on the show for long since she still has to be on Arrow. Flash can’t have a “will they won’t they” romance with a character when we know they won’t. Don’t get me wrong. I really want Flash to find a love interest besides Iris. I was really bummed when I thought something was going to happen with Caitlin and then nothing came from that last week but there are plenty of character we could introduce from Flash mythology that would make more sense. Luckily, we may be getting one soon.
The Title
So this episode was called Going Rogue. Let’s be real here. The episode was about The Flash meeting Captain Cold. Why wasn’t it called Flash Frozen? He even gets frozen at the end. We can save Going Rogue for when the Rogues actually start forming. It’s perfect.
Rating: 7/10
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Matthew Nando Kelly is a staff writer for Pop-Break. Aside from TV reviews, he also writes about films, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando
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