The Flash is always going to be the fun-loving little brother of Arrow, but even with that being the case, did anybody else feel like “Going Rogue” was…I don’t know, a little hokey? At least in the beginning, where the dialogue and music was very CW. But then the episode’s savior showed up, and her name is Felicity Smoak.
I wasn’t too thrilled about Felicity showing up in Central City, mainly because I didn’t really see a reason for it, but The Flash knows what it’s doing, and I’m just some kinda jackass. Emily Bett Rickards, maybe the prettiest woman on the planet, has good chemistry with literally anyone she shares a scene with, and this cast is no exception. She and Grant Gustin are particularly adorable together, and Barry has to to tell Iris multiple times that he and Felicity aren’t going to end up together (but they do kiss at the end of the episode, just to piss off the ‘shippers).
But beyond Felicity, the most important part of “Going Rogue” was the introduction of the unfortunately named Leonard Snart, later rechristened Captain Cold by Cisco (Cisco’s habit of naming all of Barry’s nemeses is a pretty clever way of using all of their comic book aliases). Snart is played by Prison Break‘s Wentworth Miller, who comes off a little flat at first, but warms up to the role (har har) as the episode goes on.
Snart is little more than a two-bit bank robber until he gets his hands on a “cold gun,” which is exactly what it sounds like. One thing I really liked about the genesis of the gun is that it was built by Cisco – for the express purpose of stopping Barry. And stop him it does; the cold gun fucks him right up, and if his cells didn’t regenerate so quickly it’s kill him outright. It’s good that Captain Cold is here; the Flash never had a deep bench of villains, but Captain Cold was always the best, and it’s a little too early to introduce a talking ape, so Gorilla Grodd will have to wait for sweeps week.
Elsewhere, in a less interesting plot, Jim West is giving the silent treatment to Iris because of her relationship with Eddie. Jim has a good point – Eddie dating his daughter means Jim has to worry not only about his partner, but about his daughter’s boyfriend – but come on, guy, you gotta be in your fifties, aren’t you a little old for the silent treatment? This all resolves itself pretty tidily, but at the very least it’s good to see The Flash paying proper attention to its ensemble, instead of focusing all its attention on its guest star and its villain.
Luckily, Captain Cold gets away (well, not luckily for the people he killed, but that’s beside the point). Barry, and this show, need a Big Bad, someone like Arrow‘s Deathstroke. I’m not saying that the Cap is The Flash‘s Deathstroke – it’s too early to make that call – but I will once again point out that neither the Flash nor the Green Arrow ever had a ton of noteworthy villains to play off of, so when these shows introduce characters like Slade Wilson or Leonard Snart, they tend to do a damn good job with them. That’s what we’ve come to expect, and thankfully we’re rarely disappointed.
About Author
